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I'm going to go on a rant here because I've been stewing on this for about nine hours now. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things with people, and I'm not just talking about with a car dealer, people in general, because being an Ahole seldom ever really gets you anywhere in life. A short while ago, the dealership i work for was approached by a family that had fallen on about as hard a time as can be imagined. Now these people had never bought a car from us, probably never will; and they hadn't once visited our service department. They came to us and asked us for help, and in return, at no cost to anyone but ourselves, we put a cylinder head, water pump gasket, 4 spark plugs, a battery, and a door handle in a car for them. The service department ate the cost of the parts and I myself came in on a couple days off to do the labor and didn't ask for a dime to do so. It's just good karma to help some folks when they need things the most.
Now whats got me all heated up, was today a gentleman showed up to the service department for a oil change, we informed him that his vehicle has an open service campaign that we would happily address if he didnt mind spending the extra 20 to 30 minutes. He responded that he didn't have the time to take care of the issue today, he needed to be in and out with just the oil change. Now during the standard inspection of the vehicle the tech found a mouse nest complete with two baby mice sitting on the cabin air filter, which he cleaned out (R.I.P. little mice) charging the customer nothing at all. While the oil change was being done, the owner of the vehicle was in the front threatening to talk to his lawyer if we wouldn't reimburse him for a battery (which was out of warranty) that had been replaced at his cost. After completing the oil change, the man paid for the oil change and then proceeded to become verbally angry that his check engine light (also out of warranty) had not been fixed while we did the free inspection. Keep in mind that he expressed he had not a moment to spare. At this point we decided to check and see what the DTC was in the vehicle, and found that it was something there is a reflash service bulletin to take care of. We offered to take care of this issue for him for a one hour charge, he again threatened to bring the issue up to his lawyer as he felt that he should in no way be charged to fix his vehicle, "I expect this vehicle to be trouble free all the way to three hundred thousand miles, at sixty eight thousand it should just be getting broken in."
The thing of course is, I myself have performed dozens of reflashes for people free of charge, especially with something like an oil change where I can have the reprogram running while the oil is draining, but I have no interest in helping out someone who has no interest other than attempting to throw his considerable weight around. The kicker about all this was that right before leaving, the man stated that a couple of years ago he was making 40 grand a month with his personal business and could've easily paid for the car with cash, and paid off his house......but didn't, and now the vehicle was about to be reposessed. For a parting shot he said that he would be calling the manufacturer and reporting what a horrible service experience he'd had.
The moral to all this, at least in my mind, is that not everyong who works for a dealer is a sleazeball, but I can tell you we deal with pricks all day long so one more won't raise any eyebrows. The way to suprise someone and get your way is to just ask nicely.
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^^^similar to donated repair car
Modified by PsyberVW at 12:26 AM 3-21-2010
Now whats got me all heated up, was today a gentleman showed up to the service department for a oil change, we informed him that his vehicle has an open service campaign that we would happily address if he didnt mind spending the extra 20 to 30 minutes. He responded that he didn't have the time to take care of the issue today, he needed to be in and out with just the oil change. Now during the standard inspection of the vehicle the tech found a mouse nest complete with two baby mice sitting on the cabin air filter, which he cleaned out (R.I.P. little mice) charging the customer nothing at all. While the oil change was being done, the owner of the vehicle was in the front threatening to talk to his lawyer if we wouldn't reimburse him for a battery (which was out of warranty) that had been replaced at his cost. After completing the oil change, the man paid for the oil change and then proceeded to become verbally angry that his check engine light (also out of warranty) had not been fixed while we did the free inspection. Keep in mind that he expressed he had not a moment to spare. At this point we decided to check and see what the DTC was in the vehicle, and found that it was something there is a reflash service bulletin to take care of. We offered to take care of this issue for him for a one hour charge, he again threatened to bring the issue up to his lawyer as he felt that he should in no way be charged to fix his vehicle, "I expect this vehicle to be trouble free all the way to three hundred thousand miles, at sixty eight thousand it should just be getting broken in."
The thing of course is, I myself have performed dozens of reflashes for people free of charge, especially with something like an oil change where I can have the reprogram running while the oil is draining, but I have no interest in helping out someone who has no interest other than attempting to throw his considerable weight around. The kicker about all this was that right before leaving, the man stated that a couple of years ago he was making 40 grand a month with his personal business and could've easily paid for the car with cash, and paid off his house......but didn't, and now the vehicle was about to be reposessed. For a parting shot he said that he would be calling the manufacturer and reporting what a horrible service experience he'd had.
The moral to all this, at least in my mind, is that not everyong who works for a dealer is a sleazeball, but I can tell you we deal with pricks all day long so one more won't raise any eyebrows. The way to suprise someone and get your way is to just ask nicely.
^^^similar to donated repair car
Modified by PsyberVW at 12:26 AM 3-21-2010
