Showing posts with label Cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cars. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Subaru says NO GO for warranty

For the past few years I have been a proud Subaru owner. Recently this year (Sept 07) I had problems with my Impreza. Coming home from work one night after a long traffic delay on the Dan Ryan I started to hear a knocking sound. Aware of the sound from buddies cars, I knew what it was. Luckily I was blocks from home. The next morning I had the car towed to local Subaru dealership.
When the car reached the dealership, Sept 24th they informed me (by listening to the car idle) that there was knocking and to further investigate the damages they would have to drop the oil pan. Before this was done, I explained to both customer care (800-Subaru3) and service manger at dealership that I read a article online from turbo magazine about issue with the Impreza motor with cylinder 3. He then requested for the article which I sent to there @hotmail.com account. See link
http://www.turbomagazine.com/features/0305tur_subaru_wrx_ej20_engine_build/index.html

After this work was done the dealership informed me that I spun rod bearing #3. This date was September 27th 2007. The service manger then requested for all my oil change receipts so that when the regional service manager came in on October 1st. He would "have some ammo to fight with so Subaru of America (SOA) would cover my 5 year/60k warranty on my power train. He did make it clear that IF I did have these receipts that it doesn't mean 100% Subaru would honor my warranty. The service manager then requested either to leave the car with the oil pan dropped or pull out the motor. I informed him to go ahead and pull the motor so when the regional service manger came in the following week, he can assess the damages further.
On Oct 1st I called SOA and also the dealership they informed me that the regional service manager did not show up, and that he would be there first thing Tuesday morning. I didn't receive any call till Wednesday, when I called SOA directly. They informed me that the regional service manger didn't get to see all the damage since the motor wasn't pulled. I then informed SOA for the 2nd time to go ahead and pull the motor. The following day the motor was removed from the car and the regional service manager was then able to see the full extent of the damages.
The dealership informed me that I would need a whole new short block ($3k for parts) plus labor ($2k). The service manager informed me that SOA regional service manager seen no abuse that I caused and would give me a "goodwill credit" (which coves only 1/2 of parts cost). This was on Oct. 4th.
The following week I played phone tag with SOA (Oct. 7th-13th). When attempting to follow up on your open case (mine is 1041225) you can only speak with that individual. If that person is on another call and/or gone for the day who ever answers the phone takes a message and enters it into the case. They inform you your rep will call you back, which never happened this week. Finally On Oct. 11th I called SOA again, they informed me that she was on a call, customer service rep then requested if I would like to leave a message. I then requested to speak to a manager/supervisor. SOA informed me that they would escalate my case to a manager. For this request, they first would have to review my case and call me back in 24-48 hours. This was at 2pm CST (lunch break).
Afterwards, I called and spoke to the dealership who had my car. I requested the service manager pertaining to 2 questions. First question was after this all was said and done, what would be my warranty on the motor. My second question was "What caused this and was it something I did?"
The service manager made it clear to me that they had "no clue" what caused cylinder 3 to go. And that there were NO signs of abuse from me, and from what he can and the regional service manager can tell the oil was changed regularly and there was no sludge build up. He informed me that the oil that was in the motor was still clean (recently just changed 1500 miles previous to this).
The following week after waiting 48 hours for a call back from SOA/manger. I called SOA on Monday Oct. 15th and spoke to the manager who was reviewing my case. She informed me that she is still waiting to hear from the regional service manager about the damages, and that spoke to the dealership earlier in the morning. I then informed her that I spoke to the dealership the previous week (Oct. 11th) and stated above that they had no idea what caused the motor to fail. I stated why should I have to pay for something that I may of not caused. SOA manager informed me that only the oil pan has been dropped and she is waiting to hear from the regional rep to hear more about the damages once the motor is pulled. This going forward I informed her to have the dealership for the 3rd time now, to pull the motor(1st time Sept. 27th, 2nd time Oct. 3rd, and 3rd time now Oct. 15th)
SOA manager then informed me that if I would have kept my receipts from the purchases of oil from Auto Zone (IE where ever) that this would have all been taken care of and my car would have been fixed. I then questioned her that I was told a different story by the dealership and that just because I did have them didn't mean I was in the clear. She then informed me that she would give me a call back the following day.
Here I am Oct 17th with no call back from the SOA (Subaru of America) I am also writing a letter to the President, Vice President, and VP of Marketing about my service/experience with Subaru.
I have always been a loyal customer, after my recent experience I have nothing positive to say about Subaru.