| YabbaDabbaDeen |
Great forum, lots of very informative and helpful advice. Love the MDX too but not the dealers, thus we have cancelled our order placed in early June and promised for the end of August at the latest.
Faxed the dealer Tuesday a.m. and asked about how many ahead of us, allocation, build dates, etc. as guided by Roger (BIG thanks). It's now Thursday night and the guy hasn't even bothered to call much less answer. He claims his computer is busy doing month end when I called him. This is a large dealer out of my immediate area. The local delaer has lied right to my face and been caught out not once but twice. As my wife said, "We don't need to deal with @@@holes like this".
So, we're reluctantly off to pursue other options but definitely won't be getting an MDX right now. We'll lease something else for 3 three years and have another look at that point. Hopefully, Acura will get their act together or one of the upcoming options will look attractive.
This wasn't about wait or price or value. Simply about shoddy treatment of customers that I refuse to reward with my business. A letter of my experience will go off to Acura in the hope that it will make some difference for the next guy/gal.
Adios amigos, enjoy your MDX's. It's been swell.
David Aberdeen |
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| GCK |
Sorry to hear that you had to cancel your MDX order. However, your frustration is understandable and shared by most members of the forum. I am glad you showed the middle finger to the dealer. Please post the dealers name, and also rate them in the dealer ratings. Nasty dealers certainly deserve to be punished.
However, MDX seems to be worth the wait. Just need to be a lot patient and find good dealers ... I like the one I am working with, Hopkins Acura in Redwood City (SF Bay Area). |
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| RGWomack |
David,
I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. We have a great product and there is some good dealerships out there. It's just a shame to hear of so many bad experiences with our dealers. I just don't understand why so many dealers are not up front with the customers. If the MDX is still an option use this board to find a good one. |
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| metmdx |
Dave,
Sorry to hear of your dilemma....
Not to promote the competition here, but I think it would worth investigating the Infiniti QX4. I hear there are good deals out there (especially leasing) for a vehicle that is pretty damn good in it's own right...... :)
metmdx |
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| Michael |
David, I too am very sorry about your Acura experience. My wife and I had to wait for over 6 months and our dealer in NY couldn't care less. They had a supreme very iritating attitude all the time. Not once did the rep or his manager call us during the 6 months....I always had to call them. Some attitude. I think many of the dealers simply don't care because they all know their X's will go if the buyer drops out. We did get ours this past Saturday but if I had to do it over again, I would not.
One other comment, I wish I know about Roger Womack in WA. He sounds like a straight shooter and cares about his customers as well as selling his MDX's. Maybe a call to him might help you if you decide you really want an X.
Finally, adios to you too. Let us know what you eventually end up with. And remember, sometimes the wait is actually worth the gain....Michael |
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| AtlantaMDX |
| That sucks that you couldn't find a decent dealer. I'm glad to hear you're writing Acura. I just hope the read the letter and take it to heart. |
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| YabbaDabbaDeen |
My local dealer who was the most offensive was Acura Victoria. The dealer is the Graham family and my bad experience was with the son of the dealer, John Graham, who is the Sales Manager.
Our order was placed through Richmond Acura in Greater Vancouver. Our contact there was Brian, sorry I don't have his last name handy right now.
I was under the impression that bringing a vehicle in from the Sates was more hassle than it is worth and also that the price of the MDX is somewaht subsidized in Canada to keep the MSRP below $50k. Fromt what I've seen on this board for pricing that appears true as $37k USD would equal about $56k CAN by my calculation. If I'm way off base on this please let me know.
Thanks for the kind words. I will check out the Infiniti . I had been ignoring it as it looked too much like a Pathfinder with leather. We are also looking at the attractive rates on a Durango for a short term drive under warranty. No great rush.
Sure is a fine looking vehicle you all have, maybe one day....
David |
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| vicpai |
quote:
Originally posted by YabbaDabbaDeen
Great forum, lots of very informative and helpful advice. Love the MDX too but not the dealers, thus we have cancelled our order placed in early June and promised for the end of August at the latest.
