This story happened a couple of weeks ago now, but I have been digesting it some, figuring out how I wanted to say it the best, then I just kind of forgot about it because school and work and excuses. That doesn't matter now though because I'm going to tell you the story. I hope it makes you angry or concerned, but if it doesn't, then I genuinely want to know why. I want to know why this would in any way be considered a decent business practice.
My car has been acting up some lately, so I went to where my parents live in Greenville, NC to have it looked at. Long story short, as the long story really doesn't matter, we were recommended by a guy we didn't really know to go to Auto World II off of Greenville Blvd. Okay, great. Get there, talk to the guy, drop it off. Get a call later on in the afternoon saying sorry but they didn't get to it that day, and they'll take a look at it first thing in the morning. Fine and dandy, I know I didn't have an appointment.
The next morning they call in and say they couldn't find anything wrong with it, and that well... because I was recommended to them by somebody that shopped there often, they would give me a discounted check out fee. Uhm sorry, what? What check out fee?
I didn't say anything at the time because I thought maybe I just misunderstood them the day before, and called my mom. Nope, there had be absolutely NO mention of a check out or a diagnostic fee. I've been to places that charge them and places that don't, so I hadn't thought much of it at the time. So, after confirming that, no, there was no mention of it, I wrote this on Facebook:
Obvious anger there, but guarded. It should be noted too that the same morning, a girl I knew from high school added me on Facebook.
Before we continue, a few notes on how I feel about diagnostic fees:
So, I go in with my stepfather to get my car back, and this is where it gets weird.
First, I notice that the girl who had added me on Facebook that morning was a receptionist. Oh, cool, I think, she must have seen my name and added me. Neat. Second, the owner/manager comes around who we had spoken to the day before, and says "we need to talk." Well, alright then. Third, he pulls us into his office and shuts the door. Already, alarms are going up and he has yet to look either my stepfather or I in the eye.
Then... here's the kicker... he pulls out a printout of my Facebook post.
"We don't practice business like this. If anyone saw this, we could lose business."
Do what? I immediately get feelings of disgust and anger. I asked him how he found the Facebook post and pointed to the girl outside, saying that she must have given it to him. He then claimed someone called it in. I then pointed out to him that I hadn't even put the name of the place on Facebook, at all. Not in the comments to that post, not anywhere.
"Well, you could have put our name up there."
How dare you accuse me of something I could have done. I pointed out that even if I had, it was absolutely in his best interest to make the situation right so I could go back and retract the negative review. So, after expressing my disgust with the business practice of pulling up my Facebook page (note: I have it completely private even!), he goes on to the diagnostic fee.
"I have to pay my technicians."
Well sir, you aren't doing a great job of it then. I pointed out that he had never once mentioned the diagnostic fee, didn't even tell me how much it would be over the phone... simply said I would get a discounted one. Discounted off of what? How would I have even know he really discounted it? I signed no waiver, I did not agree to a service contingent on a fee. He pointed out a couple of nearby dealerships that charged diagnostic fees. Well sir, I had been to both of those dealerships by chance and each one of them not only told me upfront that they had a diagnostic fee, but had me sign a waiver.
At this point I'm still extremely upset over the abuse of my Facebook page and his attempt to attack me with it, and finally he backs down and decides to not charge us the diagnostic fee. Not once did he apologize for his actions. We walked out and grabbed my keys from the desk, the girl no longer sitting there - obviously having overheard my anger.
"I wish I could have your business, but I guess I have no control over your actions."
Yup, that's what he said. We left, and I ended up writing a full post on Facebook about my experience, deleting and blocking the girl, and writing a review on Google about the experience. It's quite literally their only review at the moment.
So, now that I have digested the experience, these are my thoughts on it:
My car has been acting up some lately, so I went to where my parents live in Greenville, NC to have it looked at. Long story short, as the long story really doesn't matter, we were recommended by a guy we didn't really know to go to Auto World II off of Greenville Blvd. Okay, great. Get there, talk to the guy, drop it off. Get a call later on in the afternoon saying sorry but they didn't get to it that day, and they'll take a look at it first thing in the morning. Fine and dandy, I know I didn't have an appointment.
