Apophis

OK, so I got up early, slugged it out 15 miles to drop my car off at the Mazda dealership when they opened at 7am. I asked for three things:

1. Replace my squeaky brakes under warranty
2. Fix whatever they messed up when they installed my fender strakes... when you pull on the panel in certain directions, it almost comes completely out.
3. Oil change & Tire rotation

7AM. They say they're busy... ok... I had an appointment since Tuesday (today is Thursday). But I'm supposed to get my car back same day. I drop my car off and slug it out to work through LA rush hour traffic in the warranty-paid Ford Focus rental.

The day passes, I get a call at 4:35 from the service guy telling me that they need to keep my car overnight. I ask why and he tells me that they ordered a disc for the fender strake panel and he says that they weren't able to duplicate the brake squeal. The only thing they did was do the oil change/ tire rotation. I tell him that it's a pain in the neck for me to park at night with another car (I use my Homelink b/c my garage door opener is broken). I ask if i could pick it up and bring it back at 7AM again. He says no, it loses its place in the queue if you take it out. I'm frustrated about this...

I'm thinking:

1. Knowing how dealerships work, I'm pretty much an ideal customer: I walk in and buy the most expensive, fully-loaded car on the lot... I am loyal and I return to the dealership for ALL service, including oil changes... I pay, I'm quick and I know what I need. With the exception of allowing myself to getting duped into paying too much for cars, I'm the kind of customer that a dealership should want to keep.

2. Yes, it's just one night, but if I wanted to drive a Ford Focus, I'd have bought a Ford Focus.

3. The freakin brakes squeal. I know it, you know it, he knows it, everyone with an '04 knows it. F-in fix em. Is Mazda going to make you email them an MP3 of my brakes squealing? You know what the problem is. Don't waste my time making me drop my car off for a day and tell me you can't do it. You know it's off & on. Make things happen.

4. The dealership is busy? I'm busy. You can hire more people. I don't really care, honestly. Take care of your customers. As if it's easy for me to go out of my way, drop my car off, pick my car up, etc etc etc.

Anyway, I'm thinking about taking my business to another, less "busy," dealership, permanently. What do you guys think? Am I overreacting? Honestly, I wouldn't be so upset if I could just bring it back tomorrow and have it by the end of the day.

chrism

i would be pretty pissed too...but i had an even worse dealer experience which netted me a huge credit with the owner

wedge357

take it somewhere else...

RedSheDevil

Your dealer is a jerk. Find another. I had some similar problems and had no issues at my dealership...and I'm a woman (which sadly, IS relevant). There is no reason you couldn't have picked it up, I did that last time I was in and planning on doing again next week when in for service.

Wish I was in your area and could give you a rec on another delear. Tho be sure to tell him you are a member of a car club and will be reviewing his dealership to it's almost 20K members! Mebbe that will get you some better service....good luck!

therm8

You get a survey for service work. Tell them exactly what you plan to put on it. Dealers can't afford bad reviews. Alot of people put stock in those Mazda service awards.

Johnnyma45

Dealers (at least the service dept) live to screw you. I don't know if there's an unwritten code that they have to make your life as hard as possible. My last trip to my dealer, and it indeed is my last, they made me pay for all kinds of work on a 15k service maintenance and oil change. When I told them all I wanted, and I specified, was an oil change (free under a promo program) and to check out my brakes they gave me every excuse under the sun. I had to argue two hours with them before the service manager finally relented. THEN, next day he called and said since they had to order new brake materials, that I would have to pay for the rental. They know damn well that it was to be covered, but it was a parting shot that made me decide never to go back. Unfortunately the next closest dealer is some 20 mi away, but I'll hoof it just to avoid them. And PS they never called back about the brakes. ********...

Im_DANomite

iTrader: (1)

i agree that some dealerships try to hide things and ignore some of the complaints. but what you're complaining about isn't necessary.

Complaint
Cause
Correction

these 3 things are needed for any warranty job, or else, the dealership will get audited for it. if they can't duplicate the problem, most likely they won't replace it. but if it's a common problem found in the same cars, they should obviously replace it. especially if it's under warranty. they can just word the complaint, cause, and correction accordingly. the only thing that mazda can do about the squealing is to replace the brakes under the TSB. but even that won't necessarily eliminate the problem. the materials used in the stock brakes just aren't the best. semi-metallic brakes will always make some sort of noise.

