Dealer Joyride in my 1LE

[tjfronk1LE]

Good afternoon everyone, I’ve been putting this off for a little while because honestly, I am hating having to write this sort of negative review, but I do want to warn everyone about a recent experience I’ve had with John Heister Chevrolet in Fuquay Varina NC. Recently I brought my 2018 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE to John Heister because it had an air conditioning that was not blowing cold, coming off the winter I wasn’t sure how long it had been going on. I bought the car in September, so I haven’t really used the AC much. I brought it in and explained to the service writer that there is an AC issue and that the car does NOT need to be test driven because it can only be one of a few things; I said either the compressor is faulty, or there is low refrigerant or a refrigerant leak. For my background, I’m a Mechanical Engineer and I work for Caterpillar as a Manufacturing Engineering Manager over one of our skid steer lines and we fill the machines with R-134a. I told him this and I told him that I’ve service machines that fill refrigerant on a production level and know what sort of failures they experience. So they took my car and I proceeded to wait, I can’t sit still so I walked around, I noticed technicians smoking, playing on their phones and just flat out not working while there were cars waiting and bays empty…all in I waited 2.5 hours for the car to get done for a problem I had already explained what was wrong. That’s not the part that’s bothering me. What’s bothering me is while I was walking around I watched the mechanic drive up to the dealer exit and then spin tires turning onto the highway. I asked the service writer why he was taking my car for a ride when I told him that it didn’t need to be taken, he “explained” to me that the mechanic needed to listen to the fans, I told him that was bull and doesn’t make sense because there is nothing wrong with the fans it’s the AC that had issues. When the mechanic came back the service writer came and found me and said that the mechanic thinks my “racing parts” are the problem, I asked “what parts explicitly because the only part on the car is the Chevrolet Performance Air Intake, and that’s a part from Chevrolet that doesn’t void anything on the warranty?” He replied with “I don’t know he assumed that because there are numbers on the side of the car that it’s some sort of racing part you put on the car.” Let’s be clear, there were numbers on the car because I do track the car, but I run it stock because I want the factory warranty on the car. A little while later the car was charged with refrigerant and I got in to go home and noticed that the mechanic has listened to the XM radio (since the station was not one I listen to) while he was supposed to be “listening to the fans” and then I went home. Within the next couple of days I checked my OnStar report and noticed that the technician went for a crazy joy ride at over 80 mph and had hard acceleration and hard braking. This was on a colder wet/rainy day in March and honestly those Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar 3 tires do not like cold or rain and they especially don’t like that together. Additionally, from the hard acceleration I know he wasn’t testing the AC because the computer turns the compressor off under hard acceleration. I got in touch with the dealer and had a little back and forth with them but they ultimately told me that they disciplined their employee and wanted to pay me a $100 visa gift card for my trouble. Honestly, I feel like this is bad business, because I’ve had to contact them repeatedly and there was a good possibility for them wrapping my car around the tree. I agree with them disciplining their employee but that’s their problem not mine, my problem was they treated my $45,000 car like it was their personal toy. I also told them that this isn’t the first time this problem has happened, it also happened with my wife’s 2018 Chevrolet Traverse Redline when she went in for an oil change. They took it for a joy ride, she waited over 2 hours for an oil change, and after she left the check engine light came on because they didn’t tighten the oil cap down. I’ve attached the OnStar screenshots so everyone can see what I’m saying and not just think I’m being a crazy person on a rant about a dealer, like I said, I’ve put this off because I’ve tried to work with them and now I’m just irritated. I know not everyone on here lives local to Fuquay Varina, but I wanted to warn you about this dealer, because it seems like if you have a high performance or fun car they like to run it like a scalded dog. And I also wanted to let you know if you have it run valet mode and definitely check your OnStar reports. You’ve worked hard to have a nice Camaro or a Corvette or whatever you’re driving, and nobody deserves this. You’ve been warned, thank you for listening.

[Spec]

Sue for $30k in future maintenance fees/credit... with the screenshots, you'll probably win.

This is complete BS and I'd raise all 7 rings of hell for this.

[molsonbrador]

Damn that sux. note to self:never take my car there!

[Dieselsmoke]

Contact GM direct let them know what happened. Also see if you can seek out the regional service manger phone # and let him know too good luck

[DRKS1D3]

It's sickening how there are miscreants that don't respect other people's property! No respect!

With that being said, when I go in for service, my car never leaves my sight. Nobody at my dealer has ever given me trouble over it. Also, when I trade in a car and they need to go for a "test drive", I always go along. I don't need somebody romping on my property.

Good luck, OP! This needs to be made right. Keep us posted.

[paulsandhu]

Originally Posted by Dieselsmoke

Contact GM direct let them know what happened. Also see if you can seek out the regional service manger phone # and let him know too good luck

Ditto on this. You need to go to the regional manager. I would raise hell over this.

[Taylortoons]

Not defending their actions but your car was taken the the stealership for warranty work. Naturally, they will test drive it. It’s great that you could help them diagnose your issue, but they still have protocol to follow.

Probably not a good idea to advertise that your car is tracked. May want to pull off those numbers for future visits. Especially under warranty.

[GodWentPunk]

That is crazy... Time to put this on Yelp or Google review.


joe...

[DRKS1D3]

Originally Posted by Taylortoons

Not defending their actions but your car was taken the the stealership for warranty work. Naturally, they will test drive it. It’s great that you could help them diagnose your issue, but they still have protocol to follow.

Probably not a good idea to advertise that your car is tracked. May want to pull off those numbers for future visits. Especially under warranty.

I'm not trying to be a jackass, but I don't think "hammering the sh*t out of a customer's car" is part of diagnostic protocol.

[Dieselsmoke]

The route advise I gave you was the nice proper way, But for me I would have waited for the a**hole in the dealership when he got off and I must tell you we would have not gone for a joyride ! This happened to me sometime back for a broken seat on my truck took it out for test drive spinning the tires pulling out from the dealership when he got back it was not pleasant , police report can explain more .

[qcman]

Originally Posted by Taylortoons

Probably not a good idea to advertise that your car is tracked. May want to pull off those numbers for future visits. Especially under warranty.

The 6th Gen is warrantied for track use as long as it has not been modified as per GM so no need to conceal it. OP I agree with others go after them.

[Benman]

Most dealerships are run by very responsible folks, at least in my personal experiences. I would be pissed about this too. I'll bet if you climb the supervision ladder at some point you will find someone who cares enough to listen to you and do whatever needs to be done to satisfy you, even if it means going to the owner of the dealership. If that fails then escalate to the district offices and above.

[Mr.Jgunn65]

My Brother. That action is classified under "CAS", Constitutes Ass Whipping!

[ZED SLED]

It may be nothing. I would like to know what constitutes hard acceleration and hard braking. This is a report on my ZL1 from last May. 52 hard braking events and 286 hard acceleration in 116 miles at avg 45mph? Give me a break. What is hard acceleration them? 0-60 in < 2 minutes?