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View Full Version : Guelph city Mazda



Mitchell3
07-07-2011, 01:42 AM
If you ever want to get me aggravated, bring up Guelph city Mazda.. even from day one they we're slightly disappointing.

Going back to 2009 I don't remember so well as well as I didn't even technically buy the car, but there were issues with the price of my car. Everything leading up to signing the papers were great! Nice sales person very friendly. Bad breath the one day :chuckle. Once price came up though we were getting annoyed at how stubborn they were with the price. Car was a demo car with only 7000k, originally said over the phone 19000 or something. But when in to actually buy it, an additional something like 2 -3g worked its way in there.. We tried working them down but he either didn't budge or came down very little.

I didn't really have any problem with that, and my parents were okay with it as well. Where I started to have my frustrations were when I went in for services. When I got the car I was told first service is free. I went in and had to pay because apparently the service had been used, didn't matter it was MY first service, the first service on the car was already completed. It was their own demo car though so that is bs. They gave themselves a free service? Okay..

No issues for a while, the guy I usually got there was friendly, the one woman there always comes across as crabby to me though. Issues started arising again when I began to mod the car. I asked them to check my lights, they don't shine as bright as they used to. I had changed them to Nokyas and hadn't driven at night time for some time so I never realized the it was part of the problem. He said okay we'll look. Came back eventually saying we can't do anything with your bulbs. I asked why? They are aftermarket. No s*&% they are, how do you think they got there. Why cant you look at them..? They are aftermarket. :bang. While trying to explain to me, he started coming across as if he was angry with me. Not sure if its because I wasted the 3 minutes it took to look, or that I switched bulbs or something else. Rather uncomfortable conversation. He also said its like $50 an hour to do the work on the lights if you want to switch back to factory. Yeah okay.. I gave up on trying to understand why they couldn't do anything, especially since he was all worked up. He eventually came back to me again with the same information, but a little more calmly. Sad thing is, the bulbs were simply upside down.

So the most recent event with their service has inspired me to write this. I've been going all over the area TRYING to get this OEM spoiler thats used off the same year mazda 3 of my car installed. Can't be done by Mazda, you need the template and the hardware. Forbes had neither, kieswetter has templates. So I thought to myself heck its probably my least favourite dealer who will be able to do the job :chuckle. I phone them up, ask to speak with parts. I specifically tell them I have a used spoiler, no template, no hardware. "I dont see that being an issue""we should have the parts".
So then I get passed over to service where I get this lady. Tell her the same thing. She then has to pass me on because she had a cough attack lol. Tell it over again. Got it booked in.

Me and my mom, drive off for guelph which is about a 45 minute drive. We took off our work and the gas to get there. Dropped it off and back to the office. An hour later I get this ridicules voicemail. Word for word its kind of funny. He was so mixed up and countless ums and uhs. But again, didn't like the attitude in the message. "Hi mitchell, paul from GCM. We cannot do that. It needs 7-8 drill holes and thats too difficult without the template. Idk what your answer is but sorry cant do it." Said with a too bad so sad sort of attitude. I call back for the service manager, and of course on of those clowns who talk 90% of the time and listen 10. He was talking so fast and constantly cutting me off. At one point I told them I dont understand how you didn't know you couldn't do it. "because we didn't see the spoiler!" Dumbest excuse ever. I stopped trying to get across my points after that. I mean come on. OEM spoiler, I told you I only had the spoiler itself. YOU are the people that work for Mazda. Have you never even seen a mz3 spoiler? They should have asked when I was setting up the appointment HOW MANY DRILL HOLES. I wouldn't have had the info on me, but at least I could have gotten it, not wasted my time driving back and forth twice, my moms time driving back and forth twice, and the gas.

To be clear, Its okay by me they cannot install it. The fact they wasted my time by not being smart about this is what really bothers me. And even more the lack of respect given at times.

