timmahh

Well... I had an appointment today @ 11:15 to goto the dealer I bought my car from and get the Flip key from FLBUSA Cut & Programmed for $120

I get there.. go talk to the service guy, and he tells me they won't cut the key because the last one they tried they messed up and it didn't work...... would have been nice to know before I drove there!

So i'll have it cut for free on Monday, and programmed elsewhere for $50.

My car already has an appointment next wednesday to get some interior lights replaced, trim replaced, and weather stripping, along with doing a balance and alignment because the steering wheel needs to be turned to the left to go straight and the car shakes @ freeway speeds

So I ask the guy to verify that none of the above work will cost any money .. and he said no, the balance is $49 and the alignment is $79.

I got a little pissy, and let him know that I made the appointment shortly after I got the car because the issue existed when I drove it home that night, he said wear items are not under warranty. That's great, but I don't think i've driven the car enough to cause an alignment issue and the tires to be off balance. I've had it for 9 days now. I told him it's a certified pre owned car, and this should have been resolve before the car was even put up for sale.

He agreed to correct the problem, without me paying, but i'm still irritated. I feel like when I talk to these people i'm not speaking english and they cannot understand or comprehend anything i'm saying.

If Wednesday does not go smoothly I'll probably be done with this dealership.

Anywho, /end rant

I'm feeling better now that im eating lunch..

VmtSquad

iTrader: (1)

Seems like you guys are having ALOT of trouble with dealers in the US! Here in Montreal, its easy to get fuc*ed as elsewere but they are not as hard on us.

I remember going to my honda dealer for some oil change with my accord....total waste of time, but it was free so WHY NOT!

Good luck with your key! keep us updated, and I want some pics of the key !! And again Good luck with dealing with dealers LOL!

VmtSquad

ChicagoBurbs

Welcome to the wonderful world of Acura TLC!

Read about it in the car brochures and the Acura website and it sounds like they do everything but give blowjobs while you wait for them to tune your car like its running at Indy, all at no charge to you, the pleasantly overwhelmed customer who drives away with a shit-eating grin every time you pick up your car.

In reality this is an Acura Corporate issue, because they allow dealerships to treat customers in this manner. Hell, it's almost bad enough to initate a class-action lawsuit. These guys promise you everything, and more often than not they seem to do more damage than good. From what I've read in this forum, it seems over and over and over, Acura dealers suck at service, and have a piss-poor attitude towards the customer. It's the rare thread that praises a dealer's service. THAT is a shame since Service, and particularly TLC are heavily advertised and touted as a benefit of Acura ownership. I had a Buick that was a lemon that GM eventually bought back from me, and that dealer treated me like a king compared to what I've experienced at the Acura dealer.
Personally, I have yet to see any evidence of TLC in my 6 trips for 'service' (mostly repeat visits for issues they just kept making worse with every visit).

If this wasn't such a great car...I'd be royally pissed for having bought into the whole TLC line of bull.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

The vibration and off center wheel should have been corrected when the car was Certified, but many dealers just call it Certified to make the sale. Mine wasn't a Certified TL, but during negotiations I wanted a Certified vehicle, so before the day was over, the car became Certified for the same price, and the dealer did nothing. I wonder how many Certified vehicles have the dealer check list in the glove box. Mine didn't.

As the following is just a few from the list of 150 items that were to be checked to make the car Certified, the dealership should do the job for no cost:

Tire or steering wheel vibration
Driveability (smoothness)
Steering wheel free play/steering wheel centered
Steering effort (drifting right or left)
Tires (Check for uneven wear or sidewall cracking)

Good luck!

trancemission

timmah are you going to share every experience you have with us?

Im kidding........:P

timmahh

sorry i'll shuttup

MichiganRich

Whining about the Certified Pre-Owned makes you seem more clueless than you probably are. The dealer does a visual inspection on the order of looking out the window to see if there is a car there, and that's what certifies it.

timmahh

Don't be a bitch.

While that may be what happens there are other things that are supposed to be checked, including whether or not the vehicle operates and runs correctly.

gauravp123

yeah, they do look at things other than "just a visual inspection" so your expecations Timmy boy are in line...don't let them take you for a ride timmyboy

ililillilillilil

screw the dealership. unless, it's under warranty

6spMike

You know, a lot of folks that post on this site (myself included) are arrogant perfectionists.
We show up at the dealer with an attitude of distrust and superiority, then wonder why we don't get good service.
Suprise!! Part of it is our own fault.

Bearcat94

Speak for yourself.

First, if I think I'm so superior, why do I have to prove it countless times everyday?

Second, I don't think you needed the comma in the second sentence.

Finally, I don't know what your motivation for posting this is, but something's fishy.

