Latest Dealer Service Story
#1
03-24-2013, 07:38 PM
Latest Dealer Service Story
Did an extended service contact (First performance) with Park Place Jag in Plano TX.
Here is my letter, slightly redacted, to the service department manager.
---------------
I want to thank you and xxx for servicing my car on this latest repair.
However and I want to emphasize that in no way do I blame xxx for anything I am getting ready to relay. xxx has his job as a service adviser and has defined duties and is not the one that does work on the vehicles and can on rely on what he is told based on what is ordered or requested to be done. He is excellent at what he does and I am sure you do and should consider him an asset to your department and company.
This goes back to my previous issue that I have taken up before with you and that is a lack of adequate quality control in the mechanic side of your service dept. What makes this especially frustrating is that I specifically requested and xxx wrote on the service ticket, to make sure that the water shield on the passenger rear door was checked after they replaced the lock actuator and was not leaking inside of where it should not.
Today after an evening rain and then washing my car, I found a leaking water shield on that door. I know that due to my own experience with the car and the driver's side rear door and when i see water on the inside bottom of the door immediately below the trim panel, I know that the water is coming from behind the trim panel as the water shield has not been put on correctly.
So it takes about 2 minutes to remove the trim panel and as i suspected the water shield had not been put on correctly. What I mean is that there is a small raised line that has to be pushed against the door for the black rubber butyl material to adhere. It is around all the open areas of the inside part of the door, especially the big square that has an X on it (water shield- where most of the water would come leak in from) It was clear this was not done and the line of water could be clearly seen coming from the area where they simply did not push in the seams of the water shield where the butyl material is. Of course I took care of it and it only took about 5 minutes to run my thumb around the raised area and push the rest of the butyl in. I put the trim panel back and off I went.
It is not a huge deal in one sense, but you, like me, in the work I do, charge a premium price and I do expect premium work, as is expected of me.
I do not know how your mechanics are paid although I suspect that is the job calls for 5 hours, they make 5 hours of whatever fee and if they get it done in 4 hours, so much the better for them financially. I do not portend or pretend that I know more about these cars than they do, but I have had some specific experience with this, as you are aware.
I know I am picky and pay attention to detail, but that is the way I was raised by a Doctor and the way I carry out my profession.
So I am bringing this to yours and Bob's attention as I assume that you both want a quality job done with pride and respect by those that do it and create a customer relationship in which your dept. is trusted for what they do and when you or xxx say that it is going to be done correctly, you can say that with confidence.
On another note, the coolant smell that caused the replacement of the radiator is not totally gone, but that could be due to some spilling of antifreeze coming in or going out and I will wait a couple of days for it to burn off and see if that is all that it is. Further the squeaking I heard on the front of the car was back Sat. evening and today and I know that trying to diagnose a problem when you can't hear it is difficult- if not impossible and perhaps it comes only when there is some wet weather and certain temperatures. I will wait and see if that disappears as well, as it has before and if not let your group try and figure it out. That is such an old story with cars for as long as they have been around that the noise you hear decides not to be heard when you take it to the shop.
I am also mildly curious as to costing of labor on the replacement of the rear door latch was more than what it was before. The first service I had under my extended contact was done on March 12, 2012 (invoice #xxx). The price of the part had gone down by some $25, but the number of hours to do the same job had increased in time and went from $148.71 to $283.50. I understand that your fees, like mine have gone up, but why would it require more time to do the same exact job- just a different side of the car? I know that the service company paid for the all the labor on the lock in 2012. It just seems strange that the same exact job would call for more hours one year later
I hope you take this email with the positive intent I want it to be. if someone did work for me, under my direction and it was not up to the standard that it should have been, I would want to be the first to know that and would be pleased that someone told me.
Thanks again
--------------------
These guys are so much fun.
Tom in Dallas
2005 S-Type 3.0 65 K
Here is my letter, slightly redacted, to the service department manager.
---------------
I want to thank you and xxx for servicing my car on this latest repair.
However and I want to emphasize that in no way do I blame xxx for anything I am getting ready to relay. xxx has his job as a service adviser and has defined duties and is not the one that does work on the vehicles and can on rely on what he is told based on what is ordered or requested to be done. He is excellent at what he does and I am sure you do and should consider him an asset to your department and company.
This goes back to my previous issue that I have taken up before with you and that is a lack of adequate quality control in the mechanic side of your service dept. What makes this especially frustrating is that I specifically requested and xxx wrote on the service ticket, to make sure that the water shield on the passenger rear door was checked after they replaced the lock actuator and was not leaking inside of where it should not.
Today after an evening rain and then washing my car, I found a leaking water shield on that door. I know that due to my own experience with the car and the driver's side rear door and when i see water on the inside bottom of the door immediately below the trim panel, I know that the water is coming from behind the trim panel as the water shield has not been put on correctly.
