Jerry Seiner Kia Salt Lake - Service Center

Jerry Seiner Kia Salt Lake responded

Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns. When your 2016 Sorento came to our service department in January 2024, we worked diligently with Kia to replace your engine at no cost to you, despite the warranty having already been expired. We were glad to assist and ensure that you received a new engine without any expense. In April, we reimbursed you for the repairs carried out by your mechanic friend. At that time, we agreed that any future issues should be communicated to us before any repairs were authorized or performed to ensure we could support you effectively. Recently, you requested reimbursement for another repair done by your mechanic friend without prior notice to us. As per our previous agreement, we do ask that you inform us before proceeding with repairs to enable us to assist appropriately. We understand how frustrating unexpected repairs can be, especially with an older vehicle that has accumulated over 140,000 miles. Please know that we are committed to providing excellent customer service and addressing any concerns you may have. We value our customers and strive to maintain open and respectful communication. Harv would be happy to discuss this further and find a resolution that works for both parties. Please feel free to reach out to him directly. Thank you for your understanding.

Jarom Kester responded

The warranty was not expired when we initially showed up, and to say, "at no cost to you" and "without any expense" is simply hilarious after reading my review. You replaced my engine with 4 misroutes/improprieties/oopsie daisies. All at my expense. Secondly, I have never had a friend work on my vehicle, and It is clear what you are trying to imply with comments like that. These exact comments are the types of accusations I mentioned in my review, based on nothing other than rude implications towards my intentions and a poor attempt to take the focus away from your technician's obvious mistakes. In each of the issues I shared, I've had a different technician (whose names I didn't know prior to taking my vehicle in), work on my vehicle. Third, stating the car was repaired each time before your dealership even received notice is also not true, and you are now being publicly dishonest. 3 of the issues I have had from the engine replacement have left me 50+ miles away from your dealership and I have needed to tow it to a closer repair shop. Upon finding out what the issue is, your dealership has been the first I've called. This most recent one I specifically said to Harv "The car has not been touched at all, no repair has taken place, it has only been inspected. We could tow it down to your dealership for you to inspect yourselves, as long as you cover the cost if you find it was in fact your technicians fault." And Harv said "I told you we aren't interested in looking any further into the situation." I'm aware you record your phone calls for quality assurance, feel free to fact-check me on that. I remember it distinctly. I'm fully aware that there are unavoidable and necessary repairs that come with a vehicle that has 140,000 miles on it, but you can add that comment to the list of angles you've tried to hit this from to avoid accountability. My troubles haven't been with the brakes, AC, suspension, or other. My troubles aren't from my car being old and used. I'm having engine troubles. And I've had four issues with my engine since getting it replaced in January. How many repairs should an engine need over the course of accumulating 5,000 miles? If a competent technician worked on it, I would say 0. This is all not to mention each of the four times I have had a different technician work on the vehicle they have separately said "an error like this only occurs from a technician misrouting, forgetting, or improperly ______" In their own words, and prior to me telling them I had my engine replaced recently. Experienced mechanics with no knowledge of the vehicle's history, found it obvious that the car troubles I was having were mistakes caused by an incompetent technician. The fact you are STILL implying accusations and blaming the miles on the car for my brand-new engine troubles speaks measures. And I can't do anything but smile and shake my head at this point. I think ignoring my review may have been a better option than to take your dishonest implications and stubbornness public. I have absolutely no interest in speaking with Harv again about the situation, he made it clear there was no desire to "find a solution for both parties", and I think I'm past that point too. I'll reiterate: the $85 repair your technician cost me is hardly the issue. My intentions for leaving these reviews couldn't be further from focused on reimbursement. I would simply like to share how awful it has been to deal with this dealership. Starting back in January with a mistake-prone technician, moving to a rude and dishonest service manager, Rocco. Then the dismissive, unbothered General Manager, Ty. As you can tell from my review, I've been to a lot of dealerships/service departments in the last 8 months. None of them have come close to being as frustrating, rude, and dishonest as yours.