"Hello,

Thank you for purchasing a Honda. I am sorry you are having these problems. Please contact your local Honda dealership to resolve the issue.

Another thoughtless response offering 0 insight into anything useful,

Signed,

Jonathan,
Honda Customer relations robot #6539"

 

At least he pointed you in the right direction.
Could he have been LESS SPECIFIC?

Bunch of turds ...

 

I'm sorry that you've had this experience, but this thread is a little harsh. Service happens at the dealer, and while it can be initiated in some sense through corporate, they don't control the individual service managers at the dealerships. If the service manager is an a-hole, they will wash your car with acid and then tell you to prove it.

Jonathan is a Social Media rep that watches the forums and twitter. That's his job; to foster a favorable image of Honda via social media. I don't know how the corporate hierarchy is structured, but I would imagine actual service and case management is a different department. Find a case manager or a regional manager or whatever the title will be and bitch until you get results. Your criticism would be akin to going to a restaurant and saying it was bad because the hostess couldn't tell you why the chef spit in your food. It is no doubt a bad experience, but you can't blame somebody just because they are the most visible. They aren't the ones that wronged you and they aren't the ones who can fix it.

That all being said, Jonathan should have absolutely referred you to somebody that could help you escalate your problem. Ask him and maybe he will. Go to the manager or a director or somebody with some authority over the managers at the dealerships.

 

I did ask Johnathan for a higher up, But he told me he was the only person handling these issues. I find that hard to believe with Honda being.. HONDA.

 

Honda of today, is not the Honda of old, which had the best design and service. Now, the bean counters are in charge. Sorry to say, but true.

 

Oh...yeah, that's some real BS. I feel bad now...

You are damn right to be upset! Having a major problem is bad enough but being made to feel like there is no recourse for you, that's just terrible service and damaging to the brand. I truly hope everything works out in your favor because $20k is no small sum for a ruined car, especially when the dealer is the one who ruined it.

Go to the BBB about the dealership; log a formal complaint with corporate (well, somebody else at corporate); talk to the chamber of commerce in your area; take them to small claims court; call the local news channel and suggest they do an expose on the practices of local car dealers or the presence of acid in local car washes. Push it as far as you can. If they won't fix your car, they can sure as sh*t get a ton of bad word of mouth about it. This website was a good start!

 

I am sorry to learn all the aggravation you are having. I think you made us aware of this acid issue which I sure would not have thought of. I usually hand wash my cars except several car wash trips in winter to get salt and winter grime off undersides. I guess I could ask what chemicals are used or just go to a hand car wash that has soap and hi pressure hose.. Bill #22335

 

We had already escalated this to have a Honda district representative inspect the vehicle and meet with the customer to have a final determination on the issue. We are working on a date to have the customer meet with the representative.


Thank you,

Jonathan

 

Good and not-so-good advice here.

Forget the BBB, they're a joke bordering on a scam: http://business.time.com/2013/03/19/...-a-bad-grade/\

The Chamber of Commerce is similar, definitely not on your side.

Better to talk about it on Yelp or Angie's List. At least there your voice is heard and will impact the dealer.

If the dealer was responsible for the damage then they should make it right but that's not to say that Honda Corporate (and I don't mean the Social Media guy) shouldn't be involved. It's their name on the sign, after all and they should be concerned about their reputation.

Small Claims might be a good option, but make sure that you have your issue very well documented. You need to be able to make it clear to the judge that the damage is significant and that the dealer caused the damage.

I can see why the dealer is reluctant to acknowledge your issue. Replacing all of the glass is expensive and if they can "delay and deny" the problem away it will be to their advantage. The only way you can get this fixed is to make it more expensive or troublesome for the dealer to ignore the problem.

 

I'm very sorry to hear of the situation you have. Darned shame the dealer won't do the right thing. Hopefully Honda will.

Thank you for bring this acid use issue out in the open. While I hand wash my cars in the winter there is no option except to run them through the touch-less wash. I'll be asking mine if they use an acid bath.

 

This guy is a complete moron and so is corporate Honda for that matter. He gives you the same HR bullcrap every time you talk to him. He's worthless. No idea why he has a job if his response is always, "the dealerships are independent". What a joke!

 

No, it's every person who agrees with the aggrieved owner here that Honda the manufacturer should do something besides strongly encourage (with known, incremental penalties for not doing so) the dealer to receive, market, store, sell, deliver, perform warranty service to and stock/sell parts for under warranty Honda automobiles who is moronic. I don't want Starbucks or Nieman Marcus being the middleman between me and my choice of car manufacturer.

If Honda refuses to spend money or devote resources to more than basic cookie cutter dealer relationship management I say good, their dealers will either piss people off or be charging enough to cover reasonable concessions for occasional errors and common issues that arise in their business that aren't manufacturer related. If I am on the receiving end of some unfortunate luck that leaves me holding the bag for some problem I know but can't definitively prove isn't my fault but IS someone else's, it won't be the first time. So I don't want to collectively pay for every other unfortunate buyers unprovable issues through higher factory invoices that have nothing to do with the cost of building and shipping quality automobiles.

If Honda is expected to backstop these dealers in the way some people here expect, what's to stop these dealers from knocking down the selling price of new cars they sell and not do anything at all with or to the cars or their customers, beg and plead Honda to correct every purported defect at their expense during warranty, and then blast out of warranty owners with overpriced service and deep discount high pressure sales pitches?

 

The B.B.B. is a laugh . They're paid by the business to get the B.B.B. signature .

 

Originally Posted by kor_1019
"This guy is a complete moron and so is corporate Honda for that matter. He gives you the same HR bullcrap every time you talk to him. He's worthless. No idea why he has a job if his response is always, "the dealerships are independent". What a joke"!


I disagree with your assessment of Jonathan. When my daughters Fit was having problems with the rear view camera/backup camera issue, and needed the screen replaced, Jonathan handled the entire issue from start to finish. We were very happy with the outcome (replacement appears to have resolved the issue).

Having said that, our issue is not anyone else's issue, so I'm not comparing any other problem with ours. I am however, offering a different point of view on Jonathan and the job he does, which I think is wonderful.

On this thread, so far he made an original contact, and has now indicated the issue has been escalated to to a District Rep, who is in the process of arranging a meeting with the OP. I'm not sure what else he can do at this point.

 

Is this different from what is happening now?

Smart people find a good independent mechanic to deal with out-of-warranty service. Dealers are not the way to go for anything but warranty issues.

I will be very happy when the Tesla model takes over. It is inevitable, but the obsolete dealers will fight it to the end with hefty campaign contributions.