Hi fellow forum members.
Public knowledge is power.
I'd like to get your opinion on an experience I had with my local AR dealer.
Here's the background...
I took the Giulia in for a software update on 4/20/2018 with 1143 miles on the odometer (slight surge at low speeds when cold).
When I returned to pick up the car on Saturday, 4/21/2018, I noticed, on the right side rocker panel below the passenger door, a fresh scratch through the paint. (When I went to the dealer to pick it up, I pulled into the parking spot on the RH side of the car; had I not pulled into the parking space on the right side, I'd have probably never noticed).
Needless to say, I was quite upset. The car was at the time all of six weeks in my possession and virtually no mileage on it.
I spoke to the service advisor about not only the new scratch, but also about the fact that the car was left unlocked and unattended in their parking lot for who knows how long. Poor quality control and security indeed.
The service advisor said I'd have to speak to the service manager about the manner, which I understand. I told her I'd be writing an email to the service manager and that I'd cc her onto it, which I did when I got home. In the email I expressed the fact that with my own 20 years of dealer service department experience, in various roles, I do understand that things happen, but was unhappy in their collective failure to address the manner to me and try to make it right, rather than just hope I wouldn't notice.
My email was responded to on the following Monday morning, as expected, with an invitation to bring the car over to inspect the damage and talk.
This is where things went all the way off the rails.
The first defense from the service manager was that he had personally known the Alfa tech for 6 years and knows that said tech would never do such a thing as damage a car and not address it. I cannot know the character of the tech and would wish not to call his character into question, but 1) history is littered with countless examples of people doing things their acquaintances would not believe they are capable of doing and 2) this assumes that the tech is the only person who can possible be anywhere near the car while in the dealer's possession. Anyone with any experience with dealers knows that this is rarely the case.
The second defense from the service manager was that if this happened to my car at their facility, it would happen to every car at their facility, and since there was no similar damage to the car that was currently in the shop while I was speaking to him, [it follows] that it is not possible for the damage to my car to have occurred at the dealership...
Do I even have to explain the patently false logic of such an outrageous claim?????
At that point I could clearly see where the discussion was headed, so I told him I'm giving him an honest opportunity to do the right thing and handle this privately; if I have to take this up with AR I would. The service manager responded by accusing me of threatening him. I find this to be completely ridiculous as this is the exact path that is recommended in the dispute resolution booklet in the owner's manual document set. I reminded him that it is not a threat but opportunity to take care of this without making it public. His response was that I'm giving them an ultimatum to (paraphrasing here...)"fix it or else".
I was also told that the damage had to have been caused by me hitting something on the freeway, which has a few customer-insulting implications of its own...either 1) I'm a liar trying to get them to cover damage that is my problem, or 2) I'm a completely oblivious driver who has no idea when they've hit something on the freeway and am blaming the dealer.
Also-if it's possible that I hit a road hazard, isn't it equally possible THEY hit a road hazard when test driving??? (the mileage was higher when I picked up than it was when I dropped off-the only logical conclusion is that the dealer test drove my car, as they said they would do when I dropped off)
1) I can assure all of you that I can handle a minor dollar value problem in my life (see below for just how minor this is) without needing to lie about it-this is purely about principle at this point, and 2) I washed the car/wiped it down two days before bringing into the shop; if the damage were there previously I'd have noticed it at that time. I parked the car in the garage immediately after the wash/wipe down and did not drive it until I took it straight to the dealer on appointment day (I don't drive it to work most days-I live less than 3/4 of a mile from work).
At that point I turned around to walk away, as it was clear that I was not going to get anywhere with this guy.
As I walked away, the final (really the only) offer I got was to have a look around to see if I could find anything in the shop that could have caused the damage in question. Another nonsensical argument as 1) this places me in a position to conceive and prove or disprove any and all possible ways that they could have damaged my car, and 2) if such evidence did exist, they would have had ample time to remove it from the scene prior to my arrival and inspection.
I said to him, on my way out, that I think I'm done talking to him.
Then came the next outrage....
I placed the call to Alfa to describe the events leading up to my dissatisfaction, the discussions with the dealer, and the estimate I got for repairs ($403.84 from my body shop contact here in San Diego [not an AR dealer], just north of Miramar, for those of you keeping score)
I was assured that the $403 would not be a problem, but that the vehicle needed to be inspected by a body specialist from within the Mopar network to be a solution that Alfa would be able to support. Fine, now we are getting somewhere, right???
I took the car back to my selling dealer in National City (Let's be clear...not the servicing dealer at the root of the problem) for a body shop estimate to repair the damage.
