Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (10/29/89)
gft robert says: >Honda has engaged in some of the same sort of customer-unfriendliness >at times over the past few years: not going out of their way to inform >customers about widespread problems, switching from 5 MPH bumpers to >2.5, etc. And many Honda dealers probably make Apple dealers look >like angels (I worked at one of the It's said that when a company does something good for a customer, no one ever hears about it, but when a company does a customer wrong, he'll tell a dozen of his friends. To refute this, let me relate the origins of my goodwill toward Honda: It started with the front beam of my 79 Civic (120,000 miles, I'm the third or fourth owner). The front beam holds the front suspension together; without it, the car literally falls apart. Mine was rusted through, and the car was unsafe to drive. A friend of mine is a Honda mechanic, and he said to take it to the dealer for an inspection. It seems Honda has a warranty on that car for that problem. I took it in, and 8 hours later I had the car back, COMPLETELY FIXED. At NO CHARGE TO ME. Honda's warranty on that part was all-inclusive, without restriction. The part was $200, labor about $120, and all paid by Honda. I thought, what a company! A few months later, my gas tank started leaking. My mechanic friend said he'd keep an eye out for a used one for me. On a hunch, I called the Honda customer service number for my region. The man at the other end told me to take my car in for an inspection (sound familiar?) and "you'll be very happy." I did, and I was. It seems Honda knows about this problem with those gas tanks, and they replace the tank free of charge ($168 for the part). All I had to do was pay labor, $41. 24 hours later, I had my car back. The service invoice they gave me said, in the section for the parts charge, "goodwill." This wasn't anything they had to do, but they did it anyway. On the strength of all this, my girlfriend bought a 79 Civic. Her gas tank started leaking, so she took it in to a dealer near her. She told them there was some sort of warranty on the tank, would they check it out? OK, they said. This is at 8:00 am on a Friday. At 4:15 that afternoon she calls me, all upset. Seems that her dealer told her her car was ready, it would cost $200 or so. She asked, what about the warranty and asking the region rep about the repair? Oh, they replied, we forgot. The rep will be here Monday, you can either leave your car until then, or pay the $200 now and maybe get it back Monday if the rep agrees to the fix. I called the region customer service number again, and got the same friendly voice that helped me with my gas tank problem. I explained what happened, and he said--and I quote--"That's bullshit. Hang on a minute." Two minutes later he came back and said, "Go get your car, it'll cost $41 for the labor." I thanked him profusely and went to the dealer. The service manager said "I see you went over our heads." No kidding. For $168, of course I did. Mind you, this was on a Friday afternoon at 4:15 pm, and the Honda customer service rep handled my problem immediately. He didn't even say anything about having to inspect the gas tank to make sure Honda covered it under their goodwill policy. It was just plain HANDLED. The effect was, two customers were made VERY happy. Not just two customer--two customers who now had even less reason to go and buy a new Honda. That didn't matter. That we were made happy was what mattered to Honda. I admire that. This particular dealer made many APPLE dealers look like guardian angels. I have seen dealer gouging unheard of even in the Mazda Miata market. Honda dealers are, unfortunately, just like any other American auto dealers: some are good, some are bad, some are excellent, and some are really scum. Honda automobiles, though, are unlike any American automobiles. The cars simply last forever, even without routine maintenance. And I know that Honda is willing to look at any problem a customer comes up with, even if they have an idea that they can't help in that situation. The corporate reps are always travelling around, hitting every dealer every few days. (Subaru reps are lucky to get to each dealer once a month.) Honda understand that to make money means making customer happy, as it's the customer's money they want. Apple has no corporate customer service organization (not one that does anything, anyway) and has a dealer network that gets away with murder when it comes to ripping off customers. If Apple would simply police their dealers, be aware of how the customer is being treated, they would probably make so much money, even they wouldn't know what to do with it. --Adam-- -- Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!200!Adam.Frix INET: Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG