Carrs Honda of Chicago service fiasco (bit long)

[ChiS2K]

Sorry..I have to rant.

Service fiasco....

I went to Carrs Honda in Chicago to get new rear S02s mounted on my S. A very simple service procedure you would think...guess again:

- Original price quoted was unusually high...after mentioning the prices of other competitors...they discounted over 50%! hmm....

- Returned my car without the wheel lock key! Glad I checked before I left.

- Drove the car off the dealership lot and noticed unusual road noise. I went home and noticed that one of the tires were mounted in the WRONG ROTATION! Wow...I mean I'm not a service tech, but I know that this car uses unidirectional tires and that following an --> (arrow) is pretty simple.


I went back to get the tire remounted, and the service dept was closed. I was ready to leave town for Memorial day weekend but no way was I going to drive on the expressway on one reversed S02. I would imagine that they could have been held liable if my traction was lost in the rain due to driving on the wrong tread pattern. If I didn't catch it, I would have put unusual wear on the tire going on the expressway. How long does it take to put one 'reverse' mile on your tire? I would have put 300 in one weekend! I understand that it's a Friday...and those guys want to get home. However something like this should not be overlooked.

Of course I was upset that I was going to miss my dinner plans that night because I wasn't going to drive on the tire. I wanted the service manager paged but the sales managers couldn't help. I went in the next day and explained the whole situation...they comped the service obviously. I really didn't care about the money though....it was the time that I couldn't get back. I lost a day of my vacation. Oh and you bet I'm going to slam them when they call back for a service survey!

PLEASE American Honda....train your service people! These are NOT CIVICS!!!!

[blah]

For the hourly rate they charge, you think you could expect a little more attention to detail.

My dealer service horror story thankfully doesn't involve my S2000, but my wife's VW. We took the car in for an oil change and tire rotation and when my wife got home she said that the car felt really "wobbly". So I checked it out by driving it around the block. Right away I noticed that something is not right. Got it back into the garage and one of the wheels had the lug nuts hand tightned!!! I called the service manager and, while he did seem concerned, didn't do too much for me.

Now fast forward a few years, and we take the car in back to the same dealer for oil change and a brake job ... and you guessed it ... both front wheels only had the lugs hand tightned!!! Thankfully I had the sense to check them before I left, since this dealer had such a great track record with me. I couldn't believe it! I stormed back into the dealership, but the service manager wasn't there. I ended up talking to the owner of the dealership the next day and he gave me a 10% refund on my service bill. I suck at making a stink!

Needless to say, I think I finally learned my lesson and will never go back to that dealer. I have yet to find a good VW dealer service department around here, and will never buy another VW because of this and other experiences with VW.

Anyone want to buy a Passat?

[Greg Stevens]

Holy crap...both of you! Stories abound as to how moronic many dealers are...

Laird, funny you mentioned Carr's Honda. I bought both of my S2000's there and was treated fairly and respectfully by the sales staff. Then at the very first MW gtg, I see on Greg Caldwell's car how the Ti shift knob REALLY looks, as opposed to the Al that I had but paid for the Ti one.

So I take it back to the boneheads in the service department, invoice in hand proving that I had paid for the Ti knob and guess what? The Service Manger ACCUSED ME OF SWITCHING THE KNOBS! Sorry to yell, but I was absolutely FUMING! There was a group of servicepeople standing around when this happened and they all sort of slinked away when he said that and as I launched into him, which really isn't my nature, but damn that pissed me off.

Turns out that one of the PDI bozo's had stolen my Ti knob and replaced it with an Al one. I found that out through the grapevine. Did I ever get an apology or anything from those jackasses? Nope...got jack! Did my S2000 ever see that completely incompenent bunch of weasels in the service dept again? Nope! Will I ever buy another Honda from those losers? Nope!

When will they learn...that is the question. It amazes me that people can stay in business and treat people with such disrepect...!

[WestSideBilly]

I'm to the point where I take my torque wrench when I get new tires. I immediatley break every bolt and tighten to 80 lb-ft. I've had everything from finger tight to one that required about 250 lb-ft to break (bet that did wonders on my lug). I don't know what's so complicated about the process....