The Consumer Complaints Blog

I had recently had a bad experience with the Service side of Vickar Community Chevrolet in Winnipeg Manitoba.

I had made 3 appointments to get warranty work done on my vehicle, and had the first appointment canceled because when i called earlier that day to see if i had rent-a-car coverage with my warranty. The gentleman on the other end said ” we don’t have any technicians here at that time”
to which i replied ” why would you make me an appointment at that time if you don’t have any staff there?”
He had no answer but apologized and re-booked me for the following week, which was completely fine with me.

The next appointment i had my father drop off the car two hours earlier than my previous appointment time. He was sent away with the explanation that ” the work that we need to do on your vehicle will take too much time to complete before the end of the day”. I just didn’t understand why they didn’t put me in a rent-a-car for that one night?? considering the fact that my warranty covers a rent-a-car if my vehicle is tied up over night.
So when i returned home that night after work to find my vehicle in my driveway, i was not impressed.
I picked up the phone and let Vickar Community Chevrolet know that i was very unimpressed with there service that they have/haven’t provided to me. they then apologized again and re booked me for the following Tuesday.

When i came in on Tuesday morning there was a line up of cars so i parked in the parking lot because if i would have lined up i would have been blocking the entrance to the dealership. So while inside i waited for 10 minutes before a “service advisor” spoke to me and asked where my car was. I told him it was out in the lot because i couldn’t park behind the other vehicles for the reason that i would be blocking the entrance. Well he didn’t understand that i guess and told me to park there anyway and wait till someone let me in.
8:30 rolls around and I’m finished with the paper work and now sitting in a small room with 10 other people which they called the “lounge”. After waiting for a whole hour for my shuttle to take me home i realized that i might be waiting a while. So in that instant i called a friend to come pick me up because now i was teetering on being late for work. My friend showed up so i went to the front where i had given my name for the shuttle and told them that i had got my own shuttle and if the shuttle wasn’t in operation when i come pick up my car could they please let me know. By the time i had gotten to work i was 30 mins late.

1:30 pm i get a call from the “service advisor” that my vehicle had been checked over and is ready for me to pick up. I asked him at that point if he could check the pressure in my back passenger tire because for a while it was loosing pressure. He agreed and he said he’d call me back after that was done.

4:00 pm i get a call again from the “service advisor” telling me that everything was complete for what they could do for that day and they can get the shuttle to pick me up. I asked if they could pick me up at 530 because I knew that they close at 6 and i could get off work a little early to pick up my car. He “advised” me that the shuttle could not pick me up at that time because ” they don’t run at that time”. I replied ” why don’t all of your services run within your hours of operation?” He didn’t have an answer for me. I told him i would try to get out of work early and be ready for the next available shuttle.

So when i finally arrived at the dealership that night i found out that they had only lubed the gear shifter and glued a piece in my trunk. ya that’s it! the whole day and they glued and lubed something!
At that point i told him to cancel everything he had ordered for my vehicle and that i was done doing business with this service dept. and that I’ve had the worst experience dealing with them than i had had anywhere else that offers customer service…including fast food!
He then went and spoke with his manager and they cleared everything up so that i wouldn’t be charged for anything that they did on my vehicle that day. (first decent thing they’ve done for me)
After, he reminded me that the tire that was loosing pressure wouldn’t be covered anywhere else but Vickar. I declined the offer and told him i still was not going to be having any service done here. He gave me my keys and i walked out to my car…but to only find one more surprise.

I let my vehicle warm up and then backed out. But when i backed out of the spot i heard a strange almost rubbing noise. I thought it was just the parking lot and i was going to try it on the road and see how it sounds. Nope, still the same noise. I put my four ways on and got out of my vehicle, walked around to the back and discovered that they had put a donut on my vehicle!

I got back into my vehicle and reversed it back to the service doors and walked inside and exclaimed “HEY WHO AUTHORIZED YOU TO PUT A DONUT ON MY CAR!” (and even when we went over the work order and he told me nothing of them replacing my tire with the donut.)
He told me ” well the tire was in the trunk”.
“no it isn’t, why would i be back in here if it was!!!”
He then ran to the back and rolled out my tire and rim for me.
“and now you can go put it back on my car” i said.
So then he got a technician to take my car into the back and put my tire back on and my donut back in my car and i was out of there.

At no point throughout this whole ordeal was i ever offered any type of compensation for my wasted time and money. All i wanted was my vehicle and needs to be taken care of…which it was certainly not.

…. a side note is that i am 22 years old. wonder if that had anything to do with it.

I also wanted to add that i had a great experience buying my vehicle from Vickar Community Chevrolet in Winnipeg. Its just too bad the service side of business cost them all of my business.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.