Dealership Complaint - Conclusion

[TriGem2k]

Originally Posted by hippojam1

For all of those following my little service hassle. I just spoke to the service manager at BH Porsche, Trevor, and he seemed to be defending his employee right off the bat. Then he went and talked to the idiot employee and then called me back with a little more belief of my story saying that next time I come in I should ask for him and he'll give me "some sort of discount or something." I personally don't believe it. Sounds wishy washy.

A good sales outfit will appease the customer who has a logical complaint by giving him or her a specific incentive to come back and spend more money there. Porsche servicing is a big busines and I don't understand why they wouldn't go out of their way to keep me as a customer. I don't think I'll be going back to Beverly Hills Porsche for servicing...Maybe Rusnak (the next closest dealership in Pasadena) isn't much better, but I will at least tell everyone on this board not to expect great service from Beverly Hills Porsche.

Hippojam....Trevor is almost as annoying as Jason...If you want good service from BH go see Eric im telling you. Eric will give you the truth with no bull****************. I personally would HATE going to that dealer if it wasnt for him. Everyone there including the cashiers are idiots. Ill be heading there next Monday 4/3 for some warranty work...

[hippojam1]

wow, i didn't think this post would get so much attention. and that such a divisive line would be drawn about customer service.

let me first express thanks for those of you who understand my frustration and believe that it is sad when businesses don't care if we return. i think the world would be a less frustrating place for all of us if these businesses would make thoughtful (but not necessarily material) gestures showing that they understand what we're going through and are there to help us out. i had to lose three days of work because of two screw ups (the wrong part and the worker having to care for his mother). i didn't fault jason the moron for making a mistake the first time, and i certainly don't fault the worker, whoever he may be, for having a sick mother. i hope she gets better. i just wanted to be notified so i didn't lose those days of work. that's all. and if i'm not notified, then i want a little concern that jason the moron is sorry, which shows me that next time i don't need to worry about this happening. now i expect it to happen the next time.

to mnboxster, who thinks that i don't deserve adequate planning ahead or having the right part ordered because it's such a small issue, that's absurd. i'm not asking for extraordinary treatment. i'm asking for the bare minimum....just a call telling me i need to wait longer. i shouldn't be wasting three days not working having friends go out of their way to drive me around because we expect it to be ready any minute now. we're all busy people...if we had to lose three days because of logistical errors like this with every little errand we need to run, because we don't deserve the service people's attention, then we can't run our lives very well, and we certainly can't avoid being frustrated on a daily basis. if every business is so inconsiderate, that's what could happen.

and to those of you who think we should save our complaints for big problems. if there's only one dealership and you have no choice, then sure. you're out of luck. but we're paying A LOT for porsches and porsche service...why should we be getting pushed around?

[hippojam1]

i will try erick out next time. i'm very happy there is a wealth of information here on other people's experiences with employees at this dealership, so i can avoid these hassles in the future.

for those of you who disagree with my reasoning, i hope you still might benefit from knowing my experiences to avoid hassles yourselves.

[hippojam1]

oh, the cashiers are idiots, too. ha ha...i forgot that. every time i went to pick up the car, they ignored me and had no idea whether it was coming out or not. they kept calling people to get it over and over again. it didn't bother me so much because i thought it was amusing. they should probably redesign their processes a bit.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by hippojam1

and to those of you who think we should save our complaints for big problems. if there's only one dealership and you have no choice, then sure. you're out of luck. but we're paying A LOT for porsches and porsche service...why should we be getting pushed around?

I agree with you as well, particularly when you are treated as a replaceable commodity. However, I do not expect more service because I paid $xxx for my car and someone esle cannot expect this level of service because they paid less. I just have a reasonable expectation that the dealership will do what they say. When they don't (and they eventually will) I simply ask myself how important it really is. To be inconvenienced is, unfortuneately, inevitable.