The next morning they call in and say they couldn't find anything wrong with it, and that well... because I was recommended to them by somebody that shopped there often, they would give me a discounted check out fee. Uhm sorry, what? What check out fee?
I didn't say anything at the time because I thought maybe I just misunderstood them the day before, and called my mom. Nope, there had be absolutely NO mention of a check out or a diagnostic fee. I've been to places that charge them and places that don't, so I hadn't thought much of it at the time. So, after confirming that, no, there was no mention of it, I wrote this on Facebook:
Obvious anger there, but guarded. It should be noted too that the same morning, a girl I knew from high school added me on Facebook.
Before we continue, a few notes on how I feel about diagnostic fees:
- Yes, I get why they exist. They're fine.
- Tell me upfront.
Also, I wouldn't have even dropped off my car if I had known there was a diagnostic fee, not because I wouldn't want to pay it but because I knew my car wasn't exhibiting the symptoms that day.
So, I go in with my stepfather to get my car back, and this is where it gets weird.
First, I notice that the girl who had added me on Facebook that morning was a receptionist. Oh, cool, I think, she must have seen my name and added me. Neat. Second, the owner/manager comes around who we had spoken to the day before, and says "we need to talk." Well, alright then. Third, he pulls us into his office and shuts the door. Already, alarms are going up and he has yet to look either my stepfather or I in the eye.
Then... here's the kicker... he pulls out a printout of my Facebook post.
"We don't practice business like this. If anyone saw this, we could lose business."
Do what? I immediately get feelings of disgust and anger. I asked him how he found the Facebook post and pointed to the girl outside, saying that she must have given it to him. He then claimed someone called it in. I then pointed out to him that I hadn't even put the name of the place on Facebook, at all. Not in the comments to that post, not anywhere.
"Well, you could have put our name up there."
How dare you accuse me of something I could have done. I pointed out that even if I had, it was absolutely in his best interest to make the situation right so I could go back and retract the negative review. So, after expressing my disgust with the business practice of pulling up my Facebook page (note: I have it completely private even!), he goes on to the diagnostic fee.
"I have to pay my technicians."
Well sir, you aren't doing a great job of it then. I pointed out that he had never once mentioned the diagnostic fee, didn't even tell me how much it would be over the phone... simply said I would get a discounted one. Discounted off of what? How would I have even know he really discounted it? I signed no waiver, I did not agree to a service contingent on a fee. He pointed out a couple of nearby dealerships that charged diagnostic fees. Well sir, I had been to both of those dealerships by chance and each one of them not only told me upfront that they had a diagnostic fee, but had me sign a waiver.
At this point I'm still extremely upset over the abuse of my Facebook page and his attempt to attack me with it, and finally he backs down and decides to not charge us the diagnostic fee. Not once did he apologize for his actions. We walked out and grabbed my keys from the desk, the girl no longer sitting there - obviously having overheard my anger.
"I wish I could have your business, but I guess I have no control over your actions."
Yup, that's what he said. We left, and I ended up writing a full post on Facebook about my experience, deleting and blocking the girl, and writing a review on Google about the experience. It's quite literally their only review at the moment.
So, now that I have digested the experience, these are my thoughts on it:
- I fully believe that the girl added me with good intentions, gave the post to her boss with good intentions, then her boss did a horrible job of fixing the issue.
- He is a horrible employer if he was willing to single out and tarnish the reputation of one of his employees who again, likely had good intentions.
- Basically, if a customer has an issue with your business practice, do not vomit even worse business practices all over them. Instead either A: fix the issue, make the customer happy, and move on OR B: leave the customer relatively unhappy without making the situation worse, learn for the next customer, and move on.
What pains me even more is the absolute abuse of customer trust and their Facebook page. Is this what business are going to come to? They become so obsessed with their online reviews that anytime they get a bad one, they are going to threaten the customer with "we are going to lose business?"
So, businesses, a lesson for you: if you have a bad review, learn from it. Don't punch your customer in the trust muscle.
So again, the place I went to was Greenville Autoworld. That's right, I said Greenville Auto World reviews. The one on Greenville Blvd. in Greenville, NC. Their website is here: http://www.greenvilleautoworld.net/.
No comments:
Post a Comment