Customer Satisfaction Our #1 Goal

I told myself that I wasn't going to complain on here about this. I told myself that I'd just be patient and wait for things to be fixed. And here I sit, a week later, complaining about it. I think it's justified.

I dropped the new truck off at Haley Toyota last Wednesday afternoon to have a few things fixed. Among those are the dented front bumper, the rattling passenger seat, the noisy A/C, the mysterious steering wheel honking horn, and the well-known and documented axle wrap problem that I knew they wouldn't be able to fix. When I dropped the truck off with them I told them that I didn't want to see the truck until everything was fixed and that I didn't want this to turn into one of those multiple-trip catastrophe. The service lady agreed and said that they would make sure they got things all fixed up for me.

I left there in an 2001 black Toyota Rav4 that reeked of cigarette smoke. After a few days of hearing nothing (Friday), I called them to find out what the deal was. They said that the new bumper had been installed, but the truck hadn't gone into the service shop to have the other problems

No word Monday by late afternoon, so I called them. They told me that they had fixed the steering wheel horn honking ("the contacts were too close, we bent them out"), but they didn't find anything wrong with the A/C and the seat rattle was normal. In fact, she attributed the seat rattle to not having the seat locked into a certain position. So at this point they had had the truck for two days and only had half of the problems fixed. I reminded her that the A/C noise could only be heard after running the truck for a few minutes with it in drive and stopped. I also told her that the rattling seat noise didn't sound like any "locking into place" noise I had ever heard. She said that she'd have her techs look at it again the next day, sticking to my "I don't want to see it until it's fixed" philosophy.

So I sat around yesterday afternoon hoping to hear something. As I was in the middle of rush hour traffic, my mobile phone rang and it was the lady at Haley Toyota. She said that they found something wrong with the passenger seat and that they'd have to order a part that would be arriving this Thursday. I said, "OK, what about the A/C noise?" She stated that the noise I was hearing was a pressure equalization and that it was normal. I told her that my '99 Tacoma never made the noise that I had been hearing. She replied by saying that the trucks had changed over the years. I then asked her to explain the "pressure equalization" noise that she attributed my problem to. She replied by saying that it was a hissing sound and happened every once in a while. Well, duh! That IS normal. I told her that I knew of that sound and that I knew that was a normal A/C noise and that my noise was something totally different. I told her "Fine, when I come in there to pick up the truck Thursday I'll take it out and drive it until it makes the noise and then come back and let your service technicians listen." That was pretty much the end of that conversation. She said that it would be ready Thursday.

It's pretty sad, but I've been driving this rental Rav4 for just a day or two short of the total number of days that I drove my new truck. As of this afternoon they will have had the truck for a full week and my problems are still not all solved.

Over the years, I've learned to exercise patience. But it becomes very difficult to do that under these circumstances. It's a good thing I've got Shania singing to me this morning to calm me down as I type this. :)

Posted by Jeff at May 21, 2003 9:51 AM