dealer problems at doug smith

[filippelli]

so i dont know if this is in the right section but whatever. so i went to doug smith in american fork to have a tsb fixed on my guage cluster i went there for a couple reasons a couple of my friends work there i use to work there and i work at discount tire which is right down the street
so anyways i had them fix the guages they called me when it was done i came and picked it up and i realized they broke all the plastic that goes around my steering column and broke my hazard switch off because their tech was to lazy to put it together properly so i went back and they basically said since my jeep was so old they werent responsible for it even tho it looked just fine when i took it in the first time i have been fighting with them to fix it and they just wont has anyone had a problem like this that could offer some advice for me cause as it sits now i am stuck and not very happy thanks

 

[Tacoma]

Stick to your guns, make them fix it. It wasn't like that when you went in.

If they refuse, take them to small claims court.

 

[filippelli]

well i was going to go open a can of kick some ass but when i got there the service was closed so i am going on monday after work

 

[Tacoma]

Good luck with that, I believe Monday is a holiday.

 

[filippelli]

crap your right

 

[jdub]

If you don't get help from one person ask if there is someone else. Eventually you should get someone that see's that they will need to take care of you 'cause it is taking a lot of time to give you the run around that it is costing them money.

I HATE the "your jeep is too old" mentality. It is attitude like that that coins the word "stealership." If it is a Jeep dealer, one would assume that you could go and get service there. I learned that the dealer is no place for me if I wanted help with my older stuff. The guy at the service department in my area turns into a d-bag everytime I say 1985.

 

[filippelli]

yeah its gay i am going to keep just bugging them till they do fix it i usually dont go to a shop let alone the dealer for anything but all my guages kept cutting out so i took it in and the best part is i had a guy who wanted to buy it but now that i have spent so much time fighting to get it fixed this guy probably found another jeep all i know is my next vehicle wont go there.

 

[Greg]

Have you talked to the manager of the service dept? If you have and he's being a PITA, ask to speak to his boss.

 

[filippelli]

yes i have he is the one who is saying they arent responsible so i guess i just keep going higher up every time i have seen doug smith and his sons eating at quiznos alot which is right next to my work so if i have to i am going to go bug him on his lunch break

 

[RockMonkey]

Isn't he the guy that bends over backwards for you? Sounds like he's bending you over, instead.

See if they have a customer service manager. That's who I went through a couple times at Larry Miller to get things done.

 

[filippelli]

no brent brown bends over backwards but still funny

 

[Coco]

I have never been a fan of them. Seems like they stick up there noses for anyone that isn't going in there to just "buy a car" we take all there tires to them. They call, we deliver. Sometimes we are busy, and we don't get them to them right away and they throw a fit, but when it comes time for us to order parts for a vehicle we are working on, they take there dear sweet time getting it to us.

They seem to think they are the important ones, and no one else. I have gone in there to purchase stuff for my jeep when I had it, and it was the same way. Standing around at the parts desk, when ppl need some help is NOT how you should run the dealer.

Bottom line, I hope they fix it for you, but for future items, take it to a different dealership.

 

[krany]

i have never been a fan of jeep dealerships either. when i first got my xj there was some stuff i needed from a dealer and the guy at the parts counter automaticly assumed since my jeep is an 89 they wont have any parts for it, which is wrong they did have the parts after talking to a few other people after i walked into the service bay, i guess the saying is when you assume you make an ass out of you and me....

 

[filippelli]

going up dude i know what you mean we take them tires sometimes its a joke i have to drop what i am doing and go help them but then they do this to me the service guy told me he was going to order the parts the only question is who is paying well if the pay for it awesome i win if not they are going to be stuck with a bunch of plastic parts that i sure aint paying for

 

[Toad]

I am a shop manager. I have ran into this problem with some of my techs in the past. For me the problem is usually remedied before the car every leaves my shop and the customer never knows about it. I used to think that dealer techs were smart and did a good job(at least working on the cars that they are trained on). After firing some of them for being complete dumb asses I realized that they better suited to look up parts at Autozone. When I read your first post I figured you were driving a 97-2000 xj. Im guessing you were having a intermittent problem with the cluster going in and out so they installed the updated harness to fix it? If all they had to do was pull the cluster to do that why the hell did he have the column covers off anyways?

 

[filippelli]

toad you are correct its a 98 xj and they did the updated harness and i was wondering why they pulled the column apart as well i have had like 6 diffrent jeeps and i have pulled dashes apart in all of them without taking the column apart but whatever i guess they just dont care and i even told them if they could get it back together i dont care if they get all new parts for it or not so we will see what happens

 

[Coco]

Yup there a joke. Not a fan of Doug Smith. I even thought I had met him once (the owner, older guy with white hair) never asked his name, but I had to run tires over for them really quick like usual, and NO ONE was at the desk to sign the papers...so after wondering around the place trying to find someone to sign a paper, I see an older man talking to a guy in the diagnostics area. I go over and ask if I can get a quick signature so I can be on my way. Well he replies "this isnt the part department!" then kinda grabs the paper, signs it, and kinda tosses it back....

