LexDriver18

OK, I need to ask some questions and let off some steam here. Just yesturday, I took my 2000 Platinum Edition GS400 into the Glendale Lexus Dealership to performt the 15,000 mile service, have speakers replaced, and have the alignment fixed! It was the WORST experience I have EVER had at ANY dealership!! My father has been in the car business for 20+ years so I know how someone should be treated. I have a feeling it's due to the fact that I'm 19 in a $50k car!!

The most important part of my visit was the alignment problem. To the best of my knowledge, I don't remember hitting anything but I might have forgotten about it. I realized the alignment was off a month or 2 ago and I took it in to get it serviced RIGHT AWAY. After a technician looked at it, he said it was "fine"! I said, "okay" even thought I was skeptical. I came in again about 2 weeks later to get my 10,000 service performed and asked him to check the alignment once again, and once again, they said it was fine. Within the past month though, the problem has gotten much worse. So when I took the car in yesturday (to a different dealership than I had gone to before), I brought it up to technician that I'm positive the alignment is off and that I've brought it up to the tech's at the other dealership 2 times and they said it was "fine". He looked at it, and YES, the alignment was off. But in the computer, there is no record of me asking them to check the alignment!! So they want to charge me for it. I told them about it 2 months ago and they said it wasn't broken, what should I do??

Now, about my speakers. The front A-Pillar and Door mounted speakers are blown, so I asked them to replace them. But they said that I voided my warranty when I put in my aftermarket subwoofers. If they know anything about speakers, putting in subwoofers doesn't have any affect on the front speakers!! What should I tell them??

In the end, I was treated as if I didnt' know anythign about anything and that bugged me. Lexus is supposed to pride themselves in their service and they treated me like ******! The thing that bugged me the most is the problem with the alignment. I told the technician I saw yesturday that I had brought it in before and that they said it was okay. But they have NO RECORD of me complaining. WHICH IS BULL******!! What can I do?? Who should I talk to??

I'm sorry for such a long post I'm just very, very, very upset!!

--Justin--

mkilty

I actually bought my car from that dealership, wish I hadn't. My first service they messed up my OEM wheels with their cleaning and then they refused to make it right. Glendale Lexus said that it was normal. They also treated me like I was a fly so I take my service from Keys who is MUCH MUCH better. Top rated for me. Longo is another good place to go to as well.

I will NEVER buy or service my car at Glendale Lexus again...Never...(pause for effect) never.......ever....



Just to confirm what the above poster said.....

ClubLexus FAQ:
What can I do if my dealership has terrible customer service?

There are a number of things that can be done here.

1. First and foremost, you should let your dealership representative know that you are unsatisfied with poor service that you are given. If you would rather not deal with that representative again, then...

2. Speak to the manager of the dealership. Calmly let the manager know what your situation is and how he/she can set things right. Keep in mind not to direct your anger or frustration at the people who are trying to help you, as it will only make matters worse.

3. Use the Lexus customer satisfaction survey to blast your dealership. These surveys are sent directly from Lexus headquarters, and they are an effective means of expressing your concerns to someone who matters.

4. If all else fails, or should you want to truly express your dissatisfaction, you could call Lexus at 1-800-25-LEXUS and speak to a customer relations representative. Be sure to let them know which dealership you are having problems with and to whom you were speaking with there.

Lexus may be reknowned for its excellence in customer satisfaction, but remember that dealerships are in a cutthroat business, and it is sad to say that sometimes the dollar is valued over the customer.

Francis K

I'm positive it's due to me being 16.

Heres a story, a couple months ago at the North American International Auto Show I strolled to my favorite exhibit to check out the new SC. While I was there I couldn't help but notice the 2001 model of my LX, almost brought me to tears thinking how much more advanced it is than mine . Well anyway, I headed to the stand to ask for a brochure for the LX, it one was one of those model girls working it. I asked and all i got was a look saying haha you little brat then she turned around and walked to help someone else. Well I blocked her point of view, took out keysy LX set them on the counter and asked again. The guy managing the whole exhibit noticed this and immediately appologized to me telling me, and I quote "she's just some 45 dollar an hour airhead model".


Okay kids, story times over. All you need to do is make one measly phone call to Lexus customer satisfaction, I garuntee you they'll reimburse you for the alignment with an apology and who knows, they might even throw in some goodies(I got a key chain!). Lexus prides itself on the very opposite of your story, they'll grill the dealership good!