Faxed the dealer Tuesday a.m. and asked about how many ahead of us, allocation, build dates, etc. as guided by Roger (BIG thanks). It's now Thursday night and the guy hasn't even bothered to call much less answer. He claims his computer is busy doing month end when I called him. This is a large dealer out of my immediate area. The local delaer has lied right to my face and been caught out not once but twice. As my wife said, "We don't need to deal with @@@holes like this".
So, we're reluctantly off to pursue other options but definitely won't be getting an MDX right now. We'll lease something else for 3 three years and have another look at that point. Hopefully, Acura will get their act together or one of the upcoming options will look attractive.
This wasn't about wait or price or value. Simply about shoddy treatment of customers that I refuse to reward with my business. A letter of my experience will go off to Acura in the hope that it will make some difference for the next guy/gal.
Adios amigos, enjoy your MDX's. It's been swell.
David Aberdeen
I can almost GUARANTEE you that Acura will just take your letter, the moment they get it and simply trash it. Acura corporate simply sucks, to put it mildly. They have a total attitude problem and just because they have a good product they think that they are above everyone else and totally invinceable. I can only hope and pray that this careless and condescending attitude eventually REALLY BITES THEM IN THE A** where it really matters and that they finally, DEARLY PAY FOR THIS BEHAVIOR. Even though I absolutely do not condone the way this dealer has treated you, it is ACURA'S RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE THE CUSTOMER SERIOUSLY AND TAKE FORCEFUL CORRECTIVE ACTION AND SEVERELY PUNISH THE OFFENDING DEALER !!!!. I am almost sure that whenever a customer threatens to contact Acura the offending dealer almost always just laughs thinking in their minds, "yeah right....nothing's really gonna happen to me". If anyone has ever found a good Acura dealership (which coincidentially happens to be a small percentage - around 15-20% or so) then it's purely a case of that particular dealership having good sense, knowing that eventually their LONG TERM success depends on keeping the customer happy and treating them right!! |
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| BarryH |
The relationship between the individual dealer network and corporate is rather love/hate for every car manufacturer.
The dealer’s attitude is that without them, the manufacturers wouldn't have an outlet for their product. It costs a lot of money to open and run a full service dealership and the margins aren't all that high. You have to remember, a car dealership is a franchise just like a hotel. The management at the dealership views it as "their" business, not an extension of the manufacturer and resents any interference with how they choose to run "their" business.
Manufacturers have dealers sign detailed contracts that stipulate terms and general guidelines for conduct. It is very difficult to change those terms once a contract is signed. BMW tried it in TX and got sued and had to withdraw the proposed changes. It takes a lot for a dealer to lose a franchise and unfortunately the most prevalent reason is lack of liquidity not for providing bad customer service. There's a Chevrolet dealer in CA that was found guilty of fraud and unethical conduct and fined $2M and they still didn't lose their franchise. Manufacturers have two sets of customers, dealers and consumers. The dealers are the ones actually purchasing the product and are viewed with the appropriate reverence.
Because of the complexity of the relationship, it is difficult for a manufacturer to punish a dealership. And if it's a high volume dealership, they wouldn't want to piss them off anyway. Instead, the manufacturers try to "incentify" good behavior to influence the way a dealer performs. That’s why Acura dealers go bonzo over what is said on corporate surveys. If a dealer gets bad surveys nothing happens. If they get good surveys they are rewarded with additional allocations and preferred terms on floor planning.
As we've seen from posts on this forum, Acura is able to exert very little influence over dealer behavior. Truthfully, I think Acura is probably just as appalled as we are but is contractually limited as to what they can do about it. You have to remember that the Acura product line was pretty shabby until '99 when the new TL was introduced. They probably had to beg dealers to open Acura stores and had weak contracts and broad guidelines for behavior. Now that the model line is hot, Acura has to live with the terms of the contracts that were signed when they weren’t coming from a position of strength.
