Mazda Dealership Experience. Should I complain?
Discussion
Hi Guys hopefully not too long, I am not the best at complaining as I never know when enough is enough and I should kick up a fuss.
I purchased a late 2010 Mazda 6 in December 2013 with 68k from a main dealer with an extended warranty and service plan to keep costs limited and as I do circa 30k a year.
My first service experience wasn’t the best.
I rang up to book in for a service with a few days notice as I had a meeting dropped on me next to the dealership. Spoke to the service dept who initially said it’s a big service so they needed to check it could be done, and then they said yes to bring it in. I turn up to drop the car off and whilst sorting the details the service manager (I think he was) said we can’t do that service as we don't have the time to get it all done in the time available. I highlighted it was checked when I booked the car in but didn't get me anywhere. So I left without my car been serviced and had to re-arrange the service.
Re-arranged the service and all seemed to be done thoroughly and I checked a few bits like pollen filter to check it had been done which it had. However on the service report they noticed the tyres on the back where the incorrect size for the vehicle. I pointed out I had bought the car from them and it should of been picked up in their pre sale check however again I didn’t get much of a response.
Second Experience
08/07/2014 - DPF light flashing on the dash so I phoned them and they said to bring it to them to check. I asked if a courtesy car would be available as the dealership is 35 miles away from my home. Initially they said no, they then said what time can you get here for and said they would sort something out if it was later in the afternoon.
I arrive that afternoon to drop off the car, they apparently have lost the job sheet and are looking aimlessly for it whilst I wait, in the end they print another one. I ask for a courtesy car so I can get home to be told none are available. Not happy. The service manager who is finishing serving someone else chirps in to say can we diagnose the car first as it'll take about an hour and then we can see what needs to be done. So I go off to subway awaiting a call to say they've diagnosed it. Get a call to come back about 35mins later to be told the cam chain has stretched, it’s covered by the warranty but the system is down so they cannot get approval until its back up. I ask if the car is drivable and I am told yes despite me saying I will be doing circa 1k miles in it and was told it would only be an issue if I was doing ~5k miles as it was only slightly out of tolerance. Despite this and not been completely happy I drove home carefully and parked the car.
Thankfully I have another car so have been using that for work whilst waiting for a call.
10/07/2014 - No contact from the dealership so I ring them and am told the system is still down but should be back up tomorrow and will be called ASAP as they have about 4 people waiting for the system including me.
15/07/2014 - 11am - Still no contact from the dealership so I call them and am told they should be back in 15mins and will call then.
15/07/2014 - 4pm - No contact so I call again. Sales team member answers the phone and try’s to be helpful takes details and put me on hold. 5mins later comes back on and tells me the claim has been approved and someone will call shortly to arrange the booking.
16/07/2014 - 2pm - No contact so I call and I explain what’s going on and am told the service manager is out in a meeting till 5pm however if he is able to get an answer before then he will call me. I explain I'm not happy as it has been a week since diagnosis and want someone to call me and again he repeats the service manager is in a meeting but should be able to call me around 5pm tonight.
So would you be complaining to the dealer manager and to Mazda? or is this all normal process as its pretty dire.
I purchased a late 2010 Mazda 6 in December 2013 with 68k from a main dealer with an extended warranty and service plan to keep costs limited and as I do circa 30k a year.
My first service experience wasn’t the best.
I rang up to book in for a service with a few days notice as I had a meeting dropped on me next to the dealership. Spoke to the service dept who initially said it’s a big service so they needed to check it could be done, and then they said yes to bring it in. I turn up to drop the car off and whilst sorting the details the service manager (I think he was) said we can’t do that service as we don't have the time to get it all done in the time available. I highlighted it was checked when I booked the car in but didn't get me anywhere. So I left without my car been serviced and had to re-arrange the service.
Re-arranged the service and all seemed to be done thoroughly and I checked a few bits like pollen filter to check it had been done which it had. However on the service report they noticed the tyres on the back where the incorrect size for the vehicle. I pointed out I had bought the car from them and it should of been picked up in their pre sale check however again I didn’t get much of a response.
Second Experience
08/07/2014 - DPF light flashing on the dash so I phoned them and they said to bring it to them to check. I asked if a courtesy car would be available as the dealership is 35 miles away from my home. Initially they said no, they then said what time can you get here for and said they would sort something out if it was later in the afternoon.
I arrive that afternoon to drop off the car, they apparently have lost the job sheet and are looking aimlessly for it whilst I wait, in the end they print another one. I ask for a courtesy car so I can get home to be told none are available. Not happy. The service manager who is finishing serving someone else chirps in to say can we diagnose the car first as it'll take about an hour and then we can see what needs to be done. So I go off to subway awaiting a call to say they've diagnosed it. Get a call to come back about 35mins later to be told the cam chain has stretched, it’s covered by the warranty but the system is down so they cannot get approval until its back up. I ask if the car is drivable and I am told yes despite me saying I will be doing circa 1k miles in it and was told it would only be an issue if I was doing ~5k miles as it was only slightly out of tolerance. Despite this and not been completely happy I drove home carefully and parked the car.
Thankfully I have another car so have been using that for work whilst waiting for a call.
10/07/2014 - No contact from the dealership so I ring them and am told the system is still down but should be back up tomorrow and will be called ASAP as they have about 4 people waiting for the system including me.
15/07/2014 - 11am - Still no contact from the dealership so I call them and am told they should be back in 15mins and will call then.
