Avante Mazda Richmond Hill -- The Gold Standard in Dealerships

[2013 GS-L]

Hi TM3 forum users,

I want to call attention to the fact that the Avante Mazda Service department is absolutely stellar! These guys/gals should run a clinic on customer service/satisfaction!

A little history; I purchased a brand new 2013 Mazda 3 GS-L in March 2013 from a different York Region Mazda dealership. My experience in the service department at that dealership was nothing short of disparaging. Without going into any detail, I was treated with such disdain, that I left feeling insulted, belittled and border-line verbally abused.

Fast forward to April 2014....
A friend of mine recommended I go to Avante Mazda in Richmond Hill; the best advice anyone could offer! Everyone in the service/reception area was amazingly cheery and very polite. On the 4 occasions I have been there, I dealt with 3 very respectful and professional gentlemen: Devin Crowe, Vincent Chow and Aaron Yorke. Long story short, they all went above and beyond to offer what I consider to be amazing customer service.

I dealt with Aaron on several occasions and by far, he is the kindest and most understanding shop foreman I have met to date. In one instance, he went out of his way to help identify a problem that I was unable to recreate after a half hour of driving. The part was deemed to be failing and fell under the new vehicle warranty. It was ordered and replaced shortly thereafter.

On my most recent visit to the dealership, I had the pleasure of meeting Ted Patsakos, the service division manager. He took the 'bull by the horns' and presented a solution to the outstanding problem I have had with this vehicle since the day after purchasing the car. Even after months of discussions back and forth with Mazda Canada head office last year, they were unable to shed light on the situation, much less provide a solution....

I realize that this post is somewhat long, however I felt it necessary to recognize and commend the superb team at Avante Mazda for their exemplary customer service. This is a dealership experience I feel everyone should be privy to and for that reason I will always recommend and speak highly of Avante Mazda to colleagues/friends/people in the future.

Sincerely,

An extremely satisfied customer

[Scottobot]

http://imghumour.com/assets/Uploads/A-bit-young-but-seems-legit.jpg

[proDJtege]

user has one post.. hmmm... I second the...

http://www.mullet.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Seems+legit+_77813742ca6119209213b022fd3aba5a.jpg

[Tozer]

Hah gay

[5_Alive]

loki

Possible lock/explanation of thread from OP?

[S.F.W.]

I will say it is odd that a dealer would register an account in August of 2013, only to shill themselves almost 9 months later...odd.

could be legit.

[Jackal]

Come back 2013 GS-L and tell us this is legit.

[loki]

Question: if it was a post complaining about the service would anyone wonder whether or not the post is legit?

Maybe let's just get used to the idea that people sometimes have nice things to say and report

For a dealer to create an account just to make themselves look good would be pretty stupid

I'm trying to be positive for once. We'll see if the OP comes back to forum and is active, if not their post legit or not was useless

[2013 GS-L]

Come back 2013 GS-L and tell us this is legit.
Good morning TM3 forum,

I'm quite surprised that the authenticity of my post is being questioned. I started my account in August 2013 after having not only a negative experience with Mazda Canada, but also with the dealership from whom I purchased the car. I registered with TM3 in hopes of finding posts that would substantiate my negative experience at the dealership where I purchased the car. I found numerous posts to that effect.

A friend of mine from Richmond Hill Anytime Fitness, suggested I try Avante Mazda's service department. The service was night and day compared to the other York region dealership and I felt it was necessary to call attention to the fact that there still are reputable/honest dealerships around. I figured my post might help someone avoid the tribulations I went through for the first 5 months after purchasing my car.

If anyone would like to meet me in person, I will be at Avante Mazda tomorrow (Wednesday, May 21) @ 7:30 am and again, Thursday May 22 @ 5:00 pm.

Thank you

[2013 GS-L]

user has one post.. hmmm... I second the...

http://www.mullet.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Seems+legit+_77813742ca6119209213b022fd3aba5a.jpg

I apologize proDJtege, I should have 315 posts, a tenth of which are remotely informative & useful. I use TM3 as an informational resource and decided to post something when I felt it was warranted. I wish I were as lucky as you and could spend my days trawling websites..........

[homieG]

Hi TM3 forum users,

I want to call attention to the fact that the Avante Mazda Service department is absolutely stellar! These guys/gals should run a clinic on customer service/satisfaction!

