Garden State Volvo - Service Center

I had the unfortunate experience of addressing a problem on behalf of my son regarding his 2005 Volvo XC90 SUV. The engine was rendered useless by what is a widely known and well documented manufacturing d on behalf of my son regarding his 2005 Volvo XC90 SUV. The engine was rendered useless by what is a widely known and well documented manufacturing defect with the first 6000 plus engines of that model year. Balancer bearings get wet and fail, causing the balancer shaft to fail and cause massive, fatal internal engine damage. This is a problem that Volvo is well aware of, yet refuses to acknowledge or address. On some level, this is not just an engine defect, but can quite possibly be a life safety issue. On a separate track we are dealing with this by way of a class action lawsuit to be brought against Volvo on behalf of all owners of 2005 XC90’s in North America. Dealing with this problem had me cross paths with the Volvo North America Customer Service team and a local New Jersey Volvo dealer. I will summarize my experience with the Volvo organization and dealer and will make comments along the way. I will also give credit to one Volvo employee who did what a good , customer focused, understanding, intelligent and reasonable person should do on behalf of the Volvo organization and their clients. More on that later. The Volvo organization has , in my opinion, serious communication problems between Volvo corporate and the dealership. I am also of the opinion that the Volvo organization , especially corporate customer service , is not customer focused, does not know how to own a problem from cradle to grave, does not look to work to reasonable resolution, does not know how to communicate effectively internally (e.g. with dealership) or externally (e.g. with customers). I hold a yellow belt in SIX SIGMA which is a customer focused, data driven , quality improvement process, championed by GE former CEO Jack Welch and at whose core is the simple principle of “Voice of the Customer”. It has worked wonders at hundreds of companies to improve quality in products, processes and customer satisfaction. Apparently a concept that is completely foreign to Volvo. Dealing with Deb Lent at the Volvo Customer Service center was one of the most incredibly futile transactions I have ever had in my 40 years in business. She did not want to acknowledge the problem for what it was and constantly pointed to maintenance and oil changes. Neither of which have any bearing on the problem as I explained to her repeatedly and as is well documented on several automotive blogs. At every conversation, she insisted on pointing to oil filters and maintenance and would never even try to understand the technical nature of the problem. I could have been complaining about windshield wipers and she probably would have asked me if I changed the oil regularly. Additionally it was apparent to me that she was following a script to avoid dealing with the issue. The most insulting exchange was when she said that she could no longer discuss the problem with me unless I stated that I wanted to buy another Volvo. That was just too incredible to believe. The Volvo dealer in Manasquan New Jersey diagnosed the problem and told me the engine needed to be replaced, but could not locate one . At that point we were made to feel like the situation was completely unsolvable at the dealer level and would not be dealt with at the corporate level according to Deb Lent. We subsequently sold the vehicle for scrap. When I told Deb Lent about this, she said that the dealer was wrong and an engine could have been located. This underscores the bad communication between Volvo Dealers and Volvo Corporate. Why didn’t the dealer communicate with corporate to help find an engine, instead of sending us packing with no apparent resolution. Based on the dealer’s input, we sold a $50,000 car for scrap. The Service manager at the New Jersey dealership is also lacking in communication skills as evidenced by her emails to my son. She had no desire to help me understand what if any options I had relative to finding an engine. She stands behind semantics of new vs used vs rebuilt engines. She did not want to discuss how we might work together with Volvo corporate. It seemed to me that she wanted to get me out of the dealership and the car off the lot. The one bright spot was dealing with a Volvo corporate attorney who secured a $12,000 payment for our trouble. While I appreciate the professionalism , understanding and reasonableness of the attorney, in my mind the $12,000 falls far short of the true solution. For any Volvo executive who reads this I can only hope that the necessary organizational changes be made (especially in customer service), and that the badly needed training is implemented across the board. I am of the firm belief that this engine problem which cannot be diagnosed ahead of time can cause catastrophic engine failure (as evidenced by my son’s situation) and can lead to serious injury or even death on our U.S. highways. As such I am taking up the gauntlet and working with a team of attorneys who see the issue for what it is and agree that Volvo needs to be brought to justice and make amends for a problem with their product, rather than deny, avoid and evade the issues. It is my sincere desire to see Volvo be held legally responsible for the 6000 plus vehicles that have this issue as well as any damages that have been experienced by Volvo owners because of it. More

I'm from Florida and I had my S80 seviced here in N.J.,very bad experience, first I ask them to rotate my tires and I was told that wasn't needed,then I ask to change my oil with syntetic I was told N.J.,very bad experience, first I ask them to rotate my tires and I was told that wasn't needed,then I ask to change my oil with syntetic I was told that they didn't carry syntetic oil, I went to Wal-Mart and purchase the oil, (2five quarts cans), when I pick up the car was no oil left I ask for the remain of oil what sould be about 3 quarts I had to whait for about 10 minutes before they come with 1 can with over 4 quarts, that tells me tha, that they didn't use my oil, third,they were supose to check the power stearing oil they didn't I had to go there for the second time in order to have the at normal level witch toke about 1 quart ofr oil, when I ask if they check everything I was told yes and every thing was good. Coclusion: I'm pretty sure that somebody kept my oil and they fill my engine with regular oil, second they were a buch of liers when they told me that everything was good when wasn't. At the end I paid almost $300.00 dollares for service that wasn't performed. This was the worst dealer that I ever had done business with. More