GS4Will

it is too bad that you were treated poorly by the glendale people. do what francis suggest, take the matter to corporate, they will do their part to make sure you have another smile on your face. life is short, do not let some boso and moron make you mad.

in general, 90% of time service people are doing excellent jobs. it just those moments when you least expected can catch you off-guard. you are in O/C, why go to Glendale, take it to Longo. you are the KING of the world there. based on the number of service loaner cars(close to 100), you know they are hot and in demand.

over all, you are still happy with your car, correct?

whenever things relate to cars upset me(very rare with lex), i am just glad i am not in a beeeeemer. i actually lost count on the number of times bmw techs told my girl they CANNOT duplicate the problem, and the car was fine? with all that rattle, i do not even need to turn on the stereo, already i am in a heavy metal concert. do you ever have smoke coming out of the engine hood in front of a junior high at 2:00pm, and the car was just serviced a week ago? i did, in a bmw 735. i almost exploded from public embarrassment.

Prost

I wrote on this board several weeks ago stating that I lost all my quarter after Longo Lexus service my GS3. I called a-800-25-lexus to express my incident. A week later, Longo service manager call me and said that they caught a thief that took my money.........well, they DO listen to customer complains. Longo had good service, but you might need to clean up your car before you leave your car to them.........

KKelly

With regard to alignment, most shops just put the car up on their rack and the computer tells them what the settings are. Most likely they are fine but the problem lies elsewhere. Still no excuse for not diagnosing the problem. You could take it to a tire shop and drop $90 to find out if they are right. They have the same machinery and the settings are right there on the screen measured against the factory specs.

I wouldn't trust my BMW to any dealer mechanic. All the best have their own shops. I think "dealer serviced" in an ad is a red flag.

FastSC300

I used to sale cars...so I know the bull**** the dealership can give people. The best thing is to be VOCAL about your problem. Get names and numbers and call people besides the idiots that work in the service area....most dont give a **** about you or your car... why? because it's not theirs!!!

Get the regional directors number of the service dept and call him/her about the warranty issue. Some dealerships can be bastards when it comes to warranty work, but if you can prove that the subs dont effect the front speakers then they HAVE to replace them. As for the techs not putting in any information in your file about the problem, that's bull****, they have to document every time you take your car in, even if it says your butt itched and you thought it was the car!!! This is wrong because of lemon laws with states that if you have the same problems 3 or more times you can file for lemon law status(texas). Dont let them screw you man!!
Be tough, threaten telling every one you know and every list you write on about your problems with them!!!
Good luck
and call me if you have any questions
Scot
832-687-8950

mooretorque

LexDriver18, I agree with all of the previous posters. NO ONE should get the sort of treatment that you got, esp. from Lexus.

However, re your speakers. I don't offhand know which amps power which speakers in your vehicle, but if the front tweeters were powered by the same amp that powered you subs, you could and most probably did fry them, especially if the replacement subs were a little less efficient than the originals.

It requires most of the amplifier's power to move large speakers (woofers) back and forth in order to produce low frequency sound. Transistor amplifiers, when overdriven (even for very short periods of time) even slightly past their rated output, produce large amounts of distortion. This distortion is produced at frequencies that are odd-order harmonics of the fundamental frequency that led to the distortion to begin with. Example: a 50 hertz note "clips" the amplifier.....the distortions products appear at 3x (150 hz), 5x (250 hz), etc, etc out to a fairly large multiplier. Most tweeters have response beginning around 1500 hz or thereabouts, and now that speaker is being asked to play not only the normal music frequencies but all this other stuff too. The voice coil is made up of VERY thin wire (it after all has to be very light to move at as much as 20000 hertz); if very much distortion occurs, the tweeter presented with 2 or 3 or 5 times the amount of power that it can safely handle (only 1 or 2 watts at most), the voice coil overheats and then melts. Voila, no tweeter.

So, the more power your subs required, the more likely the amp was to be driven into distortion (and this is a little tough to swallow, but is nonetheless true) EVEN AT reasonable listening levels. And the more likely your tweeters were going to fry. Used to see this in home stereo stuff a lot; dude buys big speakers with lots of power handling capacity and small amp........comes back the next week with blown tweeters and raises hell cause the speakers could handle some hugely greater amount than his amp could put out and he felt safe cranking it. Bye bye tweeters as outlined above.