A little history; I purchased a brand new 2013 Mazda 3 GS-L in March 2013 from a different York Region Mazda dealership. My experience in the service department at that dealership was nothing short of disparaging. Without going into any detail, I was treated with such disdain, that I left feeling insulted, belittled and border-line verbally abused.

Fast forward to April 2014....
A friend of mine recommended I go to Avante Mazda in Richmond Hill; the best advice anyone could offer! Everyone in the service/reception area was amazingly cheery and very polite. On the 4 occasions I have been there, I dealt with 3 very respectful and professional gentlemen: Devin Crowe, Vincent Chow and Aaron Yorke. Long story short, they all went above and beyond to offer what I consider to be amazing customer service.

I dealt with Aaron on several occasions and by far, he is the kindest and most understanding shop foreman I have met to date. In one instance, he went out of his way to help identify a problem that I was unable to recreate after a half hour of driving. The part was deemed to be failing and fell under the new vehicle warranty. It was ordered and replaced shortly thereafter.

On my most recent visit to the dealership, I had the pleasure of meeting Ted Patsakos, the service division manager. He took the 'bull by the horns' and presented a solution to the outstanding problem I have had with this vehicle since the day after purchasing the car. Even after months of discussions back and forth with Mazda Canada head office last year, they were unable to shed light on the situation, much less provide a solution....

I realize that this post is somewhat long, however I felt it necessary to recognize and commend the superb team at Avante Mazda for their exemplary customer service. This is a dealership experience I feel everyone should be privy to and for that reason I will always recommend and speak highly of Avante Mazda to colleagues/friends/people in the future.

Sincerely,

An extremely satisfied customer

Thanks for the review 2013 GS-L! I will relay the msg to our Service Department. I am sure this will make their Tuesday!! We do try to operate very differently than your traditional dealerships and actually take pride in providing good customer service in ALL our departments.

We look forward to seeing you again when you car is due for service! :)

Cheers!

[format_windows]

My experience with the service manager at Avante was totally opposite. Wait until you stop feeding their wallets and try to get what you have paid for. You will see then how they test you.
I just had the experience last week and will be posting it for the members benefit and caution.

[2013 GS-L]

My experience with the service manager at Avante was totally opposite. Wait until you stop feeding their wallets and try to get what you have paid for. You will see then how they test you.
I just had the experience last week and will be posting it for the members benefit and caution.

Hey format_windows,

Remember the old saying, you catch more bees with honey than you do vinegar...... Go in with a positive attitude and a smile and I would be surprised if they didn't reciprocate.

I haven't fed their wallets once, to use your turn-of-phrase and I've had my car there 4 times already. Each time they have driven me to and from Newmarket; completely outside their pick up/drop-off area. I've gotten much more than what I paid for and I didn't even purchase my Mazda from them. I didn't think there was much more they could do to go above and beyond their already great service, but I was pleasantly surprised again this morning. I dropped off my car this morning and not only was everyone surprisingly chipper at 7:20 am, the shop foreman came out to see how I was doing and to top it all off, they gave me a car to use while my car is in the shop; at NO COST to me whatsoever.

I'm interested to hear the details about your experience.

Cheers

[format_windows]

Didn't want to reply to this thread and wanted to start a fresh one so everyone us aware. Which I will once I get a chance. Here the review that I posted on Google for them.



Didn't like the service and the way they treat customers unfairly. Warning don't buy any extra service from them. Had bought Mazda 3 from Avante with 10 years rust proof warranty. $6xx plus tax. The car is now 8 years old and has started to show some rust. I may have missed two (one in the early years and second one because they sent me to get rust spots fixed under Mazda Canada warranty not the one I paid for) of inspection however my last one was done properly where they didn't find any problem. The rust must have built up in last year and was found in the inspection last week. The service manager wasn't there at the time of inspection therefore i was explained about my couple of missed inspection but was assured that something will be done once they speak to the service manager. i was expecting positive result as my last rust inspection came out perfect with no issues and was done less than a year ago. I never got a call from the service manager and when i called i was told they left me a voicemail. God knows where as i came home and checked all my voice mails there was none. Anyways long story short he said he is not even going to try and pursue my claim with the company that did rust proofing as i had missed one or two rust checks both missed ones were few years back and more were done recently where they didn't find any rust. I even explained that the there was nothing detected in the last inspection what works have been found in the two missed one years ago... He said he will have to break it down for me for me to understand it.. There is no logic to this. He also told me he would have try to do something if i was their regular service customer. Which I found it unfair. I was their service costumer for the first five years until the Mazda warranty expired and then it wasn't worth it for me to drive 45 mins just for oil change. I live in Scarborough. After five years I only went there for today check. To me the rust proofing money was wasted and had no value and the dealership didn't behave the same with me now vs. When I bought the car from them. I am sorry but I feel everyone should be aware of how this dealership treats customer once they stop to feed their wallets...

