Let me get some disclosure out of the way up front before I get into my rant: My younger brother, Ramy, is a former employee of Toyota Mall of Georgia (hopefully someone is tracking inbound links and sees this) and sold the car to me. Naturally they gave me a decent deal, but believe me it doesn’t make up for the hell I’ve been through with them. Also, don’t expect this post to be grammatically correct as I just don’t care — I just want to tell you why service after buying a car at this dealership sucks. I’ll try to be fair.
Oh, and this is the 3rd car I’ve bought from this dealership. The first two were under my father’s name as I wasn’t 18 years of age but I paid for them. Also, my wife needs a car soon. Unless something drastic happens in the very near future, I can tell you what I will not be buying and where I will not be buying it.
I’m very. Very. Angry. I’ve never been so insulted in my life. Feb 2008, I bought a new car. Approximate cost of said V6, badass Camry SE with 18″ BBS wheels, etc. etc. is 32k. That’s right folks, roughly the cost of a low end G35. More on that later. That was the debate but I went with the Camry because my prior car was a Camry and I happen to (generally) like Toyota brand cars. So I buy the car and they “detail” it — paint swirls the first day. Incompetent.
Lets move on. Within the first 10,000 miles of owning the car (I drive a lot), the “check engine” light comes on 4 times. F-O-U-R. Each time the error code points to a rotten O2 sensor and each time they replace it even though I tell them something else is the cause. Whatever. I call Toyota corporate (nice lady named Irene helps me out) and they come to the rescue by giving me a 100k warranty because my main concern is that after the crappy 50k power-train warranty, the same issue will come up and I’ll be stuck with a messed up car. Thanks Irene and Toyota USA. It almost made up for the 4 straight Saturdays and countless Mondays away from the office (boss was forgiving, we had VPN and dealer had WiFi). Yes, that’s all day I spent at this place while they replaced the same good part over and over trying to make something different magically happen. This should have been my first clue that my time is not valuable to these people. This was a nightmare. People don’t get their time back — lives expire and people die. It’s that simple so one should always treat people’s time with respect. I learned that by being on the other side of the counter.
A lot of little quality things were wrong with this car from the beginning — not expected of a Toyota:
- Engine light from hell (mentioned above)
- Outward ding on the rear right door
- Rust on the steel seat bracket (more on this in a few..)
- Left center vent doesn’t stay in position (more on this in a few..)
- Sunroof rattle
Beyond that, I’m simply irritated about how much of my time they’ve wasted. It’s astounding.
Ok, so the dealer says they can’t do anything about the ding. Fine, it’s my fault that I spent 32k without paying closer attention but still lame. The ding is an outward crease and sort of hard to see unless you know it’s there so whatever.
Yesterday the dealer tells me they won’t replace the steel bracket under warranty (and I have that 100k platinum warranty too!) because it’s not rust, it’s “oxidation” and “wipes right off.” They “wipe it right off” but the bolts are still rusted. Another failure. Hi, I’m not Mr. Chemistry but I’d still like to tell you that rust is Iron-Oxide. Replace the damned 30 dollar part because it’s not ok, either functionally in the long run or aesthetically in the short term for this to be happening on the $32k car. Fine again, Steve’s a nice guy so I move on and take it for what it is.
Now the damned left vent. It’s a $10 plastic vent that defaults to the “up” position regardless of where I set it. The problem is intermittent and likely has something to do with contraction/expansion and temperature changes. They don’t want to replace it because they can’t reproduce it. I’m told they “tightened” things up. Guess what, nothing’s changed and there’s nothing to tighten up in an all plastic assembly - it still does it and they pissed me off yet again. The fact is I’m not a stupid person and I wouldn’t be standing in front of them asking them to replace the damned thing if it weren’t broken. Replace the stupid vent.
