Tallahassee Capital Eurocar – The Saga of Suck – Part 3

And now the conclusion to Part 1 and Part 2.

Hopefully.

We dropped Kari’s Beetle off at Eurocar on September 20th for same problem we originally took in for: a bad throttle plate. At least that what the second opinion told us. This is when I started keeping really detailed records on the level of quality I was receiving from Capital Eurocar.

In my book they had already already dropped the ball on a service level. You bring in a car with a non-working A/C and the computer tells you it is a bad throttle plate. They give you the car back with a new throttle plate and the A/C still doesn’t work. Instead of actually troubleshooting the issue, lets just assume the entire A/C unit is bad and replace the whole thing. Folks, after working in an industry for 10 years where the driving factor of business is to provide a quality product AND quality service…this is not acceptable. I’ve fixed many a computer and lots of bugs in code for people I didn’t really like. However, the customer is always right and you need to go the extra mile to make sure something is working before you hand said product back to the customer. It’s that easy peoples. Customer satisfaction. Quality. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Anyways, this should speak for itself:

• 09/20/2007 – We dropped off the car and Eurocar said they would look at it tomorrow and call us.
• 10/04/2007 – 1:23 PM – Called for a status update. Service department said the tech had been out sick all week. He just got back in and should be looking at the car right now. Will call back tomorrow by lunch.
• 10/08/2007 – 3:55 PM – Called Service department, left voice message. No response.
• 10/10/2007 – 4:36 PM – Called again. Eurocar is bringing down a specialist from VW. Will call back tomorrow by lunch.
• 10/16/2007 – 4:05 PM – Called Service department, left voice message. No response.
• 10/16/2007 – 4:12 PM – Called General Manager, left voice message.
• 10/16/2007 – 5:06 PM – Service department returned call. Said his tech was out of pocket (traveling and must be in a cell phone dead zone) and didn’t know what the status was. He said they had layoffs and techs quitting…they were down on man power.
• 10/16/2007 – 5:15 PM – General Manager called back and apologized for lack of service. He was going to talk to the Service department, get some background on the situation, and call me back.
• 10/16/2007 – 6:17 PM – Service Manager called and said they would look at the car first thing in the morning. He would call me with a status update around Noon. If the car was not fixed by the end of the day, he would get me a loaner, either something from the lot or a rental.
• 10/18/2007 – 8:35 AM – I left a voice message with the General Manager since no one called me yesterday.
• 10/18/2007 – 10:17 AM – Service Manager called and apologized for not calling me yesterday. Said he was with a salesman for most of the day. He said they were currently driving the car and will call me back no later than 11:30 AM today with a status update. If not fixable today, will provide transportation.
• 10/18/2007 – 1:04 PM – Service Manager called, still working on car and need to order parts. Their internet is down and they can’t check on the availability of parts. We need to come by before 6:00 PM today to get a rental car.
• 10/18/2007 – 5:30 PM – Capital Eurocar provided a rental through Enterprise.

Eurocar called on October 24th to say the car was ready to be picked up. The problem: a bad control module. Apparently it was sending a bad signal between the throttle plate, A/C, and computer. So the car’s computer thought the throttle plate was bad and the A/C wouldn’t turn on. The cost? Brace yourself: $1500.

We went to Eurocar on the 25th to pickup the car…over two months since the problems started. We tried to get them to credit us the $750 for the previous throttle plate replacement. It seemed to me that they charged us for a working part since the faulty control module was causing it to be reported as bad. But oh no. They ran a diagnostic on the original throttle plate and it fried as well. So all we got was the car back and an emptier wallet.

Until they pulled the car around for us to leave. When Kari got in her car to leave and turned it on…the check engine light came on. Let me just say that my sweet, innocent, darlin’ wife was ready to burn that place down and kill everyone execution style. She’s awesome like that. We went back inside, complained about their lack of quality, and told them to fix whatever is wrong free of charge. Needless to say, we left in the rental.

Turns out something in the car, I think it was that control module, needed a firmware upgrade. They did that on Friday (the next day) and delivered car to Kari’s work that afternoon….where the remote key less entry didn’t work. We’re not sure if the batteries died over the two month period or what. But in the end, they sent out a tech to replace the batteries on Monday and Kari had to stop by Eurocar to get the remote re-synced with car.

So I think that’s the end of our Eurocar saga of suck. Now all we need to do is get her a new radio.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Game Magazines – Then and Now.

Fold, Part II.

Airships, making a comeback.

Seeds of our Future.

How much of a movie freak are you?

Solving an argument by jumping out of a moving vehicle doesn’t make you the winner of the argument.