CL Platano

SLICK..How old are you by the way?

dudechewy

i didn't like the way dch works either......i went in there when i was getting my tl to test drive a car.....the guy would not let me take the car out for a test drive.....he kept asking me financial questions as if i couldn't afford an acura....so i just walked out and btw they were being morons when it came to my trade in.....saying they were gonna give me 8k for my car when i went to 3 other acura dealers and they all offered me 11500+.

darksom1

YES!! See SLICK, didn't I tell you? If you go in there with your paperwork and are professional, it will force them to deal with you that way! I love it when a plan comes together!!! Score one more for the customer!!!!

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Don't get too overly excited yet, but certainly hope everything goes well. If they need to buff too much, they'll go through the clear to get the scratches out. Make certain you have the car turned into the sunlight on the buffed side to see if any damage can be seen e.g. dull spots where the clear is gone. Even if it's repainted, the quality of the gun, and painter experience makes a world of difference, as you still may be able to see some waves in the clear in certain light conditions. Hard to duplicate a factory finish.

Good Luck, and it's just not Acura, as I've witnessed many unhappy customers in other makes, however, this dealership (DCH) should do everything possible to correct the condition that was caused when the car was under their control.

S L I C K

I'm 24. The Fox 5 Problem Solvers want my case/story. Haha. I'll wait until Tuesday and if things still aren't 100% fixed I'll give them a call.

S L I C K

I just find it ridiculous that it took so much effort on my part for them to fess up to their mistake(s)!

S L I C K

The paperwork got them jumping through hoops real quick.

desper

If you are not 100% satisfied, get fox 5 in on it..

Screw DCH, make you do all that work and waste all of that time..

Other consumers need to know about what you are going through...

I would take it all of the way.... Make sure everyone knows what is going on there.

It is not good to prey on the weak, and Acura should not stand for it.

aznsy

dayum, kind of glad i got my acura from nissan, starting to dread taking it in for service

vzuptnguyen

shoot up the dealership =]















....really

darksom1

Nah, don't do that, then they will continue to screw other people! This just can't be a for you (though much deserved!), it has to be for all customers or it means nothing but getting your car fixed, and it'll happen again!

I would get my shit fixed AND go to the Fox 5! Not because of being nasty, though Desper does have a point, but because they are not "owning" up to their mistake and mis-treatment of their customer! They ae just attempting to shield the dealership from public scrutiny! They are in essence, looking out for "THEMSELVES" not you, and that is hella bad! SO SCREW THAT SCREW TIGHT AS HELL!!!! Without that paperwork and your dad, they were like SCREW you!!

"A blind man would be happy with those scratches!" (Tee Hee Giggle Giggle)!!

Get your car fixed first!! Then, hit them with all you got and make 'em honest from now on! This is exactly the type of precedent that needs to be established for others who are victimized to follow!

REPRESENT!!

madmoodawg

I tell ya, negative exposure in the media will make anyone change their tune. When I had my issue, I told them that the producer for 7 on Your Side wanted to do my story, they responded and gave me a refund within 24 hours.

Glad that it's finally working out for you. Bring a magnifying glass and check every inch of your car. Don't settle for anything less than top quality work.

04tl6spman

I would still turn it in, you shouldn't have to threaten them with the BBB and shit to make them fix their screw up. I'm sure if the owner sees a consumer caution report about his/her dealership on the news, shit will hit the fan.

desper

HELL YEAH.....


PLUS, they are sponsors on here...... WHICH means that they are looking (or should be) at this thread!!!

It is unbelievable what dealerships are willing to do to save a few bucks.. We are buying "luxury vehicles" at $35,000 plus and they cant figure out how to remove a scratch?

You should not have to waste all of your precious time and money to convince them that they made mistakes...

And as soon as you drop the BBB dime on them BAM they change theIR tune!!!

That is so unfair for ALL consumers, It means they try to do the WRONG thing first....... and if someone blows the whistle..... OHHHH i am sorry, let me fix it for you..

STAND UP FOR ALL OTHER CONSUMERS WHO ARE NOT AS STRONG, MAKE A CASE, MAKE A POINT, TAKE A STAND FOR THE LITTLE MAN

for all of you in the North Jersey area .. GO TO PARK AVE.. THEY are the best, very good buying experience and follow up as well.... And the maint tech's are second to none. They also have cameras on all of the bays in the garage so you can sit in a leather chair, read a magazine, have a cup of coffee and what the tech work on your car all at once.. CANT BE BEAT

cshakari

Let's add Clair Acura in Massachusetts to the list of shitty dealerships with incompetant staff - these people are crooks and the only way to get them to do shit is to call them on their bullshit. I ended up talking to Chuck Clair - thats right, Clair - thats the only way i got anything done.

what was wrong with the car?:
1. front windshield was scratched from someone going to town with an ice scraper (the dealer suggested I use my insurance company to replace it - he ended up admitting he was wrong when I called him back and told him my insurance company said that it was not a legitimate claim)
2. All of my wheels were off-balanced and my alignment was off (upon delivery). It took me 2 more trips to the dealer, for them to realize that they screwed up the weights on the wheels twice in a row.
3. a lot of the light bulbs in the car were out (upon delivery). ok no argument from the dealer here - they replaced the bulbs- but i mean come ON! check the friggin car before you give it to the customer.

