My son took my wife's 2002 Honda Civic EX in for an oil change on Wednesday. It had 100,540 miles on it.

I had a warranty that covered everything for 5 years or 100,000 miles. They found that the bushing in the front left lower control arm was thrashed.

The Service rep said he could replace the bushing for $25 plus the cost of labor (very labor intensive job, so he said) for around $250. OR... he could replace the whole lower control arm (much easier) for $225.

I took the car in and spoke to my service rep, with the service manager present. I said "Guys, I've had this car for 4 years and you have done every bit of maintenance to it from the day I bought it. I am a long time happy customer. But we all know that bushing failed long before I went over 100,000 miles".

The manager said to me "Would it make you happy if we took care of it?" And I replied, "Yes, Chris... it would show me that you value me as a customer and it would also show me that I can trust you to do the right thing, because you know I am right."

To which he replied. "Done deal, Shawn. I'll call you when she's done".

In my later years, I am learning that you catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar and if you keep your cool and treat people with respect, sometimes they show that respect in return.

A few years ago, i'd have gone in there all pissed off and probably been told to eat **** and i'd have had no recourse.

The older I get, the smarter my mother becomes.

Amen Brother.. thats what i deal with every day. I have a few customers that want to call here and bust my ass.. be all super business big shot.. they get nowhere with me.

A rational conversation and a good relationship goes so much further with me than some jerk off calling and thinking his sh*t doesnt stink.

You treat me like crap.. forget it. You treat me good.. I will bend over backwards to help you out!

Its a fine line here. Our customer dont have to buy from us. Every one of our parts has to be put out to public bid. they only have to get 3 quotes. If they really want to be dicks.. they can simply take us off the bid list. Any time you deal with goverment agencies.. they think they are big cheese and vendors are just scum. I usually swallow my pride, bear my throat and let them think they got the best of me. But there have been times and that i tell them to go pound sand if they want to be an ass I am not going to take it from them. My boss backs me up every time. And usually if you dont back down to they when they are being jearks.. most often than not.. they realize they are not going to be able to bully you and they relax.

all in a days work... which i actually had to do a lot of for a change here today!!! its almost time for a few cold ones!!

have a great weekend

v

Albert, Mike and Andywill be here in about 30 minutes. We'll be grilling thick Rib-eye Steaks on the back patio. Beers have been on ice since 11am.

Dapper Dan will also be stopping by on his way home from Palm Desert.

GAME ON!!

I just jacked the crap out of my own thread... oh well.

I'm jealous MACS.

I'm going to an outdoor crawdad, oyster, crab boil tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have a PSD4 with it. I plan to be shellfish.

HAAAA. For once I can trump your so-cal life. I've spent to whole week parked at the beach in sunny and 70's Florida firing up twenty plus year old smokes. So stick that in so-cal 1 1/2" steaks and grill'em. Peace brother...

I've learned that a sunny disposition & friendly smile go a long way toward getting you what you want a long time ago.

But in the last 2-4 years, customer service in general has gotten ATROCIOUS. No matter how reasonable you are, or how in the right you are, somehow it seems that now days the customer is always WRONG.

I don't have time to detail everything, but let's just say that I bought a new car & had it in the shop 15 times in the first 13 months I owned it. All I wanted was for the company to cover the upside down on me trading it back in so I could buy another one of their cars. After 2 months of hassle, 2 more shop visits, 23 calls to their customer service, and 9 visits to the dealer, they offered me a $45 gift certificate to their gift shop in exchange for my problems.

The older I get, the smarter my mother becomes.

Ain't that the truth

Still Fun to be a mean mofo sometimes!

Since I've gotten older, MACS' mom has gotten smarter. I agree.

Waaait a second here! Shawn being nice? OMG! Bring back the real MACS.

Seriously, stick with these guys. They sound like a repetable service center. I've had many a trouble with my recently and previously owned Chevy truck (don't get me started). They wouldn't do ****** for me even though they were clearly at fault and I had the paperwork to prove it. "Call the Chevy Customer service line" they would tell me. Yeah, that went well. Might as well spend the time teaching my dog to play the piano. At least I'd see some progress.

I'll never buy Chevy again. If you have a good service center, stick with them.

