Friday, September 21, 2007

Don't Ignore Me Because I Am A Woman

For those of you who don't know this, I hate my car. More than I hate my car, I am beginning to hate the franchise dealership that is responsible for repairing it.

After many attempts to make a service appointment and failing my car broke down. This was a few weeks back but my car lost its clutch with less than 30,000 miles. I was stranded on a hill in the middle of Friday rush hour, which made me late to dinner with my in laws and I loathe being late. So I called the dealership and freaked out about the clutch dying, the car leaking fluids and the paint falling off. I also complained about the fact that the clutch (a fairly important piece of the drive train if you ask me) was not covered under the warranty after 1 year. We also found out that I need a new steering arm as mine is defective. That part was ordered nearly a month ago today but no one called to tell me the part was in (as promised). Instead the parts guy said he sent me a post card that looks like junk mail.......

This whole thing has been a terrible experience right from the get go. The dealership doesn't return my calls (which I have to leave because they never answer the dang phone) or emails, and when I do reach them they ignore my concerns. Now I may be a woman, but I do know that if you have to hit the clutch twice in order to get in reverse then there is a problem.

The Internet says my synchronizing is off and that could lead to the gears stripping....and that means a new and expensive transmission on a two year old car. I have told the dealership that this is happening in every single call and voice mail I have left in the past two weeks, and they still have not called me back. If they were not the only franchise dealership in town I would have gone somewhere else a long long time ago.

Want to know what really irks me? If my husband reports a problem they fix it immediately!!! When they replaced the clutch the car made a funny buzzing sound, and when we took it in the dealership tried to brush me off until my husband said he had heard it too. Once Josh chimed in the technician was all over getting in the car and going for a ride!

Why does Josh have to chime in for something to be broken? Why isn't my assessment of the situation enough? I know more about cars, engines, and troubleshooting then my sweet husband ever will, and yet he is the one they listen and respond to. This very same dealership has relied on me to resolve highly complicated technical issues for them on multiple occasions , but when it comes to the car itself I am ignored.

The end result is that our new car is a Nissan (not the same as my car) and it was bought from a different dealership just down the street. The new dealership was fantastic to close the deal with. Their staff were helpful, courteous, efficient and gave us a very fair deal. The GM even came in to say hi to us a couple of times while we were in signing paperwork. Oh? and if I tell them something needs to be fixed they fall over themselves to find out the source of my concerns. The new dealership even answers the phone!

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