JL CherryThe car I drive has sensitive tires to say the very least. During the past five years, I’ve returned to the same place time and time again — often joking with the manager that all the new tires and rims I was buying would put his kids through college.
I defended people who avoided going to the particular chain.
But in an instant, all of their previous good work was lost. A few months back, I had the shop order a cap for my tire. They lost the order and put it on for no charge.
Inconvenient, yes. It happens. I’d get over it.
With a busy week coming up, I made time today to get my brakes done. Headed back to the local shop and checked the vehicle in before 10:30 am.
Couple of hours, I was told.
At 1:30 pm, I decided to take myself to a movie. My vehicle was next in line….and yes they promised to call me.
So you can imagine my surprise when at 4:00 pm the movie ended and I hadn’t heard from them.
I gave them a call from the theater before I set off on foot to make my way back to the garage.
Guess what? My lucky day. My vehicle was next to be serviced!
I expressed my disappoint and was met with “Sorry.” Did I still want them to look at it? They wouldn’t have time to do the work though.
ABSOLUTELY NOT, I said. Put the car back together.
My heart sank. Was this how you respond to a repeat customer? Or any customer for that matter?
I had made it clear that I was waiting for the vehicle. Had I known they couldn’t squeeze it in, I would have rented a vehicle or gone somewhere else.
When I returned about 4:15 pm, I discovered they had lifted the car up to take a look….against my wishes.
Oh. So I didn’t want them to look?
Keep in mind I had no other vehicle, they closed at 5 pm and now the rental places were closed.
As my colleagues and I sometimes say, I took a lap.
They brought the car down. The assistant manager walked silently over to me and handed me my keys.
And that was that.
Sadly, I’ve recommended this place, defended them and shot out positive tweets when they did some thing right.
Today they wasted SIX HOURS of time I did not have because they couldn’t communicate with me, or provide realustic wait times.
That’s a lot of billable time I lost today.
Worse yet, I feel let down.
Does anybody know a good mechanic?