This doesn’t change or excuse anything, just provides some psychology into what goes on behind the scenes. I’m not in the car business but learned all of this from friends at a major multi-line South Florida dealership.
Roger, do you agree? |
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| JNanas |
Barry-
Acura controls the allocation of vehicles to dealerships. Do they need their dealers? Yes. If they allow their dealers to operate without any standards, or to run willy-nilly the second a good product hits the street, will they be in business for long? Nope.
I think Acura likes to hide behind the law when it comes to curtailing bad dealer behavior. I did a LOT of car shopping for this vehicle, visiting many dealerships of different manufacturers (always more than 1 for each brand).
Worst - by far - of them all? Acura. So bad, it left a bad feeling in my gut, and eventually, I bought another brand.
Let Acura keep doing that - eventually, all customers will be pissed. I understand the complexities of the manufacturer-dealer relationship - but ultimately, they're partners. And if one of them is not upholding their end, they go out of business.
As Gene so eloquently put it once - 'even a Wise potato chip distributor can have his route yanked if providing bad service'. Sadly - Acura doesn't hold up to that high level of service.
Mind you - this has nothing to do with pricing and MSRP. Supply and demand rules, and if people are silly enough to pay high premiums over MSRP, then so be it. It's their money, and there's nothing illegal to that. But lying, cheating, fraud - if there's no way for Acura to reprimand, then there's not much sense to the arrangement. |
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| JNanas |
David-
Sorry to hear that you were mistreated - I know exactly how you felt. I took the same road you did - figured that 3 years from now, if the MDX is all it's hyped up to be, it'll be even better, and supply will be better than demand.
Until then - I found some capable alternatives, and thanks to the fact that they're not first or second MY models, deals are available for the making.
Good luck,
-John |
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| BellTeck |
David,
I dont blame you for feeling this way and wish you luck in any vehicle you finally decide to purchase. Im not going to go on and on about customer service etc etc..but will simply add that we ALL have the ability to make our own choices and each individuals situations are all different in thier own way.
TECK! |
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| RGWomack |
| When someone writes or calls Acura corporate, we are always contacted by Acura and they want to know what the problem is and how we can resolve it. At that point it's pretty much up to the dealer. A good dealer will take steps to correct it. I know when corporate calls us the owner calls the GM, the offending party is then called into his office for an explanation and how do we fix it. It just depends on the individual dealership. I don't think Acura corporate has a lot of control as to what the individual dealer does, but they do contact us immediately. |
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| marne |
Roger: Do you know whether anyone at Acura Corporate is officially charged with monitoring this and other Acura-owner boards? If not, it seems like someone there should. As an (ex) marketing professional, I'd really want to know what owners potential buyers are saying and reading about my products.
--Marne |
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| wmquan |
So sorry to hear that you're leaving us. I only hope that Acura improves the conditions so your story does not become its epitaph.
Good luck with your next vehicle purchase! |
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| BarryH |
Yikes! There's so much pent up bitterness toward Acura and the dealers about the purchasing process.
I ordered my MDX sight unseen in October and told the dealer I needed it by the end of December because I had to return a car whose lease was expiring. The MDX was a month late and the dealer felt badly and offered to cover my 6% NJ sales tax for the inconvenience. Not too shabby. I bought a TL-S the first month they came out from the same dealer and was again treated really well even though the car was in high demand. I've only brought one of the cars in once for service so I can't comment on the performance of the dealers’ service area.
So has anyone but me had a favorable dealership experience? I'm curious as to what percentage of people on the board had negative experiences and whether it's the majority or a vocal minority. On the TL, CL, and RSX forums, no one has complained about the sales process except some really young people that the sales staff didn’t take seriously. The only complaints posted about the dealers are for not getting repairs done right the first time or not being able to identify a problem. |
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| BellTeck |
I can add a positive experience barry..
About a year ago I went PRE shopping for a SUV because my lease was going to be up at the beginning of the year. I went to Acura of Hollywood (FL) and started looking at one of the 2 MDX's they had at the dealership. I told the salesman that I was not there to buy that day and would not be ready for at least 6 months.
