Bad Subaru Sad Scooba Steve

Dear Blog,

This is a very negative story about Subaru of America and Bob Rohrman Fort Wayne Subaru, For the juicy part skip down to the FALL OF AN ICON.

Its a sad day for me when one of my favorite brands get defaced, and strangely enough by themselves! Would you think it wise to end a commercial with a bash on your self? I think not! Its even stranger when companies misbehave and create big customer service issues when they fail to uphold their part of the contract.

Its a common practice of true professionals to respect their customers and strive to deliver the best quality product or service to those customers. They cant make money without us and it doesnt make us very willing to buy if we are treated right, and everyones perceptions can be different. Handling troublesome customers who are upset about a problem which may have been unavoidable take skill but in order to be sucessful you must make the customer feel you care and want to solve the issue, the best way is to care and solve the issue!

In my limited time on this earth I've heard it over and over that a happy customer will tell one other person, and an unhappy customer will tell ten. So avoiding that one customer who leaves dissatisfied is crucial. It baffles me sometimes how this gets severely overlooked in customer interactions that companies have on a daily basis.

Let me start my rant if you will with a bit of background. I'm a very understanding person and I have a ton of patience to boot. It takes alot to get me hot and even more for me to lose it. I have not yet gotten far enough to lose it thus yet. Let me continue on the history lesson, a few years ago, Oct 2004, I returned from training in service to the Indiana Air National Guard and needed a ride to get from point A to point B at the least.

I'd been debating a pickup truck from Toyota and Nissan, but to my excitement the previous year Subaru had released the top model in the Impreza lineup, the STi. The 2004 model was amazing and the refinement of the product continued into the next year with the 2005 model. I was set, I wanted myself a 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Uh huh. So I slapped down almost $5,000 in a down payment and financed the rest of the remaining balance, I was told that the price was not negotiable, So I paid sticker with very little complaint.

Fast forward a bit I'd regularly went to the dealership to have my regular service done and was very careful with my beautiful baby! I was excited when I recived a package from the SCCA, Sports Car Club of America, via my free membership with the purchase of my car, thanks Subaru, or so I thought. I slapped the stickers on my car proudly, I attended only a very few events, They often conflicted with work or my National Guard weekend. One Sad day I had a problem, car no go, I had a slipping clutch. The clutch had worn out after only 20,000 Miles!

Now I admit, I did learn to drive a manual on this car, so perhaps I was in part responsible with riding the clutch or something, I never had anyone say I was abusive with my daily driving or it could cause problems. So on to Subaru the car was towed. I then got bad news, Sorry we wont cover it. I was suprised but at the time I wasnt fully aware of the fact they should have covered the wear and tear under warranty. With little fuss I made arrangements to purchase the needed parts myself. A while later and $650 in labor and
$2,000 in parts I had the car back.

It was at this time I met my now lovely wife and my free time was zip. I babied the car in fear of more issues, tada! I had a checkup before a roadtrip across the country and I was then told I had a twisted axle. No one could really explain what that meant, just it was bad and would cost me more money. I decline to address the minor issue and everything was fine until 48,000 miles. This is where my recent story begins.

THE FALL OF AN ICON...

It was May 11th 2007, I was on the highway to the Air National Guard base in Fort Wayne, IN. I almost lost it when my card made a hard deceleration and a loud metal on metal grinding noise ensued. I made a call into Fort Wayne Acura/Subaru, a Bob Rohrman dealership. This was the dealer I'd worked with from the time I bought my car until I had them repair my clutch, it was then I went elsewhere for my regular service.

Kevin said he could get it in to look at it later that day, 1:30pm, so i took it in and left it in their hands with a noisy turbocharger. He informed me when I stopped in at the end of the day that the turbo had failed and I had 4 twisted axles. Kevin then told me they had a call into Subaru about covering the repair under warranty. Friday ended and Saturday came and no word.

I called in and talked with Kevin, he said Ivan was the one Subaru would have talked with but he was out on an errand, so he would talk with him and let me know. Their closing time came close and no word. I called in and got Kevin, he placed me on hold for 5-10 minutes while he went to find Ivan to talk to him, came back with the news that Subaru said they would not cover it, and the could fix it but I'd have to pay for it. I told him i'd get back with him.

