(I apologize in advance for this long story. But... - Tom
(I apologize in advance for this long story. But hopefully by sharing my experience you can avoid the headache I went through with Deacon's.)
I made an online appointment for Saturday, November 21 at 11:30 a.m. for two reasons: first, a service light on my dashboard appeared saying “Service 4 Wheel Drive System,” and second, my passenger-side headlight would flicker when turned on.
I brought my car to Deacon’s on Saturday and was told that they would be unable to even inspect my car until Monday, November 23 because technicians do not work weekends.
At the time, I was not upset that my car would not get serviced on that Saturday, but I was upset that I was able to make an appointment on Saturday if Deacon’s already knew that they would be unable to service my car until Monday. I waisted my time, and forfeited the use of my car for Saturday and Sunday because of this lack of communication.
On Monday, November 23, I received a phone call from Kyle K. saying that the “Service 4 Wheel Drive System” issue had been resolved, but there was nothing wrong with either of the headlights. I assured Kyle that every time I turn the headlights on, the passenger-side headlight flickers - and it had been doing so consistently for the past couple of weeks. Kyle assured me that they had inspected the headlights and the electrical wiring and nothing was wrong. Kyle told me I could pick up the car any time before 7:00 p.m. At 4:50 p.m., I came to pick up my car, paid $102.60 for the inspection, and went to obtain my car. When the attendant was driving my car from the back of the parking lot to me, I could plainly see that the passenger-side headlight was flickering. I alerted the attendant of the issue, and he obtained a technician and what appeared to be a manager to see what I was talking about. Both the technician and the manager agreed that the headlight was faulty and something was wrong. I asked if they would be able to change the lightbulb right then and there, since the technician told me there was not a wiring issue. The technician quickly apologized and said that he was leaving for the day, and left me and the manager outside. The manager told me I could either leave the car with him and come tomorrow, or I could take the car home and come back at another time.
Because I had no other reasonable way of getting home, I decided to take the car home. The second I drove off Deacon’s lot, the same “Service 4 Wheel Drive System” light appeared on my dashboard.
The next day, Tuesday, November 24, I brought my car back to Deacon’s at 8:00 a.m. On my drive to Deacon's, the "Service 4 Wheel Drive System" light did not appear, so I thought my car just needed to reset itself after Deacon's fixed the issue the day before. This visit, Nate N. was the representative who assisted me. I was expecting that the technicians would not need a lot of time to change the headlight. I waited nearly 2 hours before Nate informed me that the technicians were having a difficult time installing the headlight due to some broken latches that the lightbulb attaches to. I asked if the broken latches were the cause of the original lightbulb’s flickering, and Nate informed me it was not. Nate showed me what my original lightbulb looked like, but I cannot tell you if that is what the lightbulb was supposed to look like as I never saw a new lightbulb to compare it with. I waited roughly another hour before the headlight was installed, and I paid $390.92 for the new lightbulb and to repair the broken latches.
After the Thanksgiving holiday, I called Deacon’s on Friday, November 27, asking about the “Service 4 Wheel Drive System” because that service light appeared again on my dashboard. Remember, on Monday, November 23, I was informed by Kyle that the issue had been resolved, so I thought that maybe I needed to reset a button or something in order for the service light to turn off. The person on the other end of the phone call basically said that it is common sense to bring the car back to Deacon’s if the light is still on. He said the earliest appointment he had was for Monday, November 30 at 9:30 a.m.
On Monday, November 30, I brought my car back to Deacon’s again. This time, Lisa M. was the representative who helped me. Lisa informed me that I would have to pay another $90+ fee for the inspection. I immediately rejected to pay any inspection fee as my car was already “inspected” on Monday, November 23, and I was told the issue was resolved. Lisa said she would have a manager speak with me. No manager ever came to speak with me.
I told Lisa that I would wait for the car to be fixed properly this time. She said it would take about an hour. Over 2 hours later, I had not received an update about my car from anyone. So I went out of my way to find Lisa to see if she could provide me with an update. She did not know who I was, so that was obviously concerning. After giving her my information for a second time, she said she would have an update soon. About 15 minutes later, Lisa said the technicians still did not know what was wrong, and that they needed another 25 minutes. 25 minutes later, Lisa said the technicians still did not know what the issue was, and they needed another hour. She offered to provide me with a ride home via one of the dealership’s shuttles. I accepted, but before leaving, I made sure that Lisa had my phone number to call me in an hour or so. She wrote down my number on a piece of paper.
On the shuttle ride home, the driver received a phone call from someone at the dealership. Because the conversation was on speaker phone, I heard the entire conversation. The man on the phone was asking where the driver was, and demanding that he was not allowed to drive customers home (at this point, we were almost halfway to my home). After the phone call, the driver told me that the dealership had recently undergone new management and that communication between the departments has suffered.
I expected to receive a phone call later that day as I was told the technicians only needed another hour to find the problem; but I never received a phone call. In fact, I had to call on Wednesday, December 2, to get an update on my car. No one answered the phone. Come to find out, Deacon’s lost power that Wednesday. Even without power on Wednesday, I should have received a phone call Monday afternoon with, at the very least, an update. On Thursday, December 3, I called Deacon’s again asking for an update, as I was unable to speak to anyone on Wednesday. I learned that Lisa called the wrong number, and the number they had on file was incorrect.
