Service Departments: Dealerships and Stealerships

[Au201]

Originally Posted by JD_Alaska

Lithia Chevrolet, Fairbanks Alaska.
Being that they are the only GM dealer in town it's there way or no way. Takes 3 weeks to get your car in for an appointment regardless of what your problem is. Then once you do wait your three weeks to get your car in, they give you a long list of reasons/excuses why they can't get to your car on the appointment day.

Spoke with the service manager and was told that most anything you do to your car will void your power train warranty, change tire size, voided. Change exhaust, voided. Add a CAI, voided. He also mentioned that they have had to send photos of wheel/tires on some cars and that power train warranty's have been voided for simple tire size changes from stock and that they are not allowed to recal speedos to correct for tire size changes.

My question is, is this all true or is it Bull Crap?

All bull crap. They can only void the part that you changed (obviously) but if you have an engine problem and you've changed your tire size, somehow they'd have to prove the tires caused it (obviously not). Or if you had a CAI or exhaust, they'd have to prove that it caused it.


Sent from my bragging iPhone using an app that encourages it.

[JD_Alaska]

Thanks Au201. Didn't sound correct to me but what do I know, just a small fish :-)

[IncrediblyX]

Mark Christopher Chevrolet (Ontario, CA) = Dealership, Great Service! They will work with their customers no matter what. They are still sending me greeting cards, coupons and stuff. I feel so loved. :-)


Paradise Chevrolet in Temecula = Stealership, They forgot that I had an appointment that I had scheduled for an oil change and after that, I had to wait 2-3 hours for a basic oil change to get done!!! Garbage.

[The Stig]

Originally Posted by JD_Alaska

Lithia Chevrolet, Fairbanks Alaska.
Being that they are the only GM dealer in town it's there way or no way. Takes 3 weeks to get your car in for an appointment regardless of what your problem is. Then once you do wait your three weeks to get your car in, they give you a long list of reasons/excuses why they can't get to your car on the appointment day.

Spoke with the service manager and was told that most anything you do to your car will void your power train warranty, change tire size, voided. Change exhaust, voided. Add a CAI, voided. He also mentioned that they have had to send photos of wheel/tires on some cars and that power train warranty's have been voided for simple tire size changes from stock and that they are not allowed to recal speedos to correct for tire size changes.

My question is, is this all true or is it Bull Crap?

So guessing I can put them down as Stealership?

Originally Posted by IncrediblyX

Mark Christopher Chevrolet (Ontario, CA) = Dealership, Great Service! They will work with their customers no matter what. They are still sending me greeting cards, coupons and stuff. I feel so loved. :-)


Paradise Chevrolet in Temecula = Stealership, They forgot that I had an appointment that I had scheduled for an oil change and after that, I had to wait 2-3 hours for a basic oil change to get done!!! Garbage.

Anything besides the oil change appointment issue or have you never gone back after that?

[The Stig]

Also - can I ask why people have rated this thread as 3 stars? Just kind of curious.

[IncrediblyX]

Originally Posted by The Stig

Quote:

Originally Posted by JD_Alaska

Lithia Chevrolet, Fairbanks Alaska.
Being that they are the only GM dealer in town it's there way or no way. Takes 3 weeks to get your car in for an appointment regardless of what your problem is. Then once you do wait your three weeks to get your car in, they give you a long list of reasons/excuses why they can't get to your car on the appointment day.

Spoke with the service manager and was told that most anything you do to your car will void your power train warranty, change tire size, voided. Change exhaust, voided. Add a CAI, voided. He also mentioned that they have had to send photos of wheel/tires on some cars and that power train warranty's have been voided for simple tire size changes from stock and that they are not allowed to recal speedos to correct for tire size changes.

My question is, is this all true or is it Bull Crap?

So guessing I can put them down as Stealership?

Quote:

Originally Posted by IncrediblyX

Mark Christopher Chevrolet (Ontario, CA) = Dealership, Great Service! They will work with their customers no matter what. They are still sending me greeting cards, coupons and stuff. I feel so loved. :-)


Paradise Chevrolet in Temecula = Stealership, They forgot that I had an appointment that I had scheduled for an oil change and after that, I had to wait 2-3 hours for a basic oil change to get done!!! Garbage.

Anything besides the oil change appointment issue or have you never gone back after that?