Man, if that was the owner, no wonder the shop runs that way, just like the old man!! Signature wasnt readable, but the first letter was a D. Just stay away from there if you can, bad joke.



On a side note, that Brute that is always down there is SEXY!!!:greg:

 

[Taconut]

I think this is the case with most dealerships. I have never had anything good to say when dealing with any dealer service department. I leased a dodge neon once from Brent Brown, had them do all the services (oil changes, etc.). They followed the dodge B service schedule, I never paid more than $90 for a service ( that was for the 30000 mile oil, air filters, rotate the tires ), until I mentioned that my tires were getting bad. I had the tires for life thing. Suddenly they wanted $250 for a routine oil change and rotate the tires. When I asked them why so much, well Brent Brown recommends that this and that be done above the schedule B. I immediately traded the car off. More recently I purchased a new remote lock transmitter for my Tacoma, again from brent brown Toyota. I dont really have a huge issue with their parts department. They had the transmitter for me in 3 days. When I asked the service department if there was an easy way to program the transmitter to my truck, the immediate answer was " It has to be programmed through the body ECU, it will cost $49.95". Well I had looked on the web and found a way to program it myself, it took approximately 1.5 minutes to program, with nothing more than the key and opening and closing the door. I told them that I had just programmed the transmitter to my truck in less than 2 minutes and then handed them the paper that I had printed and told them to stop ripping off their customers!!! I also called 5 other Toyota dealers in the area, only one told me how to program the transmitter, Karl Malone Toyota. I think it pays to find a reliable non-dealer shop and build a good relationship with them. Of course it's different when you are talking about a recall or TSB issue. I still do not trust any dealership!!!

 

[filippelli]

yeah i think all dealers just dont give a crap i had to get a key programed in my moms alero way back in the day and the guys at gregory told me how to do it and i was done in 2 minutes and going up a old grumpy guy was probably doug himself i worked there in 2004 and i was just a lot tech i only met him a couple times to clean his car but that old guy is a dick and the brute belongs to a salesman there his name is matt he is a nice guy he use to own triad autosales but yes that brute is bad ass the only thing i would have done diffrent is i would have used a rubicon if your going to pay that much to do it better just have the best wrangler to start with

oh and probably the only thing cooler than the brute i have seen in the past couple years was when my buddy pulled up next to me in aevs j8 sarge i about wrecked my motorcycle i was so shocked
and i will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow or tuesday when i get to talk to who ever over there

 

[dumassaim]

I HATE DOUG smith ! I will never spend another dime in their service department. About 2 years ago my 4.7 died in my 99 grand (overheated a lil and killed the entire top half of the engine )so i called them up and they were all nice and told me all my work would be covered under warranty i said ok and a nice towtruck showed up at my house in lehi about 25 mins later. About 15 minutes after that the service dept manager for jeep (forgot his name now) calls me and is like dude your jeep is F'd and you need a motor swap (6600 out the door without vaseline or shop fees included ).... now im like hmm have you guys even looked at the motor yet you couldnt possibly have done anything more than lift the damn hood already? He simply replies no not yet so im pissed now and drive my pos 89 waggy overthere to rip some ass and get this going on the right track .

So after many battles with doug smith and mopar parts departments (all over america) 9 months later YES THATS RIGHT 9 months later ! Due to BOTH FRIGGIN heads being on a national shortage and on backorder i had to wait. And my GC sat there for friggin EVER .

So anyways about 10 months later i get a call from the douchebag service manager guy calls me up and says JASON your jeep is done ! WOOHOO yay , etc im all excited :-\ LOL . So ofcourse i haulass overthere in the ol 89 waggy pay almost 6 grand (yea i know shoulda swapped the motor wtf tho haha ) and he pulls it around and the FKN powersteering pump was like WAAAAAA you know like on the old fords im like dude wheres all the fluid he replies oh ummm that costs extra and the trans was shifting weird (didnt before it went there) and they didnt recharge my ac or even wash it......

So im on my way home after i stopped at walmart for some PS fluid and i notice the temp climbing above 209 again im horrified !! So i pull over on the side of the road to let her cool down and notice when i popped the hood they didnt even put my secondary fan (electronic fan) back in now im really pissed off i called there and he said oh well the tech must have missed it blah blah wtf ever.

I will never go there again EVER and anyone who owns a dodge product that i speak to in any conversation they get my doug smith story

PS i think the slimeball that looked and smelled like he bathed 1 time per week's name was chris he was the jeep service advisor at the time. 4 Star dealer my ass more like 4 star stealer !