Post by Thorne on Jun 26, 2010 12:48:56 GMT -5
the "service" part of "customer service"? More importantly, when did we customers allow it to?
To explain, last week Julia took our POS van (huge, paid for, ugly, old... yeah, POS) to Pep Boys to get the air conditioner recharged and to have the front end aligned. And before anyone says "That was her(your) first mistake", 1) I have never had a problem with them (but then, I don't usually put up with bullshit and try to get that across immediately) and 2) they tend to have the best price(s) for getting multiple things done on your vehicle. Anyway, I digress (my perogative). To continue....
SHe walks in and tells the guy at the counter what she wants done (after calling and getting the price and telling them the year of the van) and he asks her what year the van is (1988) and he then asks if it has been retrofitted for the modern air collant. She, naturally, has no idea and says so, so he says they can't do it. She then tells him that she needs an alignment and he asks her why. She tells him that it pulls to the left when she applies the brake and he says that she needs a brake job, not an alignment (and if the brakes hadn't been done recently, he would probably have been correct). Now, none of this is really all that unusual, except that the guy HADN'T LOOKED AT THE VEHICLE YET. So he's telling her that he can't do the air without seeing if it had been retrofitted and telling her that she doesn't need an alignment, she needs a brakes job without knowing that 1) the brakes had been done recently and 2) we just put two new tires on the front because of uneven wear. So without looking, this magician knows exactly what needs to be done and what he can and can't do. At which point Julia was fed up (with two fussy wee ones) and got the keys and left. Thus far, nothing REALLY out of the ordinary. Irritating, and the guy should have looked at the vehicle (or told her the what the cost would be TO check the vehicle) before telling her what could/couldn't be done, but fairly normal for a mass market garage, right? So I called to file a complaint with the service manager. Problem is, IT WAS THE FUCKING SERVICE MANAGER. When asked how he could tell her what the problem was without looking at the vehicle, he said that he couldn't and that he didn't want to charge her money for something that he couldn't do and that he felt sorry for her because of the kids, even though it's 90+ degrees and the air isn't working on the van for these two little kids.
So, Pep Boys will never see my shadow darken their doorway again. And yes, Julia got the air fixed, and no, I don't believe it had been retrofitted. So on that aspect, the service manager was correct on what he couldn't do, but he didn't bother to check first. Asshole.
To explain, last week Julia took our POS van (huge, paid for, ugly, old... yeah, POS) to Pep Boys to get the air conditioner recharged and to have the front end aligned. And before anyone says "That was her(your) first mistake", 1) I have never had a problem with them (but then, I don't usually put up with bullshit and try to get that across immediately) and 2) they tend to have the best price(s) for getting multiple things done on your vehicle. Anyway, I digress (my perogative). To continue....
SHe walks in and tells the guy at the counter what she wants done (after calling and getting the price and telling them the year of the van) and he asks her what year the van is (1988) and he then asks if it has been retrofitted for the modern air collant. She, naturally, has no idea and says so, so he says they can't do it. She then tells him that she needs an alignment and he asks her why. She tells him that it pulls to the left when she applies the brake and he says that she needs a brake job, not an alignment (and if the brakes hadn't been done recently, he would probably have been correct). Now, none of this is really all that unusual, except that the guy HADN'T LOOKED AT THE VEHICLE YET. So he's telling her that he can't do the air without seeing if it had been retrofitted and telling her that she doesn't need an alignment, she needs a brakes job without knowing that 1) the brakes had been done recently and 2) we just put two new tires on the front because of uneven wear. So without looking, this magician knows exactly what needs to be done and what he can and can't do. At which point Julia was fed up (with two fussy wee ones) and got the keys and left. Thus far, nothing REALLY out of the ordinary. Irritating, and the guy should have looked at the vehicle (or told her the what the cost would be TO check the vehicle) before telling her what could/couldn't be done, but fairly normal for a mass market garage, right? So I called to file a complaint with the service manager. Problem is, IT WAS THE FUCKING SERVICE MANAGER. When asked how he could tell her what the problem was without looking at the vehicle, he said that he couldn't and that he didn't want to charge her money for something that he couldn't do and that he felt sorry for her because of the kids, even though it's 90+ degrees and the air isn't working on the van for these two little kids.
So, Pep Boys will never see my shadow darken their doorway again. And yes, Julia got the air fixed, and no, I don't believe it had been retrofitted. So on that aspect, the service manager was correct on what he couldn't do, but he didn't bother to check first. Asshole.
