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Originally Posted by Blinky
But a double w00t w00t to Waterloo Honda, who quickly agreed it was a problem, booked an appointment and will try to get me a loaner for the few days I will be without a car. What gets me is that I did not even buy my car from them, but yet they were extremly helpful and wanting my business.
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I had a pretty good experience at Waterloo Honda, too. I had my timing belt replaced at Dow Honda in Ottawa. Sadly, Dow Honda botched the job, and on the next weekend when I drove to Waterloo, about 30 mins out on the 401 my timing belt slipped a tooth, and suddenly my car sounded like someone was pouring gravel through the exhaust whenever I tried to accelerate.
The front-line service guy at Waterloo was very good. He actually knew quite a bit about cars and mechanics, which is far better than I can say for Dow Honda.
When I brought the car back to Dow Honda and told them the timing belt had slipped and Waterloo Honda had moved it back to the correct timing, they first told me Waterloo Honda was lying, and that something else was wrong with my car, that had magically fixed itself. They said there was no way Waterloo Honda could have fixed the timing belt issue in 30 mins, since it takes 4 hours to do it (to undo four bolts, slip the timing belt off the cam pully, rotate the cam pully one turn, and put it back on). Every time I called them, I talked to the service manager, and every time I got a completely different story from him. He'd directly contradict himself. Once they even claimed Waterloo Honda had put the valve cover on backwards (!!!! How did they get the spark plug wires back in?), and damaged the gasket, and it needed to be replaced.
Eventually they saidthey'd have to charge me if I wanted them to do any work on the car. Naturally I said "No, I'll come get the car and fix it myself". I went in on the weekend to get my car, and the guy at the desk told me there were charges on the car and I couldn't take it. I said "There shouldn't be any charges. Is the service manager in?" "No." "What will it take to get my car? I need to fix this this weekend, before I have to go to work on Monday." He said "If you take the car, I'll call the cops and report it stolen," and then outright refused to talk to me further. Nothing like threatening your customers to ensure their loyalty.
On Monday, when the service manager was in, I went in to pick up the car only to find that all this work they told me "we'll have to charge you for if you want us to do this" had, in fact, already been done. They were trying to get me to authorize work they had already completed without my consent (and, after talking to the mechanic, I found out he re-tightened the timing belt tensioner too). This was where these mysterious "charges" had come from.
But Waterloo Honda gets a big thumbs up. I wish I could find a dealer as good here in Ottawa.