Warranty repairs are often shoddy and don’t fix the problem

Island Chevrolet, going out of business one customer at a time

Businesses who don’t respond fairly to their customers find themselves out of business in an age when customer complaints travel at the speed of light.

The customers walk away with their wallets to competitors and the rest is history.

Take car dealers for an example. Car dealers used to take warranty complaints with a grain of salt.

You’d leave the car and go to work.

When you pick the car up at night, it would be parked on the other side of the parking lot. A work order would be signed and keys returned.

On the way home, a sinking feeling would creep in that the problem hadn’t been fixed.

You got the parking lot shuffle. 

You would make another appointment, leave the car again with perhaps an irate comment or two.

The keys were returned at 5 pm and assurance given the problem was fixed this time. The car was on the other side of the lot.

Parking lot shuffle.

GM and Ford – this goes back a few years – calculated that only a few customers would return for the third visit.  A dealer in Montreal gave me the parking lot shuffle with my first Chevy back in 1969.

An accounting client, with a brand new Ford in the 80’s, got no satisfaction on an red engine light warning. He left it numerous times at McGowan’s Ford in Montague. He always bought Ford cars from McGowan’s. When the motor went just after the 12 month warranty, he traded up.

My 2nd last Impala would lose anti-freeze. I’d mention it on the next oil change and some gibberish lie would come from the lips of the Customer Service rep.

When the car was out of warranty, they told me the head gasket needed to be replaced – only $900. When I complained the salesman talked me into trading up.

Parking lot shuffle.

My daughter had a small Chevy with a noisy front end. I took it in twice during the warranty period but they couldn’t find the problem.

Parking lot shuffle.

The out-of-warranty repair cost $782.

Parking lot shuffle.

The dealer is no longer in business. His parking lot is empty.

Anyone who doesn’t deal honestly with customers today isn’t aware of the internet.  Bad news travels fast.

It wasn’t the employees of Island Chevrolet. The owner himself was not interested in customer service despite decades of dealing with GM and that dealership.

Don’t blame the employees for poor service. In 100% of the cases, poor service starts with management as an explicit or tolerated policy.

See Are GM dealers in trouble too?