So I've been taking my Jeep to the Earnhardt dealership on Baseline for years, even gave them a…read morefour star Yelp review. But I found out yesterday morning that the Baseline location has been closed, and that they've been incorporated into Darner Chrysler Jeep in Mesa.
Here's how my first visit to Darner went:
I called a few days ago to make an appointment. When asked who my Service Manager was, I was informed that my Service Manager was no longer with the company and I now had a new Service Manager. I would have thought that this would have been an opportune time to inform me that I would be bringing my Jeep to a different location, but apparently not. I had to find this out on my own when I showed up at the closed Baseline location.
When I called to find out was going on, I was informed that the new location was several miles east, on Baseline and Arizona. Not that familiar with Mesa, I asked for clarification. "Just head east until you hit Arizona," she said. So I headed east, but I never hit Arizona. Somewhere around Cooper I called her back to find out where Arizona was. She said, "Arizona and Country Club are the same street," as if I hadn't told her I wasn't familiar with Mesa the first time we talked. So I turned around, headed back to Country Club. But when I got there, no dealership. So I called her back (that's three times, if you're keeping track). "Well, it's not at the intersection," she said, her tone suggesting a lack of mental ability on my part. "It's on Arizona, south of Baseline."
So I dropped off my Jeep, met my new Service Manager, gave him the Jeep "Dealer Dollars" certificates I'd redeemed using points accumulated using my Jeep credit card because there is a verification process the cashier has to go through that takes a long time, and I know that if I don't drop them off ahead of time, I'll have to wait for an hour when I come to pick it up. Not sure what the final cost of service was going to be, I left several different denominations.
Skip ahead to pick-up. The cashier informs me how much I owe. I tell her about the Dealer Dollars I left with my new Service Manager. She has no idea what I'm talking about. She's never heard of Dealer Dollars. I wait while she asks someone else. When they figure out what they are, they sigh, like I'm an asshole for wanting to use them. "This is going to take a while," she says, "we have to call in to verify them. "I know the process," I tell them, that's why I gave them to my Service Manager this morning, six hours earlier. While I wait, they discover that someone did call to verify one of the certificates after all - one worth more than the amount I owed, so I was going to have to forfeit the difference. "But I left several different denominations," I informed her, "including a couple that combined added up to the exact amount I owed." She sighs again. "Fine, whatever," she says, "I'll call in to verify them. But it's going to take a while. Have a seat." Unbelievable. "Not worth it," I told her, and left.
And then the icing on the cake: I get outside to find that the door of my Jeep has been left open. Not wide open, but enough that the overhead light had been on, draining my battery for the last five hours. It didn't even start on the first couple of tries. I thought I was going to have to ask them for a jump. But then it started. My last thought as I peeled out of the parking lot - I am so Yelping this.