The estimate from the National City dealer...$833.36. I knew the doubling of the estimate would make things more complicated, but this was an AR dealer that I had estimate the damage as a result of the AR case worker's advice. My non-Mopar body shop guy is fine for me. He did great work on my wife's Cayenne when the neighbor backed into it.
I called back in to AR to provide the estimate data that THEY HAD REQUESTED, and was told that they would be able to take care of the damage as a one-time event. That is an important distinction, as AR was at first firmly on my side but now seemed to be getting weaker in their commitment. Still not a problem right????
WRONG!!!
A day after receiving a verbal commitment that AR would take care of the problem, the agent called me back and told me that his boss told him no, they would not provide assistance.
Key take-aways:
I cannot disprove the dealer's statement and they cannot disprove mine. I'll go to my grave without abandoning my position though.
The only issue left not considered is the lifetime value of a customer, which, by the dealer's standards, is less than $403.84. I'd actually argue half of that, because my wife's Cayenne is due for replacement in the next 18 months or so; the Stelvio was on the short list but is now a hard NO. I'll also never go back to this dealer unless God forbid the car breaks down in my neighborhood and is towed to the dealer closest to my home in Kerny Mesa against my will.
To AR, I think I've established the lifetime value of a customer at somewhere below $833.36 (again, actually half, as I will ABSOLUTELY be cross-shopping the Giulia when my lease is up-something I did not do when selecting the Giulia this time around, and my wife is definitely OUT. It's another brand for her-a direct result of my experience).
I love the car, and find it tragic that AR cannot get its dealer network under control or salvage its customer relationships. AR will have a VERY difficult time staying in the US market if this is the position it's going to stake out.
I have also given both the dealer and AR EVERY opportunity to take care of this in private; apparently they prefer to have this out in the public square.
So to the court of public opinion I requested earlier....am I wrong here? It's an honest question-I really want to know if I'm being unreasonable here.
And yes-I understand that this is what we'd call a "first-world problem". I also understand that the final outcome is not going to make a big difference in my life one way or the other. Despite the problem at hand, I'm still fortunate enough to drive a very nice car, but as I stated earlier, this is now about principle on my part and business savvy on AR's part.
Final thought for this post---Good luck to all of you!!! Know what you are getting into if you go with an Alfa product!!!!
-Rob
P.S.
Try not to hold this against the car....driving one is an experience like none other!
Public knowledge is power.
I'd like to get your opinion on an experience I had with my local AR dealer.
Here's the background...
I took the Giulia in for a software update on 4/20/2018 with 1143 miles on the odometer (slight surge at low speeds when cold).
When I returned to pick up the car on Saturday, 4/21/2018, I noticed, on the right side rocker panel below the passenger door, a fresh scratch through the paint. (When I went to the dealer to pick it up, I pulled into the parking spot on the RH side of the car; had I not pulled into the parking space on the right side, I'd have probably never noticed).
Needless to say, I was quite upset. The car was at the time all of six weeks in my possession and virtually no mileage on it.
I spoke to the service advisor about not only the new scratch, but also about the fact that the car was left unlocked and unattended in their parking lot for who knows how long. Poor quality control and security indeed.
The service advisor said I'd have to speak to the service manager about the manner, which I understand. I told her I'd be writing an email to the service manager and that I'd cc her onto it, which I did when I got home. In the email I expressed the fact that with my own 20 years of dealer service department experience, in various roles, I do understand that things happen, but was unhappy in their collective failure to address the manner to me and try to make it right, rather than just hope I wouldn't notice.
My email was responded to on the following Monday morning, as expected, with an invitation to bring the car over to inspect the damage and talk.
This is where things went all the way off the rails.
The first defense from the service manager was that he had personally known the Alfa tech for 6 years and knows that said tech would never do such a thing as damage a car and not address it. I cannot know the character of the tech and would wish not to call his character into question, but 1) history is littered with countless examples of people doing things their acquaintances would not believe they are capable of doing and 2) this assumes that the tech is the only person who can possible be anywhere near the car while in the dealer's possession. Anyone with any experience with dealers knows that this is rarely the case.
The second defense from the service manager was that if this happened to my car at their facility, it would happen to every car at their facility, and since there was no similar damage to the car that was currently in the shop while I was speaking to him, [it follows] that it is not possible for the damage to my car to have occurred at the dealership...
Do I even have to explain the patently false logic of such an outrageous claim?????
At that point I could clearly see where the discussion was headed, so I told him I'm giving him an honest opportunity to do the right thing and handle this privately; if I have to take this up with AR I would. The service manager responded by accusing me of threatening him. I find this to be completely ridiculous as this is the exact path that is recommended in the dispute resolution booklet in the owner's manual document set. I reminded him that it is not a threat but opportunity to take care of this without making it public. His response was that I'm giving them an ultimatum to (paraphrasing here...)"fix it or else".