[format_windows]

Also to your comment that you don't pay for anything, you may not be paying from your pocket Mazda is on your behalf. Allah I use to get ride till finch station when my car was in during warranty or service appointments.

I am not trying to say you are wrong just making everyone sweetie of the attitude change once the honey changes to vinegar.

I was planning to buy another Mazda will not be from Avante...

[proDJtege]

OP: please understand... we see your initial post as either
a) troll attempt
b) a post meant to make Avante look great, and only great, as conveniently, the "York Region negative experience dealership" was not mentioned, and it seems as though you wrote down the names of the people working there (who does that? unless you work for them?), and to boot, mostly followed essay format for the post.

I've had service from them before and yes, they're good (sometimes), but if we all started letting ("potential") employees of dealerships do nothing but post ONLY about how good ONE dealership is, with more than obvious bias, then our forum, as a whole will lose credibility as a place for honest feedback. Get a look at our Sponsor section... it's filled with simple, concise feedback about sponsors that do great work and also bad work. If you had pointed out the dealership that gave you a rough time beforehand, they would benefit from this as perhaps constructive feedback and improve. You've chosen to give unhelpful and biased feedback, which helps only the pockets of Avante.

Let's also not ignore the fact that in a later post you made sure to point out "Richmond Hill Anytime Fitness" more than obviously. I wouldn't be surprised if there were shared business card holders at both businesses. If either business needs advertising, don't INVADE word of mouth, instead earn it, or go pay for real advertising.

Our response to your initial post is meant (at least from me) to be in good humour and nothing more. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the whole community were to question the validity of your post, but just won't say so.

I won't defend myself to a comment directed at me. There's no point to feeding internet flame.

[2013 GS-L]

OP: please understand... we see your initial post as either
a) troll attempt
b) a post meant to make Avante look great, and only great, as conveniently, the "York Region negative experience dealership" was not mentioned, and it seems as though you wrote down the names of the people working there (who does that? unless you work for them?), and to boot, mostly followed essay format for the post.

I've had service from them before and yes, they're good (sometimes), but if we all started letting ("potential") employees of dealerships do nothing but post ONLY about how good ONE dealership is, with more than obvious bias, then our forum, as a whole will lose credibility as a place for honest feedback. Get a look at our Sponsor section... it's filled with simple, concise feedback about sponsors that do great work and also bad work. If you had pointed out the dealership that gave you a rough time beforehand, they would benefit from this as perhaps constructive feedback and improve. You've chosen to give unhelpful and biased feedback, which helps only the pockets of Avante.

Let's also not ignore the fact that in a later post you made sure to point out "Richmond Hill Anytime Fitness" more than obviously. I wouldn't be surprised if there were shared business card holders at both businesses. If either business needs advertising, don't INVADE word of mouth, instead earn it, or go pay for real advertising.

Our response to your initial post is meant (at least from me) to be in good humour and nothing more. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the whole community were to question the validity of your post, but just won't say so.

I won't defend myself to a comment directed at me. There's no point to feeding internet flame.

proDJtege:

I appreciate you putting together a well-worded post. After reading through a number of your posts in other threads, you must've been up all night working at this.....

It is of no consequence to me how you interpret my initial post; everyone can take it how they may. You are correct however, in that the post was meant to make Avante Mazda look great.

I'm not sure what you were taught growing up, but in my household, I was taught never to speak negatively about anyone. Hence my lack of explicit details in regards to the other York region Mazda Dealership. I would rather emphasize the good in this world over the bad. If you (could) read between the lines, you would put where I'm from and the fact that it is a town in York Region together and come to a fairly reasonable assumption who the other dealer is. I gave this other dealership more than a fair chance to act on constructive feedback and improve their service, with no result.

