I took my wife's car in Monday 9 OCT, to have a noisy exhaust leak checked out; we purchased the vehicle from Central Buick in Winter Haven and always get it serviced there, but this was a bit of an emergency, as we weren't sure whether there was any specific danger from the exhaust leak and my wife needed her car very soon - we couldn't get in for service at Central until the end of the week and that wasn't going to work for us.
I waited a short while for the techs to get the car up on the rack to have a look; the service writer came back to let me know (and had photos) that there was a hole in one of the exhaust pipes, beyond the catalytic converter, and that the repair would be extensive as well as *expensive* - nearly $2500.
(I wasn't too concerned about the expense, since we had opted for an extended warranty when we bought the car; this warranty coverage had been very helpful on a couple of occasions so far.)
The service writer told me they didn't have parts available, so would have to to order them. This wasn't a common item, and I was advised it may take a few days. Since we were quite concerned about any potential danger from the exhaust leak, we were planning to rent a car for my wife to use; again, thinking our warranty would cover everything we assumed the rental cost would be part of that.
Fast-forward a couple of fraught days spent worrying about how to get all this squared away...
I got a call from the service writer at Kelley on Wednesday, informing me the necessary repairs would *not* be covered under the extended warranty, but that Kelley Buick would be happy to "get with" GM and "work out something" that might reduce the cost to us by half - all the way down to $1000+.
Gee.
Meanwhile, my wife contacted the salesman at Central who sold us the car and asked his advice; he told us he "really doesn't trust Kelley" and said we should allow the service team at Central to have a look.
(Meanwhile, the Kelley service writer called back Thursday mid-morning and left a voicemail to let me know the parts had, apparently mysteriously, shown up "on a truck with blacked-out windows" and that the next move was ours. Mmmm-hmmm.)
I took the car to Central on Friday - after being explicitly assured there was no danger to us from such an exhaust leak - and learned that our extended warranty DOES INDEED COVER THAT REPAIR. This is the critical part of the story: The service writer at Kelley either misrepresented details of our claim to the warranty company OR DIDN'T ACTUALLY CALL THEM AT ALL.
I don't make accusations like this EVER (which is part of the reason I've refrained from identifying the service writer here; I'll get in touch with the service department manager directly and let that person know who this is), because it's a bad habit to get into and only serves to deepen suspicion without resolving anything; however, in this instance, I don't see any other way of thinking about the situation.
Kelley Buick's service department, in the person of the service writer who handled my attempt at getting this problem fixed, either was grossly incompetent in not correctly assessing the warranty coverage or intentionally misled us into thinking we'd have to pay for these repairs, enticing us with some apparently half-baked "offer" to reduce the expense by "working with" GM.
This is not a good look for Kelley overall and leads me to caution others against doing business with them. read more