Here's an interesting link about yet another dealership problem angle:
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=261510

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by hippojam1

...to mnboxster, who thinks that i don't deserve adequate planning ahead or having the right part ordered because it's such a small issue, that's absurd. i'm not asking for extraordinary treatment. i'm asking for the bare minimum....just a call telling me i need to wait longer. i shouldn't be wasting three days not working having friends go out of their way to drive me around because we expect it to be ready any minute now. we're all busy people...if we had to lose three days because of logistical errors like this with every little errand we need to run, because we don't deserve the service people's attention, then we can't run our lives very well, and we certainly can't avoid being frustrated on a daily basis... but we're paying A LOT for porsches and porsche service...why should we be getting pushed around?

Hi,

Please don't put words in my mouth. At no time did I say you didn't deserve proper treatment - you do. Nor did I fail to acknowledge the Service Failure which occured - it did. I merely think you overreacted to the situation both at the Dealership and in this thread, and I think you still are. I'm sorry you don't think I'm as empathetic to your situation as you would like. One person berated me for belittling you, but I think you've done that all by yourself.

We manage our own frustrations and our own stresses in Life. We decide how much we are going to let an unexpected result frustrate us. Not every incident in life equates to the importance of Nuclear Launch Codes, and I suspect a couple problems with the local Dealer don't even make the Top Ten! Let it go!

You previously failed to note that you missed 3 days work, this does place greater consequential damage on the incident, but in my eyes at least, still fails the stink test you're trying to promote here. One could ask why after the 1st incident with this Dealer you weren't proactive enough to call ahead and confirm your reservation? I always do, and I rarely have the type of problem which you express here, Cause & Effect?

As pointed out, it doesn't matter what you paid for the Car or the Service, if a promise was made, it should have been followed through. But failing to take into account and accept Human Error isn't going to do your Blood Pressure any good. People make mistakes. That's not the same thing as "Pushing you around". I suspect you have made mistakes on the job as well (I know that I have) which may have inconvenienced others, does that make you a Moron and an Idiot too?

As you pointed out, the Service Manager did try to make ammends saying " next time I come in I should ask for him and he'll give me "some sort of discount or something". But, you seem unwilling to let it go by calling everyone involved Morons and Idiots even rejecting out-of-hand their attempts to rectify the situation stating "I personally don't believe it. Sounds wishy washy". You have to give them the opportunity to improve if you expect them to do so, they can't run back the clock, they can only make it better next time. ..

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

[prOk]

I just went back and read the other thread on this.. seems to me both sides have issues.. Perhaps the original poster has some anger/stress management issues and the dealer has follow through problems.. None of them in this case were unavoidable OR worth all this stress.

Next time, CALL THE BLOODY DEALER and confirm they are ready.. He did say the upholstry guy may or may not be there the next day.. so don't be mad when you leave your car and he's not there. Every business has employees call in sick or just generally not show up, part of life. Don't shorten your own life stressing too much over stuff like this..

You were inconvenienced in your mind, but it seems somewhat voluntary actually.. So the first time was a genuine mistake, they ordered the wrong part and probably didn't realize it until the car was sitting in front of them.. a forgivable offense.. The second time, you stated the service manager said his upholstry guy called in that day and yes, he should very much have called you and called off the appointment... However, when he told you the guy may or may not be there the following day and you chose to leave your car knowing the risk, that's your decision and your problem. Don't take that part out on the dealer. Seems the dealer truly made one genuine service error in not calling you to delay the 2nd appointment, the rest of it was either just a simple mistake or a decision you made.. either way, mountains out of molehills that could have been avoided if you take the time to breathe and clear your anger out of your mind.

[Brucelee]

Let me act as moderator and ask that we tone this down.

Clearly several of us have differing expectations of how we want our service dept to treat us and frankly, that is fine and dandy. That is why we have so many cars and dealerships to choose from.

I will point out that when a company or dealerships seeks to create expectations as a point of marketing differentiation, it will be held to those expectations by most customers. Certainly that is true for Porsche, Lexus etc.

To wit, if I buy a $90K 911 from the local Porsche guys, you can bet that my expectation on service will be much higher than if I had just landed the latest $13K Scion.

Moreover, Porsche creates a very distinct level of snobbery inside their marketing and distribution channel. I am not faulting them, frankly it works. It keeps us coming back with our checkbooks.

But it works both ways. Personally, I have a great relationship with Hoen Porsche but I do have high expectations and work to have them met. I am not an Ahole about it but I don't go away either.

Now, back to sunnier thoughts!