I'm going to leave names and details out apart from this information:

My Dad is a GM retiree. He gets GMS on cars that he buys, which is a nice benefit.

So Dad's in the market for an Impala in North Carolina, and goes to a local Chevrolet dealership...

Who proceeds to try and screw him over ROYALLY by intentionally not telling him what incentives are available for financing - which, as a condition of GMS participation, they MUST do.

Why did they do that?

Simple. They get a kickback on the financing from the bank they were pushing that GMAC won't give them.

That a 70-year-old GM retiree gets screwed for 4% more on the interest rate, is just secondary - they make a few extra bucks.

Then they try to add on a $600 "fabric treatment" that "optional", except for the fact that it's already on every car there, and resort to seriously slimy pressure sales tactics on a 70-year-old man who just happens to have worked at GM for FORTY FREAKING YEARS.

Now, I'm a seat engineer by training and experience - if GM thought any aftermarket fabric treatments were worth a damn, they'd already put them on the seats. DO NOT PAY FOR SUCH CRAP. Let no dealership put asunder what GM engineers have specified.

Dad, thankfully, walks out and calls me, at which point I tell him to try another dealership, and I'll check on the incentives for him, which I do - which is how I found out the dealership was shafting him. Let me clarify here... this isn't a case of ignorance. The dealership in question KNEW he was a GM retiree. They knew what car he was trying to buy, and they KNEW what incentives were available - they just refused to tell him.

So Dad goes to a different dealership.
This dealership shows him everything, right up front - GMS price, financing incentives, trade-in incentives - the whole shebang.

Dad drives off with a nice, white 2006 Impala.


Fast forward 2 days...

I'm steaming about this. Absolutely furious. So I write the GM Fastlane Blog and tell my story, never expecting much back.

And GM emails me back.

Like, GM - for reals - PERSONALLY has somebody contact me to find out what's going on and correct the issue.

This person and I have a conversation by phone, she takes down the details and goes to work.

Issue corrected.

Absolutely amazing. I know GM is not responsible for dealership behavior, and the fact that they care enough to make sure a customer is taken care of like this is amazing.



THAT'S A#1 CUSTOMER SERVICE. THAT'S A COMPANY WHO GIVES A DAMN. THAT'S WORLD CLASS. I'm very, very thankful that GM stepped in and took care of one of their own.

 

Cheers!

 

Awesome read man!

Glad he found a respectable dealer.

Hearing about a hairy deal at a dealer lot is a horrible story second only to hearing that someone Bought a vehicle from the same lot.

 

Good job, Pacer. Give 'em hell!



Hope your dad likes his new car.

 

What did they do...??

 

They don't call them "stealerships" for nothing.

Great job GM. I really think a few scuzzy dealerships play a role in GM's current problems.

 

They took care of the issue.

I'll leave it at that.

 

Dammit. That's the best part!

Hopefully they got what they deserve.

I don't know if GM still uses the "franchise point" system... supposedly verified, legitimate customer complaints through General Motors would log "points" against a dealership... if they accumulated enough "points", they would face reprocussions, and possibly lose their franchise.

This was all explained to me around 1996 from a General Motors representative I dealt with when I had a major issue with a Chevrolet dealer which is now out of business.

 

I can only guess that someone at GM knows of your presence here in this forum and did not want to be on the receiving end of that.

 

well--- we do try to do the right thing. We certainly aren't perfect --but we try.

I was recently at a car show and an enthusiast had a mishap with his truck. To add insult to injury, the towing company damaged the truck. The mishap was no fault of GM's -- but I made sure that our customer assistance people (thank you Paul!!!) were aware of the problem.

Get this: Mr. Lutz called him personally.

That does not happen -- Mr. Lutz is a very busy man -- (quite frankly, I don't think I could keep up with him -- but it tells you that we do believe in customer service and it comes from the top.

I know -- there are going to be some of you out there with horror cases -- and I know you're mad as hell -- but we do try.

 

Honestly if I got a call from Maximum Bob I don't think I would believe it at all. It would be just to cool.

 

Hell just imagine how cool a single post on this forum by Bob would be...

 

No kidding!

I'd be willing to bet he has lurked here once or twice....

 

 

Yeah, I sense GM is getting better. I went through hell with GTO #1 - car had a problem, dealer screwed it up worse trying to fix it, 35 days in the shop in the first 2 1/2 months of ownership. GM agreed to "exchange" my car, but it took 54 days (!) for GM to process the repurchase paperwork (and then they screwed it up/I had to go back into the dealership and re-sign everything a month later. What a disaster. Look up VIN 6G2VX12GX4L281821 if you want to see the cluster-****).

I had another bad service experience at said dealer (in April, the dolts forgot to tighten my skidplate bolts following an oil change on GTO #2 - started banging/coming off when I was 100 miles from home - needless to say, I don't go there any more). Posted a complaint on Bob's blog that GM really needed to secret-shop their dealer service network, mentioned my recent experience. Got an email from Pontiac CAC - I don't think anything has become of it - but still say GM needs to do something about dealer service (it's the same dealer I bought both cars from, as well as a 2004 Envoy that said dealer also refused to repair when it threw a CEL for a bad O2 sensor).

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=443703

GM is turning the products around, I can see... need to continue the focus on customer service, and identify/weed out those dealership service departments who continue to drop the ball... I am watching! Wife wants a Camaro as her next car... but I still feel GM needs to demonstrate more customer service improvement to consider buying another vehicle... this coming from someone who has only bought GM cars all his life, and my wife's family has several GM retirees, both blue and white collar, in it...