DesignDawg
Newish Member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2018
- Messages
- 19
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
- 3
TL;DR highlights:
First, let me say that the buying experience here was fine. --I actually brought the deal to Lokey after being treated like a scumbag by a degenerate used car salesman at Crown Kia in St. Petersburg. Compared to Crown, Lokey was delightful. My salesman Jermaine was awesome.
My horror story begins 7/7/2018, when I took my car in for a scheduled first oil change.
7/7/18, 3:30 pm - The nightmare Begins:
I came to the dealership on a Saturday, having informed them when I made my appointment, and again when I dropped the car off, that I also had a rattle in the car that I would like to get looked at, right above my head on the driver's side. I told them I think it is wind getting under the rain trim.
The service took a while, which I assumed was because they were fixing my rattle. They finally got me, informed me that they had performed the trunk rattle TSB, had confirmed the other rattle where I said it was, but said it was coming form the B pillar, and it would take them all day to fix it, so I need to bring it back. --Fair enough. I arranged to get a loaner for later in the week when I was to bring the car back.
7/8/18 - That looks weird...
The next day, as I was approaching my car in a parking lot, I noticed that the rocker panel/side sill on my driver's side was catching the light in a weird way. I dismissed the thought, but every time I approached the car, I noticed it. Especially when it would catch a reflection from a parking space white line (my car is black).
Monday evening, it looked especially bad, and it dawned on me what I was looking at: LIFT DAMAGE.
I got down on the ground and looked closely, and could see the telltale dent/crease/crush from a lift/jack arm coming directly up from underneath and crushing/flaring the side of my rocker panel out. The damage was about 4 inches back from the factory lift point.
I wrote the dealership an email, as they were closed, and I wanted to have a record in writing. Much to my relief, they contacted me within a day, profusely apologetic about the damage, and asked me if I would bring it in so they could take care of it. I informed them that I already had a rattle that they requested I bring it in to work on, and asked if it would be OK to just take care of both issues in one visit. We made an appt. for Thursday, 7/12, and I dropped it off early in the am.
7/12/18 --Farewell, Stinger. We hardly knew ye:
Despite a little gruff treatment in the service dept (which I forgive, because not everyone's a morning person), I was happy to be given a brand new Cadenza as a loaner. At this point, they still seemed to be making an effort to make a buyer of a $50k car feel taken care of.
The next day, Friday 7/13, at the end of the day, I got a call from the service dept, telling me that they were still trying to work on the rattle, that they had been all through it and couldn't figure out what was causing it, and that they were going to have to get a Kia rep to come in and help the tech figure it out. After that was fixed, he told me, they would get it over to the body shop and get the dent taken care of.
Day 6--Wow, this is taking a while...no worries...update?
I gave them 4 days after that, including 2 whole business days, before I wanted an update. I called the number on my rep's card, which range forever without answer, phone tree, voice mail, etc. until I hung up. I called her cell listed on her card. No ring, straight to voicemail. I tried calling the service dept. multiple times to no avail, then finally left a nice message on her cell voicemail, which had an unlabeled voicemail box. I informed her that my car had been there for 6 days and I hadn't gotten an update in a while, and could someone please reach out and tell me where we are. I then finally got through to the service dept, and to her extension, where I left the same message on her (again) unlabeled mail box.
The following day, day 7, I received no reply, and in the afternoon, I sent an email to the addresses I had originally sent the lift damage email to, telling them that I was unable to reach anyone, and after a week, I needed a status update, as my last one, 5 days earlier, had been that nothing had been done to the car.
Later that afternoon, I got a call from my rep, who seemed rather annoyed to have to deal with me, and who told me that my car was in the body shop, and that when it was done, it would be sent over to the service dept. to see about my rattle--the opposite of what I was told the first time I got an update.
