The service department took incompetent to a whole new level. On the way from California to Wyoming for a backpack trip my wife's Elantra trunk latch failed. It was literally split and just dangling, so it was not a mystery what was broken. She was on a tight schedule for her trip, so she found a strap and simply tied the trunk shut. I called Rob Green Hyundai to schedule an appointment for a week later on her return trip, and to let them know the broken part, so they had time to order it in case they didn't have it in stock. The conversation went something like this:
"I just want to make sure you have the part in stock."
"Well, we won't know what's wrong until we see it. It could be something else."
"Yes, it could be something else in addition to the broken latch, but for sure the latch needs replacing."
"We'll have to diagnose it when it comes in"
"I appreciate that, but just make sure at minimum that part is available. If it turns out to be something in addition to, we'll deal with it then."
"Ok, we'll see her next week."
Fast forward a week, my wife finishes her backpack trip and calls 24 hours in advance to make sure they have the part. They told her not to worry, everything is set.
The day of the appointment the service guy says "Ok, let's take a look", and my wife says "Just make sure you have the part. I don't have another strap, and cutting it is the only way to open it. The guy smiles, gives her a knife and says "well then, you cut it." Which she does. He looks at the trunk, and says: "Looks like your trunk latch is broken. We need to install a new one." And drives it to the service bay.
He comes back five minutes later and says: "Well, we don't have the part, we can order it and it'll be here in 3 days."
What?? My wife reminds him that it's been a week since he was told what part was needed. His response? "We couldn't order it until we diagnosed it."
Sweet mother of pearl, could he not have checked ahead and told her they didn't have it when she called to confirm? Could he have not looked before making her cut the strap?
Since he can't fix the problem, she asked him to tie down the trunk so she could continue on her trip. Having failed miserably at his routine job, he had to find a new way to sink to new lows, so he told her that since she cut the strap, she had to fix it. She argued for a few minutes, so he relented and got a tech to strap it down. By which I mean he tied it so that it had 18 inches of bounce. Yes, they thought it was perfectly acceptable for her to travel 600 miles with the trunk bouncing up and down a foot and a half.
So my wife drove to the nearest auto parts store, bought new straps and fixed it herself.
Seriously, I've had bad service, I've run into incompetent people, but never to this level. The upside to this fiasco is that we have an amazing story to tell, which leaves people shaking their heads. I only apologize to the rest of Twin Falls, since you're all getting lumped into this mess by association. read more