Even though it was a Saturday and the dealer was very busy, he took the time to give me a test drive in it and explain all the little goodies it comes with.
Unfortunatly when I was ready to buy the truck they did not have one available so I searched the surrounding dealers and found a dealer that had my exact color and option package I wanted. You know the rest of the story from that point. THEN - The reason I went to Rick Case was of course word of mouth that they were the " Best " dealership in South Florida but I also want to give kudos to Acura of Hollywood. :)
TECK! |
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| kenyee |
I wrote Acura several times about my Integra rusting in the rear wheel wells where I saw Civics rust. I thought it was a design flaw because so many had the problem at a relatively young age. No reply. Even wrote their quarterly magazine. Nothing.
I bugged the salesman during the test drive of the MDX to see if they fixed this problem. All he could say was that they changed the plant. That was enough for me. |
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| JNanas |
A quick lesson in customer service:
Three weeks ago, in a quest to purchase a new garage door, a Clopay distributor visited me, and was rude and in a hurry. I didn't appreciate it, and wrote Clopay an e-mail, indicating their choice of dealers was in question.
I received a phone call back in 3 days - from a marketing rep, who assured me that the dealer was contacted, and the salesman reprimanded. I also received a letter two days later in the mail, assuring me that Clopay wanted my business, and hoped that the experience would not hurt them in my decision making process.
File that under *GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE*, excellent.
My first Acura experience:
Visited Valley Stream Acura on LI. Was treated so incredibly rudely after only asking why it was so hard to test drive a car (exact words - 'if you don't like it, drive something else'). My response was very curt - drop dead, a****le.
Wrote a letter to Acura, indicating this would hurt them (I have lots of time to write letters, right? Not really - that night, I stayed up until 2 AM - that's because I was incensed I could be treated that way). Told Acura that this was the first of three dealers I visited that day, and all three were pretty rude (the first was amazingly rude, much worse than the other two).
Response - none. To date, nobody - nothing. Three letters sent - including one to the service manager of that dealership, and one to Costco (they were the Costco recommended dealer).
Costco was the only one to respond - via phone call. Ironically - Costco mentioned that the Acura dealers they work with (only 2 in the NYC area) both had numerous complaints against them, more so than other manufacturers' dealers.
The problem is not unique to a dealership - it's something deeper at the corporate level. That's why I opted for a different luxury SUV - I wanted the customer service to be luxury, along with the vehicle. If I'm going to be treated like I'm not wanted, I'll buy a Kia and use the rest of the cash constructively. |
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| BarryH |
| So other then Teck's positive experience when he wasn't yet in the market, the answer to my question so far is no - no one else has had a favorable dealer experience. Kind of sad actually. It's as if Acura dealers have become drunk with power and greed. As some have posted, eventually the tides will turn and the dealers will wish they handled early MDX sales differently. And JNanas, post it a couple of more times and I'll have your story memorized. |
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| JNanas |
Barry-
Don't tempt me ;)
I'm a firm believer that nobody should let a company get away with poor customer service. Doing so basically degrades the quality of service that *all* companies provide us (since everyone operates under the auspices of 'but that's not any different from our competitor's service').
The damn shame is that there are good Acura dealers, and you don't want to drag them into the mud in one foul swoop. The truth is, however, that on the average, their customer service is marginal at best. |
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| wmquan |
quote:
Originally posted by BarryH
So other then Teck's positive experience when he wasn't yet in the market, the answer to my question so far is no - no one else has had a favorable dealer experience. Kind of sad actually. It's as if Acura dealers have become drunk with power and greed. As some have posted, eventually the tides will turn and the dealers will wish they handled early MDX sales differently. And JNanas, post it a couple of more times and I'll have your story memorized.
