Anderson Subaru

Lost my trust and my business Let me start off by saying that Ricky Stokes was very polite and confident in his team. He mentioned in our phone call that whenever they brought my c Let me start off by saying that Ricky Stokes was very polite and confident in his team. He mentioned in our phone call that whenever they brought my car back, everyone was in awe. He kept mentioning how incredible it was that a car of my year model was in such great condition. I agree, I take care of my Forester. I actually bought my Forester from Anderson a few years ago. I always make sure to change the oil on time and get any maintenance work done on or before the set mileage date. If I can, I will do the work on the vehicle myself. But sometimes life gets the better of me and I don’t have the time to spend under my car so I research and find the most trusted Subaru technicians. I have been going to Koby Subaru for the last 2 years that I was living in Mobile and I never had a problem. Since I moved further east I figured I would give Anderson an opportunity to earn my business now since they were slightly closer. With that being said. I’ve spent time to get to know my car and can tell you almost every little scratch and dent. I’ve also taken the time and money to do a few aesthetic modifications to my car such as the sport headlamps. So this is where my complaint starts. I dropped it off for a 120k mile maintenance and oil change, caught an Uber downtown Pensacola and waited for a call. When I got the first call I wanted to double check the amount of oil they put in my car. Most newer models take close to 5qt but mine takes 4.2qt. I asked the manager to check and sure enough, they were not paying attention and put too much oil in my car. So they had to drain the oil and restart. Now I wait for the second call that it’s ready. When I took my car to Anderson Subaru, there was no condensation in the headlamp. Ricky even pulled the video footage and confirmed the same thing. He also mentioned that after my service (the second time they had to try and put the correct amount of oil in my car), the manager thought the guys did not wash my car well enough so they sent it through a second time to wash. I get the car back and it looks great, I’ll admit. I take the back roads home and park it under my carport. I had a lot going on that day so I never had a chance to check their work, I’ll get to it later. Since the weather was nice, I ride my motorcycle to work the next few days leaving my car at home. The 120k mile maintenance and oil change was performed on Tuesday, August 7. I received a text from Ashley Messick asking how my experience was at Anderson Subaru on Wednesday August 8. I told her I had not had a chance to check the work and I would let her know as soon as I did. On Saturday, August 11 I text her to talk. She text me back on Monday, August 13 to hear me out. I explained to her that whenever I reached to lift the hood of the car, I noticed condensation in the headlamp and a few new scuffs and chips in the paint that I had not noticed before. I sent her pictures and she relayed that to Mr. Stokes. She explained that they did some research during my visit and found out that there was no damage to my vehicle when I brought it in. Now, the chips I can overlook but the condensation in the headlight bothered me because, they only sell them as a pair. My car sat in my carport from the time I got it back from Anderson until I took it out to check the work. I tried to explain to them both that it was not there when I took it in. I’m assuming that whenever they were power washing my car (the first or second time) they may have gotten too close with the pressure washer and broke the seal to the headlamp. It’s easy to do if you’re not careful, being rushed by your boss or just careless. Either way, when the seal was broken, condensation would not form in the light immediately. It would take a few days to start but with this humidity, it wouldn’t take long. So I agree with Ms. Messick and Mr. Stokes, it was not visible when it left the facility. Over a short time the damage became visible. Ms. Messick tried to use the fact that it took 6 days for me to get back to them when it only took 2 days from the day she first text me until I text her back that Saturday. She then waits until Monday to get back (it took her and Mr. Stokes 2 days to investigate and get their story straight). She was very clear that they did not make a mistake and “that it’s safe to say the damage occurred after the vehicle was delivered back to me”, in her own words. Mr. Stokes, after playing phone tag for 3 days agreed that they did not damage the headlamp. I had not driven the car much since then, maybe to the store and back but, I had to take it on the interstate this last weekend. I noticed the tires roaring, hoping it wasn’t a wheel bearing. The steering wheel was shaking a little too at high speeds. I got home and noticed the tires I marked were in the wrong position. They didn’t rotate my tires correctly. I swapped the two front tires, took it down the interstate and the roaring stopped. So not only did I pay for a tire rotation, they rotated them the wrong way. Folks, I take full responsibility for my own actions. If I had damaged the lamp, I would not try and pin it on a dealership to get a new one. I understand there are people who would do something like that, but I am not one of them. I am also a manager in the hospitality industry and deal with disgruntled guests (some who lie) all the time. Regardless of whether or not my team was in the wrong I always make sure the guest is happy, even if it takes buying them a $200 steak dinner with wine pairings, flowers and champagne dessert (which I’ve done recently) because, I know that if I take responsibility and fix their problem to create an indelible moment of bliss, I’ll get their business back. Anderson Subaru will not be getting anymore of my business. That is the last $700.00+ I will spend there for their lack of attention to detail (over filling my oil, not cleaning the car well enough, busting my headlamp seal and not rotating my tires in the correct position). I read reviews on Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc. before I took it in. Judging by those reviews I was a little worried. One guy had a similar experience where they messed up and he said, “no one cares about your car like you do”. I wish I had listened to him and just taken it to Koby Subaru. There are quite a bit of customers who have had problems with the service department. I just don’t trust that the positive reviews are genuine and reliable after my experience. If you notice by their reviews, there are a lot and most of them are close together and 5 stars. I’m not going to say they are buying their reviews (because, you can pay a company to create fake accounts and review your business) and I’m not sure how many people are buying cars in Pensacola right now (seems like a lot) but judging by how many reviews they have, with all the money they are making the least they could do is spend a little money to fix my headlamp. Ricky did say he would sell me an OEM headlamp at cost (mine are sport and black. OEM are silver. See how that doesn’t work?). He also said that if I bought one on my own they would install it for free. I installed the ones in there now, I can handle it. The headlamp isn’t that expensive, but 200 bucks is 200 bucks. It’s not really about the money, it’s about morals. Anderson Subaru doesn’t trust me as a customer when I tell them that I didn’t break the seal. But I sure don’t trust them, especially after not reading the manual to know how much oil to put in my car and not reading the tires to know which direction to rotate them. So let me just say this one more time incase you’re scrolling and didn’t want to read all of that. I will NOT be going to Anderson Subaru ever again and I wish I had trusted the OTHER REVIEWS because, NO ONE cares about your car like YOU DO and if Anderson makes a mistake, they’ll just offer you a discounted price so you can pay them to get it fixed. More