Acura in Markham

[ahdamnit]

Hello,

This is just to bring to attention of my experience with the poor level of customer service I received at Acura in Markham.

Two days ago I brought in my EL for a scheduled oil change. After receiving my car back, I noticed a dent on the front left fender of my car that I was certain was not there before the oil change; for three reasons.

Firstly, I am a paranoid freak when it comes to my car (it is my first car) and extremely finicky when it comes to my paint and exterior. Before entering my car I always check for damages. That's how I spotted the dent to begin with.

Secondly, my car was CLEAN at the time I brought it into the dealer.

Lastly, as many of you know, Acura takes a visual inspection when receiving your car and has a checklist, and on the checklist IT DID NOT mention the dent.

Anyway...to get to the point.

I spoke to the Service Manager there regarding the dent and he plainly denied it. In fact he was not only hasty with me, but was also rude. He accused of blaming (accusing) Acura of causing the dent, HOWEVER I did not. I made sure NOT to point any fingers and watched my language very carefully. When he said "so, you think my dealership did this", i plainly and exactly said the following: "well, I know i didn't do it".

YES it may have been implied that my inclination was that Acura was to blame, but i DID not accuse the Dealership.

After explaining to him my story, and how I was certain I was not the cause of the dent. he rudely asked for PROOF.
(I knew he would say that)
So I said the proof was with him and his checklist which clearly had NO indication of damages to my car at the point of receiving.
When I as a customer hand over my car to the dealers, I am doing so in Trust and in Confidence of Acura. My trust and confidence was violated.

(Regarding the dent, it's dent that just from visual inspection can see was caused by a short impact - unlike if i were to hit something with my fender while my car was in motion. In addition, it was small, precise, and looked more of the type of a door ding. That however is ambiguous because there was no way a car door could have hit my car on the front fender if he was parked next to me. He would have had to be parked a few feet ahead of me - like the way cars are parked at the dealer inside the shop).

The worst is yet to come... hang on i'm almost done.
He did offer to polish the scratch off my car, however I said that was unacceptable as It doesn't resolve the fact that my car was dented.
Then he plainly said: "so you want acura to repair the dent at OUR cost?. NO THANK YOU" and at that point turned his back on me and walked away.

HE WALKED AWAY.

I said, "excuse me SIR don't turn your back away from me". "I am a customer and you are showing now respect".

Long story short...

After some further discussion in which he was now getting angry (i stayed calm which probably angered him more... hehe) he siad he'd get back to me and asked for me to sit in the waiting lounge.

He came to me after 30 minutes, apologized, and then offered to fix it out of goodwill.

Too late. the damage was done.
After getting my dent fixed, I will never return to Acura in Markham

The man has no respect for his customers and obviously lacks common sense and basic business skills.

Let's say it would cost the dealership 100 dollars to fix the dent.
I would say that's a small amount of money compared to the hundreds (800+) I bring in year after year for oil changes, tune ups and snowtires).

Cost-benefit analysis would show that fixing the dent would yeild higher annual net income from me alone, then say losing me as a GUARANTEED customer who ritually brings in his car for service.

He could have handeled this situation very differently.

A side note: On my father's Infinite, he also received a dent after having his car serviced. He brought it back, and they fixed it no questions asked.

I'm steamed.
Any comments guys?
I'm also looking for a new dealer. Any suggestions?

THANKS!

[ahdamnit]

I'm also currently drafting a letter to Honda Canada about this.

[AC15]

i am sorry to hear about your troubles with AIM.

you're not alone in your views of this dealership. i wrote a long rant about them not long ago in this forum also regarding their poor level of customer service. i left with nothing but disappointment for them and a total lack of respect. this is pretty frigtening considering AIM has long been seen as the best customer service around the GTA.

AC

PS If you need support just give me a shout. i'll be more than glad to get this dealereship in deep shit.

[RiceBoy]

Sorry to hear about your incident. I may be going through something similar with Acura East. Although right now I am giving them the benefit of the doubt...see my thread about the strut warranty...as it appears it may be Honda Canada responsible.

Anyway, I've heard a somewhat similar story in regards to the service manager at Acura in Markham. It was posted on a mailing list where anotehr EL owner had a complaint about a rip in the leather seats. A service advisor agreed that it was bad manufacturing or a defect, but when the service manager got involved, he said they were not going to replace the leather for free, even though the advisor was trying to convince the service manager to do it as a good will gesture! But since the service manager was in charge, the advisor got overruled.

[kareshi]

I have the same experience with my 2007 TSX recently at Acura in Markham. The service manager isn't willing to take responsibility.

[RiceBoy]

Talk about resurrecting an old thread...

For a dealership that apparently has been rated for high customer service, I've heard a lot of complaints about Acura in Markham.

I continue going to Acura East, even with my TSX now. It's a little further away and is a smaller dealership, but because of that, I think they try a little harder with their customer service. I've only had the one issue with my EL, as documented above, with my dealer, but it was eventually solved to my satisfaction by the dealer.

[Acura TSX]

I was truly amazed when I stumbled onto this blog. Here was the letter I wrote to Honda Canada. They called me and said they would look into it. They called me back several hours later and said that there was nothing they could do as Acura in Markham is independently owned and that I would have to take it up with the dealer itself. I explained to him that I already tried that hence the point of the letter to Honda Canada. Honda Canada could not and did not do anything to resolve my concerns. Live and learn, what else can you do.

-----------------------------

The following letter outlines my complete unsatisfactory customer service at an Acura dealer. I purchased a 2005 Acura TSX at the dealer ‘Acura in Markham’ located at 5201 Highway #7 East, Toronto, on October 27th, 2007. At the time of purchase I noticed that the headlights were of two different intensities as well as two different colors. The dealer did not have any record of these bulbs being changed or replaced. I was concerned that one of the headlights maybe either defective or soon needed to be replaced. Before the car was taken off the dealer’s parking lot I was assured by the Assistant New Vehicle Sales Manager; Daniel Sun that these lights would be either fixed or replaced when I returned from vacation a week later.

Upon my return to the dealer I received a completely different attitude from the Sales Manager; Daniel Sun. After checking the lights, a service advisor agreed with me that something was in fact wrong with the headlights or even the vehicle’s computer. In a conversation between the Daniel and the service advisor; Daniel openly argued in my presence that he was not going to pay for the replacement of these bulbs and that it was my problem now if the service department was not going to take responsibility. With that comment he walked away and attended other customers. After speaking with the Advisor for a few minutes I realized that he was not coming back.

Shocked and appalled at his unprofessional behavior I voiced my concerns to the General Manager; Joe Cornacchia. Joe then spoke to Daniel concerning his agreement he made with my mother, father and myself on the date of purchase regarding the headlights and to my astonishment, Daniel argued that he could not recall that conversation. Without attempting to ease my concerns Joe simply said that he will not be replacing and or fixing the lights and even went as far as to tell me to go to another dealer to get it fixed.

To say the least, my experience at Acura in Markham was very unsatisfactory. I left with the feeling of being taken advantage of and cheated financially. Their customer service completely dwindled after they made the sale. There was no attempt of assurance that my headlights will be fine and that I have nothing to worry about. Instead I was faced with the utmost hostility from men who lacked the excellent customer service that is reflective of Honda Canada.

I have always enjoyed Acura service but I will never go to or recommend Acura in Markham ever again. I hope that this letter will be escalated to upper management and that something will be done regarding this matter. Thank you once again for your time and understanding.


Regards,

Acura Customer