Cracking down on frivolus stealerships

[acklac7]

About 2 years ago I ran into a few problems with my 95’ Eldorado, Periodically the engine would get hot (240’s…NEVER overheated…Never lost coolant) and disengage the AC compressor. I took it in for service and the diagnosis was that the bolts had stripped and the fix was a new engine. I was told that there was no other fix, only option was to get a new/used engine. Well I didn’t buy their diagnosis, so I went and did some research. …And guess where I wound up? With the help of Guru, Scotty and others I was able to eventually get my engine timeserted. The repair was done under a (am) warranty, by the same dealership that had told me just weeks before that the repair WAS NOT covered under warranty and that the only fix was to purchase a new/used engine out of pocket… And to this day I question whether the bolts had indeed stripped…or was I (and the warranty company) just taken for a ride?…Anyway it seems as though more and more people are coming to this board posting similar scenarios: dealerships (likely) mis-diagnosing/representing the root cause of the customers problem…And I ask….how many others are out there that HAVEN’T come to this site? How many have paid $4000 to get their engine timeserted, when all it needs is a new water pump? And what do those people think/say about Cadillac as a whole? I also want to say that I am not trying to bash all dealerships; there is a “respected” dealership here in Columbus that I have heard nothing but good things about. However I believe there is a growing problem that needs to be addressed by somebody high up at GM…Maybe I’m wrong, maybe all luxury car dealerships “BS” the customer into paying for a $4000 repair….Even so I would expect more from a Cadillac dealership

[jschunke]

Frivolus. More like fleecing.

[acklac7]

Yea I guess "scandolous" or fleecing would have been a better word to use...Vocab isnt all there @ 1 in the morning

[navion]

How about incompetence in general. I can relate several stories of gross incompetence, ignorance, and downright lying about a local Caddy/Chevy dealership and a Pontiac/GMC dealership. North of here there is a Chevy dealership that is notorious for taking advantage of women (and some men) who come in and take a test drive. The salesman will ask if she will be trading in what she drove in. If the answer is yes, and they think that she is gullible enough, upon her return her car will be gone and they will say that they sold it! Then they try to make her believe that she signed the agreement when she signed for the test drive!

I personally had bought a new 1994 Chevy pick-up from them. I had traded in an 84 Blazer. I had signed all the papers, signed and turned over the title to the Blazer, moved my plates & belongings into the pick-up when the sales manager blocked the truck with another vehicle. He told me that they had made a mistake and needed another $2000.00. I argued with them to no avail. To make a long story short, I had to drive the Blazer home. I sued them and won a $3500 settlement & bought a new pickup at another dealership. I wrote to GM & complained, but never heard anything from them. The OWNER accused ME of trying to pull a fast one on THEM!

It is high time that GM takes action against these "STEALERSHIPS"! I have told anyone who has mentioned that they are car shopping to stay away from the above "stealership". If I hadn't been brought up with GM products, I would have most likely switched to a different manufacturer!

Watching the stock market lately shows that GM is in trouble. How much of it is brought on by the bad business practices of these rogue franchises? They talk about maintaining "Brand Loyalty"! One or two instances of this behavior, whether experienced first hand or heard of from others definitely has an effect on peoples buying habits!

I propose that GM establish a program like "secret shopper" and bring cars with known defects and let these suspect stealerships quote and possibly repair these cars. Then they can be graded on their veracity and competence.

Also each customer, should be given a postage paid form that they could take home, fill out following ANY transaction, whether it is a repair or purchase. They could use these to critique their experience directly to the GM division. THEN GM NEEDS TO ACT ON THEM!

I understand that there are "customers from hell" out there who would complain even if you gave them a free car. But those could be weeded out.

If GM got enough complaints about a particular dealership (or caught them themselves), they could impose sanctions on them in the wholesale discounting process that the dealer receives. NOTHING will get their attention faster than $$$$$!

And for gross incompetence and repeated transgressions, the franchise should be forfeit!

GM is in trouble. How much of it is due to peoples bad experiences with the shop. Remember the guy whose N* threw a rod while at idle? No responsibility taken by the dealership who had been into the engine previously.

GM's customer loyalty bas takes a big hit every time an incident like this happens. When an incident happens, the effect doesn't stop with the individual involved. He/She will tell everybody that they associate with about their experience, good and bad. I there are too many bad, that word gets around. Public perception of GM suffers as a result.

Britt

[acklac7]

"If GM got enough complaints about a particular dealership (or caught them themselves), they could impose sanctions on them in the wholesale discounting process that the dealer receives. NOTHING will get their attention faster than $$$$$!"

....I was once told that GM does impose sanctions via. avaliblilty/distribution of new vechicles. For example a dealership that gets numerous complaints is last in line for the 06' STS V's.....Even if it's true its not working.

Britt, "rogue franchises" is exactly the term I’m looking for. They are not true Cadillac dealerships, rather your "GM,HONDA,NISSAN...WE SELL IT ALL!" mega-dealers...They seem to have one thing on there mind....On the other hand there are your true Cadillac dealerships. They may sell/service some other GM vehicles but most of there revenue comes from Cadillac S&S. Think about your local Mercedes dealer....Does he sell Honda's,Nissan's and Mercedes on the same lot?...Or does he usually ONLY cater to Mercedes?

There probably are exceptions, but I would bet most authorized Mercedes dealerships work on/sell Mercedes and Mercedes only.

The formation of exclusive authorized service centers is one (of many) things that Cadillac needs to do in order to shift "up the line"...IMO. I truly believe Cadillac is on its way up, even though GM may be riding a roller coaster. However someone has to act on these "rouge dealerships" who are concerned with money and nothing else…. I don’t think GM understands how detrimental they are to Cadillac’s image…Maybe they do and there just isn’t an easy fix... Or maybe....

[67coupedeville]

Yea the Mercedes stealership in town here use to sell Suzuki automobiles, I use to work for another division of the conglomerate and at the Christmas party they had photos from around the year and it had a Mercedes salesman holding a Suzuki binder over the trash can, quite funny. But the Mercedes dealer here is not much better than any other dealer. They tried to tell us we needed pads and rotors on our 79 Mercedes when it only needed pads, the rotor were next to BRAND NEW! Keeping Cadillac in a separte part from the rest of GM would be a fantastic idea, I know that Lexus here in town had to build a new building next to the Toyota dealer as per Lexus Canada. They want to make sure people are not confused between a Camry and a Lexus ES 330...WHICH ARE THE SAME CAR! But I'm off on a rant, GM needs to clean itself up.

Spence