I purchased my 2002 Volvo S60 Turbo AWD 4 months ago from Ken Garff Volvo Southtowne in Sandy, Utah. I purchased it along with the Volvo Certified Warranty.
My car was taken to the Ken Garff South Valley Collision Center in July after another company damaged my Volvo S60 around the windshield area during a windshield replacement (Utah is notorious for rock chips from the highways). The other company had good ethics and quickly paid for the "worst case estimate" printed by the Collision Center for my car.
The collision center repaired about half of the items listed, and left the others unrepaired. They also damaged the hood of the car, exposing bare metal. The parts they replaced had scratches on them. I noticed the newly damaged areas, as well as the ones remaining from the original estimate report, and spoke with the manager. He gave continual lies, in many cases stating "that's how the car is brand new."
The parts they did not repair were the window side moldings, driver side mirror, rubber moldings, plastic push-pins, and window tab. The damage they made at that time were a ding in the hood, scratches on the moldings, and cut rubber moldings. Not only that, but I had to wait 10 days for my car to be fixed because they forgot to order parts. I had to call them because they never called me... Not once, while it was in their shop for those 10 days.
They lied to me, telling me that the driver mirror shell could be replaced without replacing the whole assembly. Contacting the Volvo Service department proved that they were lying: one must purchase the entire assembly, even a body shop.
I took it back and demanded a repair of the existing and new damage. I spoke with Bob Torey, manager over the Ken Garff body shops. He agreed to repair them. He guaranteed me they would order all parts first, then bring the car in for a quick turn-around. It stayed in the shop for another 10 days because they forgot to order a part. After cornering them in argument, they admitted they tried to buff out the scratches rather than replace the parts as agreed.
Later, Bob Torey ended up arguing with me about a $4 part that needed to be replaced. He said "how do I know that it wasn't that way before you brought it in?" To which I respond: "The car was in for damage in the windshield area. This part was on the original estimate. You are responsible for replacing it if it was specified to be replaced." I had to track down the hidden number for the Ken Garff Corporate offices and complain there before the $4 part was replaced.
I was also guaranteed a new paint job on the hood that would be a perfect paint job. One month later, I find pot marks on the hood, as well as flaking off the front of the hood. This, on a brand new paint job on a Volvo S60. Horrifying!
The windshield that they put in got a stress crack and had to be replaced. It was confirmed by the installer to be a defective part.
The new mirror caused a short in the memory controller computer in the driver door. They refused to pay for it, stating that they never opened the car door to access it. Later it was revealed that they installed a lower grade mirror that caused the short on the part. They forced the warranty of the Volvo Certification to cover it because they claimed it was "just a coincidence that the adjacent part failed on the same day as the installation of the mirror." Yeah right.
After they replaced the memory controller computer, the service department of Ken Garff Volvo Southtowne in Sandy City, Utah, damaged the automatic windows control.
I took the car back. At this point, the Collision Center refused to take part in any future repairs of the car. The service department repaired the window control, and damaged the remote entry/security system. So I had to take it back again.
They "fixed" the remote entry/security system somewhat. It became very erratic. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I had electrical failures in the exterior illumination of the car all the sudden. Sometimes they would light up, then half of them would disable, and the car wouldn't respond to the shutoff command for the lights. The mirrors wouldn't retain memory either, nor would their defrosters work.
I took it back to have those fixed. The service department revealed that the mirror installed was a lower grade than the electronic version belonging to my particular model. That was what was causing all the electrical failures.
They claimed to replace the mirror assembly, yet at the dealership/service department, I saw a major scrape damage on the mirror assembly, and the mirror had all sorts of bug splats on it, which meant that the part that they supposedly "overnighted" over the weekend wasn't installed on my car. Not only that, but the mirror is warped and gives a distorted view. I showed the damaged to the lady on staff, but it was 5:15 and the service technician left as I walked in. He was well aware of the constant problems with my car, and was unwilling to stay and make sure things were ok.
I also noticed other problems. They finally replaced the windshield that had a stress crack on it at the same time. But in so doing, they scraped into my hood again, exposing bare metal, not two weeks after the previous paint job. Not only that, but the window itself has two damaged marks on it, one in a "half moon" shape. Rubber seals have been cut and left in place, the window was not installed in correct position, so locking pieces are not sealing in position. The side molding on the passenger side is loose, and causes vibration when driving down the road.
I showed these things to the service lady, and I asked what I was supposed to do. She said "drive it home and come back tomorrow morning."
This will mark the 1lth (eleventh) time I've had to return the car to the Ken Garff group for repair, all originating from one window replacement. I've spoken with a man in the Corporate offices named Bruce Fathers, who is apparently a very high up official in the company. He acted as though it was important to get the car fixed each time, but ultimately, his guarantee meant nothing. I spoke to him after the 3rd time in the shop, and I'm now at 1l times in the shop.
My friends and coworkers are baffled at the poor service. People at work are making wagers on what breaks next. It's embarrassing to go back to work every other day and admit that there's still another problem with my car.
That's all for now. I have the details written out a lot more thoroughly than this, but this suffices for now. I still have to take my car in again for its 5th windshield in 3 months.
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