Paradise also tried to sell me a red vert with a broken fuel door that was obviously sticking out and tried to play it off as normal... LOL


Posted from Camaro5.com App for Android

[rich3fan]

Originally Posted by The Stig

Also - can I ask why people have rated this thread as 3 stars? Just kind of curious.

Is the rating option here a cumulative type of thing where it shows an average score? I have no idea why a thread this informative and, IMO important wouldn't get 5 stars.

[The Stig]

Originally Posted by ItsBroke

Is the rating option here a cumulative type of thing where it shows an average score? I have no idea why a thread this informative and, IMO important wouldn't get 5 stars.

It averages the ratings yea

[rich3fan]

Okay. Voted.

[All Star]

Lester Glenn Chevy, NJ +1
No complaints with service...fantastic experiences buying both of our families vehicles. Awesome prices too...didn't even negotiate on my Camaro (I tried, but they gave me such a good price they had no more ground to go, lol).

Pine Belt Chevy, NJ -1
Service dept. ignored my vibration issue, tried to play the "how much can you afford per month" trick on my girlfriend, hit my dad with window etching, stocks every Camaro with $700 duck tail spoilers...avoid.

[The Stig]

Originally Posted by All Star

Lester Glenn Chevy, NJ +1
No complaints with service...fantastic experiences buying both of our families vehicles. Awesome prices too...didn't even negotiate on my Camaro (I tried, but they gave me such a good price they had no more ground to go, lol).

Pine Belt Chevy, NJ -1
Service dept. ignored my vibration issue, tried to play the "how much can you afford per month" trick on my girlfriend, hit my dad with window etching, stocks every Camaro with $700 duck tail spoilers...avoid.

For Lester Glenn - can you give some background as to why you're giving their service department a "+1". Have they gone above and beyond with how they've treated you etc. , or is it just that they haven't really done anything shady.

Added Pine Belt

[Mutant Racer]

Castle Chevrolet in Villa Park, Illinois is by far the best place I've ever done business.

Jim, Joy, Or Vick have gone the extra mile for me time and time again in the service area.

[camarograna2]

This is a story I wanted to share with all of my fellow North Texas Camaro 5 owners. It is meant to share my experiences with the dealer and I fully understand you may have had nothing but good experiences with them. Unfortunately that is not the case for me. I bought my car from Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine and have had my car serviced by them through my entire history.

Note that strike 1 and 2 were all because of sloppy service technician. The service consultant Yrenio Carrera did everything in his power to show what being the Mark of Excellence meant. On strike 3 the dealer nor Yrenio even bother to apologize for their mistake.

Strike 1: Service technician putting a dent on my driver door panel
Around this time this year (Early July 2012) I took my car for emergency maintenance where I had to get my lifters and cam replaced. The service technician left a nice ding on my driver door when I picked it up. I took it back to dealer on July 22nd and they started the repair. I received word on 8/7 that car my ready so picked it up. No door ding anymore. Unfortunately on 8/20 when I was giving her a full detail I noticed a big scrape on the inside of my driver door as well as the trunk release button not working. They finally replied on 8/30 that they want me to bring the car back to fix the damage. Turns out the dent repair man drilled and scrapped the inside of my door as well as broke the inside of the panel while repairing the dent. On 9/6 they call me back and say she is ready. I go pick her up and immediately put her back . They had given it to the dent person to repair and he did a horrendous job on the paint job. I don’t even want to call it a paint job because it was not matching or meshed together. Finally I go pick the car up 9/15 and find the steering wheel scratched. By the time they finally got the correct steering wheel it was 10/19.

This strike is on the service technician because of the lack of attention and sloppiness from the service technician that added a dent. The service consultant Yrenio did everything in his power to do right on this mistake.