Willing to hear other sides of the argument from other mazda workers to share their views, but to me this is just bad customer service.

klspeed3
07-07-2011, 11:23 AM
based on your side of things, i'd have to agree with you. I hate wasting time/gas just to drive to Forbes lol, let alone all the way to Guelph and back...twice. I feel like there is a lack of communication between the service team and the mechanics at these dealerships, at least from my own experience anyway.

My advice - just take it elsewhere and get it installed...you don't need mazda to do it and it will probably end up being cheaper anyway.

Jeff-TheBiz
07-07-2011, 05:06 PM
Take it to a body shop.. they will install it.

In the dealerships defence, I doubt any dealer would have the template from a previous model year spoiler.

Mitchell3
07-07-2011, 06:40 PM
Yeah I understood that as well. I was told templates are only available through brand new spoilers.

Its the fact after telling them my complete situation that I had no template, telling me they could do it without one, and then say no cant do it without the template.

I picked up the screws though, and will give kieswetter their shot at it since another local member was able to get their installed that way.

FUB4R3D
08-06-2011, 12:42 PM
If you ever want to get me aggravated, bring up Guelph city Mazda.. even from day one they we're slightly disappointing.

I would +1 that to the end of time. I didn't purchase from them, but as they are the closest dealer to me and I can get a ride to work with a buddy, I normally take it there for any warranty work. "Paul" has the customer service skills of a kindergarten teacher; everything is always A-OK, I shouldn't worry about anything, and my car is just "tightly wound" (If I hear that one more time, I may lose it). The service lady, whose name I can't remember, has always been really easy to deal with and very knowledgeable, so no complaints about her from me.

Even things as small as requesting a service be done don't happen when requested. I have asked 4 times for them to replace my cabin air filter (I have the filter already). Each time they will not call me through the day and when I come pick it up, they tell me that if I want to bring it in again, the cabin air filter will be $118... These are also booked appointments, no drop ins. Also, while it may not reflect their workmanship, in the past 13 months they have replaced the belt tensioner 4 times. Each time I ask for a call around noon in case I can make it up there on lunch so that I don't have to ask a coworker to go out of their way to drop me off. Each time, I get no call even if I wait until 4:00 for the call. I have to call them to get details about my car, which are mostly "Oh, it's been done for a couple hours now, you can come and get it".

My most recent lack-luster experience with GCM was on Tuesday. I had previously brought the car in (while still in the 36mo/80km - 57.6km and about 35 months when it went in) complaining of suspension that was about to start spraying oil (but not yet dripping), overly harsh rebound in the rear and overall pool noodle-esque handling around corners from the rear. Paul fielded the initial call for a service appointment back in May when I was first reporting the issue and gave me the usual kindergarten teacher attitude that he knew better, but still booked the appointment. Upon pickup I got the usual canned Paul line that my car is just tightly wound, don't worry about it, blah blah blah. Fast forward 2 months and both rear shocks are raining oil. I booked it back in and explained my issue to Paul, whose first words were "Oh, well it's out of warranty now...", which I understand is technically correct, but I am still 15k under the 80k that these POS shocks are supposed to be good for and 2 months over the monthly limit, but I reported the issue within warranty and they did squat with it at the time. As I expected, GCM would do nothing to work with me like many other non-Mazda dealerships have done for friends and myself on previous occasions with very similar problems. I declined the work ($475ish for both rears, installed) in favour of going with Koni Sports that won't go belly up every 55k and was rather displeased when I went to pickup the car. It is a small miracle that Paul wasn't there to tell me that I don't need to worry about anything, that it's all A-OK, and that I drive a tightly wound car.

I wish I could afford to take my car to another dealer for any work on the remaining MAP warranty (good until 160k/May 23rd, 2015), but I have a limited number of vacation days per year. Overall, I would give them a 3/10 (Would have been 4, but my ODBII logger + Torque on my phone that I accidentally left in the car has reported some spirited test driving on their parts).

/rant