ChicagoBurbs

I can't argue about being a perfectionist, but I've never been called arrogant by anyone. I show nothing but respect for the service writer when I drop my car, she's a great lady who is really pleasant to deal with. She does indeed understand that to a lot of us, these are more than cars, they are our babies.

However, when I go to pick up my car and find pieces broken, scratched, or otherwise marred, I think I have a right to be upset. In fact, the service writer I deal with is often embarassed and all apologies when this sort of thing happens. There is never an arguement and they always admit they are at fault. But it does keep occurring. I never blow my top, but do admit having calmly expressed frustration when I have to bring my car back to replace parts that the mechanic fucked up being careless. For instance...there were scratches in my dash from they guy who cleaned the car the night I picked it up. The car was brought back to have the scratches repaired, and the detailer put his foot through the driver's door speaker. When the car went back in to get the speaker and door liner replaced the mechanic cut his hand and bled all over my seat and seat belt. When I went back to have that fixed, they scratched the dash again.
I'm not superior, nor do I feel I bring any of this on myself. Of course I understand that accidents happen. BUT...when they become a series of slapstick schtick...at the expense of my vehicle...I feel it's within the reasonable realm of things to feel a tiny bit distrustful of the abilities of the people entrusted to repair or maintain my car.
Please explain how any of that could be construed as my fault.

Bearcat94

Oops! Sorry.

Timmahh, sorry about the problems with your car.

First I'm gonna say, "You should've caught this during a test drive and had it fixed before finalizing the deal." Maybe you did do the test drive and the problems we not apparent.

Regardless, the dealer response is . Certified or not, they should make some effort to bring this car to a "normal" level of performance. Not like new, that's not realistic, but for crying out loud, the steering wheel should be straight.

IMO, pure .

timmahh

I was just irritated that I told the guy I bought the car, noticed it when driving, and made a service appointment a day later (maybe 2 days?), and in the appointment I clearly stated that I just bought it and these need to be corrected. I got annoyed when I was told that it's a "wear item" and not covered, he didn't bother to listen to me or what I had written in the original service work order.

THATS what bugged me, I don't think i'm arrogant, but I have no tolerance for people who tell me something because they failed to understand what I said, and then after I tell them again they do what I asked for originally.

Maybe i'm becoming an ass because I work for a bunch of attorneys =p


Anywho, the only item still in question now is my HFL unit; i've requested that it be replaced per SB05-020; I was told it does not apply to my vehicle when infact it does due to:
1) VIN Range
2) Date of HFL unit
3) Problems like the system saying *006 instead the person I tell it to call (honestly does mom sound anything like *006 ??)

He sent a copy of email to his manager for further review; in my book there's not much to review it needs to be replaced.

timmahh

Both items i'm talking about are apparent at freeway speeds (65+); on my test drive with the sales person there was a little bit of shake, but I wasn't on the freeway all that long and I was going about 60 (nervous about driving it, talking about the car, etc.), then the rest was city roads.

Going 10mph and having the steering wheel straight isn't bad, but when I straighten it out going 70 I end up crossing lanes!

They said they will resolve it so I have my faith; I know the dealer isn't purposely trying to make me mad or not work with me, but they probably deal with a substantial number of weirdos and bitchy people.. This auto group has BMW, Mini, Porsche, Acura, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, VW, and Maserati stores - so the first day of training is probably like.. "today we will spend 8 hours learning how to make dramatic luxury car owners happy..."

hehe

6spMike

It was a generalization that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.
Obviously there are going to be cases when someone really does get bad service.
I'm just saying us posters, as a group, tend to have much higher expectations (maybe unreasonable expectations) than others.

6spMike

So you agree. At first I didn't get it.

ChicagoBurbs

I would say that in my case, it's more an issue of high hopes over high expectations...I expect the worst, but hope for the best. Unreasonably high hopes it sometimes appears.

However I am an old man and with that age comes a bit of understanding. We are all afterall, human.

I can see your point though. Some people think that if the dealer gets dirt on the tire treads they are entitled to a replacement car. I just want them to deliver on what they promise, and not make unrelated things worse without admitting and owning up.

XjoEnX

iTrader: (2)

timmahh, if you're willing to drive to stockton, i have a friend at the dealership here that can program it for you for free on certain days. i just have to give him a call and he'll let me know when's a good time to bring it in. takes no more than 10 minutes.

kenny5

I work for a bunch of judges. So, what does that make me, a superass.

Many dealers try to rip off customers who are not savvy enough to fend for themselves. It wasn't that they did not understand what you said, they simply wanted to test you to see if you were smart enough to notice their lies.

timmahh

I don't remember how far away stockton is from sac.. it's not all that far is it ?

XjoEnX

iTrader: (2)

35-45 minutes at 70-80mph going south on 99 from hwy 50

avs007

Personally, I wouldn't trust the dealer to inspect crap... When I brought my 2G TL in a few years back for service, they said the radiator was punctured by a rock, so they couldn't replace it under warranty. Ok.....