So it takes about 2 minutes to remove the trim panel and as i suspected the water shield had not been put on correctly. What I mean is that there is a small raised line that has to be pushed against the door for the black rubber butyl material to adhere. It is around all the open areas of the inside part of the door, especially the big square that has an X on it (water shield- where most of the water would come leak in from) It was clear this was not done and the line of water could be clearly seen coming from the area where they simply did not push in the seams of the water shield where the butyl material is. Of course I took care of it and it only took about 5 minutes to run my thumb around the raised area and push the rest of the butyl in. I put the trim panel back and off I went.
It is not a huge deal in one sense, but you, like me, in the work I do, charge a premium price and I do expect premium work, as is expected of me.
I do not know how your mechanics are paid although I suspect that is the job calls for 5 hours, they make 5 hours of whatever fee and if they get it done in 4 hours, so much the better for them financially. I do not portend or pretend that I know more about these cars than they do, but I have had some specific experience with this, as you are aware.
I know I am picky and pay attention to detail, but that is the way I was raised by a Doctor and the way I carry out my profession.
So I am bringing this to yours and Bob's attention as I assume that you both want a quality job done with pride and respect by those that do it and create a customer relationship in which your dept. is trusted for what they do and when you or xxx say that it is going to be done correctly, you can say that with confidence.
On another note, the coolant smell that caused the replacement of the radiator is not totally gone, but that could be due to some spilling of antifreeze coming in or going out and I will wait a couple of days for it to burn off and see if that is all that it is. Further the squeaking I heard on the front of the car was back Sat. evening and today and I know that trying to diagnose a problem when you can't hear it is difficult- if not impossible and perhaps it comes only when there is some wet weather and certain temperatures. I will wait and see if that disappears as well, as it has before and if not let your group try and figure it out. That is such an old story with cars for as long as they have been around that the noise you hear decides not to be heard when you take it to the shop.
I am also mildly curious as to costing of labor on the replacement of the rear door latch was more than what it was before. The first service I had under my extended contact was done on March 12, 2012 (invoice #xxx). The price of the part had gone down by some $25, but the number of hours to do the same job had increased in time and went from $148.71 to $283.50. I understand that your fees, like mine have gone up, but why would it require more time to do the same exact job- just a different side of the car? I know that the service company paid for the all the labor on the lock in 2012. It just seems strange that the same exact job would call for more hours one year later
I hope you take this email with the positive intent I want it to be. if someone did work for me, under my direction and it was not up to the standard that it should have been, I would want to be the first to know that and would be pleased that someone told me.
Thanks again
--------------------
These guys are so much fun.
Tom in Dallas
2005 S-Type 3.0 65 K
#2
03-24-2013, 08:52 PM
This is why I do my own service.
NO ONE works on your car like YOU. When a job calls for five hours, you pay for five hours of labor if he only works on the car for 30 seconds. The more work they can jam in, the better.
When you work on a car, and something doesn't work out and your on the side of the road in the back of your mind you can say "well I must have done this or this while I was in there" when some on else works on it, all you can do is pray they do a good job.
The dealer for Jaguar here in Utah will NEVER see another cent of my money, till the day I die. They wouldn't even work my car under the damn recall for the gas tank, because it had already been done once. But it was leaking again, so its obvious that it was never done right in the first place.
NO ONE works on your car like YOU. When a job calls for five hours, you pay for five hours of labor if he only works on the car for 30 seconds. The more work they can jam in, the better.
When you work on a car, and something doesn't work out and your on the side of the road in the back of your mind you can say "well I must have done this or this while I was in there" when some on else works on it, all you can do is pray they do a good job.
The dealer for Jaguar here in Utah will NEVER see another cent of my money, till the day I die. They wouldn't even work my car under the damn recall for the gas tank, because it had already been done once. But it was leaking again, so its obvious that it was never done right in the first place.
#3
03-24-2013, 09:05 PM
This is why I do my own service.
NO ONE works on your car like YOU. When a job calls for five hours, you pay for five hours of labor if he only works on the car for 30 seconds. The more work they can jam in, the better.
When you work on a car, and something doesn't work out and your on the side of the road in the back of your mind you can say "well I must have done this or this while I was in there" when some on else works on it, all you can do is pray they do a good job.
The dealer for Jaguar here in Utah will NEVER see another cent of my money, till the day I die. They wouldn't even work my car under the damn recall for the gas tank, because it had already been done once. But it was leaking again, so its obvious that it was never done right in the first place.
NO ONE works on your car like YOU. When a job calls for five hours, you pay for five hours of labor if he only works on the car for 30 seconds. The more work they can jam in, the better.
When you work on a car, and something doesn't work out and your on the side of the road in the back of your mind you can say "well I must have done this or this while I was in there" when some on else works on it, all you can do is pray they do a good job.
The dealer for Jaguar here in Utah will NEVER see another cent of my money, till the day I die. They wouldn't even work my car under the damn recall for the gas tank, because it had already been done once. But it was leaking again, so its obvious that it was never done right in the first place.
There are many things I will do on the car and then some I would only do once and the learning curve is too great when they can do it. But if they were a Dr. or attorney or accountant, the would lose their license to practice.
Tom in Dallas
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