Here are the things she told me on this call:
2 days later, at the end of the day, I got an email, telling me that my car was still in the body shop (supposedly where it had been for 8 full business days), and that when they were done, they were going to have a Kia rep come to their location to assist the tech in finding the rattle. In other words: Day 8, and no update. Nothing has changed. Nothing is fixed. No progress.
That non-update was 5 days ago now.
7/24/18--Current day. I hate this Cadenza.
That was 5 days ago. I have not heard any new status updates. It is day 13. Every Stinger I see, every new video that comes out about them, every article I see in my news feed about how this car possesses some magical wonderful power to excited and inspire...my heart aches. I've never missed a car before, but this sucks. Bad. And I feel that this service dept. has completely fallen down on the job of stepping up to right a wrong they caused. I am certain my car has sat, untouched, for nearly 2 weeks, with possibly someone taking a look at it from time to time.
If Kia is truly trying to change perceptions with this car, dealers like this one are doing them a disservice. Sure, in terms of driving experience, this car hangs with BMW all day long. But in terms of the buying and SERVICE experience? I can't imagine that I would be treated like a nuisance after 2 weeks of my car being in the shop for damage that a BMW dealer did to my car. I would imagine, at the very least, the service reps would be apologetic and act (even if it was all an act) like they cared that I was being deprived of my car for half a month and counting due to their negligence.
When I pick up the car, I will be giving it a thorough inspection. I fully expect to see that they have performed a paintless dent repair on my car. --a process that will take maybe an hour? --And that they will have paid someone tens of dollars to do. --Which will render the "everything has to be ordered and painted perfectly" thing a total lie, to go along with the other lies I've been told.
And at this point, call me jaded, but I expect to drive away from there with my rattle fully intact and inflamed.
UPDATE 7/25/18 - Premium Customer Care
Oh, man...that was informative.
First of all, thank you again, DaJackson and Angelo in Seattle and others, for suggesting the care line situation. I had honestly forgotten about that "feature" of the car, as this is the most expensive car I've ever had, by a factor of about 2.5x. LOL they don't give you a premium care line when you buy a used Honda Element.
So, here's the sickening part of it all--the part where the 30 minute 37 second call took a really dark turn:
They said that it says in the system that a Kia rep is, in fact slated to come out to my dealership to look at my car...and that the earliest date that will be possible is AUGUST 3RD.
August 3!? That's 9 DAYS FROM NOW, and IF that is the actual date, and IF they fix it that day, that is 22 days of my car being there, 29 days after I informed them of the problem. I don't feel like I have another 9 days in me. This is insane. The most maddening part about it isn't that August 3rd is the date. The maddening part is that my dealership knows this, and wouldn't tell me. My dealership knows this, and didn't determine that it would be better to have me pick up and bring the car back on August 3rd.
I was quite adamant on the phone that this service has not been acceptable, and that if Kia is trying to change the perception of being a bottom of the barrel company, and to prove that they know how to sell a $50k car and how to treat the owners of said car, then experiences like this one were doing them a serious disservice.
My phone rep said that usually, in circumstances where a rep wouldn't be available for such a long time, the procedure would be to allow me to come pick up the car and bring it back. But that's where I'm at a crossroads. First of all, that's inconvenient AF. Second of all, at this point, it's been 2 weeks. I want the 2 weeks to have been for something. I want my car to be fixed. And "once bitten twice shy" on the idea of even bringing it back in for the same rattle a second time. And what, chance another cosmetic ding? Lose contact with my car for another 2 weeks? How am I to really trust that the second time will be better?
The end result of the call is that she noted that I am beyond distraught about being told conflicting things, not being able to get in touch, and having to find out, only by calling and escalating the case, that I'm still 9 days out from them even looking at my car again. Because let's be honest: If they have determined that they need a rep to look at it, it's off their schedule until the rep comes. And that's really not OK, considering they told me they needed the rep on 7/13.