I’ve taken my car in several times due to the sunroof rattling and every time I’ve shown the dealer where it rattles. Yesterday, I even told them how I thought it needed to be fixed it. It’s a design flaw. There’s nothing to keep the flexible headliner from smacking into the bottom of the sunroof/ceiling assembly so engine rattles or tiny road bumps at most speeds cause it to happen. It just needs a little felt or other padding to soften it. Every time they’ve taken down the headliner, “tightened things up” and I drive it home to have it rattle the next day. It’s a very irritating noise and it’s a big deal.
Now, all of these things have infuriated me at one time or another but yesterday took the cake. At approximately 10:15 AM I took my car in for several maintenance items (oil change, tire rotation, left-center vent, rust on seat bracket) and a car wash. I was informed that they don’t wash cars but that they detail cars and the lowest price for a detail package was $50. Ok. Fine, it needs to be waxed so why not. According to Steve, at 12:30 PM they turned the car over to the “detail department” who proceeded to do their thing. I wait. One and one half hour later, I ask steve for a status update. It’s 2 PM and the wife and I want to grab some lunch. Sure, the dealer has a little cafe but on an earlier similarly-irritating trip I watched them handle raw chicken with the same gloves as cooked chicken and other meats so I’d rather starve.
Steve tells me it’ll be 30-45 minutes until my car is ready. He asked someone to check on the car and that was the response he received and relayed to me. He also told me that they were in the middle of waxing the car. Hooray. Another hour and a half passes (I’m generally a patient guy) and it’s now 3:30 PM. I go ask and tell him it’s been well over the 45 minutes he’d communicated and asked him to check again. Egads, they haven’t even started on my car! I tell him to have it brought up as is and tell him that what happened was not alright. He gives me the tire rotation for free — 15 bucks! I was totally insulted. He brought a manager up, John was his name, who was generally useless since he wanted to take no responsibility for the problem. John said “I would feel more responsible if it were my department but it’s the detail department’s fault.” I ask who the responsible party is and he shoves the blame on the body-shop manager, someone who wasn’t even involved in the entire process of servicing and cleaning my car. I gave my keys to someone at the service shop and the service shop returned them to me, which means that they are the responsible party from my point of view. This guy’s insulting my intelligence and I can tell I’m getting no where and he doesn’t care. Fair enough. I ask them to let me pay for the tire rotation and they won’t let me. I take my keys and leave. I didn’t raise my voice or curse. It’s 3:50 PM. We still haven’t had lunch.
So what? They made an honest mistake right? Sure, but they failed to give a damn when I explained that I couldn’t get my 3 hours wasted back. Also, they failed to accept responsibility for the mistake — that’s really what sent me over the edge. “I would feel more responsible ..[but it's some other person's fault so go talk to them].” Thanks John, you’re a winner. Thanks for wasting 3 hours of time. You’re the manager and you are responsible for the happenings, regardless of whether or not they were immediately under your supervision. Someone dropped the ball when I asked for status several times. You should figure out who and you should come to me with a solution and at least be apologetic about it. Step in my shoes for a minute.
I worked a customer service job for 6 years while I was in high school and college so let me suggest a solution: Respect the customer’s time, regardless of how busy you are. If you’re too busy, set expectations and let them make the call. Examples? Cactus Car Wash, they gives me a free bottle of water and treats to me like a rock star to earn my 20 bucks. How about taking pointers from Chik-fil-A, where the employees know to treat customers with respect. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of money at this dealership and I expect better. Much better.
I’ve filed an escalated complaint with Toyota Corporate. If that leads no where, I’ll call up the chain until I find someone who can do something about my 3 wasted hours. I’ve also left a message with the executive office at Toyota Mall of Georgia. We’ll see how long it takes them to talk some sense into their service department and fix their lack-luster service. I’m not sure how they can “make it right.” For the record we were looking at Toyota’s new crossover or a new Matrix for my wife. Now, not so much.
Edit: They DID fix the issue with the engine light on the 5th try. Forgot to mention that, sorry.
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