I am VERY disappointed in the service department. I'm sure someone from Auffenberg will hop on here and respond by saying I'm just upset that my extended warranty company won't pay for mechanical repairs right now, but that is not what I'm upset about. In fact, one of the only kind and helpful people at this awful place is their service manager, Dave, who took the time to explain why they weren't covering those repairs.
Brad, on the other hand, takes the prize of being the worst service advisor I've ever had the displeasure of working with. That saddens me, because the first time I worked with him, I thought he did an excellent job and thanked him profusely. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I've never had to use my
extended warranty before, so I was not aware of how that process works. My car had been making a noise, and I asked if their service department would take a look at it during an appointment I made for routine maintenance. They identified the issue (an expensive one), but I remembered my extended warranty and sent it to Brad. The next text I got from him (just hours later!) was telling me my car was finished and my bill went from an estimated ~$5000 down to ~$1500. I was elated! I thought that he had contacted the warranty company, got everything approved, and all was fixed. Flash forward: My oil light was flashing, and my door handles needed fixed, so I figured I would take it back to Auffenberg. I'd started hearing that same noise again too, and wanted them to look into that. When I called about that, I first asked if they had any service loaners because the problem took a few days last time. Whoever answered very condescendingly said "we do, but there are people getting their whole engines replaced right now, so I don't know if we would have one for you," like my problem didn't matter. Cool, thanks. Then he says he needs to put me on hold for a few minutes because something on my account didn't look right. A few minutes later, it's Brad on the phone, telling me those repairs weren't made last time. He literally said "communication is hard" and we must have had a miscommunication somewhere along the line about those repairs. I don't know why on earth anyone would go through the effort of locating their service contract and sending it to their service advisor for them to... do nothing with it? What?
So, I take my car back to Auffenberg. I learn about how extended warranty companies have to do their own inspection (makes sense, but I didn't know that before). Brad has the audacity to say to me that "Normally an extended warranty company has an inspector come out and do an inspection. Not CNA! They have me doing someone else's work." That response didn't instill much confidence in Brad's inspection, but they had my car, so I had to wait for their response. They declined fixing the control arm problem that I thought was already fixed. Brad's less than helpful explanation was they said they won't fix something just because it's making a noise. I am very grateful that the service manager, Dave, took the time to explain to me
WHY that is, and I accepted that answer because he treated me like a person who is capable of understanding something. Dave was great.
Interestingly enough, CNA (warranty company) said there wasn't a video attached to the virtual inspection, only pictures. I informed Brad of this and he said he sent photos and videos. I'm not sure if that was a lie or not, but here are some lies Brad DID tell me:
1) We had to wait to see what CNA said about giving me a service loaner, and if one is available. Availability? That's fine, I get that. But my extended warranty company has nothing to do with being given an Auffenberg service loaner.
2) My replacement door handles would be flat black, and I would have to wait 3-4 weeks for them to be painted to match my car, because Auffenberg doesn't have a contract with a body shop that can paint things right now, excluding the work that needs done so they can fix up used vehicles to sell. Weird, but okay. Luckily, my car has flat black trim, so I said that would be fine. I wanted functionality back the most, and flat black wouldn't look bad with the trim. Well, when I picked up my car, the handles were shiny gray. Brad made no mention of this to me. Another service advisor, Robyn, who was *wonderful* to me, explained that they actually don't know what color the handles that Kia ships would even be before they get there. So why would Brad lie about that? I wouldn't have agreed to gray. When Robyn asked Brad (he was on break when I was there) what could be done, he said to tell me I need to take it to a body shop now. Uh, no. I know they have someone who can paint things. He said so. Unless that was also a lie? But Auffenberg needs to sell used cars to make money, so I assume he was telling the truth there.
I also had to deal with their unresponsive sales dept. when they offered to buy my car, but that's for another review. read more