SO, my case has been escalated. They're going to get in touch with GMs and service managers and such, find out what's up, try to get me more and more reliable info, and said they'd be in touch in a couple of days. I hate so much to even acknowledge that a couple of days puts us in the weekend. But it's been escalated. And at least I know there IS information out there about my car, and that there's ultimately a way for me to get to it. In the end, that's all I really wanted. If they had told me on 7/13, "so, we can't get the rep out here until August 3rd. Could you bring your car back then?" I would have been slightly disappointed, but not even enough to have voiced that. I would have pleasantly agreed to that arrangement, and this all could have been avoided. I did tell them that Aug 3, at this point, is way too far out, and that anything at all that could be done to get them to take another look at my car before then should be tried.
As for the body repair: supposedly it was in the body shop for 13 days. For a small dent. Let that sink in. Again, if they had a paintless dent guy come out and pop 20 dents on 10 cars in a day for $300, and mine was one of those, I'm going to know about it. And know that they let my car sit in the lot for 2 weeks, spinning tales of matching paint and body panels from Korea, when they could have just told me "Our dent guy comes in on Thursdays. You might want to bring it back." But hey, that's speculation, and it's unfair. Maybe they really did need it for 2 weeks because they wanted to get it 100% perfect. It was, after all, damage they caused.
I'm done ranting and crying over this for today. Just wanted to update you, since it was this forum's advice to call that #.
I will continue to update this thread if anyone reads it and cares to know how things turn out.
What can I do? Where do I even go from here?
Missing my car,
Ricky
- My Kia dealer damaged the body of my car with the lift during an oil change
- They have had my car for 13 days now
- They are unresponsive, and as of the last update I received, they haven't even touched it yet.
- I have been provably lied to on the phone
First, let me say that the buying experience here was fine. --I actually brought the deal to Lokey after being treated like a scumbag by a degenerate used car salesman at Crown Kia in St. Petersburg. Compared to Crown, Lokey was delightful. My salesman Jermaine was awesome.
My horror story begins 7/7/2018, when I took my car in for a scheduled first oil change.
7/7/18, 3:30 pm - The nightmare Begins:
I came to the dealership on a Saturday, having informed them when I made my appointment, and again when I dropped the car off, that I also had a rattle in the car that I would like to get looked at, right above my head on the driver's side. I told them I think it is wind getting under the rain trim.
The service took a while, which I assumed was because they were fixing my rattle. They finally got me, informed me that they had performed the trunk rattle TSB, had confirmed the other rattle where I said it was, but said it was coming form the B pillar, and it would take them all day to fix it, so I need to bring it back. --Fair enough. I arranged to get a loaner for later in the week when I was to bring the car back.
7/8/18 - That looks weird...
The next day, as I was approaching my car in a parking lot, I noticed that the rocker panel/side sill on my driver's side was catching the light in a weird way. I dismissed the thought, but every time I approached the car, I noticed it. Especially when it would catch a reflection from a parking space white line (my car is black).
Monday evening, it looked especially bad, and it dawned on me what I was looking at: LIFT DAMAGE.
I got down on the ground and looked closely, and could see the telltale dent/crease/crush from a lift/jack arm coming directly up from underneath and crushing/flaring the side of my rocker panel out. The damage was about 4 inches back from the factory lift point.
I wrote the dealership an email, as they were closed, and I wanted to have a record in writing. Much to my relief, they contacted me within a day, profusely apologetic about the damage, and asked me if I would bring it in so they could take care of it. I informed them that I already had a rattle that they requested I bring it in to work on, and asked if it would be OK to just take care of both issues in one visit. We made an appt. for Thursday, 7/12, and I dropped it off early in the am.
7/12/18 --Farewell, Stinger. We hardly knew ye:
Despite a little gruff treatment in the service dept (which I forgive, because not everyone's a morning person), I was happy to be given a brand new Cadenza as a loaner. At this point, they still seemed to be making an effort to make a buyer of a $50k car feel taken care of.
