I am writing you this letter after writing a similar
letter to Gillman
Honda Sharpstown. Without receiving any
response from the General
Manager, Scott Dupont, I am reluctantly re-iterating
myself to you,
hoping someone actually pays attention to a customer's
grievances even
after purchasing the car.
My ordeal began during the purchase of my 98
Accord V6 EX Coupe. My
salesman treated me excellent and I believe I
received a fair deal on my
purchase. However, I was, and still am,
extremely upset with the
Finance Officer, Geoffrey (I apologize, I don't
remember his last name)
when he insulted me by insinuating I had bad
credit and the only way I
was able to be financed by another bank was due
to my fiancée working
there. What he did not know was that I
had a copy of my credit report
which stated that I had scored the highest rating
and that my fiancée
just started working at that bank a week before
(i.e. no seniority for
such favors). I honestly believe that he
treated me that way because he
assumed since I am only 23 years old, I didn't
know any better. Well,
after refusing his finance rate (almost 1.5 percent
higher than what I
told him I was approved for elsewhere) and I
demanded to speak with a
Manager. He then told me he could lower
the rate if I purchased an
extended warranty. Why that would effect
it I have no idea. To shorten
the story, the Manager I spoke with was very
professional and courteous
and he discounted the extended warranty that
I would have bought anyway.
Qualm number two is really a question I have about
Honda Financing. Why
would they need to see a copy of my diploma before
they would complete
the paper work? I had already given them
proof of employment and salary
with a previous pay stub. Are they implying
that they would not finance
me if I didn't have a diploma although I make
50K a year? I know of
other dealerships that ask for proof of graduation,
but that is because
they offer a college graduate discount.
Believe me when I tell you I
received no such discount.
Problem three occurred less than two weeks later
when I began hearing a
rattling noise coming from the front windshield.
As the days
progressed, the noise became so loud that I have
to turn my radio on
loudly as to not go insane from the noise.
I called my salesman and he
in turn called a service advisor to schedule
me in for them to fix the
windshield. While they were checking for
the noise, they removed the
headliner. What they didn't do was replace
it CORRECTLY! They did not
put all the pieces back on the headliner and
now there is a gap between
the headliner and roof large enough for me to
insert my finger. If that
was not enough, the noise came back the day after
I picked up my car.
Atop all of this, my car was filthy when I got
it back. I noticed
because I had just washed my car the day before.
I'm not sure what they
do back there but there was what looked like
water and asphalt or lime
scale all over my car.
Continuing to problem four. I called my
service advisor (who was
actually very courteous and accommodating) to
let him know about the
multitude of problems. This time I insisted
that they set me up with a
rental car since I had to miss 3 and one half
hours of work using their
shuttle service. Well, after spending my
time to speak to five
different people, I was finally given approval
to get a rental car.
When I picked up my car later that day, I was
informed that the
windshield was not touched because they wanted
to wait for a Honda
Engineer which was supposed to come in December
to look at it. They
also informed me that the headliner was taken
care of. I didn't expect
that they didn't complete the job again, but
when I looked at the liner
the next day, it wasn't fixed! Had I known
earlier that they had not
intended to fix the windshield and wouldn't be
able to fix the headliner
correctly, I would have waited rather than wasted
my time, again, and
wasted my money on paying for the insurance on
the rental car! And
again, my car was filthy when I got it back.
Problems five and six. I was informed that
the Honda Engineer would be
there during December, but here it is in early
February and no sign of
him/her. If I didn't constantly call in
order to get some type of time
estimate, NO ONE would have bothered to call
me to let me know that he
has not arrived yet. While on the subject
of the lack of communication,
I didn't receive my license plates until five
weeks after my purchase
date. If I'm not mistaken, the paper licenses
are only valid 20 days
from date of purchase. I decided to call
to inquire why it was taking
so long and they blamed me for the delay saying
that it was due to them
waiting for my copy of the diploma. Well,
when I finally got the plates
(coincidentally the very next day!), I looked
at the processing dates
and the date received read DEC 23, 1997.
Although I do not have the
exact date I gave them the copy of my diploma
recorded, I can assure you
it was well before the day before Christmas Eve.
The most recent, undoubtedly not the last, problem
with Gillman Honda is
the lack of concern on the General Manger's part.
The letter I sent him
is quite similar to this one, but I have yet
to receive any type of
response, positive or negative, from him.
I would like to think that
Honda or any of it's affiliates to be concerned
with the customer and
not just the customers' dollar. I would
appreciate any type of response
to my letter to at the very least let me know
that it was not just
shuffled or thrown away.
Sincerely,
John W. Mai