So, previous I ranted on about an issue with my car that I brought up with
Honda Canada, complaining about Kanata Honda and their ridiculous justification
for the key cylinders in my car to wear out so quickly.
Well, Honda Canada did, in fact, get back to me. A nice lady from the office
of the President of Honda Canada called me and informed me that since these
issues happened so quickly as my car was coming off of its warranty, that they
were willing to help with the problem.
We played phone tag for a while, until I got in touch with her and she told me
that she was going to follow up with the dealership, and I should hear from
her in 2 days. A month went by and I had heard nothing, so I started calling.
I called on several occasions, days apart, leaving voicemail after voicemail,
none of which were returned.
I began to assume that I'd been given nothing but lip service, and there would
be no actual action. In frustration, I complainted to @HondaCanada on twitter,
and they did get back to me, resulting in my getting a phonecall from the
nice woman within 24 hours. At this point I'm assuming that she is just
ridiculously busy, and I wasn't important enough, not that she actually
intended to lead me on.
We finally connected by phone, with this understanding. Honda would replace
the passenger door key cylinder which was seizing up, just like the trunk.
The key cylinder on the trunk that I had already replaced, they would re-key
so that I could go back to having a single key again. They would not cover
the cost of any replacements keys if my keys wore out. This was the extent of
what they planned to do to help me.
At that point, decided that I'd fought on the issue enough, and that they were
being reasonable, considering that the key cylinders and keys were off
warranty. Not that it's ok for them to fail at all, mind you, but it is what
it is. I knew the warranty when I bought the car. That's on me. Next time
maybe I go with a car company with a better warranty.
Regardless, they followed through. I worked with the service manager at
Kanata Honda, got my appointment, and as of now, the work is done. There will
likely be additional problems with the key cylinders and keys, and this time
I'll be on my own, but at least I've gotten a little help from them on an
issue that is obviously a manufacturing defect or design flaw. Keys and key
cylinders shouldn't fail people. I don't care of most people use keyless
entry, I'm not doing so and I expect these systems to work.
Was this good customer service? Well, in the end, ok, but throughout the issue,
no, not really. I should not have had to work this hard to make this happen.
The issue is obviously Honda's responsibility, so suck it up, take
responsibility like an adult, and make your customers happy. Don't wait until
they're frustrated out of their minds and irate on a telephone, or blogging
for the world to see about your crappy service before you're embarrassed
enough to do something.
You can do better.
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