My husband and I brought our car to Laurel Ford to fix - JazzOROG
My husband and I brought our car to Laurel Ford to fix because their service department was highly recommended by his father, who was well known in the Billings and Laurel community for his integrity before he passed.
This is the best I can say about them: They care a great deal about their reputation. Eric, in particular, cares a great deal about their reputation for providing excellent customer service. The head of their service department, well, he doesn’t seem to care so much.
Laurel Ford wants to be known as the go-to, home-town, look-you-in-the-eye good guys. Their reputation is their goal.
But they do not care enough to actually maintain that reputation.
I have worked in customer service for almost twenty years. I have learned, over those two decades, that part of the job is encountering people at their absolute best and at their absolute worst. When people are at their best, it’s all smooth sailing. When people are at their worst? Particularly when “the worst” happens because of a previous interaction with one of your own coworkers? I learned that in that situation, you kiss the customer's xxx. You offer them services on the house. You offer refunds and future discounts. You bend over backward to accommodate them. You do whatever is necessary to make sure they walk away singing your praises.
To put it as politely as I can, the men at Laurel Ford have a generational dissonance in what qualifies as good customer service in this century.
They sat down and talked with me. They listened to my complaints. I expected them to offer me something, they expected me to make a demand. Eric, who is the person we reached when we asked for the boss, talked about how he “had to defend his staff” while telling me, in the exact same breath, how I had to acknowledge that my husband had handled the situation badly.
Did my husband raise his voice? Yes. After the technicians lied to him—multiple times!—while scrambling to cover their xxxxx.
(The main lie in question: The service department had claimed to fix the problem we had brought the car in for—even though, while making the claim, they were aware that they had not, in fact, fixed anything. Again, for emphasis: they had not fixed anything at all and told us they had, without a doubt, fixed all the problems the car had. Their reasoning for saying they had fixed it? “It didn’t act up for us.” By default, they could not have fixed it, because by their own admission they did not ever discover what the problem was in the first place. When I reminded the head of the service department of that, I was informed that I was “insulting” their mechanic. In my opinion, pointing out a fact is not an insult. Take that as you will.)
Did my husband get violent? No. Not even remotely. The very most that he did was to slam the car keys down onto the counter and demand that the mechanics do their job.
Apparently the head of the service department said he “threw the keys; PHYSICALLY THREW THE KEYS at the technician.” That was the first bald-faced lie. The second? And the third? And the justifications they gave me? Comment on this review and I might give you my email to inquire about details.
When discussing the situation, Eric said—and I am quoting word for word—that “the money did not matter.” But did he offer up a sincere apology for the missteps his service department made? Not once. Did he offer a refund before we outright demanded it? No. And that should have been his first move.
(Regarding the amount of the repair bill: it was a significant cost to us. It would not have impacted the dealership in the slightest to refund the full amount. They refunded half after we fought them over it. But, again, “the money doesn’t matter.” Apparently that was the final lie.)
In Eric’s own words, he was “concerned that we would speak badly of his business.”
He did not seem to be concerned in the slightest that his business gave us reason to speak badly of them.
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