...you know, what bothered me more than anything was the way they treated me throughout the process. They were overly defensive and rude and that's not "Acura Excellence" or whatever mantra they're supposed to go by

...and what's with the constant quality surveys right after each service? cmon take a break honda. I told u your service sucks for 3 times in a row now, take a break... skip a survey. u know what im gonna say.

ankur914

If Honda/Acura really cared about the integrity of their surveys, they should really make them annoymous....but they dont; they list our names and hand them to the dealerships so that each dealership knows who rated them badly and basically know which customer to watch out for.........again, my paranoia LOL!

jay0k

That's because it ends up on someone's desk at their corporate headquarters. The BBB always seems to work if their is a legitimate complaint with a large company. It just can take awhile. Smart play on showing the filed copies. You will still be contacted by those two entities and they will ask if the issue has been resolved and of course you will say yes. Thus keeping their name good.

If the manager's face turned white looking at BBB complaints he probably would of fainted had a news camera showed up with a local anchor.

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

it's interesting you say that. one time, i scored my dealership experience less than perfect and a few days later the service manager called me and apologized for not providing perfect service, offered me a free oil change and now everytime i come in for service they treat me like i own the place.

darksom1

We should own the place! We each bought $30K+ worth of stock in it!

dansmith2004

In my oppinion, I think that all Acura dealerships have room to improve. Acura provides services like free loaners and other niceties, but they don't go to the extent of making sure their dealerships aren't screwing customers. And when they are, they don't seem to do much.

I'd say I won't buy an Acura again -- not because of how my dealership is treating me now, but because of the salesman and sales managers attitude toward me when I found out my new car had touch-up paint on it. I contacted Acura Customer Care, and they said I was on my own. The dealerships General Manager did get the problem "fixed", but by fixing it, they actually made the car worse, and it's still that way to this day -- deep swirl marks, paint on rubber molding, overspray (though only noticably visible in certain lighting conditions), and let's not forget specs of dust in the paint. Would the average person notice these mistakes? Probably not. Would someone that claybars/waxes their car themselves? Without a doubt. Or someone that parks in a parking lot at night and looks at their car for more than a split second.

I'm sure my next car will be an Acura -- I've been very pleased with the TL aside from the fact my 98 Accord's paint is in better condition than my '06 TL. That, is sad. It's 10 years old and cost $16,000 less.

Ironically enough, when I was at the dealership the other day getting it serviced, the salesman was mentioning to me that he reads Acurazine. I wonder if he's read my posts about his dealership, though I don't mention it by name generally. I know there's other members here that use the same dealership and are very pleased by them and have never had a problem. It just goes to show that no matter what dealership you go to, there's always going to be some customers that get screwed.

Dan

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

dan, i don't get it. first you say you won't buy an acura again and then say you will? which is it? just curious.

blazinginder

I'm the same exact way, for the most part the cars aren't bad at all...so I'd want to get an Acura

but on the other hand if you do get a car with some minor issues, as I've had, then you think twice about if it's really worth buying an Acura over another brand and pay a little more.

...I'm really thinking about buying an SUV...really like the MDX Sport but with the service I'm getting, I'm tempted to just get an X5 3.0si for 8k more...at least the dealer will treat me better and with much more respect if any issues come up...oh and not to mention I'd be getting the 4yr maintenence pkg as well ...oh yeah and it's a BMW

dansmith2004

Whoops; posted that message a little too quick.

Short answer: Will I buy another acura? Yes. From that dealership? Probably not. I don't think they'd want to sell me another one either after seeing how close I pay attention to the cars detail.

Though the dealership screwed me around with the paint issues and such, I've been very pleased with the car itself, and had the dealership not applied touchup paint to it prior to me getting it, and then repainting all top panels of the car and making things worse, I would have zero complaints about the car. No rattling, occaisional 3rd gear slip but that's not really a big deal and I'm not complaining.

The service department is excellent; very clean environment, staff has always been very professional/courteous, etc. No complaints in that area. Really, the only complaints I've had are what they did with the cars paint and the sales manager getting in my face about "There is NOT touchup paint on your car, It is industrial fallout and it's your fault for not buying the $300 paint protection package"; he obviously didn't have the knowledge to diagnose a paint issue.

Ironically, the service advisor at the dealership asked me this last visit "Was your car in an accident?" because of the paint. Ha.