About a month later, I bring the car in for other service work, and they said that I need to have the radiator flushed. They said the coolant was old and dirty, and that to maintain the warranty, the coolant needed to be flushed.... I asked them if replacing a radiator requires the coolant to be flushed/replaced. They said yes.... So I asked them to check their records on when the last time my radiator was replaced.... When the found that it was done within the last month, in their very dealership, they had this deer in headlights look on their face... They said they would, "ask the master mechanic why he recommended this"....

In fact, when I had the radiator replaced, they told me that after inspecting my car, that my tires need to be replaced, because they are running close to the wear limits. I told them I installed brand new Toyo Proxy 4 tires less than 7 days ago. They than admitted that the didn't actually LOOK at the tires, they were going by the mileage on the car....

Those tools

avs007

^^^+99999999999999999999999999999999


Acura dealer tried that on me when the tranny in my 2G TL blew... They tried to say that my warranty was void because I didn't have the dealer perform regular maintence items... Then they tried to void my warranty because I didn't flush the tranny fluid... etc, etc...

I actually busted out the owners manual and maintence guide, to show them that the warranty does not require Acura to perform regular maintence. I also showed them according to the warranty/maintenence guide, that my tranny isn't "required" to have a tranny flush to maintain the warranty.

So then they tried to say that I should've had the dealer do the flush, because you "need" special tools to do it... So I told them that I own the Acura Service Manuals, and requested they show me where in the service manual it described this "special tool".... After all this, they reinstated my warranty, and replaced my busted tranny free of charge.


In a different thread last year, some dealer tried to scam a poor customer, saying that the bushings that went out on his car are not covered under warranty, because the extra hp generated by his CAI caused the bushings to go out. Customer even said the TL-S generated much more hp over a regular TL than a CAI would... Dealer said the TL-S has different bushings....

I actually posted link to the Acura Parts manual, that showed that his Acura TL, and the Acura TL-S had the same part number for the bushing in question, so there is no way the extra hp afforded by a CAI would effect anything. He caught the dealer with a blatant lie/excuse to try to weasel out of warranty work.

jscout

Why would a dealership try to weasel out of warranty work? You'd think they would welcome it, because it's a win/win. They get paid by Acura and the customer feels good about the car and the service. Shouldn't it be the opposite? I just bought an 07 last month, and haven't had any issues yet, but just wondering what I might be in for. Is this a Honda/Acura thing?

I also own a Volvo XC90 (picked over an MDX a couple of years ago). I haven't had much warranty work, just minor things. But the vehicle included scheduled maintenance, so every time I brought it in for service, I just told the dealer what to look at and it was fixed or attempted to be fixed. The feeling I got from them was their approach was to see if it could be warranteed first.

6spMike

The manufacturers pay less for warranty work than a normal customer pays.
Some dealers/GMs/service managers haven't figured out that happier customers = more overall dealer profit; they are just concerned with the short term and maximizing service revenue at the expense of the overall business.

Shalooby

Just a few thoughts on this whole topic. People in any community are more likely to shout about how they have been wronged then write about how something went their way. I agree completely about the number of threads on this board describing a positive experience with a dealership. But you know what? Nobody seems to give a shit about a positive experience. It's sad that people are more willing and eager to listen to a complaint and even chime in with their own beliefs and opinions. An example:

Go to a dealership where something - anything goes wrong?
We tell 500 people about it and they all have something to add.

Go to a dealership and everything goes great?
We tell 5 and nobody cares.

I wrote about a outstanding customer service experience a little over a week ago and you know what? Three people replied, a hundred or so viewed it however I'm willing to bet the farm that they didn't read it entirely. ( I have to admit though that it was a little lengthy. Even so, that just opens another whole can of worms on attention span. We wont go there ).
If I had instead complained about how I thought I had been wronged or just generally bitched about something . . . hell, we can keep those threads going forever.
It's just human nature I guess. No wonder we're all trying to kill each other. And you know what's really scary? We just may succeed.

Now go perform some sort of random act of kindness.

timmahh

Very true Shalooby.. I guess it's because when people are upset or didn't go there way they have to vent about it ?

If I have an error free experience I will share it; I think the good and bad should be reported, because for every one time they mess up they might have 10 people go out with a big smile and no issues at all.

Is there a dealer experiences forum on here somewhere o_O

evoman

It's no better in Montreal or the rest of Canada....acura dealership all have one goal....to make the maximum profit at the lowest cost....customer satisfaction is pretty much at the bottom of their list

In fact, it is probably worst in Montreal cos there are only 5 acura dealership and three of them are so small that it is not even worth it to bring your car there for service unless it is something easy like a oil change.

Well, nice to see another montrealer!

ciaos