b_waxson

AVOID ACURA OF PLEASANTON'S SERVICE DEPARTMENT AT ALL COST! This is an unscrupulous dealership. Absolutely the worst service department I've ever dealt with.

My 2005 TSX has only 20k miles on it, so there's still 30k miles left on the warranty. A couple of weeks ago I took her in for what I thought was some minor warranty fixes. Little did I know... The way I was treated by this dealership was nothing short of despicable.

The dealership's henchman, Service Manager Bruce Peters, basically refused to perform any warranty work for me, and treated me like dirt.


Problem 1: Split along the stitched seam on the driver's-side seat back bolster.
The Service Manager refused to fix the split in the stitching because he claims:
1) that I get into the car "wrong" (whatever that means). He claims that I brush against the side-bolster of the seat, and that this is not the correct way to get into the car. I asked where in the owners manual it describes the "correct" way to get into the car to no avail.
2) that I wear the wrong kind of pants. Yes, you read that right. The guy told me that blue jeans tend to scuff the leather, and that I might not have this problem if I wore slacks. Apparently getting into the car with Levis is not considered "normal use" under the terms of the warranty.
3) that I should have taken it back to the dealer who sold me the car (in Sacramento, about 80 miles away). Ya, I don't get it, either. That's not what the warranty says...

He finished blowing me off by saying that after only 20,000 miles I had "worn the seat out" and that I would have to pay to have it fixed. Understand, I really only use this car to take my daughter to daycare in the morning and for an occasional drive. I work 3 miles from home, so I don't even have a commute.

The good news is that I have this creep on videotape saying all of this! I also taped him demonstrating the "proper" method of getting into the car (twice) and his butt hit within a fraction of an inch of the spot on the side bolster that my "abnormal" ingress motion hits. Even though I had him on tape, he denied that he came anywhere near it. When I demonstrated how I get into the car, the jerk told me, "that's not how you get in." I'm not kidding, the guy just met me and never seen me get into the car and he has the gall to call me a liar. Now THAT'S customer service!

Problem 2: Defective CD Player
Good ol' Bruce also refused to replace my CD player that has a tendency to intermittently skip and/or loose it's place on discs. It's a completely random problem, and happens with pre-recorded and CD-R discs. Tough-guy Bruce said that they didn't observe it skipping, so they won't replace it. When I asked him what possible motivation I could have to ask for a new CD player if it worked OK, he admitted that he couldn't think of any-- but he still refused to replace it.

Apparently the customer's word is not good enough for Acura of Pleasanton. So it looks like the only way I can get a CD player that works correctly is if I drive to the dealership with it skipping or carry my camcorder at all times and make a recording of it skipping. Actually, considering how reluctant these guys are to fix anything under warranty, I doubt that taped evidence would be good enough to get a new unit.

Both of these problems are supposed to be covered under warranty, and this dealership simply refuses to do the work based on the flimsiest of excuses. Honda reimburses the dealership for warranty work, so other than the fact that I bought the car at another dealer, I don't understand what their problem is. Maybe it's the dealership, or maybe Service Manager Bruce just enjoys being a giant a-hole.

Way-back-when my Nissan dealer replaced a defective tape deck on my old Sentra just on my say-so that there was a problem (in addition to other fixes), and that car cost half as much as the TSX. Our local Toyota dealer has been fine when it comes to warranty service on our minivan, and I know that the local Audi dealer did a ton of work on my brother-in-law's A4 and never questioned what he said, or refused to do the work. Needless to say, this is not the kind of customer service I was expecting on a $30k+ car. God forbid something serious should go wrong...

Hey, here's an example of just how knowledgeable the service department is at Acura of Pleasanton...

On the same visit I had them do a minor service (oil change, etc.). When I picked up the car I was scolded for previously running Mobile 1 in my TSX because:
1) they said Mobile 1 is "too thin". Apparently they don't understand the basic concept of the oil viscosity rating.
2) they claim the owners manual specifically says that synthetic oil is not recommended on the TSX. Actually, the manual says that the use of synthetic oil is perfectly acceptable.
3) they assert that you can't switch back to conventional oil once you start using synthetic. I have no idea of where this comment comes from.

All of this information is, of course, wrong. Just more quality service from your friends at Acura of Pleasanton.

Jeez, they didn't even wash my car, even though they said that they would do it for me.

My advice is to take your car to a dealership that doesn't try and get out of their warranty obligations with flimsy excuses. I wouldn't trust these bozos to tune up my kid's bicycle, let alone my car.

By the way, I'll be posting the video of my good buddy Bruce the service manager telling me that my warranty is void because I wear the wrong kind of pants on YouTube soon. I'll post a link when it's up.