Strike 2: Service technician forgetting to check if he had the right fuse box
In late January of this year I went in because my seat warmer was not properly working. Turns out the issue was that the fuse contacts on the fuse box were worn out causing a loss of connection. Note they were able to diagnose this issue with my aftermarket Scocshe dash kit. After driving it a few days I noticed the AC is not blowing. You twist the knob and the fan was not turning on. I took it in on 2/7 and what was their response… Diagnostic lead us to the aftermarket controller to be at fault. We are unable to work on aftermarket products and you will be required to take back to origination of installation for repairs. I reply on 2/7 that it was not the Scosche kit as it was working fine and I had even attempted a 2nd HVAC that I had form Scosche and scratched that off my list but that I would agree to their terms and put my car back to stock. Note that this charge to turn the car back to stock and then reinstall the kit was incurred on me. Do you want to know what the problem was?.... Ineptitude. The fuse block that was replaced by my service technician did not have the pins in the backside for the blower fuse. This is something that the technician should have watched out for when he replaced the fuse box. You want to know how much they refunded me for the removal and add of the Scosche kit… $50 dollars for 2 hrs labor time. It was hard to get this money out of them and they were still holding that for whatever reason their tech tools diagnosed the communication issue but could not find any problems this time around. It’s funny that they say they charge 25$ an hour for labor when everyone else charges 90-100. My incurred cost was not $50 but 324$ for 3 hrs of labor and tax. I honestly think the $25 an hour rate is BS but I have no way to prove it. I tried to get them to quote me a separate job via email so I can see their hourly rate but they didn’t want to give me price. Note at this point they feel so humiliated by their mistakes that they ask that anytime I bring my car for warranty work that it must be stock. Ladies and gentleman you hear it here that Classic will automatic blame your aftermarket parts without doing proper diagnostics

Again this strike is on the service technician for not making his checks before saying he was done and for Classic to blame and undercut compensation for their mistake. The service consultant Yrenio did everything in his power to do right. Although I don’t believe the proper compensation was given the mark of good customer service was there because Yrenio apologized for the technician’s mistakes

Strike 3: Service technician not bothering to check my brake wear.
I had my car in the shop on May 29th for some warranty work for my door lock. After that was resolved I had them to service which was part of my pre paid service package. Everything seemed fine until a few weeks later. It’s about mid June and I start hearing allot of noise from my brakes. I email back and forth with the service consultant and avoids a very basic question which gets me upset. I ask “isn’t checking the brake wear part of your normal inspection when servicing the vehicle.” He keeps avoiding that question until the end and ever goes as far as telling me it was going to be a $59 diagnostic fee for them to check what should have been checked on May 29th. Finally on 6/20 he admits that the 21 pt inspection does include a visual brake inspection to the best of the technician’s abilities. He says: I have no further information to give you at this time without a brake inspection. Please e-mail me back if you would like to make an appointment. No apology for no visual inspection being made whatsoever an no empathy. At that point I said I’m done with this dealer and had my brakes done at Scotty’s automotive. They were mostly all worn out with the most on one of them at 20% so I do not understand how the Classic technician failed to visually inspect that the brakes were worn.
This 3rd strike is not only on the technician but on the service consultant and Classic as a whole. Shop and service managers Tim Brogan and Joe Laubhan were CC’d on the emails and all it could have taken from them was to say a simple I’m sorry.

I requested a cancellation of my remaining service plan and today I got by $100 refund for the remaining 2 services and decided to share with you my entire story. I hope this story helps others in deciding where to have their Camaro serviced here in North Texas. I cannot in good conscious continue to recommend Classic Chevrolet. I did before when they apologized and showed empathy but not anymore. The mistakes by the service technician just kept piling up and the customer service just kept going down. Classic Chevrolet of Grapevine you are not my GM dealer of the year and you have not earned the mark of excellence that your consultants proudly wear.

Any good dealers where the technicians take care of our vehicles properly? I hear Bruce Lowrie might be worth it.

[rich3fan]

Ray Huffines Chevrolet in Plano Texas gets a Green Light and a lot of for my Service Advisor, Reggie Pimento.

When I had window tinting done a few weeks ago, the tech there pointed out that the trim by the back seat passenger side window had popped up. So when I went back to Huffines to pick up my license plates I pointed the situation out to Reggie and he said okay, we'll order another trim piece and call me when it's in. Well yesterday I went up to have it installed; left the car and got a courtesy shuttle ride to work. By noon the trim piece was installed. I got a ride back after work to pick it up, and Reggie explained to me that the reason the trim piece was up was because the tech where I got the tinting done pulled it up but didn't fasten it back down properly and one of the hooks on the trim broke off. So, long story short, this wasn't really a warranty repair, and they could've actually charged me but instead Reggie just said, "we took care of it", and sent me on my way. Of course this could all have been a fabrication by the trim tech at Huffines, but I have no reason to think that at this time. Anyway, Huffines.