The fact that I remember names of people I deal with and post using correct sentence structure and grammar, albeit not the "norm" these days, is no reason to assume I work for or wish to work for a dealership-- Avante in this circumstance. To quote a Dale Carnegie principle, "the nicest sound in any language, is someone's name", which is why it is critically important to remember names when dealing with people; in a business environment or not, the principle holds true. You might want to give this a shot as your relationships may fair better.......

You've made quite a few assumptions in your last post, none of which have any credible evidence. I gave the option to anyone that wanted to meet me in person and legitimize the authenticity of my claim, 2 separate times I would be at this dealership in the near future. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see you there Wednesday morning at 7:30 am, nor do I to believe I will see you there today at 5:00 pm.

I see how mentioning the name of a fitness club could be misconstrued as advertising; someone looking for the negative will always find it. Instead, try and see the positive in everything and you may live a happier and possibly more fulfilling life.

Lastly, I'm not sure where you learned to write essays, but proper essays will follow the introduction-body-conclusion format. As you're not clear on what each of these sections denote, I suggest you google 'essay format' and you'll see that my initial post does not have a proper: introduction, topic sentence for each paragraph, nor conclusion. That being said, an essay isn't a bad way to convey ideas in a clear and concise manner. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Keep up the good work

[Scottobot]

I'm quite surprised that the authenticity of my post is being questioned.

Please don't be. This being the internet, nobody has any idea who's typing these posts (unless you're an active member of the community, and/or have met members in person at meets or other social functions). Usually when we see a rave review (or a scathing negative one) from someone who has only one post it's a red flag. I remember one occasion we saw a number of glowing reviews on a shop on a series of accounts where that was their only post, and with some sleuthing it was determined that the shop itself was creating accounts and posting fake reviews to promote themselves. That's all. Don't take it personally.


I apologize proDJtege, I should have 315 posts, a tenth of which are remotely informative & useful... I wish I were as lucky as you and could spend my days trawling websites..........


proDJtege:

I appreciate you putting together a well-worded post. After reading through a number of your posts in other threads, you must've been up all night working at this.....


If you (could) read between the lines...


I'm not sure what you were taught growing up, but in my household, I was taught never to speak negatively about anyone

What were you taught about thinly veiled insults?


You might want to give this a shot as your relationships may fair better.......

Should be "fare" not "fair".

[proDJtege]

2013 GS-L:

1. Is this your first time posting anything on the internet?

2. Is it possible you are the be-all end-all of well-brought-up gentlemen in the history of car owners?

3. Are you able to read internet forums posts (which bear minimal impact on anything) without bias?

4. Do you really think we all judge everyone's first post the same as yours? Would you rather we not make a pre-judgement about your post based on it being your first?

I'm glad you appreciate that last post. Also, Scottobot worded it well too... a-la "don't take it personally"... just brush it off and the world's alright.

[Hyperion]

Hoooooweeee
Things are getting spicy in here!

[2013 GS-L]

Please don't be. This being the internet, nobody has any idea who's typing these posts (unless you're an active member of the community, and/or have met members in person at meets or other social functions). Usually when we see a rave review (or a scathing negative one) from someone who has only one post it's a red flag. I remember one occasion we saw a number of glowing reviews on a shop on a series of accounts where that was their only post, and with some sleuthing it was determined that the shop itself was creating accounts and posting fake reviews to promote themselves. That's all. Don't take it personally.

Scottobot, I'm truly thankful for you taking the time to explain why my post was questioned in the first place. Having never posted on a forum before, it had never occurred to me that someone would use a forum to self-promote a business. Point well received. It makes perfect sense-- no one has any way of knowing who is behind each post aside from meeting them in real life. Had proDJtege articulated a response in such a manner, as opposed to a picture posted in 'good humour', I would have understood from the get-go why a post such as mine would be challenged.



What were you taught about thinly veiled insults?

I would not categorize any of those examples as insults, but merely observations based on content (in context) written by proDJtege. I did call into question the usefulness of 300 of his then 315 posts-- comments or remarks without any informative content i.e. one-liners crediting the previous poster, etc. A far cry from a well articulated and descriptive review of a dealer experience.