The next day, Friday 7/13, at the end of the day, I got a call from the service dept, telling me that they were still trying to work on the rattle, that they had been all through it and couldn't figure out what was causing it, and that they were going to have to get a Kia rep to come in and help the tech figure it out. After that was fixed, he told me, they would get it over to the body shop and get the dent taken care of.
Day 6--Wow, this is taking a while...no worries...update?
I gave them 4 days after that, including 2 whole business days, before I wanted an update. I called the number on my rep's card, which range forever without answer, phone tree, voice mail, etc. until I hung up. I called her cell listed on her card. No ring, straight to voicemail. I tried calling the service dept. multiple times to no avail, then finally left a nice message on her cell voicemail, which had an unlabeled voicemail box. I informed her that my car had been there for 6 days and I hadn't gotten an update in a while, and could someone please reach out and tell me where we are. I then finally got through to the service dept, and to her extension, where I left the same message on her (again) unlabeled mail box.
The following day, day 7, I received no reply, and in the afternoon, I sent an email to the addresses I had originally sent the lift damage email to, telling them that I was unable to reach anyone, and after a week, I needed a status update, as my last one, 5 days earlier, had been that nothing had been done to the car.
Later that afternoon, I got a call from my rep, who seemed rather annoyed to have to deal with me, and who told me that my car was in the body shop, and that when it was done, it would be sent over to the service dept. to see about my rattle--the opposite of what I was told the first time I got an update.
Here are the things she told me on this call:
- It would take 3-4 days in the body shop, because with a special car like this, it has to be gotten just right
- It was going to take so long because new body panels had to be ordered
- It was going to take so long because it would have to be painted, and the paint had to be matched exactly
- When she said it should take 3-4 day in the body shop, I asked when it went into the body shop...and she curtly and immediately said, "THE DAY YOU BROUGHT IT IN. --7 days prior
- Again, at this point, I should remind you, as I did her, that I was told after my car had been there for 2 full days, that they were still working on the rattle, and it would go to the body shop when they were all done. --That would be Monday 7/16 at the earliest, as the body shop isn't open on weekends.
- She told me the body shop works "bankers hours."
- She told me that she advises people that, if they have mechanical problems and body damage, that they should reasonably expect repairs to take 1.5-2 weeks. (I could understand this from a wreck, but we're talking about a dent and a rattle--plus, they are the ones who caused the dent). Also...she advises people? Never advised me that.
- She told me she would talk with my tech and with the body shop and get an update, and would call me that evening before she left for the day
- She did not call.
2 days later, at the end of the day, I got an email, telling me that my car was still in the body shop (supposedly where it had been for 8 full business days), and that when they were done, they were going to have a Kia rep come to their location to assist the tech in finding the rattle. In other words: Day 8, and no update. Nothing has changed. Nothing is fixed. No progress.
That non-update was 5 days ago now.
7/24/18--Current day. I hate this Cadenza.
That was 5 days ago. I have not heard any new status updates. It is day 13. Every Stinger I see, every new video that comes out about them, every article I see in my news feed about how this car possesses some magical wonderful power to excited and inspire...my heart aches. I've never missed a car before, but this sucks. Bad. And I feel that this service dept. has completely fallen down on the job of stepping up to right a wrong they caused. I am certain my car has sat, untouched, for nearly 2 weeks, with possibly someone taking a look at it from time to time.
If Kia is truly trying to change perceptions with this car, dealers like this one are doing them a disservice. Sure, in terms of driving experience, this car hangs with BMW all day long. But in terms of the buying and SERVICE experience? I can't imagine that I would be treated like a nuisance after 2 weeks of my car being in the shop for damage that a BMW dealer did to my car. I would imagine, at the very least, the service reps would be apologetic and act (even if it was all an act) like they cared that I was being deprived of my car for half a month and counting due to their negligence.
When I pick up the car, I will be giving it a thorough inspection. I fully expect to see that they have performed a paintless dent repair on my car. --a process that will take maybe an hour? --And that they will have paid someone tens of dollars to do. --Which will render the "everything has to be ordered and painted perfectly" thing a total lie, to go along with the other lies I've been told.
