Carling Motors Knows NOTHING about customer service!

I'm hopping mad so some anonymity might slip a little here but what good is a blog if you can't rant angrily at the corporate world (or tiny corner of the world) a little. What follows is a letter I just e-mailed to my former car dealership. its not a very good letter - much more of a rant, but I don't expect anything to come of it (aren't mechanics supposed to rip you off?) so I figured it wouldn't hurt to let them know EXACTLY how I feel.

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am the owner of a 2003 Mazda Tribute. I have truly enjoyed this vehicle and as we look to our future purchases I was disappointed to learn that we couldn’t just go out and buy a newer model. By the time I will be ready to replace my car, Mazda will have stopped making the Tribute. Just this Sunday though (while driving a rental car because our Tribute was having engine problems) I looked at a CX-9 and was mollified. There are other good options. I thought that — maybe — I had reached a place in my life that I always scoffed at others for. Maybe I had found that car — that car company — that I would be ridiculously loyal to, to the exclusion of all others. That was before the poor service I received from Carling Mazda changed everything.

4 years of trust destroyed.

Last week, we were out driving with our two children, enjoying summer vacation, when the radio stopped working. At first, I thought it odd that the radio of all things would break. Then the air conditioner conked and I knew we were probably in trouble. Within two minutes, the car shut down completely. Not enough juice left in the battery to take the car out of park and put it in neutral for a tow. In 30 degree weather and in the middle of a busy 6 lane road I took my two preschoolers out of their car seats grabbed a bottle of water and took the bus 1 ½ hours home (my husband stayed with the car to wait for a tow truck). I was not upset. Cars break down. This was unexpected (my econobox Pontiac Sunbird never left me stranded even once in the 11 years I owned it) but it happens.

At 4:00 on the Friday before a long weekend, Carling Motors, the company we have dealt since purchasing the car couldn’t help us until Tuesday morning. I was mildly annoyed but gave Carling Motors the benefit of the doubt, it was, indeed, a long weekend. I paid over $200 to rent a car – the LAST car available at the rental agency and the only option open to us. When friends and neighbours asked over the weekend what was wrong with the car I told them that I thought the alternator was shot. I have a very basic knowledge of cars but I was pretty certain it was the alternator.

I was therefore very surprised when on Tuesday afternoon we were told that it was the battery that was bad and the alternator was fine. I was also very surprised after picking it up to discover that it handled like a badly built go-cart (we had asked that they perform an alignment). Now I was annoyed. The hassle of being stranded without a car, the pain of a significant bill for a car rental, all this was compounded by a crappy service job and the sure knowledge that I would have to bring it back in again.

You can imagine how delighted I was to have it stall out completely a second time less than 3 hours after getting it back.

After losing an entire evening working out the logistics of a car stalled in the middle of traffic and having the car towed across the city for a second time in less than 5 days, we find out that your staff failed to diagnose a problem that I, with no training whatsoever, identified after a second and a half of thinking! Wonders of wonders the alternator isn’t working.

It’s the middle of summer. The car has less the 95,000 km on it. It’s serviced regularly at Carling Mazda. It has never given us any major problems before. Did they even look at the alternator? Did the mechanic test the car after he fixed it? Did he drive it at all to notice that he’d messed up the tires and the steering wheel now shook? Or did he rush through things to get it over with quickly because you are short staffed over the summer?

So again, I was stranded with no car for a day (almost two days actually!). With kids to pick up from day camp and preschool. With all of life’s little inconveniences to deal with: I will lose time at work; my son missed his much loved soccer practice; no one got to work, camp or school on time for two mornings in a row.

After having had the car for an additional day – they still didn’t manage to fix the alternator because the one they ordered for the vehicle (that we had to pay the supplier for directly because the dealership – ‘around since 1956’ is changing banks and doesn’t have a credit card or an account with the parts company?!?!) didn’t fit. Oh and they were going to charge us full retail cost for the privilege of procuring our own parts. By the time they got a part that did fit, there was no time to install it. Not all that surprising a mistake though given how often the service department works on cars of this make and model – oh it’s a Mazda dealership you do this ALL the time. Makes you wonder.

Carling Mazda did a sub-standard job. And then you boldly charged us full price for it! After much complaint on our part, your service department did take the new battery they had needlessly put in the car out and put back our old battery but they still charged us for the wasted time putting in the new battery took. And the tires? Although we do understand that our tires are nearing the end of their expected use, the car shouldn’t have run worse after being serviced. So yes they fixed whatever bizarre thing they did to our alignment but we still paid full price for that botched job.

Sadly, not one employee distinguished themselves throughout this entire situation. No one went the extra mile, stayed an extra second at work, made an extra phone call, or tried even a little bit harder to make us say “wow that was expensive and unfortunate but they really did their best.”

I live in Orleans a good 25 – 30 km or more from Carling Mazda. We used to drive completely across the city to deal with Carling Motors because we trusted the service. We bought the Tribute from Carling Motors after not only comparing other makes and models but also comparing dealerships. After four years, we were building a good relationship with Mazda, one that your staff has destroyed in a week through slipshod service. I have never received such shoddy treatment from a service department in the over 20 years I have owned a vehicle (I have never had any cause to complain even once). I am a little shocked and very angry over what has transpired.

Mazda Canada describes your dealership on its website as one with “customer commitment that is unsurpassed.” While your success may be directly attributable to your attention to customer satisfaction, you have not demonstrated that at all this week. A cursory call from your cheery receptionist (they always have some cute sounding woman call 2 or 3 days after your car had been serviced to ask you if everything was done to your satisfaction. It will be in her best interest if I'm not home when she calls.) in a few days will NOT fix this problem. I feel betrayed and I’m looking for a new company with which to do business in the future.


I've sent the letter but steam is still coming from my ears. That and every time I start the car I wait expectantly for it to stall out.