I just wish that Acura would be more strict with their dealerships. Their cars are excellent, they just need to ensure their sales staff (and service, though I've had no problems with them) are as well. And if they're not, make the dealerships pay the price. (Lose bonuses, and if it gets too bad, do what Lexus does and shut down the dealership)

Dan

S L I C K

Acura service is a joke, especially at DCH Montclair Acura. I've been to the dealership five (5) times in the past week and a half and they haven't had a loaner for me yet. They’re always “out of loaners.” There was a lady asking for a loaner the other day at DCH Montclair Acura and they were like, "No problem, just let us get the key for you." A half hour later they come back and tell the lady that they've "misplaced the loaner key and they're looking for it now." Fifteen minutes later they tell her that they made "a mistake" and there aren't any loaners left. WTF? They wasted forty-five minutes of the poor ladies life due to their BS. If my car isn't 100% to my liking on Tuesday I'm calling Fox 5. Even if they did finally fix my car, I'm still calling Fox 5 to let them know how much trouble I had to go through just to get them to own up to their mistake(s). I don’t even want to think about those poor people who wouldn’t think to go to the BBB, NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, or Fox 5 for help if DCH Montclair Acura did something to their cars. They were trying to tell me that some of the new scratches were always there and they were under the clear coat. So why could I feel them you bastards? Acura has some nice car designs, but the customer service and quality just isn’t there. Screw Acura, I’ve gotten better customer service with Nissan than with Acura, a premium brand. I have a friend who was looking to buy a MDX, but guess what? I told him my story and now Acura has one less customer.

static808

Slick, good to hear you got your stuff resolved. I like the BBB and complaint process. It's sad you had to waste your time to do that to get stuff fixed.

I bought my '05RL from DCH since the dealer was close to my home. They are terrible and the service sucks. I had issues with my RL and they never fixed my car and always said "we are doing you a favor by giving you a loaner car". Scum bags. DCH is a high-volume Acura dealer, good prices but awful service and support.

Since I moved to central NJ, I get my cars serviced at 2 other dealers in the Central NJ area. Both provide excellent service and no question asked on warranty service or loaner cars.

I would still follow through on your process (BBB, etc.). The extra steps you needed to take should at least make DCH clean up their lame service dept.

S L I C K

Yeah, they made it sound like they were doing me a favor by fixing the scratches. They were like, "BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes wouldn't have fixed these for you."

reddogTL

wow.. thats all i can say about the bullshit these guys put you through.. i actually went to DCH Honda in paramus a few years ago and test drove an 03 maxima.. the driver door hit the body/frame whenever i closed it but they said that was normal. i lol'd at them, gave the keys back and left.

May of '06: I went to Difeo Nissan on Route 440 in Jersey City.. left with an 03 Honda Accord AT 4cyl with 40k miles.. not a bad car. until about 42k miles the tranny started shifting irregular from 2nd > 1st when braking to a stop.. it got to a point where it gave you a good jolt when stopping.. they talked to Metro Honda(actually right across the street from them on 440 North bound) dont ask why i didnt go to Metro Honda to buy an accord.. i actually went to nissan to test drive an altima but left with the accord, so go figure..
anyways, the service manager(Jimmy Soto) at Difeo Nissan is pretty cool and gave me the contact info over at Metro Honda to bring my car over to them.. he said theyll take care of it for me.. I brought it over to Metro Honda, they test drove it, looked it over, and said i needed a new tranny. covered under my extended warranty. Now i had nothing but good experiences with both Difeo Nissan and Metro Honda.. both were very professional, the service managers are easy to get along with, and fixed my issue(took almost a week to get a new tranny + replace it) in a timely manner.

Fast forward to Feb of 07: Traded in the 03 Accord for an 07 TL /w NAV from Open Road Acura on Route 23. 3 months later i have about 2400 miles on her so i havent brought her in yet for service/issues. I've heard nothing but good experiences from other people about Open Road so im keeping my fingers crossed i dont have any problems with them. ALTHOUGH.. sometimes my tranny seems to shift weird between 2nd > 3rd, 3rd > 2nd and sometimes 2nd > 1st. im hoping its just because its still breaking in.. but we'll see

Forum_Owner

Completely excellent post...

*That* is the reason why this is my last Acura for me... The more they call for customer surveys the more I will dislike the Acura company. Do you know what I did now? I disconnected the phone so they cannot call me with that stupid survey. If you give low score on the survey they will call you and question you like as if you are the criminal. Am I guilty? What's the sentence.

I think Acura wants to lose business. Isn't that pretty stupid though? You want business, don't fucking call and interrigate like that.

Next time when they call you again tell him/her your service sucks donkey's ass.

mcflyguy24

Man, this dealership sounds horrible. Threatening to put your car out on the street! WTF! I really hope that since they somehow sponsor this site, that they will be reading this. I for one, being in the tri-state area, will not be going there for anything EVER after reading this. What a shame. Best of luck to you.