And at this point, call me jaded, but I expect to drive away from there with my rattle fully intact and inflamed.
UPDATE 7/25/18 - Premium Customer Care
Oh, man...that was informative.
First of all, thank you again, DaJackson and Angelo in Seattle and others, for suggesting the care line situation. I had honestly forgotten about that "feature" of the car, as this is the most expensive car I've ever had, by a factor of about 2.5x. LOL they don't give you a premium care line when you buy a used Honda Element.
So, here's the sickening part of it all--the part where the 30 minute 37 second call took a really dark turn:
They said that it says in the system that a Kia rep is, in fact slated to come out to my dealership to look at my car...and that the earliest date that will be possible is AUGUST 3RD.
August 3!? That's 9 DAYS FROM NOW, and IF that is the actual date, and IF they fix it that day, that is 22 days of my car being there, 29 days after I informed them of the problem. I don't feel like I have another 9 days in me. This is insane. The most maddening part about it isn't that August 3rd is the date. The maddening part is that my dealership knows this, and wouldn't tell me. My dealership knows this, and didn't determine that it would be better to have me pick up and bring the car back on August 3rd.
I was quite adamant on the phone that this service has not been acceptable, and that if Kia is trying to change the perception of being a bottom of the barrel company, and to prove that they know how to sell a $50k car and how to treat the owners of said car, then experiences like this one were doing them a serious disservice.
My phone rep said that usually, in circumstances where a rep wouldn't be available for such a long time, the procedure would be to allow me to come pick up the car and bring it back. But that's where I'm at a crossroads. First of all, that's inconvenient AF. Second of all, at this point, it's been 2 weeks. I want the 2 weeks to have been for something. I want my car to be fixed. And "once bitten twice shy" on the idea of even bringing it back in for the same rattle a second time. And what, chance another cosmetic ding? Lose contact with my car for another 2 weeks? How am I to really trust that the second time will be better?
The end result of the call is that she noted that I am beyond distraught about being told conflicting things, not being able to get in touch, and having to find out, only by calling and escalating the case, that I'm still 9 days out from them even looking at my car again. Because let's be honest: If they have determined that they need a rep to look at it, it's off their schedule until the rep comes. And that's really not OK, considering they told me they needed the rep on 7/13.
SO, my case has been escalated. They're going to get in touch with GMs and service managers and such, find out what's up, try to get me more and more reliable info, and said they'd be in touch in a couple of days. I hate so much to even acknowledge that a couple of days puts us in the weekend. But it's been escalated. And at least I know there IS information out there about my car, and that there's ultimately a way for me to get to it. In the end, that's all I really wanted. If they had told me on 7/13, "so, we can't get the rep out here until August 3rd. Could you bring your car back then?" I would have been slightly disappointed, but not even enough to have voiced that. I would have pleasantly agreed to that arrangement, and this all could have been avoided. I did tell them that Aug 3, at this point, is way too far out, and that anything at all that could be done to get them to take another look at my car before then should be tried.
As for the body repair: supposedly it was in the body shop for 13 days. For a small dent. Let that sink in. Again, if they had a paintless dent guy come out and pop 20 dents on 10 cars in a day for $300, and mine was one of those, I'm going to know about it. And know that they let my car sit in the lot for 2 weeks, spinning tales of matching paint and body panels from Korea, when they could have just told me "Our dent guy comes in on Thursdays. You might want to bring it back." But hey, that's speculation, and it's unfair. Maybe they really did need it for 2 weeks because they wanted to get it 100% perfect. It was, after all, damage they caused.
I'm done ranting and crying over this for today. Just wanted to update you, since it was this forum's advice to call that #.
I will continue to update this thread if anyone reads it and cares to know how things turn out.
What can I do? Where do I even go from here?
Missing my car,
Ricky
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