the issue with the strakes is totally understandable. since they don't have the part in stock to fix it, they are over nighting it so you don't have to come back again for the same problem. dealerships much rather keep the car and have you in a loaner than have you come back for the same problem. why? there are many reasons. scheduling another appointment is just a hassle. the car is already there, why not just fix everything while it's there?? summer time is the busiest season for any shop. so when they say they're busy, they really are busy. you have to understand, shops need a little bit of leniency for any diagnosing, test driving, parts ordering, calling customers back, etc. etc. you have to understand how a shop works on the inside. this isn't american choppers or american hot rods where there is a deadline for a car to be finished. it's a SERVICE shop where they FIX your PROBLEMS. sometimes, it could take longer than expected.

and honestly, do you really need your car back b/c you can't get into your garage? is it so hard to use the keys?

just tryin' to show you the other side...

army_rx8

^i agree.....this doesn't sound nearly as bad as some of the dealerships i've been to or heard about. it could be worse .... a lot worse. at least they'll have your part teh next day...a dealership i went too kept sayign my car was fine ans teh cel was from me not scrwing in the gas cap...okay once i can understand..but after that i made sure...well 15 cel's over 6 months later. they replace my whole evac system..not just one peace...the whoel thing..b/c it was leaking and they didn't do anythign about it so after 6 mothns the whoel system went to crap...well i had a rental for 7 days.

LOL so i could be a lot worse. when i went ot my ew dealership they brought up the history on my car...and apparently this other dealership was doing "warrenty work" on my car...funny b/c over 1/2 the stuff on there was never done. they did 2 37k mile services (my car had 32k mile at the time)..and they did 2 miata tire rotaions for me...um....i have never owned a miata..and last time i checked my cars rump said rx-8.

so after my pointless rant i hope you realise that these guys aren't all that bad....they couldn't find one problem..so as Im_DANomite they can't fix it as per warrenty (although there is a tsb on it)..in case tehy get audited..they wanna help but don't want to be the only guy with out a chair when they get checked up on. and they are getting the part to fix there mistake on the install...seems liek tomarrow you'll have a happy ending.

if you don't then i'd look for anouth dealership..but it's best to give then the benifit of the doubt...wel until they give you reason not too..and i don't think they have yet. :D

Apophis

Thanks for the feedback, ladies and gents.... I'll just itemize my thoughts rather than put them in coherent paragraph form:

* Yeah, I realize that it could have been worse. If it were inexcusably bad, I wouldn't have asked for feedback, I would have just walked. In this case, it's somewhat understandable but what really got me was the queue policy.

* Honestly, I find this to be a pretty good and honest dealership. I think I carry myself as someone who knows his cars and they respect me accordingly. I don't feel like they're trying to pull the wool over my eyes, but I do think that I deserve more respect, especially given my customer loyalty.

* Yes, it is that hard to get into my garage... it's in a building with automatic gates and there are no "keys" that could work. I would have to either A) block a busy intersection while I sit there waiting for a neighbor to arrive or B) park on the street, which is a MAJOR pain in my area. After that, the next morning, I would need to wait for a neighbor to leave before I could get out.

All of that said, here's what happened:

I drove out there to pick up my car, told the service manager that I was upset about the situation and, despite buying my car there and having all service done there, I was considering taking my business to the nearest competitor. They explained to me the situation with warranty items, which I understood, and they explained that they simply didn't have what they needed for the strakes. I explained that I understood that but what really got me was that I couldn't just bring it back first thing in the morning the next day and not wait til Tuesday. They said that I could take my car back in and it would be taken care of.

Now it's Friday afternoon and I have my car back and the strakes are taken care of and they replaced my front brake pads (which were squealing all the way home last night, by the way...) and I'm a happy and retained customer. :-)

I expect a lot, but I give a lot... I'll drive 15 miles through traffic at 6:30 AM to get my oil changed at the dealership even if there's a Jiffy Lube down the street. I just ask that they reciporicate my extra effort with a little extra effort themselves. They did that and it's all good.

Im_DANomite

iTrader: (1)

glad to hear everything went well. just for future reference, in order to receive what you deserve, give the service team a good CSI score. they will definately acknowledge you for that. also, try to stay consistent and request the same service writer/technician. this way, you build a more personal relationship, which in the end SHOULD result in good business. simply...you scratch their back, they will scratch yours.

legokcen

Go elsewhere. Talk to the manager or owner of the dealership. That will do wonders if they themselves aren't jerks.

rX8rEdLiNe

I could care less about mazda service departments. From my experience with many Mazda service departments through-out the California Bay Area, the most inepted people ever!!!

I do all my own maintenence, and will only bring it in as a last resort only if the car is about to blow up. I love this car, but I would not buy another Mazda ever again, because of Mazda's service departments.