Well, the nice letter I wrote to the Owner of Krause Cars has made its way down the chain. I got a response from the GM (whom I didn't sent the letter to), notice he didn't remove the original email form his boss at the bottom...
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Adam,
Congratulations on the birth of your daughter…..I hope the experience of being parents is as enjoyable to you as it has been for myself and my wife.
Peter has forwarded to me your comments…..
I am sorry that I have failed in rectifying our transportation issues in a timelier fashion. I understand how you feel and don’t blame you for either your comments or your defection from Suburban.
As much as we try, we don’t always succeed in making everyone a happy customer despite our best efforts… I will take your comments to heart so this doesn’t happen again.
I wish you and your family the best of luck.
[GM Name]
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 2:39 PM
To: GM
Subject: FW: Worst Car Buying Experience Ever
[Name],
What happened with Mr. Hartley.
Pete
Almost five months ago, I bought my Subaru Baja fromSuburban Subaru
and have had the worst possible buying and owning experience ever. I
have been failed by your staff in every possible way, ranging from the
Sales Manager who accused me of being a thief, to the Service Staff
that put unbalanced tires on my car to prove that my tires were not
the problem.
It started off as a simple purchase: I agreed to buy
the car provided that the tailgate latch would be fixed and
the vibration in the drivetrain would be eliminated.
Thetransaction proved to be anything but simple. After the title for my trade-in
was lost, an error was found on my bank check I used to pay for the
vehicle. My bank made a mistake in drafting the check, but your
finance department accepted the amount. When I was contacted weeks
later about this, your Sales Manager accused me of trying to "get away without paying
for the car." I'm an honest and reasonable person, and I don't appreciate being called a thief or con-man. This
was annoying and insulting, but the real problems started from day one when I drove
it home.
Suburban Subaru agreed to fix two problems with this car prior to delivery, but when I took delivery, I quicklyfound out that you did not do the repairs as promised. The tailgate latch that stuck in the openposition was still inoperable after two attempts by the service
department to fix it. This is not an ambiguous repair as it will
either stick, or it will not stick. It can't have been fixed when it left the shop. I repaired it myself rather than take it in again.
The vibration persisted past three visits before finding
warped brake rotors. After taking it to a third party tire
center, I had a report that there was a defect in the tires. Following this, your
service department rotated and balanced them again, and I was offered new
tires of my choosing to remedy the problem. Suburban Subaru never
delivered on this promise. To further troubleshoot the problem, tires from another
Baja were mounted on mine to show that it was not my tires that were
the problem. However, the tires used for the test were also not
balanced, rendering the test invalid. The test was never redone with
good tires. Each time after being in for service, the car was returned to me as 'fixed'; not as needing more work; as actually being fixed.I was was then told that this is just the way Subarus
drive. That being the case, I would have never bought the car in the
first place, but this was impossible to tell during a test drive when the
rotors are already warped.
After hearing of my plight, I was contacted by your General Manager
with an offer to trade me out of my Baja at a value close to what I
paid for the car. After some searching for an acceptable car to trade
me into, I found out that the 'close to what I paid' value was in fact
the wholesale value. In doing this trade, I stood to lose over
$4,000.00. As a person of principal and integrity, this
solution was unacceptable to me. I should not lose that much money while you make money by selling my car twice.
I have given Suburban Subaru every chance to do the right and ethical thing. I have
been very patient and reasonable, but I have reached my limit now that
my daughter has been born. My wife and I don't feel comfortable or
safe in this car and, with the level of service I've gotten so far, we
don't feel confident in the service history at Suburban. Having been
through this nightmare and wasted my summer, I've decided to trade
this Baja in elsewhere. I'm taking a giant financial hit but I will
sleep better knowing that your dealership is not making money off it's
unethical practices and my headaches. This trade-in process through you
has been almost 2 months in the making, however, I found another
dealership that has given me the same trade-in deal as you and was
successful in finding me a new vehicle in less than a week. This has
reaffirmed my stance of your trade-in deal was more about making money
off me than making me happy, since the other dealership gave me the
same deal as Suburban, but didn't owe me anything.
If your dealership was successful in resolving these issues, I was all set to
retract all the bad reviews I submitted to numerous websites. Instead I will be adding to them.
I have also beenwriting a running blog of my experiences that, until now, I kept
private. I was also prepared to scrap that blog if Suburban Subaru camethrough for me.
You didn't, so here is what your potential customers will be reading:
http://suckysuburbansubarusaga.blogspot.com/
I wanted to send you my story so that you would know what is happening at one of your dealerships and in hopes that these problems can be rectified so that nobody else has to endure the headache and frustration that I have.
