More whining

Monday, October 01, 2007

Robert A. Lutz, Vice-Chairman Personal and confidential
Global Product Development
General Motors Corporation
Detroit MI 48202

Pontiac Customer Assistance Center
P.O. Box 33172
Detroit, MI 48232-5172

Mr. David W. Taylor, Jr., President Personal and confidential
David Taylor Cadillac Company, Inc.
PO Box 36428
Houston TX 77236

Mr. Phil Meyers, Service Manager
David Taylor Cadillac/Buick/Pontiac/GMC
9120 Southwest Freeway
Houston TX 77074

Gentlemen:

As you are aware, I have repeatedly had my 2005 Pontiac Bonneville into David Taylor for warranty repair work, VIN 1G2HZ54Y85U199292.

My complaint about under-hood exhaust noise cannot be found by your service department; riders in my car are impressed with my imagination – it being so vivid that it has sound effects. After a few minutes of driving, the underhood rattle is consistent at stop lights.

In my test drive with your shop foreman, he asserted that my sunroof cannot be satisfactorily adjusted – it’s as good as they can get it. The sunroof is quieter on the freeway when vented than when closed, but your service advisor states that I’m only hearing normal wind noise. When I’ve driven a CTS loaner provided by your store, the sunroof made no wind noise. This weekend, looking at new Cadillacs at Stewart, each and every factory installed sunroof is perfectly flush to the roof surface – my sunroof is millimeters below the roof surface across the entire factory opening for the roof.

In its last visit to your shop, again your technicians saw fit to put new settings into my seat and mirror memory – that is the second time this has been done. Wrench sockets were left in my car, rattling against the seat tracks. This is the care your shop gives to the owner of a $39,000 car; their own preferences are superior to my own, and an attention to detail that would allow for causing short circuits and leaving tools behind in my car for later discovery.

My experiences in your service department have been unsatisfactory in the extreme since Eric Rice left the drive. I am very displeased with the out and out fabrications told me by the service advisor who has been handling my vehicle – when you replaced the sunroof and disabled the interior courtesy lamps, he told me I had a blown fuse – taking responsibility away from David Taylor’s employees. When driving the car with the shop foreman hours laterI was told that the technician had pinched a wire, causing a short and disabling the lamps.

What is the purpose in deflecting blame away from David Taylor in this manner? What customer service goal is served by telling a GM customer representative that my sunroof does not make inappropriate wind noise when your shop foreman has told me directly that it does? How can I be expected to accept anything that I hear from your service drive personnel at face value?

The man who has made these statements has also stated that my windshield, which cracked badly while at David Taylor, was damaged on my watch and then later claimed that he had seen this damage when the car was brought in, and that he made note of it in a report – none of which notations are available for review.

Why should these statements be believable? The balance of the care my vehicle has received while in your shop has been so careless as to warrant reasonable consideration as to whether a technician dropped a tool or other object on my windshield while in your possession – in fact, the totality of the circumstances surrounding my handling at David Taylor would tend to suggest that someone at your shop DID cause the damage, and then your institutional behaviors naturally began to distract, avoid and defend against such a reasonable explanation.

The efforts of Pontiac to support its customers have been less than pathetic, and have hardly acted in any manner to advocate or negotiate a solution to what is utterly disreputable customer care and discharge of contractual warranty obligations. Having a shiny-faced twenty-three year old parrot back the fabrications of the dealer’s service personnel is hardly providing any customer service at all.

Mr. Meyers, I decline your offer to come yet again to the service drive, and be placated with promises that you all will do your best. I decline your offer to come and have nothing done, and my car returned to me with a fairly high probability of further damage. I decline your offer to go for a test drive to prove whether I am making complaints out of my imagination. I have invested far too much time already.

I decline further contact from Pontiac’s “Customer Assistance Center.” I have no need to be told in the most chipper of tones that I have been well treated.

It matters not how beautiful, exciting or unique GM products are when a customer with a 29 year consistent purchase history cannot have his car repaired and be treated as a valued client. It matters not that you install sophisticated electronics, two-toned leathers or hybrid power trains. Even more people will turn away from the dealer experience which brings only frustration and a deeping lack of confidence in the vehicle that one had previously been so excited about.

Each day that I look at my damaged car, listen to the badly repaired sunroof and the ignored engine compartment rattle, my confidence in it is diminished. The car becomes less and less appealing and each time I turn the key I wonder what will go wrong next.

Is that the product you intend to sell? Are those the experiences you want your customers to share with their friends and business associates?
That is the experience you are delivering in the marketplace. Every time I see a new DTS, look at the colors, the wheels, and think about having one in my garage I must stop and consider that at some point it will be in YOUR garage. That is enough to inhibit me from further entertaining the notion.

Sincerely yours,