I am writing this letter to you because I want to ensure that I exhaust as many communication options as possible regarding my complaint before I resort to legal action against a local car dealership. Please assist me by offering your thoughts.
On the morning of March 21, at approximately 0718, I brought my 2005 Dodge Durango to Planet Dodge in Humble, Texas. I brought the vehicle for warranty service and for a recall regarding the instrument cluster. Earlier in the week I spoke to a service associate named Neil Sorenson.By all manners, I wouldn't say that he was a bad person, but my perception of him is someone who has not worked in a Customer Service role before. He's polite but extremely short when responding to questions of whether my vehicle was under warranty or not.
I had uneasy feeling about this service associate but I kept that to myself. After I dropped off the Dodge (my wife's car), I went to work, and about an hour (0817) later, I received a call from Neil. He was adamantly suggestive selling a 30,000 mile warranty service package that he quoted me at $479.00. He never mentioned the warranty work or the recall work that needed to be done. I hesitated for a moment (as I was at work and had to make a decision in front of other employees). I told Neil, 'Okay'.
5 minutes after the call, I had a chance to pause at work, so, I called my wife and I mentioned the "extra" service that I okayed (under pressure while at work). Her response was to have me call them right back and cancel the extra work. I told her that because I was at work I couldn't spend the time to call them back as it would take me away from what I should be doing at work. I asked her to call and she agreed to call.
My wife called the dealership and asked for a Spanish speaking associate at Planet Dodge. They told her that a Spanish speaking associate would call her back in another 15 minutes (now approximately 15 minutes later). A gentleman called her and she told the man to have the mechanics only perform the warranty and recall work. He ended the call and my wife promptly called me.
About two hours later I called my wife to have her call the dealership to check on the status of our vehicle. She informed me that all the work I requested was being done and that they didn't heed her request to stop the extra service work (now 3 hours later or so later).
Later in the day at approximately 1445, Neil called me and told me that the price for the extra services jumped from $479.00 to $549.00, to which I told him that I would not pay. He then said that the difference would come out of his check. Now, ask yourself, "Why do I need to know that?" Am I supposed to feel guilty about this?
After the phone call I became upset. I called Planet Dodge and asked to speak to the Service Manager, Darryl Tucker, but, I was patched through to his answering machine. To Darryl's credit, he returned my call shortly afterwards.
Darryl was polite and I felt comforted by his ability to listen to my entire story. He made no promises to rectify my situation and when I felt that we discussed enough I told him that regardless of my actions (legal, BBB etc.) after my conversation with him, I would remember his courteous demeanor and make sure to mention him in a good light. Darryl treated me fairly.
So, after all of this here is my problem:
I paid $459.00 plus tax for work that my car didn't necessarily need. Even though I agreed, I felt the pressure tactics of Neil, the sales associate (his being short, manipulative etc.) forced me into verbally agreeing to service work when the only reason I turned my vehicle in for service work was to have it warrantied and to have a recall issue fixed. Because I was at worked when I was called 59 minutes after I dropped the car off for service, I couldn't reasonably make a good judgment call on what I agreed to.
According to Darryl, the shop needed a warranty part and didn't have it on stock (strange, since earlier in the week I called to schedule service. You would think they would have the recall part ready for my service.)
The Summary
I took my 2005 Dodge Durango in for warranty and recall notice work. While at work, the company called me at work to sell me a 30,000 mile recommended service package. Because I was at work, I originally agreed to the 'extra' work. After I had a moment to think and not being pressured (after the phone call), I called my wife and told her that they sold me extra work. She immediately called the company to cancel and they said they would tell the mechanics. Earlier in the week, I scheduled the warranty work (they had plenty of time to order the needed parts.) Instead, the company immediately jumped on the extra work and not the warranty repair under the guise that they had to order the recall parts. So as not to keep me waiting (supposedly, they say) they decided to start the extra service work, completely ignoring my wife's request to stop the extra work. I paid the bill because I needed my vehicle back but I did not sign the itemization/invoice because it binded me to seek arbitration if a dispute arose. I only signed the credit card receipt. Although I originally agreed to the extra work, my wife called within ten minutes to cancel the work. I spoke to the service manager and although he was amiable, he made no effort to comp the charges or offer a solution. As a matter of fact, the company (after my wife called them) made no attempt to call my wife back to confirm the extra work cancellation, and they even called asking for $70.00 more because they miss quoted me. I refused to pay them the extra money. So, when you read the invoice, they marked that they gave me a 10% discount to make it appear that they were showing 'goodwill'. This is obviously an attempt to prepare there defense so that they can show they worked with me. What actually happened was that they underquoted me and labled the invoice in such a way to make it look as if they worked to quell my disatisfaction.
Billy
porter, Texas
U.S.A.
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