I had a positive experience, and so have quite a number of other members on this forum (from reading posts). Don't have as much motivation to repeat it over and over again. Negative experiences obviously provide the motivation. |
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| tdnone |
| I for one was treated very good at three Acura dealers in the South SF Bay Area. Even though I did not like the price and options initially (supply and demand issue), I was treated very well and did not have any problem asking for test drives or meeting, etc. I ended up cancelling my order since I cannot wait and found another dealer having the car available with all my options and accessories at MSRP for both options and accessories so I bought it. The first warranty service was scheduled at my convenience and they loaned me the saab turbo wagon. Both the salesman and the service manager called me at work to ensure that everything is taken care off and specifically said that they want to earn my service business. The salesman did sent flower pot to my home after the first warranty service call, a misaligned driver chair. The whole transaction time is 1.5 hours from my walk-in after their phone call. This is my first Acura and I told them that I have considered their sister Infinity dealership next door. |
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| RGWomack |
quote:
Originally posted by marne
Roger: Do you know whether anyone at Acura Corporate is officially charged with monitoring this and other Acura-owner boards? If not, it seems like someone there should. As an (ex) marketing professional, I'd really want to know what owners potential buyers are saying and reading about my products.
--Marne
Marne, I hope not because I would probably be the first one in trouble. In all seriousness I don't know if there is anyone officially but I'm sure there are some corporate type folks that look in from time to time. I would be curious if it were my product.
What William says is so true it's not the happy ones who are continually jumping up and down saying how happy they are. But when someone has a bad experience they will jump up and down forever, just ask my wife, she still brings up stupid stuff I did 25 years ago. I honestly believe 95% of my customers have a good experience and are happy about their purchase. Once in a while either paperwork gets messed up or some unseen disaster happens that I have absolutely no control of and it becomes my fault and no matter what I do I can't resolve it. If customers have been reading this board or one like it, it may take an hour or two longer to get past the " I hate you car salesman glare stage" but I'll get through it and hopefully they will have a good experience also. There are plenty of good dealerships out there, I'll go mystery shopping once in a while just to see what is going on at other dealerships and usually I enjoy it until we get to the got to buy it today stuff, and I tell them I work for another dealership and I was just seeing how I was treated. That's usually when it becomes less friendly, but I always thank them for letting me scare the hell out of them in their car. good nite |
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| JNanas |
Basic Marketing 101:
A happy customer will tell 3 friends, one time, about their experience with your company.
An unhappy customer will tell 11 people, including strangers, about their experience, repeatedly.
(This is from a marketing presentation I, as an engineer and totally non-marketing or support related, was forced to attend).
Pretty simple. People you piss off will come back to haunt you. |
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| BellTeck |
This haunted moment brought to you by the fine folks at BellTeckVille Grrrrrrr :mad:
I agree John, and some people may tell 111 people ;)
TECK! :rolleyes: |
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| remery |
quote:
Originally posted by BarryH
So other then Teck's positive experience when he wasn't yet in the market, the answer to my question so far is no - no one else has had a favorable dealer experience. Kind of sad actually. It's as if Acura dealers have become drunk with power and greed. As some have posted, eventually the tides will turn and the dealers will wish they handled early MDX sales differently. And JNanas, post it a couple of more times and I'll have your story memorized.
I had a very positive dealer experience here in Chicago but I contacted 4 dealers before I ordered one. You don't hear a lot of complaints about Midwest dealers but that is not the case in California and some other parts of the country. Just a guess, but this may be due to the regional sales organization and not necessarily Acura Corporate. I buy an automobile strictly on price so if I am not treated like a king but get a good price I am fine. The service side is a whole other ball game. Other than checking on the status of your order, how many times do we really deal with the sales side of a dealership versus service? In my extensive car ownership experience, not much.
If it really bothers you not to be treated that well when buying a car, get used to it because in the 20+ cars I have owned/purchased, car buying is generally not a pleasant experience. Most people I believe, after decide which brand to buy, simply go to the closest dealer and buy one. An interesting poll would be how many people who were disatisfied with their dealer sales experience bothered to shop other dealers? My guess again is not that many. |
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