15/07/2014 - 4pm - No contact so I call again. Sales team member answers the phone and try’s to be helpful takes details and put me on hold. 5mins later comes back on and tells me the claim has been approved and someone will call shortly to arrange the booking.
16/07/2014 - 2pm - No contact so I call and I explain what’s going on and am told the service manager is out in a meeting till 5pm however if he is able to get an answer before then he will call me. I explain I'm not happy as it has been a week since diagnosis and want someone to call me and again he repeats the service manager is in a meeting but should be able to call me around 5pm tonight.
So would you be complaining to the dealer manager and to Mazda? or is this all normal process as its pretty dire.
Do you have any other Mazda dealers local to you? if there was I would try them and send a letter of how bad you have been treated by the dealer.
I will be picking up a New GT86 next week and looking forward to the Toyota questionnaire I will get they ask how well the dealer I am using has been. Salesperson great, Finance guy lying out his ass on 3 occasions which I caught him out on. No issues with buying the car but just how this other chap must be catching lots of others out to make a little extra £££ but I digress.
I will be picking up a New GT86 next week and looking forward to the Toyota questionnaire I will get they ask how well the dealer I am using has been. Salesperson great, Finance guy lying out his ass on 3 occasions which I caught him out on. No issues with buying the car but just how this other chap must be catching lots of others out to make a little extra £££ but I digress.
Was well aware of the issues thus the warranty and anything else that fitted the bill had the same or slightly different issues.
I've dug out the UK Mazda MDs email address and once this is done ill be sending him an email to see if I get anywhere. The issue isn't that its broken (s
t happens) more that its taken them over a week to not even call me back despite me calling them and the misinformation.
I've dug out the UK Mazda MDs email address and once this is done ill be sending him an email to see if I get anywhere. The issue isn't that its broken (s
t happens) more that its taken them over a week to not even call me back despite me calling them and the misinformation.My first and last ever experience of Mazda was them trying to charge me for a £50 Aircon re-gas on a car that didn't have aircon. I asked them to detail exactly what they did to the car over the phone, even speaking to someone at great length who said he personally re-gassed it, to then turn around and call him out with the "My car doesn't have aircon" cue the "oh that must be a different car, sorry, we'll get it removed from the bill" cheeky gits!
They also threw away my spare numberplates from the boot!
They also threw away my spare numberplates from the boot!
Just posted this in GG not happy
Having a nightmare with the Mazda dealer for the last 2 weeks since my car was diagnosed with a stretched timing chain.
Its a 11/2010 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel. I purchased the car in December 2013 at 68k and the vehicle now has circa 85k. When purchasing the vehicle I was told the car was overdue a service but they would service the car and bring everything up to date so it would be like it had never missed a service. I also took out a warranty which was sold to me as the same as the Mazda extended warranty but I could extend it to 3 years as opposed to the Mazda warranty of 1 year max. I double checked this with the salesman several times.
I have just heard back from the service manager a week and a half after the diagnosis (despite me chasing every other day!) to be told as the warranty is for mechanical failure and a stretched chain is 'wear and tear' despite it been a non service item. I have confirmed this with the warranty company whose only response was you can challenge it and we can send an independent engineer to check for failed tensioners etc at which point they would accept the claim because there would of been a failure. I pointed out to the service manager a timing chain is surely meant to last the life of the car and it should be replaced as its not fit for purpose and he said as the car had missed a service its out of Mazdas good will requirements.
All of these reasons to not cover the bill I CHECKED with the salesman during the purchase as I wanted to avoid this hassle.
Do I have any hope with this? I'm going to call Mazda UK in a moment but I imagine I'll just get some call centre working off a job sheet. I will also be emailing the Mazda UK MD Jeremy Thompson to see what he has to say.
I know that this range of cars can have issues but ALL cars of this ilk have some form of issue so please don't just go 'didn't you do your research' its not helpful.
Having a nightmare with the Mazda dealer for the last 2 weeks since my car was diagnosed with a stretched timing chain.
Its a 11/2010 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel. I purchased the car in December 2013 at 68k and the vehicle now has circa 85k. When purchasing the vehicle I was told the car was overdue a service but they would service the car and bring everything up to date so it would be like it had never missed a service. I also took out a warranty which was sold to me as the same as the Mazda extended warranty but I could extend it to 3 years as opposed to the Mazda warranty of 1 year max. I double checked this with the salesman several times.
I have just heard back from the service manager a week and a half after the diagnosis (despite me chasing every other day!) to be told as the warranty is for mechanical failure and a stretched chain is 'wear and tear' despite it been a non service item. I have confirmed this with the warranty company whose only response was you can challenge it and we can send an independent engineer to check for failed tensioners etc at which point they would accept the claim because there would of been a failure. I pointed out to the service manager a timing chain is surely meant to last the life of the car and it should be replaced as its not fit for purpose and he said as the car had missed a service its out of Mazdas good will requirements.
All of these reasons to not cover the bill I CHECKED with the salesman during the purchase as I wanted to avoid this hassle.
Do I have any hope with this? I'm going to call Mazda UK in a moment but I imagine I'll just get some call centre working off a job sheet. I will also be emailing the Mazda UK MD Jeremy Thompson to see what he has to say.
I know that this range of cars can have issues but ALL cars of this ilk have some form of issue so please don't just go 'didn't you do your research' its not helpful.
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