[glass/shelf]

For the last 2 months my car has been sitting in a mechanic's bay waiting for parts that my local dealership swore were out of stock both in my area and the surrounding region. My mechanic shop has at least 4 people that can attest to having called the dealership 4-7 times per week inquiring about status of the parts and if they had been ordered and the dealership consistently stated that the parts were out of stock but ordered. Finally utterly pissed with having to wait 2 months for a damn bracket I went to my mechanic and asked them to verify the dealer's claims that the parts were 'out of stock' at other subaru dealers within 1000 miles of my location. (note that before we made the phone call, the dealership swore they contacted other part suppliers and that they parts were back ordered/unavailable/out of stock etc.). When we contacted a Subaru parts supplier in Houston, the clerk said, "Yep. We have that in stock. We can get it to you in a few days ground shipping."
WTF!!?!?!?!?!?!? This is the same place that my local dealer swore didn't have the parts less then 20 minutes ago.
So now the question remains as to what I should do. I had to get another car to meet my work/school obligations and am rather pissed that I had to wait 2 months due to my local dealer lying to me about the parts. Who should I send my complaint to and what should I say in it?

[bennd87]

..man that sucks. I hate taking mine to my dealer because they just don't seem to care, and they get it done when they have the time. Theres got to be something you can do about it if they are not running their business properly.

[Peleg]

Talk to the service manager and explain him/her what's going on.

2 months..........good lord....

[emanteno]

Originally Posted by glass/shelf

Who should I send my complaint to and what should I say in it?

I would start with customer service at SOA, and see if anything happens. They won't reimburse you for the rental, but dealers hate to hear that customers have complained to the manufacturer. In the meantime, I'd order all of your parts elsewhere and get your car back.

[glass/shelf]

Will do. I'm going to the mechanic shop to see what they can provide me as far as records of phone calls to the local dealership and who they talked to. It burns at me that the part was less then 6 hours away in houston the entire time and the dip**** local dealership didn't want to get it to me and lied about it not being available.

[Okeyd57]

I'm trying to figure out WHY they would do this ? What could they have gained by putting you off ? Crazy !

[hshdc04]

^^^...doesn't seem like their trying to get anything out of it...seems more like laziness on their part. Unless they're getting money out of him having a rental.

[jaydow11]

Originally Posted by Peleg

Talk to the service manager and explain him/her what's going on.

2 months..........good lord....

I wouldn't talk to the service manager.... I would talk to the OWNER of the dealership. Make an appointment directly with him to tell him your story and what's he's prepaired to do about it!

Go strait to the top with things like this because the buck doesn't stop with just a manager... it stops with the owner!

Good luck!

[glass/shelf]

no rental. I ended up getting another car for the duration of the repair work so they made zero profit off of that. don't forget. my car was at an independent mechanic shop not associated with subaru. the problem was that the local dealership lied about the parts being out of stock. i was told that the possible reason for the dealship not giving a damn about getting me the parts was that the bracket i needed was only $60 and the commission off selling me that part was too low to be a concern. Just to let everyone know that the dealership that f'ed up was Performance Subaru off of Tulane Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana.

[glass/shelf]

Originally Posted by jaydow11

I wouldn't talk to the service manager.... I would talk to the OWNER of the dealership. Make an appointment directly with him to tell him your story and what's he's prepaired to do about it!

Go strait to the top with things like this because the buck doesn't stop with just a manager... it stops with the owner!

Good luck!

also the person the mechanic at the shop my car is at did talk to the part service manage multiple times ( i was in the shop during the phone calls) and left him numerous messages about the part. I'm definitely going to the owner but more so I want to see how I should discuss the incident with SOA. Any suggestions on how to craft a letter of complaint? I have verification from the mechanic shop about the series of phones calls and claims that the service department made and they agreed to talk to a SOA regional rep if need be.

[Blackfang]

I am not siding with the dealer, but shedding some light here. A lot of missing information here.

A dealer usually contacts other local dealer for parts. If they don't have any, then they contact SOA's warehouse for an order. They will NOT contact every other dealership or warehouse within 1,000 miles of you. They do not have the time nor resources for that as it is taking up time and money(an employee calling every dealership within 1k miles for a part, when they could be answering a phone for customers).

The distributor that you called that has the part, were they an after market place that also carries factory parts or were they a SOA parts warehouse?

The parts guy at the dealership could have given the wrong part number and that could have screwed up the entire process.

I would not talk to a Service Manager because your car is not in his bay, It is not his problem. It is as another shop according to your thread. I would contact the Parts Manager to see what happened and what was the slip up and see if they gave the warehouse the wrong part number. Maybe he can help you.