By the way 8track, my mom says hello.

She said you aren't nearly as dumb as you portrayed yourself.

LOL..good one MACS. X

I guess you made it home okay Andy?

You're posting, so unless SDPD has installed computers in their cells, you did good buddy!!

Definately stick with the good ones. I try to be nice, and usually are. But onetime I took my Datsun 240z, to the dealership for new brakes. When I got it out of the shop, The brakes sounded aweful. Sounded like metal, on metal. Screeching, and grinding, everytime I tried to stop. I turned around, and pulled it back in, and they told me that it was the new metalic brake pads, since they didn't use asbestos any more. I said, just about blew a gasket. WTF, I don't hear any other cars screeching like that. They told me their was nothing they could do. So I went home, and made a signs, for my rear glass, and side widows, that read. "These Brakes repaired at SO and SO Datsun." I drove that car, screeching brakes and all, all over town, as High Profile as I could. Monday morning, I got a call from the service manager, asking me to bring my car in. It appears that the owner of the dealership, happened to follow me to church that week, and had to read my sign every time I stopped, with a screech and grind.

I took it in, and picked it up that afternoon, and guess what, it didn't screech anymore. They also said they wouldn't charge me for the work, refunded the money that they had already charged me, if I would drive my car all week, with the signs in place. LOL

But being nice, usually works pretty good too.

Dave (A.K.A. Homebrew)

Sometimes being nice just doesn't work. The gas guage on my Jeep keeps reading between full and empty and every reading in between. I went to the dealer because there is a chime that goes off every time the guage goes to empty (about 10 times a mile) and it was giving me a case of road rage. I just wanted them to shut off the chime and not fix the guage. I knew before I walked in there that they (and only they)could shut off the chime. I was very nice to them and asked them to just turn the chime off.

Half an hour later they come out and tell me there is no way to shut off the chime and they have to drop the gas tank and replace the fuel pump to the tune of over $300. I turned into a major a$$hole on the guy and to make a long story short the ended up shutting off the chime and not fixing the guage itself(cost = $35.00).

The service manager and general manager of the dealership could have cared less that their mechanic tried to pad my bill to over $300 and that that stunt cost them a future sale of a new Grand Cherokee. They weren't sorry they tried to rip me off, just sorry they got caught.

So F-em,if that's how they treat their customers then I'll buy Japanesse or European next time.

That's just it. I have been a customer for 4 years. They do ALL the service on my wife's car. They have records of it. They also probably knew if we went to litigation, I would certainly win (though for $225 I would have just paid for it).

My case was pretty favorable to me. Had the mileage been more than 1,000 or so over the expiration of the warranty, i'm sure it would have been a bit different. My point was that they did the right thing, probably because I was so calm about it, and explained it in a way that made them see my point of view.

That's true, I problablY should contrast my story with the treatment I got a the Volvo import dealership at about the same time.

The cable that opens her hood broke while they were fixing something else and it was about $250 to get fixed. We have an extended waranty on this car but they said it was "gray area" and would have to check with Volvo about getting it covered. I was nice to the guy and did not fly off the handle even though they broke it (besides it would have broke the next time I pulled it anyways). I few day later they called and agreeded to fix it for no charge. They appologized for the delay and were very accomadating and even offered me a loner while they repaired it. We didn't even buy the car from them.

That's the difference between American car dealerships and the Japanesse and European dealers (at least in our area). The big 3 keep scratching their heads wondering why they're loosing market share - go figure.

When I had this same car serviced, the mechanic busted the screws on my airbox.

They bought me a new one and installed it.

I have a K&N filter in it and specifically told them NOT to change the air filter. He had no business even opening the air box. They broke it. They fixed it. No questions.

This experience has only made me more comfortable bringing my car to them.

Like I said the cable would have broke anyways the next time I check the oil. It does make you want to go back when they try to make it right though. I would like to buy another American car but they just seem to make it harder and harder to justify when there is so many better choice in the imports.

I have 3 cars. All Japanese made. 2 over 100k

1995 Nissan PU - 152,000 miles -still runs great.

2002 Honda Civic - 100,800 - still runs great.

If I ever buy anything other than Japanese, it'll be German. We invented the automobile and others have perfected it.

Same with most electronics.