How should I deal with this stealership?
 

Title says it all.

My car has 3 open recalls on it. Here is the background -

Call #1: I call the dealership and ask them to pull info on open recalls for my VIN. They take down my info and say they'll call back in a few minutes. No reply.

Call #2: I call the dealership and ask them to pull info on open recalls for my VIN. They take down my info and say they'll call back in a few minutes. No reply. Note the similarity to call #1.

Call #3: I call the dealship, and get somebody to pull info on my VIN on the spot. 3 Open recalls, one needed some parts to be ordered. They tell me they will order them and call me back in a few days. I asked the timerange and was told it would be about 3-4 day. It has been 1 week+ and no reply.


I am not happy with this level of service. I assume they should not be treating me this way . I will actually need to car my car in for some service anways and I am very hesitant to deal with these jerks. Please advise! (Common practice? Find new place? Complain to PCNA?)

Thanks

find new place.
if you take the car in and they tell you it will take 3 days for everything to be fixed, its easy to assume it will take maybe few months or they will simply forget to call you, or forget that the car is even there haha

if you dont use your car daily its not a big deal, but otherwise its a problem.

depending on where you are, just go elsewhere.

Talk to your local PCNA rep.

Make a call to the Service Department Manager or the dealership's General Mabager.

Your best bet is to stop in the dealership and deal with a manager. The advisors you have spoken to on the phone are probably too busy to remember whats not right in front of them. Recalls and warranty dont typically pay well on the service side anyway. It is just the way it is in service most of the time.

best of luck!

A few background questions please:

1) Did you buy this car a this dealership? (bought new? cpo? )
2) Have you had any service work performed there before?

What I am getting at is are you simply a "caller" or are you a current "customer"?

I am not defending thier attitudes.. but maybe they get calls like this a lot and are tired of playing the game. Maybe they will take you more seriously if you were there in person and built a relationship.

I would not expect any local Porsche dealer to give 2 craps about me if i were to call them out of the blue and ask questions about my 7 year old car.

I didn't buy the car there. I am a "caller". I have been by the dealership to buy something small (license mounting kit). However, they would not remember me.

Desite this "caller" status, are they not legally required to service any open recalls since the US NHTSA mandates them?

Legally required to service the car? Probably, yes. Legally required to give good customer service? No! Is this sad? Yes. :mad:

I'm happy to report that I've had a different experience with the local dealership (Stevens Creek Porsche in San Jose). I bought my 2001 boxster a few weeks ago, and have called them a few times about various things (getting service history, red clip, nose bra stuff etc.).

Admittedly, I was mislead for the red clip (they claimed to know of no such thing, even after I described what its supposed to do), but that could just be an uninformed service guy I spoke with. Beyond that, they have been pretty good when I've asked questions otp. It could be that I just happened to run into some of the nicer guys there :)

Lets see... you have given them no money, your car is not abandoned in 100 pieces on the floor of their service bay and you are still driving it. I'd say you are way ahead in the auto service game. Their only crime so far is being inept with some low priority recalls. There is no incentive for them to get in a hurry over this... no money in it at all. At this point you are not even their customer.

Go talk to the service Mgr. in person. Be polite and ask them how we can get these recalls completed sooner rather than later. If you still don't get a good response it's time to find another dealership.

I'm surprised at a couple of the responses in this thread. I never realized some people have such low standards regarding customer service. Regardless of the situation, if someone tells you they're going to do something, they should do it. If they don't, it's bad. This happening multiple times is simply unacceptable for any business that wants to be sustainable.
<steps down off soapbox>
First, are there any other dealers near you? If so, use them.
If not, go talk to the GM and explain the situation. If that doesn't do it, talk to PCNA.

-The closest dealer is about 1.5 hours away :(
-One of the reasons I have not walked in and made a stink of things is because I want to find a dealership that will "do the right thing" without having to be prodded. I feel this is very important in the high-end auto business. That is the type of service that I would look for as a long term customer.

Sorry to hear that. I guess you know your options now. Is it worth the extra drive? Maybe you should explain to the local GM what you explained to us. Sometimes they'll have a service advisor that will establish a one-on-one relationship with a customer and therfore force that advisor to be accountable. if anything goes wrong, you go to the GM.

JCL12 - where in NY are you? What year Boxster? Perhaps you might investigate working with an independent shop.