I wouldn't go here for Service on a vehicle unless you absolutely have to (though can't speak for the Sales experience). My apologies for the long rant - but I'm still pissed about this experience.
The Wednesday before the Canada Day long weekend, our truck broke down on Highway 1 just outside of Hope on the first day of our two week camping trip (we had our trailer hitched up to the truck). We had had the truck serviced in Victoria before we left, so it was a surprise when the check engine light came on and the transmission started acting odd. After we stopped to check what was wrong (at the commercial vehicle weigh station) we were unable to get the truck in gear again. We called Gardner Chevrolet thinking we were lucky we were so close to a town with a Chev dealer.
We then called Hope Towing to get us to the dealer. Pete was great and was able to put the truck on the flatbed and hitch up the trailer to take with us. Victor on the Gardner service desk suggested that we could drop our trailer behind their shop while they looked at the truck, so this is what we decided to do (even though Pete suggested dropping the trailer off first at a campground down the street). We were encouraged by Victor's suggestion and thought we'd be back on our way later that day (or that they would at least be able to read the code so we would know what the problem was).
When we finally got to the dealer (around 1pm), I made a remark that this wasn't the greatest start to our holiday. Victor just snidely replied "You're not the only ones here". He then asked if we'd like him to call the campground for us - without even mentioning when they'd be able to get to look at our truck. We then had to get Pete to re-hitch up our trailer and tow it to the campground (at a cost of an additional $80!) - especially frustrating as we could have had him drop it on the way to the dealer and the extended warranty would have picked up the cost.
We waited all day for Victor or someone from the Service department to call us and at least let us know what the problem might be (at this point we weren't sure if it was our transmission or just an electronic component). We even stopped by an hour or so later to pick up something we had forgot in the truck and were only greeted with a seemingly spiteful "How's the camping?" remark. (Especially galling as we had reservations with our daughter and her husband to be camping outside Osoyoos and were then supposed to be heading for a family reunion the next day in Cranbrook.) No news on the truck or when/if they would be able to look at it.
We spent a sleepless night wondering how we were going to get moving again and if we would get to our family reunion on the Canada Day weekend. The campground we were in (and likely every campground in the province) was completely booked for that weekend and we had no way to move our trailer anyway. We phoned the Service department as soon as they opened the next morning and had to leave a message as they were too busy to come to the phone. When they still hadn't called back an hour later, we tried again. This time they told us "It's all fixed.". While this was good news, it would have been nice if they could have looked at it/fixed it the day before (especially as they only had to change out the transmission control module - which took a very short time in the end). Overall, the worst service we could have received and a thoroughly horrible experience. read more
