Kevin Wenrich

Taking my business elsewhere responded

Its always surprising how some people don't have the time to do their jobs when they are supposed to but then have all the time in the world to spend justifying themselves later. The service person in this little drama called me after I submitted the review above, ostensibly to see “how to make this right.” I didn't realize at first that “make things right” is code for “getting you to take down the review that we solicited from you but now don't want anyone else to see.” I told her in that call that posting the response above — that is intentionally misleading and largely beside the point — was not going to make thing right, and that if she (or her manager, who evidently wrote the response but otherwise ghosted the situation) did not correct the reply for accuracy, then I would. This situation was so minor and what went wrong is so obvious that it shouldn’t need explaining, but apparently it does: On January 17 the dealership made an appointment with me for January 25 to replace a recall part on my car . The person who offered that appointment told me that the parts were backordered but then double checked while we were on the phone (i.e., he was helpful) and found one lone part, which he put aside with my name on it. However, when I got to the dealership on January 25 and said I was there for the recall, the service desk person merely looked up from her desk and said that the parts were backordered and that she would let me know when they came in so I could book another appointment. Then she basically waited for me to leave. Had she bothered to pay even a bit of attention, she might have questioned why a colleague had made an appointment to replace a part at a time when the whole department knew that the part was generally unavailable, and that in turn might have motivated her to get off her chair and simply check on why that had been done. Had that happened, the mystery would have been solved and she wouldn’t then have had the occasion (or the nerve) to opine that it was “no big deal” that I had blocked out half day and took a 40-mile drive for nothing. It was only after she had waved me away and I was back in my car leaving that someone else in the service department figured out what had happened and came running outside with the part in a bag with my name on it. At that point, if the service person had just reappeared and mumbled something appropriate like “sorry I didn’t check on the situation until after I sent you away. . . I won’t do that again! #teachablemoment” or anything remotely similar, you wouldn’t be reading this. Her initial “can’t be bothered to be helpful” attitude and subsequent judgment on the value of my time were what I objected to, but you don’t see any mention of that in the self-serving response crafted by her manager. Instead, the response focuses solely on the fact that the car ultimately got serviced. But even that is distorted and misleading. Yes, I came in “before [the dealership] called me”, but that’s because no one was ever going to call me in the first place, as they had no reason to. As for the "offer" to pick the car up when the part became available and deliver it back to me? That would have been a nice offer indeed, but in fact it was never made. And no, the service department didn’t just “manage to locate a part”; a technician who had the part with my name on it realized that I had been sent away in error and ran out to help. As for the insinuation that the department performed extra service for me than just replacing the recall part, well, that’s just fiction. You “fixed a software issue”? I asked the technician to put some air in the rear tires because the tire pressure warning light had come on. So the air went in and the warning light went off. Software fix?! Kind of a stretch. And you “detailed” my car? Hmmmm . . . yes, you washed the car . . . . just like you (and every luxury car showroom) does for every car that it services. It’s a standard perk you offer, not a personal favor. As for the record time you did the work in, well, what are you trying to claim credit for there? It just wasn’t a lengthy job! And if you did rush it? Well, I don’t think anyone wants a service department to rush through a safety recall repair, even if you really believe you’re being heroic. In our “make it right” conversation, the service person did ultimately apologize because I was “upset” . . . but in the same breath just couldn’t resist also telling me that my perceptions here were and continue to be wrong, wrong, wrong, that “your reality is your reality” (which I think roughly translates to “you’re out of touch with reality”), that “you only hear what you want to hear” (i.e., "you’re really wrong"), and that “I don’t have any motive to lie” (oops, now you’re wrong). I am left wondering how I have managed to live for almost 70 years — and practice law successfully for 40 of them — without ever understanding my own delusional nature until I was schooled about it by a complete stranger working at the Herb Chambers service desk! Auspicious encounter for me? Or just more rude aggro? Oh, and the comment about my 40-mile trip not being a big deal? Well, according to the service person, she only meant that I was lucky that I wasn’t one of their customers who drive all the way down from New Hampshire or other more remote places that would have made a futile trip to Sudbury just that much more annoying and inconvenient. So in other words, never mind that I screwed up . . . it could have been much, much worse! So in case you still don’t get why this little episode is an example of customer relations that was bungled at every turn, here’s the takeaway: People at service desks should be helpful and polite when the customer is standing at the service desk (particularly when it looks like you screwed something up), and not after you send them away. And . . . if someone else salvages the situation, their good work doesn’t excuse your own feckless behavior. If you have been neither helpful nor polite, you should simply apologize and not harangue the customer about why you are right. Oh, and there is one other lesson here that would help everyone: Don't solicit customers to spend their own valuable time writing reviews — especially when they have already indicated dissatisfaction — unless you're willing to respond with honesty and sincerity rather than deflection and defensiveness. In other words, don’t ask for a trophy unless you’ve actually earned it first.