I was also told that the damage had to have been caused by me hitting something on the freeway, which has a few customer-insulting implications of its own...either 1) I'm a liar trying to get them to cover damage that is my problem, or 2) I'm a completely oblivious driver who has no idea when they've hit something on the freeway and am blaming the dealer.
Also-if it's possible that I hit a road hazard, isn't it equally possible THEY hit a road hazard when test driving??? (the mileage was higher when I picked up than it was when I dropped off-the only logical conclusion is that the dealer test drove my car, as they said they would do when I dropped off)
1) I can assure all of you that I can handle a minor dollar value problem in my life (see below for just how minor this is) without needing to lie about it-this is purely about principle at this point, and 2) I washed the car/wiped it down two days before bringing into the shop; if the damage were there previously I'd have noticed it at that time. I parked the car in the garage immediately after the wash/wipe down and did not drive it until I took it straight to the dealer on appointment day (I don't drive it to work most days-I live less than 3/4 of a mile from work).
At that point I turned around to walk away, as it was clear that I was not going to get anywhere with this guy.
As I walked away, the final (really the only) offer I got was to have a look around to see if I could find anything in the shop that could have caused the damage in question. Another nonsensical argument as 1) this places me in a position to conceive and prove or disprove any and all possible ways that they could have damaged my car, and 2) if such evidence did exist, they would have had ample time to remove it from the scene prior to my arrival and inspection.
I said to him, on my way out, that I think I'm done talking to him.
Then came the next outrage....
I placed the call to Alfa to describe the events leading up to my dissatisfaction, the discussions with the dealer, and the estimate I got for repairs ($403.84 from my body shop contact here in San Diego [not an AR dealer], just north of Miramar, for those of you keeping score)
I was assured that the $403 would not be a problem, but that the vehicle needed to be inspected by a body specialist from within the Mopar network to be a solution that Alfa would be able to support. Fine, now we are getting somewhere, right???
I took the car back to my selling dealer in National City (Let's be clear...not the servicing dealer at the root of the problem) for a body shop estimate to repair the damage.
The estimate from the National City dealer...$833.36. I knew the doubling of the estimate would make things more complicated, but this was an AR dealer that I had estimate the damage as a result of the AR case worker's advice. My non-Mopar body shop guy is fine for me. He did great work on my wife's Cayenne when the neighbor backed into it.
I called back in to AR to provide the estimate data that THEY HAD REQUESTED, and was told that they would be able to take care of the damage as a one-time event. That is an important distinction, as AR was at first firmly on my side but now seemed to be getting weaker in their commitment. Still not a problem right????
WRONG!!!
A day after receiving a verbal commitment that AR would take care of the problem, the agent called me back and told me that his boss told him no, they would not provide assistance.
Key take-aways:
I cannot disprove the dealer's statement and they cannot disprove mine. I'll go to my grave without abandoning my position though.
The only issue left not considered is the lifetime value of a customer, which, by the dealer's standards, is less than $403.84. I'd actually argue half of that, because my wife's Cayenne is due for replacement in the next 18 months or so; the Stelvio was on the short list but is now a hard NO. I'll also never go back to this dealer unless God forbid the car breaks down in my neighborhood and is towed to the dealer closest to my home in Kerny Mesa against my will.
To AR, I think I've established the lifetime value of a customer at somewhere below $833.36 (again, actually half, as I will ABSOLUTELY be cross-shopping the Giulia when my lease is up-something I did not do when selecting the Giulia this time around, and my wife is definitely OUT. It's another brand for her-a direct result of my experience).
I love the car, and find it tragic that AR cannot get its dealer network under control or salvage its customer relationships. AR will have a VERY difficult time staying in the US market if this is the position it's going to stake out.
I have also given both the dealer and AR EVERY opportunity to take care of this in private; apparently they prefer to have this out in the public square.
So to the court of public opinion I requested earlier....am I wrong here? It's an honest question-I really want to know if I'm being unreasonable here.
And yes-I understand that this is what we'd call a "first-world problem". I also understand that the final outcome is not going to make a big difference in my life one way or the other. Despite the problem at hand, I'm still fortunate enough to drive a very nice car, but as I stated earlier, this is now about principle on my part and business savvy on AR's part.
Final thought for this post---Good luck to all of you!!! Know what you are getting into if you go with an Alfa product!!!!
-Rob
P.S.
Try not to hold this against the car....driving one is an experience like none other!