Summit Toyota of Akron - Service Center

Summit Toyota of Akron responded

Sir, I do appreciate the feedback and this might be a better forum for me to explain what happened. I tried on the phone but you wouldn't let me speak without insulting me/us, cutting me off and laughing loudly into the phone. As you continued to yell at me/laugh at me. I did ask what more do you want me to do? I did not come up with a solution, Toyota did. . At NO TIME did the anyone from our Service Department "lie" to you or try to deceive you or not order parts. We started off with a voicemail from you where you were upset that our Service Manager had not called you back and that you had not received your parts. I investigated your situation prior to calling you. What I found (and what I was trying to explain on the phone) was a couple things - The unreturned phone call - You called me just after 1pm today, the Service Manger had in fact called you (and left a voicemail) at 9:53 this morning. I attempted to tell you this when we were on the phone but you said "Oh is that what she is telling you" and did not want to hear it. I stated I watched her look at the history on her desk phone to relay to me what time she called. You stated "no way, I have my phone in my hand and the only calls today were the one where I called you and you called me". I then looked up the call in our phone system (which records calls) and played the call for you. You did not want to hear it. The wheel issue - Before I get into your exact situation, I would like to say it always puzzles me when a customer takes the stand that we don't want to repair something. It puzzles me because our Service Department is in the business of addressing customer concerns and receiving a fee for it. The thought that we would not want to repair something and be paid for it, when that is our business model, doesn't really make sense to me. Now onto your specific situation. You did complain about the vibration/sound a couple of times. On two occasions we attempted to fix the issue, however the second time you needed tires, so we could not omit that being at least part of the problem, that had to be addressed. You then came in the last time with the issue still persisting. What we found (and explained) is that the issue was being addressed by Toyota. Your issue was an issue among many other vehicles like yours and Toyota was working on a fix. We would notify you of the solution once Toyota had come up with it. It was a wheel bearing issue. That means many customers like you, had had the issue come apparent over the same time you had been dealing with it (the several months), Toyota took note and realized it was a manufacturing issue. This does not happen with a few complaints from a few customers, this had to involve several vehicles and the inability to diagnose the problem at several dealerships. We could have taken your money (or warranties money - which pays more than you), ordered wheel bearings and replaced them. That would have left you in the same situation after some time of driving. It would not have solved the problem and that would not have been good, honest business on our part. So as we explained we had to wait for the resolution from Toyota to know how to proceed. Toyota recently came out with a repair and as I stated on the phone and we could get you in (and have the correct new parts) after next Wednesday. I did state this was a benefit to you as Toyota would pick up the bill. This was not us doing a favor and my intent was never to insinuate as such. In the end, it was the right play on our part. As we explained in your last visit it was a known issue with Toyota and a 'fix' was in the works. At no point did we say we would order you parts. We wish you the best.

schufamily responded

The bottom line is that it took almost a year of complaining to get anyone on your staff to acknowledge an issue. Why should a customer have to wait for multiple other customers/locations to diagnose the problem correctly when we (the customers) are paying exorbitant costs to get our cars repaired? Plus the lost personal time to make several trips trying to get your staff to problem-solve this issue on their own. I told your service dept. crew, yet they blew me off because other locations had not reported it? The accelerated wear on my tires was due to this issue, not a built-in excuse for my vibration problem but did the dealership offer to cover the cost of the tires due to this oversight by your dealership? NO! And with the severe vibration I'm now getting, I'm sure it will speed up my tire replacement AGAIN. But you don't care about these things, do you? Just keep telling customers that until a majority of car owners chime in, as an individual citing necessary repairs on the car they drive every day, your dealership will not react. You will have to play "Follow the leader." I want a dealership who is proactive for its customers, which yours is definitely visibly not!

Summit Toyota of Akron responded

The other dealers did not diagnose the problem, That's just it. They were experiencing the same issue with no apparent resolution. Toyota (and the other dealers) knew the symptoms but the repair did not come out until just recently (like I explained on the phone). This was a design flaw from the manufacturer. This had nothing to do with us waiting on other owners to chime in or playing follow the leader. I don't think you are truly understanding the issue and solution. Not one other Toyota dealer figured out the repair prior to Toyota and the part manufacturer diagnosing the problem and in turn created the fix. It is through the weekly tech meetings with Toyota that a problem is recognized on a larger volume of vehicles and through the collaboration the issue is narrowed down to a resolution. This takes time, specially when it's a design flaw.

schufamily responded

The only thing you've responded is that your people did not believe me that there was/is a problem. They kept telling me that there was nothing wrong. Why didn't they believe the owner of a car which is driven EVERY day by that owner.? Your dealership wouldn't even pursue the problem until Toyota said something. Why?