Originally Posted by
cdnlad75
Hello Fellow Mazda Owners,
I thought I would take a moment to share the latest experiences with the service department at Gyro Mazda. I purchased my 2010 Mazda3 Sport GX hatchback at another Mazda dealer, Avante Mazda in Richmond Hill, and had probably one of the most pleasant purchase experiences ever in purchasing a car. However, due to living in mid-town Toronto, I found it rather time consuming to travel to Richmond Hill to continue getting my car serviced there. Hence, I decided to start taking my car to Gyro Mazda located in mid-town Toronto.
The first few services went without incident until November 2010. I was sitting in the customer lounge and watched the mechanic bring my car around. As he was backing up my car (in front of my face), he completely missed the parking spot and scrapped the rear bumper against the neighbouring Mazda RX8 that was in the other spot. Of course I freaked out and informed my service advisor that there was an accident in the parking lot with my car. Gyro Mazda agreed to fix my car (as I would expect) and also gave me a free rental car for the day. I went to pick up my car the next day and I was asked to pay for the service that had been performed to my car prior to their accident. I said if I was going to pay for the service then I will not be coming back here because I feel that the service should be considered a courtesy considering my car has now been de-valued in the hands of your dealership. They agreed and did not charge me for my service.
A few more service visits occurred without incident until last month.
I visited Gyro Mazda for my 32 month service and I asked them to look at the glove box which was making squeaking noises going over bumps. Now, my assumption was that looking at the glove box would be considered covered under warranty since the car still had warranty left on it prior the additional 3 years of MAP warranty I purchased kicked in.
When the car was ready I picked it up and noticed there was a charge of $30.00 for fixing the glove box. I asked the service advisor why was there a charge for this and he said he did not know and would speak to the service manager. The advsior came back to inform me that this was considered a 'service adjustment' and hence is chargeable. I asked if would not have been proper procedure to inform the customer that there would be a charge for this work before the work was done? The advisor seemed almost apologetic and said he has never seen this before. Being late for work, I left the dealership and called the service manager later in the afternoon. The manager said that if they perform labour to fix something and do not replace a part that it is considered a service adjustment and is not covered under Mazda warranty. I said owning a Ford and a Honda prior to this Mazda, I had never heard of this thing called a 'service adjustment', however should I not have been informed that there would be a charge for this? He danced around it and would not agree with me I should have been informed ahead of time. I told the service manager that coming to his dealership for work is like gambling, I could come out of the dealership with everything covered under warranty OR I could walk out of there with a $1,000 bill because I have NO SAY in what repairs are done to my car. He basically agreed with me to my shock!!
I then asked if we could split the cost because the mechanic spent 15 minutes repairing my glove box and I need to go and spent 15 minutes cleaning off the finger prints and excess spray that was left all over the interior and exterior of the glove box. The manager said he wanted to see the glove box if I could come back to the dealership another day to show him, to which I agreed to bring the car back to show him.
After I had my conversation with the service manager, I noticed that there was damage to upper passenger door frame where it looked like paint had been chipped off. Of course I was furious as this was the second time in less than 2 years that Gyro Mazda had damaged my vehicle.
I took the car back to Gyro to show the manager the damage and the glove box. He said that the glove box was left in an unacceptable condition but he did not want to take ownership of the damage. I informed him the his mechanic was the last person to go into the passenger seat and that based on the condition the glove box was left in, the mechanic could have easily accidentally hit the door and scrapped off what I later found out was weather stripping tape around the passenger door.
However, like everything, Gyro Mazda did not have the special tape required to do the repair so I had to come back another day after they had ordered the special tape. Keep in mind that at this point I have not received a single sorry or apology from anyone at Gyro Mazda for all of this inconvenience.
I made an appointment at 8AM (because that was the only available morning appointment) to bring the car in and drop it off for the day. Around 1:30PM, I get a cal from the service advisor who informed me that they tried to fix my door but screwed up and that I would have to bring the car back AGAIN, after they got the special tape in AGAIN, so that they can try and repair the door again. After I left work early to go and pick up my car (because the service area closes at 6PM on everyday but Thursday), I asked the advisor why the mechanic tried to do work that I would have thought would require a body shop. I was informed that the mechanic thought he could do the work, but as it turns out he couldn't so we have to try again. AGAIN, NO APOLOGY. Now I was very angry and went to see the dealerships general manager.
After waiting about 10 minutes for the general manager to finish his car deal, I told him my whole story of how my car was damaged twice in his dealerships staff and how they tried to make a repair but failed and that I wanted the money back for the glove box repair because I believed that the money was earned through deceit. The general manager said that it is normal practice to inform the customer that a charge would apply before the work was done, however because we were only talking about $30.00, that it was probably an oversight on the service manager's part. So I said since it was an oversight, I wanted to get my money back, he said he would need to talk to the service manager. I finally got an apology from the general manager for all of this inconvenience, but only AFTER I asked him for one, which to me doesn't count!!!
I dropped off the car AGAIN upon the agreement that the body shop was going to do the repair. I had to leave the car all day and when I came to pick up the car, the repair had been done to my satisfactory, however there was a screw driver left on the passenger side windshield ready to become a projectile if I had driven off the lot without noticing it first. I returned their screw driver to the service advisor who basically seemed surprised, but like everyone else at that dealership, very unapologetic for this.
The incompetence level of this dealership is beyond comprehension. However, the incompetence also comes with attitude which makes dealing with this particular Mazda dealership an experience I do not want to repeat anywhere else.
In the end, I did not get my $30.00 back for the glove box repair even though the service manager called the cost 'negligible' and the general manager called the cost an 'oversight' because they truly only care about getting your money.
I am sure there are others out there that have their cars damaged by this dealership. I am sure the owner of the Mazda RX8 whose front bumper got scratched by car may never know that his car was damaged in the lot because of the quickness they drove it to their body shop after the damage was done.
If you want to deal with this dealership, be forewarned that my experiences could very easily happen to you !