And Now I Must Vent
 

So...... A few weeks ago I stoped at *Lee Myles Transmissions* www.leemyles.com And talked to the store owner ( Tim Cholewinski ) About doing a Trany Flush & filter changes.
We talked for 45 min or so about my car. He really liked it & I told him about the car,,, its limited production,,, the Net & the NW club.
He got it that im a bit leary of anything but TOP PROFESSIONAL care for my SVX. we talked about the Tranny heat porblems & I made sure to tell him about the recalled External Filter...
Well in the winter months they are only open Mon-Fri & I work those days, So i told him i would probably take the fri after next off work & have it done, As i just went over 52 k & allthough my tranny feels & acts new I want it to stay that way.
He assured me they would take Excellant care of my car & they where the place to go.....
So.......... Thursday I called & set an appointment for friday.I reminded him about the Recalled filter & was told NO PROBLEM come in at 10:00 am
Ok great.. So I show up friday & drop the car off with the store manager LES & ask ok about how long ? He says about an hour or so he is gonna get right on it. GREAT :) I had my Ex meet me there with our Dogs & we took them to the park for a snow romp for a bit over an hour & then have her drop me back off.
Well my car is still on the lift but ok i want a coffee & can wait till they rap it up so i send her home. And then it begins
I walk in & les says to me ( did you're ride leave ? ) I say ya why are you not allmost done ? He tells me they took it out for a test drive & was doing the checkover list when an account customer came in & they pulled the machanic off my car to do there account customer so my car has not even been started on.
Ok well I'm not happy but I am allready off work & there... So how long now ? 30 -45 min he tells me. Grrrr.. ( put on fake smile) ok well did you find the External Filter ? Well lets go look... we go out to the lift & look & find it.. Hmmmm he goes i dont know if i have that here.. So he sends Tim to Shucks ( I allso hear him on the phone telling the boss to get the Internal filter & gasket kit becuase apparantly they dont have that either.
Ok so now im geting a little more unhappy but i want them to treat my car with respect so i continue to do the same with them.
Well it turns out Shucks dosnt have it ( well i tell him it was a recall part not a stock part so I'm not surprised Call Cater Subaru I tell him ) He does & they dont have one either will take 5 days to get it.
Ok now I'm HOT... Please put my car down It makes NO sense to do the flush without changing that filter.
As i am getting ready to leave he starts tryn to make another app. to come back. At that point i turn to him & say ,,,look.. I dont wanna sound like a dick BUT I couldnt be more dissapointed with my service here..
At this point I had stopped in 2 weeks ago in person To see about haveing service done here & was told no problem.
I made an appointment ( reminding them of the filter AGAIN at that time ) & was ontime. Then my car gets bumped .. I dont think thats good bissness but hey things happen But then to find that you didnt even check to make sure you had what you needed to do the job on a rare car you KNEW was commen in After I took a day off to have you do it Is Horrendus customer service.. he says maybe we can give you a discount .. At this point it is taking all I got not to Explode & stay civil, So I turn to him & say I think you should save the $15 & not order the filter as I dont think I can trust my car to you're care & HAVE A NICE DAY !
So.... I left without throwing a temper tantrum but Was Furious the level of service blowing my mind.. I tryd to reach customer service through there website but cant get past the main page... I thought by today i would calm down but im still fairly pissed.
I didn't find out what kind of discount he had in mind but it would have to be close to a comp for me to be happy again..
Oh & working in the casino I will be telling any-one who will listen about my service there ( you know what they say, do a great job & the customer tells a few friends do a BAD job & the customer will tell EVERY-ONE !!!)

So.. as the title said now I must vent & I have. So the mods can move this or delete it but I had to get that out..:mad

thats ****ed up.. i had my tranny rebuilt in the time it took you to NOT get your filter changed. that's insane.

ouch, i would have told them to get my car the hell down...and gotten outta there unless there was a good reason why my car wasn't even touched...

i wouldn't have waited, there are thousands of mechanics out there, some are more willing to please then others, i would find one of those places...

Kelli

Allen

That was the best way to handle it. You did not lower yourself to their level (very low) and stayed civil. I would be very dissapointed as well. It may be a good thing though. Who knows what would have happened if they HAD serviced the car! With that kind of place, it could have been much worse. When I started to read this post, I was thinking that maybe they messed up the tranny when they flushed it. That has happened to some of the members here - tranny ok until they got it flushed. Then it went south. I will PM you with some ideas for you. :)

here's my suggestion, based upon my experience:

http://www.smart-service.com/

other than wheel & tire and body & paint stuff, Mike Corbin is the only one I trust my SVX with.

I'd recommend Smart Service too. They did an excellant job on my Impreza. If you go in for scheduled maintainence, you get a loaner can for the day for free. Not too bad I deal I say.

They told me they can install a tranny cooler, parts and all, for less than $300.

Thanks much every-one for you're sympathy & support.
Ally sent me a PM immediatly after my post telling me about Smart Service & i think thats who I will turn to.
I should have asked my NW friends in the first place, but i had heard good things about LeeMyles & I made a mistake..
Again thx for listening to me whine, it was that or Explode & I dont like letting myself do that. ( It rarly ends well )

Sometimes it pays to Pay more at a SUBARU Dealer who knows SVX's.

I agree with this of course because I work at a dealer and have seen what kind of damage side shops can do to a Subaru. However there are a few shops around that do have a very high level of knowledge of Subaru's and their quirky systems. For those of you in MD I can suggest "Happy Jacks Automotive," on Azar Ave in Glen Burnie. It is right down the street from us and Jack works on SVX's in particular on a regular basis and you should find him to be enjoyable to work with.

Hey Allen, sorry to hear about your wasted day. :(

If and when you do go to Smart Service, be sure to tell Mike or the guys there that you heard about him from the people on these forums. You can even throw in the name "NW SVX" if you want to. :)

I'm going to be approaching Mike about some kind of discount deal for members of Northwest SVX pretty soon, and I hear that may be a challenge. So I'm trying to drive home the point to him that in the last year, his SVX business has probably doubled because of word of mouth among owners, that would not be possible without our group.

I also need a bigger member list to start approaching these places with, I wish more people would sign up. :rolleyes:

:D