Yesterday, I called my man, Jose, who has always taken care of me in the past when I needed any car service. He told me that he recently left Saturn and is now working for Ford. Even though he no longer works for Saturn, he asked what happened and was very helpful in telling me what I should do. He told me who to contact George, the service manager at Saturn of Honolulu. He said that if I did not get results there, to call the National Office.
I called the local office and left a message on the George's message machine (the service manager at Saturn of Honolulu). I waited almost two hours and then called back again. I asked if George was in. The secretary said he was in and out of his office but was working all day. She forwarded me to his message machine once again. I did not leave a second message since I already left a message once saying that I was upset with my service and would like him to call me. After waiting another hour, I called the National Office.
Once I explained the situation, the woman I spoke to apologized to me immediately and said there should be no problem in resolving the problem. She gave me a case number and told me that someone would get back to me hopefully on Friday (today). I reminded her of the time difference as I did not want to get a 3 am call.
Meanwhile, I continued to wait for a call from George, the local Saturn service manager. He never returned my call yesterday.
This morning I received a call about 9:30 am from the National Office. They have informed the local Saturn service department about the duplicate service. Supposedly the local Saturn service department is looking into the matter and is supposed to get back to the National Office so that my case can be resolved. The extremely kind woman, who apologized to me a few times during this call, told me that it may take a few days for the Honolulu Saturn office to get back to the National Office to get this resolved.
After speaking to the National Office, I called George once again. The person answering the phone said, "How can I direct your call". Instead of saying that I wanted to speak to George, knowing that I would most likely get his answering machine, I explained my situation and informed her that I have now have contacted the National Office but would rather resolve this problem locally. She then said, "Let me page him". After waiting a few more minutes, I was told that he was not answering his page. She said she would let him know why I was calling and would have him call me back. I wasn't holding my breath.
Two hours later, just as I finished writing the previous paragraph, George returned my call. He said he was sorry that he did not call me back yesterday (but did not really sound very apologetic). He said they were working on the reimbursement. He did not even apologize for what had happened. He said that because I came in for an oil change and a tire rotation, I would still be charged for both of those services. Now I was getting really upset!! I brought my car in because my car stalled. Obviously he did not even take the time to find out what really occurred yesterday! Yes, I asked for an oil change but I did NOT ask for a tire rotation. I asked to have one of my tires filled. I could not believe that he was trying to charge me for something else that I did not ask to have done. He spent the next few minutes trying to tell me that since I asked for an oil change I should have to pay for it.
I could not believe that in this entire conversation, he did not once apologize for what had happened. At his point, I told him that I was very upset that I was told I needed a service that I did not need. I told him that I have alway trusted Saturn. I also said that I am sure that Saturn would have never reimbursed me on their own if they realized later on that they charged me for a service that was not needed and that I had already had done. He was silent. I then said that if I had not found my original receipt, I would have paid a lot of money for a duplicate service that I did not need to have done. I told him that because of what happened, the least they could do was to not charge me for the oil change. George said was that he would get back to me later in the day after he looked into my case further.
What makes me the most upset in all of this is that I am not getting an apology from the local Saturn service department. They are just trying to get as much money out of me as they can instead of trying to do whatever they can to make up for telling me I needed an unnecessary service.
Jill, I have not heard any groveling yet...
The "great service" that Saturn is supposed to have seems to be not so great any more, at least not in Honolulu. I am still not very happy with all of this and now need to wait for George to call me back again. I will definitely be writing a letter to the National Office to let them know how I have been treated. I have not even talked about the shuttle service! I don't think I will be buying another Saturn.
Lesson learned...keep all of your receipts and go through them before having any service done!
Comments (1)
This really is terrible service, and stress that you certainly don't need!
For all the talk that we constantly hear from companies all the time about how important customer service is, and despite all of their touchy-feely ads, it rarely comes true. And then they wonder why consumers are no longer brand-loyal! All they truly care about, it seems, is turning a very quick, short-term profit.
As you say, it's so important to keep receipts!
Posted by Sandra | April 26, 2008 2:07 PM
Posted on April 26, 2008 14:07