Lisa informed me that the rear differential needed to be replaced, and it would cost roughly $4,000, plus installation and tax. I asked her if this was covered under my extended lifetime warranty, and she proceeded to tell me I did not have a warranty. This was alarming because I knew with 100% certainty that I had a warranty. I corrected her and told her that there was a warranty. Lisa said should would gather more information and call me back.
Almost exactly 2 hours later, Lisa called me again saying that there was a warranty, but the insurance company would need to come and inspect the car to ensure that the warranty covered the repair. However, the insurance company would not be able to inspect my car until Tuesday, December 8 at the earliest, and I should not expect to hear anything until December 10. I thanked Lisa for the update and I gave the go ahead for the inspection.
On December 9, Lisa informed me that the warranty would cover the new rear differential, but now they needed to order the part. Lisa said it would take about 5-6 days for them to get the part. Lisa also said that because installing a rear differential is a simple process, I should be able to pick-up my car the same day the dealership gets the part.
Roughly a week later, Lisa informed me that they had ordered the wrong part and that they would need another 5-6 days to obtain the correct part.
To compensate me for my troubles, Deacon’s provided me with a loaner car on Wednesday, December 16.
For the Christmas holiday, I had planned to visit family in Michigan. So I traveled to Michigan with the loaner car. On December 22, Deacon’s told me my car was ready. I informed them that I was in Michigan for Christmas and that the earliest I could be back in Cleveland was Saturday, December 26. They told me that I could come on Saturday to return the loaner car and pick up my finished car.
On Saturday, December 26, I paid $108.00, and picked up my car. I received my car buried under literally 4 feet of snow. It was buried under so much snow that the attendant who was driving my car to me was driving with the driver door open so that he could see where he was going. Not a single person came and assisted me in clearing the snow.
After clearing all of the snow from my car, I drove my car home (which is just over 9 miles from Deacon’s). The next day, Sunday, December 27, I was planning to drive my car to visit family in Hudson, OH. I made it about a block from my home before my breaks failed. Thankfully, I did not get into an accident and no one was injured. I looked under my car, and something was hitting the ground from underneath my car.
Because Deacon’s service department was closed on Sunday, I had to wait until Monday, December 28, to have my car repaired. So on Monday, December 28, I called my insurance company and had my car towed back to Deacon’s. Once I arrived, I sat down with manager Mark M. and explained to him my frustrations with Deacon’s (starting on November 21). He reasoned with me, and agreed that he would most likely not return to Deacon’s had he gone through what I did, and no reasonable person would come back to Deacon’s either.
That same day, Deacon’s provided me with another loaner car, at no cost to me, for my troubles.
On Wednesday, January 6, I picked up my car after the brakes were “fixed” and Deacon's provided me with a receipt for my records. I noticed, though, that the milage in and the milage out portions of the receipt were exactly the same: meaning that no one test drove my car after they said the brakes were “fixed.” On my drive home with my car, I noticed that I still had to push my brakes almost all the way down to the floor in order for the car to stop. I called Mark that afternoon and alerted him of my concerns. He said to bring my car back in the morning and they will take a look.
On Thursday, January 7, I returned my car to Deacon’s. I once again worked with Lisa. I informed her of my concerns with the brakes, and how the January 6 receipt noted no change in my car’s milage in and milage out - meaning that either no one test drove my car, or someone was not accurately recording the milage. Lisa informed me that a technician test drove my vehicle 3 times on January 6 and said the brakes were fine. But Lisa said she would have a technician test drive my vehicle again just to make sure.
Roughly 15 minutes later, Lisa informed me that the technician found nothing wrong with the brakes. I asked Lisa if she could put that in writing. On the receipt they gave me on January 7, Deacon’s words state, “THE TECHNICIAN TEST DROVE THE VEHICLE FOR 8 MILES. BRAKE PEDAL HEIGHT WAS NORMAL, RATE OF BRAKES APPLYING WAS NORMAL. ABS OPERATED AS DESIGNED, FLUID IS FULL, NO FLUID LEAKS, ALL BRAKE OPERATIONS ARE AS DESIGNED, SAME AS LIKE VEHICLES.”
So I obtained my car, and drove straight to a Midas about 2 miles from Deacon’s. At Midas, I spoke with a manager named Kenny and informed him of my experience with Deacon’s and my brakes. Kenny and his team test drove my car and did a full inspection of my car, free of charge. After they finished the inspection, Kenny personally took me into the body shop and showed me my brake pads. The pads were so worn down that my car was essentially hitting metal on metal when I applied the brakes. All of my brake pads needed to be replaced. Kenny explained that Deacon’s must have seen how bad the brake pads were when they inspected the brakes, yet Deacon’s provided me with written documentation that my brakes were “the same as like vehicles.” After Kenny applied a discount, my grand total was $845.60.
I called Mark, informed him that something was in fact wrong my brakes, and I hung up. Kenny actually gave me the old brake pads from my car for my records.
I am not blaming Deacon's for my car having extremely bad brake pads that needed to be replaced. But two things are true here: one, I never had any issues with my brakes until after Deacon's installed a new rear differential; and two, Deacon's had a duty to alert me of the condition of my brakes if they were that bad.
I will never again come to Deacon’s for any reason, whatsoever.
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