rominl

iTrader: (4)

paint the wheels?!

MRLEXO

Man, I'd had the same incident happen at Penske Mercedes in West Covina. I took my E-Class in for service and these guys ran it through the car washing machine scratching my two rears ( I had 19x10 in the rear). I confronted them and they said that they were sure they didn't do it. I just left it alone after because it wasn't worth going back and arguing everyday. Penske seriously has the worst service.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

man, one penske dealership and youare blaming the whole penske group? that sounds a lot isn't it @_@

MRLEXO

I didn't mean the whole penske, just the Mercedes in west covina. I wouldn't know about the other ones.

r.maestas

the irony...

same experience, same dealership. when i worked in pleasanton i went there alot to get washed and what not. and just for the record i NEVER curbed my wheels. the only other entity that i let drive my car (not even valet's) was LEXUS of Pleasanton. I contacted the customer care manager (or whatever her title is) and she did not respond to my email. so i left a couple of VM and could never get a call back. needless to say i WILL NEVER go to 'that' dealership again.

i have had a number of bad experiences with that dealership (the main one being them leaving my passenger door slightly ajar and running it through the car wash getting my passenger seat SOAKED)

NEVER AGAIN

flipside909

You don't know about Longo Lexus/Toyota/Scion? They're Penske owned:

http://www.penskeautomotive.com/

MRLEXO

Didn't know that, thanks for the info. But I wasn't directing my hostility towards Penske in general, just to the service I received from that particular dealership. But even so, just because Penske owns Longo doesn't mean that service is guaranteed to be good. I actually received much better service at the House of Imports in Buena Park for my Benz.

flipside909

Well how can you generalize Penske as a company when your problem was only stemmed to the dealership only? Longo Lexus is #1 in SoCal and happens to be #1 in the Western Region for Sales and Customer Satisfaction. Longo Toyota is the #1 dealership in the United States. And the largest Toyota dealership in the world. Perhaps you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

I should know, I bought my car there.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

well to be fair, some people had issues with longo too

flipside909

Of course, like w/any facility or company. And many of them have a resolution too.

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

EVERY business has had problem issues PERIOD.

So to be fair, I think that it needs to be pointed out that statistically for every 10 customers that are happy there is one who is not. Half the time the one who is not happy is the only person who spreads the word on how BAD their experience was. The 9 customers that are happy are much less apt to go to the same amount of trouble and tell everyone how happy they are.

Another thing, those on this forum that have something to gain (dollar wise, sponsorship, discount, etc. ) by proping a certain dealer or CL sponsor are usually the people who say something "positive" about that business. Now I don't want to go off topic, but I am NOT saying these people are wrong in doing this, or don't have a right to say something good or defend a business. I have done this myself on the forums, so that's not my point in saying this.

What my point is if you take out the people on the above paragaraph, that the number of positive comments would be even fewer than what you read on these forums.

So back to this topic.

The other problem with negative feedback is I'd say 10 to 50% of the time, the one complaining may not have a legitimate complaint. So I am pointing out that whenever you hear a complaint, you really have to question whether that person is only giving their side of the story or whether they are being fair with their comment.

With that said, I typically don't value a negative feedback coming from a newbie with few posts or from a person who no other local CL members know personally or where someone can't independently give that person some credibility. Any thread that I read the title saying "Brand X Sucks", I already know I am probably dealing with an unreasonable person, who is probably not being fair with his comments and just wants to let it out emotionally.

OK so I'm not done yet. The worse thing about negative feedback is others jumping on the bandwagon and throwing in their complaint as well. So I'm not saying these other complaints are not valid . I'm saying that once a lot of people are in agreement with the first complaining post, then the people who are happy customers are less apt to argue or defend the business, not because they can't, but just because they don't want to argue, cause it's either not their problem, or it's not worth it to argue with another member just for the sake of defending a business.

My advice is, use some common sense before you listen to everything you hear. You sometimes need to be reasonable with expectations. No one is perfect. I'd say that a good business is not the business that is perfect, I'd say it is the business that admits to a mistake and takes care of you. Give these businesses an opportunity to make up for it. If you have a problem and don't complain to the business to give them an opportunity to make a wrong a right and instead just start ragging on the forums, then you haven't been fair to yourself or the CL members reading your complaint.

Now in the case of GS400kid, he is now a veteran member. Many people know him locally, so I take his complaint as very legitimate. He has given the dealer a chance to make this right and has responded on his posts very maturely and professionally.

Knowing the "kid" personally, I must add he really is a "kid", very young, but obviously worthy of owning a Lexus and representing CL.

I hope everyone takes my input as good advice for any problem situations that come their way or any complaint threads they read on CL in the future.

Now go do the right thing.


PS - Every post I've read on this thread has been very fair and balanced, so no intended flaming to anyone who has commented so far.

newyorksc

what kind of rims are they?

GS400kid

LOL, what happened to this thread now
anywayzzz, car is at the dealer, i will pick it up tomorrow afternoon, and crap.......i was too busy and totally 4got to take pic of the curb rashed part.
And I forgot to mention one part, when i talked to that service manager there, he knew i went there for claiming my damaged rim, so i know he knew what happened!
But yea, at least they are fixing it, i can really complain now, or i will see how it turns out

GS400kid

some cheap BBS

rominl

iTrader: (4)

wait till the car is back and see what it's like first. make sure the color matches with other wheels