But at this point, you've been treated in such shabby fashion, Lexus ought to eat the speaker repair, fix your vehicle and flog all responsible at the dealer.

mooretorque

Sorry, one more thing: this all is on the assumption that the tweeters are driven off the same amp that was powering the subs. Seems odd, but my SC Nakamichi system was bi-amped and, when I lost one of the amps, I lost right front midrange and the sub.

GlobeCLK

iTrader: (5)

I guess the best thing to do is to go to another dealership for the rest of your car's life. I would strongly recommend Longo Lexus. no BS when it comes to service and quality. Might be alittle far from HB where you live, you can try Lexus of Westminster, but I had bad experience there when I asked about L-Tuned springs and shocks. THey had no clue, and asked 750 for installation on aftermarket springs and shocks. BS.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Justin... I realize the dealer's attitude might have been bad, and I realize they might have been inept in not diagnosing an alignment problem, but why should it be covered under warranty either way?

Also, sounds like you fried the speakers, and I can understand them not covering it if you've added big aftermarket subs.

Sorry dude, but although the dealer may have not treated you well, it sounds like you don't have a case on the facts.

LexDriver18

Thanks for all the posts guys. It made me feel better to know that I can call the Lexus Corp. and complain/express my feelings and that I will most likely get SOMETHING resolved.

As for your questions and comments about my speakers and alignment. As far as the speakers go, I DIDN'T FRY THEM!! I put in 2 Kicker subs in the trunk that are running off thier OWN AMPLIFIER. The tweets and the midranges for the front doors and the coaxle speakers in the rear doors were NOT TOUCHED!! So, that means that my add on DID NOT affect my problem. Which was the FRONT SPEAKERS!! It's like taking your car in to get the air conditioning repaired and them saying you voided the warranty cuz of your lowering springs. The subs have NOTHING to do with the front speakers!!
Now, on to the alignment. I agree that I probably should pay for it, since the alignment doesn't just go off. My problem, was that I took it in 3 times and they said it was "FINE". And that when they finally decided I did have a problem, they had NO RECORD of me asking them about it!! PLUS, I had to pay for a new tire a few months ago because it was worn down!! (You'd think the uneven wear of your tires would be a sure sign the alignment is off, but NO!)

What pissed me off the most though, was the way I was treated!! They treated me like I didn't know what I was talking about and that I was just a "punk kid" in a lexus. That's why I came on here to let off steam. It's not JUST the fact that they wouldn't cover any of the problems under warranty! If they would've even been a little more considerate about it, and taking more time to explain to me the situation, I wouldn't have been as angry as I was!!

Thanks again for all the helpful comments tho!!

--Justin--

FastSC300

Justin,

Remember THIS: before you ever go in for warranty work, take any after market **** you have in your car OUT!!

It will make life easier on you

Scot Hail

400DGRZ

iTrader: (2)

I will be 22 next month and I have come to the conclusion that having my Lex at a younger age has resulted in 3 things: more ladies, scrubs, and haters. So in that order I have 3 replies: M.O.B., TRU homies, and "I flip my middle finger up when I'm riding by."

CJGS4

What you posted is VERY interesting because I have found my service at Lexus of Glendale to be excellent... I used to go to Longo Lexus and they had great customer care but the problem was that they couldn't fix any of my problems (rattling and squeaking)... I had brought my car in for moonroof rattles (crackling noise) and also dashboard and air vent rattles and Longo Lexus was not able to solve the problems after bringing in my car 5 times total...They treated me nicely and had great service reps but the service itself sucked... So afterwards I changed to Lexus of Glendale and have been working with Rick Fong (service consultant) and Arson (mechanic) and i've been able to get rid of all the rattles (The mechanic told me Longo had installed the wrong insulation).. In addition, every little problem i've had they've been able to deal with.. Just last week I noticed my motor in the steering column was quite a bit louder than the one in our LX470 so I took it to Lexus of Glendale and they replaced it immediately with a newer 2001 3rd Gen motor...... Also, several weeks ago when I brought my vehicle in to replace a faulty L-Tuned shock the people who washed my car scratched the rear bumper.. I told Rick right after I found the scratch (which didn't happen until I had driven the car home and was looking over it) and he (Rick) got on it right away. They took my car in the next week and repainted the entire bumper for me and had it all ready on the same day.....So basically, i've had a completely different experience than you at the same dealership. I'm guessing maybe you just have to find the right service consultant who is willing to work with you...

-Chris Y.
'99 GS4/White/tan/spoiler/Nav/L-Tuned shocks/springs/ECU/Intrax Sways/Borla SS/RMM Grille/TRD STB/MM Rims/K&N