Here's my story...its summarized below in an e-mail I sent to the owner of Schaller Honda in New Britain, CT:

I just decided to try your Honda dealership after moving to CT from FL. I find it hard to say that I am even 5% delighted. In fact, I would say that I am 0% delighted. I brought my 95 Honda Civic to your service department to have the broken AC system diagnosed. Before I arrived, my car was dent-free. I am fanatical about keeping my car in top shape and I wash the car every week, thus I know all the contours of the car and I know where every imperfection, be it a dent or a scratch, is located. As I picked up my car last night (8/14) at 5:15pm, I didn't get a good chance to look at it until I arrived at my house at 5:45pm. What I found disturbed me. I found 1 large dent on each of the front fenders...both in the same area on the respective fender. They were obviously not there before I took it to the dealership. I called this morning as soon as I got to work and was told to bring it in, which I did. When I arrived, no one would take responsibility, nor could they explain how it could've happened. They tried to tell me that since the dents were on both sides of the car, it was the contour of the fender. When I told them that it wasn't and that I know the contours of my car, they tried to tell me that it was my fault and they wouldn't fix it. In addition, with an attitude, they told me that the body shop was in the back and I could take it there for an estimate. Unfortunately, I will not be taking my car back to your dealerships, nor will it ever visit one of your body shops as a result of this.

So, now I have two identical dents on both front fenders (with creases). I'm heading another bodyshop to get an estimate. Then I have to deal with the $1100 that its gonna cost to get the AC fixed.


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Alex Nieves
95 Civic DX Sedan - D16Z & Auto-Manual swap.

 

the dealership sucks for pretty much everything. i wouldn't have recommended going there for any reason.

my friend works at a volvochevy dealership, and if they mess up a car, they'll fix it. but they're the only one that i know that will actually do that (especially since they have people on staff who can fix it)

 

That sucks dood. So have you given up then on having the dealership taking responsibility for their mistake? Hope everything works out for ya.

 

I am in contact with the owner's office...and they're going to try and do something. But, I think its all bullshit. So, I'm going elsewhere and getting it fixed. I'm going to be really cynical at dealerships now, but I guess they all deserve it for being the way they are. I'll take my future business to my other mechanic and just get diagnostic stuff done at dealerships (for Honda parts).

 

That sucks man. I only deal with my dealership when I need parts that I can't find used or that are really specialty parts.

I'd kill someone... :rant:

 

Well hopefully they will do something for you, even if its pay for the new fenders. Like Westcoast said, I would kill someone. I used to take my car to Honda for my oil changes but since they raised there prices I have stopped. Other then dealerships rip you off I haven't had too many problems with them.

 

WOW! Just becuase one dealership screws you, you're now going to not go to dealers anymore? That sucks... I work as a technician at a dealership and the advisors are supposed to write all damage down on a car before we take it off the service drive. I know if I damage anyone's car I tell management right away, i never have but i wouldn't hide it if i did. That sucks you have that view about dealerships now, a lot of hard working smart techs are in the shops at dealers making people's cars run again and we never get props , from the cust. or the owners. Wait I take that back cause I have a few cust. that ask for me by name, that shows you what a tech. I am, but most of the time nothing.

 

i has that same problem with sears. i brought my car in to have a flat fixed. the spare was on the front driver side so it was a little lower than the rest of the car and the couldn't get the arm on the lift under the driver side. and what they did was lift the driver side up by lifting up by the front fender, they put a crease into the fender and made it misaligned. so im guessing that is what they did to your car. is your car lowered??? but i noticed this because i saw them lift up the car by the fender and waited there until they ackknowledge that they messed up my fender but they didnt but then i got to talk to the upper management and told me to get estimates to get the fender fixed. i got 600 out of the whole thing which is cool cause i just fixed the fender myself. i hope you get them to accept responsibility for it.

 

Welcome to CT, shoot me a PM, I'm from closer to the shoreline, but I'll try to put you in touch with some ppl from this board, who can reccomend reputable shops.

It seems dealerships are too busy trying to sell new cars, to take care of their existing customers...

"welcome to the dealership, how can I make money off of you today."

-PHiZ

 

Thats great that people ask for you. But, its not the first time I was screwed over. When I lived in FL, they ****ed up my paint when they did some body work....and it never got fixed. The only really good dealer I've been to was the second one in FL, Courtesy Honda. My service advisor took good care of me and my car....the tech managed to slice a chunk off my tire and the general manager didn't want to do anything with it (my advisor had the day off), but my advisor didn't ask any questions when I showed up the next day. The deal with this dealership is that I didn't have a "relationship" with anyone as it was my first time there. And, after work that day, I went to another body shop and the guy asked what happened. When I told him that I didn't know how it happened, but it happened at the dealer when they were under the hood looking at the AC, he said immediately that he knew what happened. He says that when they were working under the hood, the leaned in on the fenders and dented them in. He showed me how it would've happened....and guess what? His leg and knee fit the spot perfectly. Also, it had to have been that since there are no scratches or marks in the paint (like there would if something had hit it or someone had kicked it in).