I hungup the phone and picked it right back up to call Subaru of America directly. I lodged a complaint with John that the dealership in Fort Wayne was refusing to fix my car under warranty. I also went to the website and submitted a complaint to Subaru.com. Sunday came and went, and Monday I had not heard anything from anyone. I tried to get ahold of Subaru of America or SOA to see about an update, the case had been passed up to Rick. I was unfruitful in gettin ahold of any answers. Monday went by.

Tuesday morning I got a call at the Base from Nadeem, the general manager at Fort Wayne Acura/Subaru. He had been forwarded my online complaint about the service department and wanted to inform me It wasnt their fault, David Young, the Subaru Representative inspected the car, took pictures, and decided they would not be able to cover it. I asked what the reason was, he did not know, what did he take pictures of, he did not know, in the end he refered me to the SOA customer care line which I'd already called to complain. So Tuesday went by.

Wednesday I finally got some information from SOA, they needed my service records because David Young had told Rick of SOA that the dealership had no record of my car being service there! The blatent lie was astounding. I informed him I would fax all the records to him.

I then went into Subaru and demanded to know why they would not cover my car, Scott told me Abuse, I demanded to know by what proof! he said the stickers, STICKERS! I said, he continued to mention the aftermarket parts and twisted axles which was now 3 instead of 4. I demanded to have it in writing that They were refusing to cover my car under warranty and why. He told me to wait.

I waited pacing in the lounge talking with my brother on my cellphone to avoid screaming at Nadeem in his office or some other unsuspecting salesman who came by. I got my paper and left. Scott came out to my car as I checked my voicemail, I'd missed a call from Rick. He said he'd be straight with me and told me the aftermarket parts and stickers and damage are indicators of abusive driving or racing, I told him that under federal law, Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, that a manufacture cannot deny warranty repairs on my car because of the presence of aftermarket parts on a car, he acknwledged it was true and told me I would have to talk to Subaru, which I did.

After talking with Rick to get a definate answer on what he needed I had to go back into Subaru and get copies of my serivce history. With my history, I left and faxed them to SOA. I found out the next day, Thursday, that Rick had not recieved my history, so I re-faxed them to him and made sure McMahon Tire was going to fax over my history of service there.

By Monday the next week the 21st of May the records had been recieved by Rick at SOA. The result was that they would cover my failed turbocharger under warranty but not the axles because there was a Technical Bulletin out about damage due to abuse or racing. I demanded to be shown what they even meant by twisted axles since no one understood what that meant. He told me he would speak with the dealership himself so they were clear because he was not sure how long it would take to fix the car.

I contacted the dealership and spoke to Kevin again, he told me he had heard the news and they had to order the part and it would take two weeks. I should have asked but I didnt know then they should have given me a loaner during the time my car was undergoing warranty repairs. I instead rented a car for two weeks.

Friday June 1st came and I heard nothing, so I called in and spoke to Kevin, he told me he thought the part had come in but they were too busy to get to my car so it would have to wait until Tuesday for them to get to it. I was baffled that two weeks ago when they ordered the part they didnt bothe to schedule my car be repaired the day or even the day after the parts came in!

Saturday and Sunday went by, and yesterday I called in because I have no vehicle now, no rental, I had to have my wife drop me off at work! I called to see about a loaner vehicle, Kevin told me he would give me one if he had one! I held my breathe and stayed calm.

I wait and Tuesday is finally here! I work all day and hear nothing, I call in and talk to Kevin after 3pm. He tells me they are working on a transmission and then they will get to me car, so they havent got to it yet? No. Will they get it done by the end of the day 8pm? They say it shouldnt take long, I dont know. Okay I will call later I guess. I continue about my work until my wife picks me up and goes to school.

She called me around 5pm to tell me my car will be done tomorrow, it WILL be done, she said. I guess she became a bit irritated with Kevin when she called in herself about my car.

To be continued...