I was in last Saturday to get a full set of new tires. Dropped it off in the morning before 11, picked it up just after 4pm. Everything seemed fine. On a side note, when I went to pick it up, my car had been left unlocked in the back of the lot. Nothing went missing, but it seems a bit reckless to me. Moving on..
I didn't drive at all on Sunday, made a short run on Monday and somehow my left rear tire was completely flat by that night. I filled out one of the surveys that they sent out with the problems I was experiencing and then headed over on Tuesday after work to get it sorted out.
I got there and the manager asked me a few questions, sent someone over to take a look. All said and done it took maybe 15 minutes. Then she asked the question that has been knocking around my head for the last 24 hours "Why did you write a negative review?" I was surprised, but I said the fact that I had to come back to have them fix my 3 day old tire was not great service in my opinion. Her response "Well, it wasn't our fault. There's nothing anyone could have done different" followed shortly by "next time don't do the survey, just call" to which I smiled, nodded, walked out and felt grateful that I hadn't been charged for the repair on what turned out to be a cracked valve.
I have worked in customer service for a little over 10 years and (aside from Comcast) no interaction with a service manager has ever left me that confused. Here's why:
1. If a guest calls in telling me that they found a toenail in their hotel room sink, I don't respond with "Well, that's not my fault" or "Housekeeping does the best they can" I fucking apologize for the thing I had nothing to do with and I let them know we'll fix it and do our best to keep it from happening again. We move the fuck on.
2. If I go to a restaurant and there is a fly in my drink and I let the waitress know, she doesn't say "Well, I didn't put it there" or "Why are you complaining? It didn't hurt you did it?" She fucking apologizes for the fly she had nothing to do with and gets me a new fucking drink. We move the fuck on.
3. A customer comes to me for help. I fix the problem and a few days later they are complaining about me because they had to come back with trouble I *might* have caused in the process of fixing the first issue. I don't tell them "Shit happens". I certainly do not tell them I think they should complain in a way that's more convenient for me in the future. I fucking apologize. I look for ways to make the process better. If it warrants it, I offer compensation. We move the fuck on.
4. The idea that nothing could be done to prevent this is frankly insane to me. I assume - and I could be wrong - that whoever replaced my tires had easy access to all four valves in the process. Given how quickly your team saw and fixed the issue, it couldn't have taken much more time to give each valve a quick look before my car was given back to me. It was in the shop for over 5 hours I could have waited 15 more minutes to not have to come back again. My free time during the week is especially precious to me, and you seemed really nonchalant about wasting it with a second trip.
Bottom line here, I don't want anything from your store. I carry no ill will. I do not think you are bad people or even bad mechanics but I can honestly say I am counting down my warranty miles in the hope that I will never have to come back again. I needed to get this off my chest, and now I am moving the fuck on. read more