On January 4th, I bought a New Beetle Volkswagen from Earnhardt Honda and Volkswagen in Glendale. I was extremely happy with the sales experience and especially with the car. However, when I drove it home, it had a wind whistle which we reported to Earnhardt the next day. We had the car back to the dealership three times in the past three weeks, and they couldn't seem to find the problem. They decided it was a warped windshield, and ordered a new one to replace it with. While waiting for delivery of the windshield, they wanted me to pick up the car and drive it in the interim. I got all the way home before I realized they had forgotten to put the windshield wipers back on and replace the plastic tray between the windshield and the hood. The dealership is 35 plus miles one way for me to drive.
Mind you, Earnhardt went through all the trappings and motions of providing good service. They provided me with car rentals and even delivered my car to me at work when the windshield was replaced. But the wind whistle was still there when I drove it home from work. I called them back, and I was told they were "researching" the problem and they would get back to me. Little did I know what "researching" the problem meant to them. They seem to have confused the trappings of good service with actually fixing a problem. (They wanted to make sure we gave them a good rating when we got a survey call about our experience with them because they are hoping to get a Mercedes dealership. They have to improve their customer service image before they can do that.)
Herein lies the problem, and what their "researching" really meant. The next call I got was from someone saying they needed to set up a time with me to pick up the VW and bring me back my old car. I was stunned. I had never gotten a call from them saying they couldn't fix it, and that they would reverse the deal, or maybe even get me a car that didn't whistle. Without my knowledge, they had already contacted the DMV and got me another title for my old car, since I had signed it over to them. They went to my credit union where they had paid off a balance on it and got their money back, which put me in arrears with the credit union. The lady at the credit union said she didn't know how they could have done what they did, but they did.
I loved everything about that car—except, of course the wind whistle. I really just wanted them to fix the problem, because I don't think a $25,000 vehicle should whistle. It could have been the seals on the moonroof, or even the doors. I just don't feel they looked hard enough to find the real problem. I wouldn't be nearly so upset about this if someone would have had the courtesy of calling me before the fact instead of pulling such a sneaky and underhanded move. As a large dealership, they may have the power to do such things, but I don't believe those tactics show any kind of real integrity on the part of the dealership. I, for one, will certainly never contemplate doing business with them again.
Rose Hansen
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