ErinIs.com

I bought my car from a dealership client.

Worst. Decision. Ever. 

The car pretty much sucks. In the first 6 months the check engine light came on 3 times and the second time flat out broke down the morning I was headed up to LA for the weekend. The problems were all generally the same (involving an engine coil that is a known defect in the year and make of my car) and each time I was told it wouldn’t happen again.

I later disovered that the brand’s policy to fix this well-known defect is not to replace the coils until the car is brought in 4 times, purely because their assholes. I didn’t need a 4th time, by the 3rd time I was frustrated and disappointed. 

It was a horrible experience; customer service was astrocious and they brushed their hands of me by saying “well the brand says we can’t do anything, so you’re really not our problem”. It took me dropping the name of the agency principal to get the approporate level of treatment. While I appreciate the fact that I had the connection to get treated well, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if I didn’t have that. 

How can I market a company that I don’t believe in? If I wouldn’t recommend their product to a friend, hell if I would never buy there again how can I persuade others to do so? I appreciate that the dealership was loyal to me after I name dropped, but shouldn’t they be that way to all their clients?

Just this week to put icing on the cake I paid a hefty sum for a 40K tune up. I fgured I need to stay on top of all its service appointments since its a sucky car. I was told when I dropped it off that not only would it be retrurned to me totally tuned up and running well, but also clean and shiny. 

Yes my car still works, probably better then before. They replaced some stuff, checked on a bunch more stuff but somehow  failed to even vacuum the drivers side floor (something thats standard at my usual $20 oil change place). One more epic fail for my client. An incredible lack of simple customer service. 

Lesson learned. I will never buy from a client again. At least if I buy from a competitor, I can call it secret shopping and find flaws and improvements that my clients can incorporate into their businesses.