I will admit though, the comment about negativity in relationships was edgy, however warranted given he explicitly called my post unhelpful and biased in his second post.

=Scottobot;1195380]Should be "fare" not "fair".[/QUOTE]

Agreed Scottobot. I should have used 'fare' as opposed to 'fair' in this instance. I wish there were more people that took pride in using the English language properly.

[Scottobot]

:thumbsup

[tweak_s]

Obviously this is the internet and we're never sure of the first time posters raving about a dealership.

But I'll throw my 2 cents in: I do agree that Avante has great service.

I bought my Mazda3 there in 2007 and throughout warranty have had zero issues. In fact, Ted, who I've annoyed a bunch with my rust problem (I did purchase warranty) has been a great person to deal with. The sales had forgotten to mention the inspections (and I didn't do it as often after warranty because I did my own maintenance and used Jimmy's services), so my rust warranty was gone, Ted actually was going through ways to help me out. Whether that worked out or not I appreciated the effort.

The Avante Rep here, Gautham (I don't remember your handle sorry), was quick to speak to Ted about my issue that I was a TM3 member and helped expedite Ted to contact me as the previous dealings with Ted had been a few years earlier when I still had the inspections going on!

Edit: I didn't see the last few posts.. jeez, it did get spicy in here. My post looks out of place, LOL

[carsnick]

I'll just chime in here and agree that i've done all of my services on my '3 at Avante for the last few years and have always been quite satisfied with them. I never felt pressured even when declining some of their reccomendations. However I now live in Whitby, and just traded my 08 in for a 14 and intend to do my services locally now so hopefully Whitby Mazda will be just as good.

[goodcase]

:nothing smiley

[CloudPump]

Scottobot, I'm truly thankful for you taking the time to explain why my post was questioned in the first place. Having never posted on a forum before, it had never occurred to me that someone would use a forum to self-promote a business. Point well received. It makes perfect sense-- no one has any way of knowing who is behind each post aside from meeting them in real life. Had proDJtege articulated a response in such a manner, as opposed to a picture posted in 'good humour', I would have understood from the get-go why a post such as mine would be challenged.




I would not categorize any of those examples as insults, but merely observations based on content (in context) written by proDJtege. I did call into question the usefulness of 300 of his then 315 posts-- comments or remarks without any informative content i.e. one-liners crediting the previous poster, etc. A far cry from a well articulated and descriptive review of a dealer experience.

I will admit though, the comment about negativity in relationships was edgy, however warranted given he explicitly called my post unhelpful and biased in his second post.

=Scottobot;1195380]Should be "fare" not "fair".

Agreed Scottobot. I should have used 'fare' as opposed to 'fair' in this instance. I wish there were more people that took pride in using the English language properly.

So... you're a bit of a dick. Enjoy the internet.

-Geoff

[Fuman]

Sitting here at Avante Mazda. Vincent just informed me, that they were able to hear the clunking noise in the suspension. They did a TSB on it, no hassle. There are a few recommended services that Vincent suggested, some I deferred, some I took. No pressure whatsoever. Vincent just said, "Awesome". I am extremely delighted & thankful that they solved the clunking noise. That noise drove me nuts. So thank you to Vincent & the mechanics @ Avante!

Avante also fixed my 2014 Mazda's rust issue away back, again no hassle, thread for that in: http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?80311-Thank-you-Ted-Vincent


@Mods:
I'm not sure where these review threads should be in, whether it is this section or in their affiliate section. Please move as necessary.

Thanks,

Fuman

[Silv3r]

Sitting here at Avante Mazda. Vincent just informed me, that they were able to hear the clunking noise in the suspension. They did a TSB on it, no hassle. There are a few recommended services that Vincent suggested, some I deferred, some I took. No pressure whatsoever. Vincent just said, "Awesome". I am extremely delighted & thankful that they solved the clunking noise. That noise drove me nuts. So thank you to Vincent & the mechanics @ Avante!

Avante also fixed my 2014 Mazda's rust issue away back, again no hassle, thread for that in: http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?80311-Thank-you-Ted-Vincent


@Mods:
I'm not sure where these review threads should be in, whether it is this section or in their affiliate section. Please move as necessary.

Thanks,

Fuman

Glad it worked out for you. What was your clunking noise and what is the TSB #/details specifically?