Both my sister and I have been using Ron's garage for quite a while. It is an OK service, I do not wish to disparage them. There isn't a super cheap garage out there doing expert service, realistically, and I understand paying competent professionals fairly will cost. All that has been OK.
However, not going back. I understand customer service is difficult and there is a certain contingent among the public who will never be satisfied with anything you do as a service provider. That has not been the case with us.
In our case, because my sister is a worrier she asked (Todd) whether the car should be safe to drive in a couple of days out of town because I had to drive her to her hospital surgery in Royal Oak (rather far), and she said that there was no chance to bring the car in before the surgery . The issue was a dashboard light that had come on (it was turned "off" while at this visit to Ron's). The answer given was "You can drive it. But if the light does come on again, it will need diagnostics." Since she clearly indicated the car could not be brought in for repair prior to surgery, this seemed fairly reassuring; it seemed ok to bring the car in afterward.
No, we did not expect an ironclad, psychic guarantee of the entire future, though Todd informed us afterward that that's what we were expecting from him (not true). We just needed to hear appropriate cautions from someone who knows about cars while we do not. Just as Belle Tire will suggest not driving on a tire, an expectation of receiving information about suggested levels of caution is NOT a request to know in advance the exact date, time, and location of the event when a tire will fail.
The level of caution advisable for driving was lost in the reply we were given at Ron's.
However, she stopped by again today (surgery is tomorrow morning) to ask about the air conditioner which suddenly failed, and with both Ron and Todd out for lunch she spoke with the technician. He said not to drive the car, except (maybe) locally. That was a clear statement. Later, we called Ron's to ask them to perhaps give clearer warnings about safety risks, e.g something more like "might be best not to drive except locally" or such, because their communication, however unintentionally, ended up misleading .
Todd's reception was to take the request out of context, as if we suggested we needed him to guarantee how the car would behave at any time under any circumstances, and that he "does not have a crystal ball." He considered it impossible that he might have phrased things better, with advisable cautions clearer.
What he must have meant (I guess), looking at it retrospectively, was that if the light comes on it cannot be driven. But the words used did not communicate that. His statement seemed to be that diagnostics were appropriate at some time once the light came on again.
I had asked my sister to call about this to explain the confusion, and she was already upset because there was no Uber and no rental cars available at this last moment. She was facing surgery cancellation and is in pain.
Todd's only response was to metaphorically slam the door, very offended because her voice was raised a bit. She had been crying but she was not screaming at him, just upset. He raised his voice a bit too, angry and dismissive. It was obvious that the issue could not possibly be the communication he gave, it seemed that any reason to be unhappy with anything at Ron's is out of the question, so that an unhappy customer is seriously out of line. He hung up after I took the phone and began to (very) calmly explain that all we desired was greater clarity about precautions for cases such as this .
Ron's Garage is not evil nor incompetent nor anything like that, just unwilling to listen if there is any hint of fault or shortcoming from them. I guess those never happen, and suggestions otherwise are categorically insulting. read more
