I recently received a call at home from my local car dealer, Southern Chrysler at Greenbrier. They told me that Chrysler had a recent recall on radiator fans and they invited me in for a free inspection. They were able to see me the very next day.
Later that day the service tech called me and said she had some "bad news". She said my radiator fan "motor" was bad and needed replaced. She said she could order it and I could bring my car back later in the week to have it replaced. When I went to pick up my car, the engine light is now on, the Air conditioner is blowing hot air and there is a loud noise coming from the fan area. I went back inside and they told me these were all a result of my fan motor being bad. The new fans were heavier and I guess they also meant noisier. The A/C won't work because the fan motor has to be running to allow the A/C to function right and the engine light was the result of the bad fan motor as well.
My issue with this facility is, if my fan motor was bad my engine light and A/C would not have been running when I drove it there for them to inspect. My car ran perfectly fine. Now all of a sudden they have their hand out wanting money for a repair that I truley believe was caused by the mechaninc tinkering and replacing the blades, (which were under the recall).
The service writer seemed surprised when I refused to let them do the work. I told her that I no longer trusted them and had lost faith in them because of this and a previously unanswered concern that I had with them once before.
This dealership has an automated phone system that calls you within a day or so of your visit and it asks by a response of YES or NO if you were happy with the service. If you say NO it tries to conect you to a real person, then it either disconects you or it tells you someone will call you back. Don't hold your breath, no one calls you.
If you write to the dealership via their website with a concern as I did once before, it also goes unanswered. My only option was to call Chrysler corporation. I received a call back the very next day and to finally hear a caring voice was refreshing. They recomended that I personally call the dealership's service director named Robert and give him an opportunity to evaluate the situation.
Reluctantly I did. I was only able to reach his voice mail but I did leave a detailed message. That was 5 days ago. So I have learned not to hold my breath with Southern Chrysler. It looks like my 6 year relationship with them is over. The nice lady from Chrysler Corporation called me back today to follow up. She was dissapointed that Robert had not called me back and asked me to call him again. I declined. I am not chasing anyone who just doesn't care about me.
Sam Walton once said that "The customer can fire you at any time, all they have to do is take their business somewhere else and in some cases you won't even know that you were fired. It is the customer who complains that you should cherish because they are giving you a chance to fix the problem." Looks like Sam was right. My concern fell on deaf ears.
Goodbye Southern Chrysler Jeep. You have been Fired!
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