Case 1: You’re driving a car that’s only a year old and your “Check Engine” light comes on. You bring it to the casa to have it checked. They see nothing wrong with the car, pronounce it roadworthy, resets the engine computer, and sends you off with a surprisingly high diagnostic bill. Two days later, the Check Engine light comes on again—accompanied by a heartbeat-raising engine idle that’s so low and rough that you immediately start praying that you make it to your destination and not end up as an expensive and embarrassing roadblock on an already traffic-choked EDSA.
Case 2: You’ve spent over 70k on engine repairs from overheating woes and are finally driving your precious five-year-old machine that you’ve faithfully maintained at the official casa all its life. Less than a month later, the car overheats again. You have it towed to the service shop, which diagnoses the problem and points to a different set of failed parts as the culprit—even if the symptoms are exactly the same as the first one. You end up with a new estimate even higher than your previous bill and begin a long and tedious argument that it’s nothing but a back job.
Case 3: You bring your six-month-old car that’s been in an accident to its dealership, which happens to be accredited by your insurance company. It’s actually the third time you visit the dealership in a month—and you get the same reply: “Wala pa pong stock ng rear bumper for your car.” Which means you have to drive your ugly bumper-less new car for several more days or weeks.
Case 4: Your car model has been the subject of numerous complaints about a troublesome engine or transmission. You’ve been lucky that the issue that has afflicted other owners hasn’t occurred to you yet, especially as your car is past its warranty period already and the most common fix is the replacement of an expensive computer box. Then it happens. Dismayed, you resignedly bring your car to the dealership to have the problem fixed, worried about the cost of said computer box. But you haven’t even inquired about the possible cost of repairs when the service receptionist tells you that there’s a “computer connection fee” of P2,500 just for them to hook up their computerized diagnostic tool to your car. Even before fixing anything. You feel outraged that they are even charging such a fee for a problem that doesn’t afflict most other cars.
Case 5: A typhoon leaves so many areas—and their cars—underwater. Some cars are beyond repair. Some require several new electrical parts. A sibling’s car is one of those. It needs four power window switches, which he says he was able to buy from his casa’s mechanic, who sold it to him for half the price of a new one. He’s happy to have saved a bundle. You have an identical car, which was lucky to be in another authorized dealership when the typhoon hit. You pull it out after the storm has passed and the floods have subsidized. You’ve been using it for a week when your young son riding at the back tells you that the rear seat windows won’t work. They were working before you brought the car in the shop. You think that the power windows lock button is on but it isn’t. You get a sinking feeling that some dishonest mechanic may have done a swap while your car was in the shop, knowing full well that a deluge (pardon the pun) of flooded cars needing various electrical parts will be coming in. You bring the car back to the dealership claiming that the windows at the back were working when the car was originally brought in. But they say that the checklist for the previous repair did not cover power window operation. Which leaves you with a potential bill for two new power window switches—and the heartbreaking realization that the switches your sibling bought could most likely have come from a poor, unwitting car owner. Much like yourself.
These horror stories are not fiction. Some have happened to me or to family members, except for one incident which I witnessed personally in a dealership’s service reception area wherein the customer (whom I didn’t know) was shouting his heart out in sheer anger and frustration.
Which is all such a shame. Modern cars all look great now. They have a wealth of features and technologies that just ten years ago were seen only in the most expensive luxury cars. They also have great value—driven mostly by the vast number of competitive offerings on the market.
It’s a buyer’s market out there—and there’s really no way to lose, no matter what car brand or model you buy.
Until you bring your car for servicing. The after-sales aspect of car ownership has become the great equalizer. Poor after-sales service happens everywhere and every time. You can own the cheapest car on the market or the most expensive car in your country club and still be subject to the most atrocious ownership experience. It happens to popular brands and obscure brands alike.
Of course, these horror stories don’t happen all the time. But they do happen. No spare parts available. Long repair times. Back jobs. Dishonest employees. Misdiagnosed repairs. Overcharged bills. We’ve heard them all.
Thankfully, the solutions are reasonably simple—if difficult to effectively execute, day in and day out.
Training. Consistent and regular training is essential for dealer front-line staff to be able to properly and effectively communicate with customers and for mechanics and technicians to be able to skillfully execute the needed diagnoses and repairs. Dealer service staff are required to undergo training at the car distributor’s head office.
But this is where lapses and miscues occur. Dealerships are almost always franchised and have their own HR departments with their own corporate policies, which may or may not be in line with the car brand’s own policies (especially for dealer networks that handle multiple brands). So when a service advisor or mechanic resigns and a new one replaces him or her, the training for the new one might not be as extensive and thorough as the one who got certified by the distributor—until at least the new employee goes through training, which does not always happen.
It all boils down to culture. If a culture of excellence prevails within an organization, it will be felt and exercised by everyone from top to bottom. And it applies whether it’s a luxury brand with a gleaming showroom in BGC or a tiny two-car showroom in the province.
What about the lack of spare parts? Can corporate culture and training remedy that? Yes, if it’s a problem of poor parts planning and ordering by the parts manager. No, if the problem is—and this is the more common one—the dealership is doing badly financially (or sales-wise) and has used up its credit line with the distributor. That means they cannot pull out parts on credit and cannot buy the parts with cash (or are sanctioned by the distributor with last-priority status for parts ordering).
Ultimately, it’s about customer satisfaction. A brand-new car—whether it’s a cheap model or a premium one—will make a customer happy only as far as its running smoothly. It’s when the vehicle is brought in for preventive maintenance or unscheduled repairs that the overall experience is put at risk. And it’s all in the hands of the service people.
After-sales service excellence. The head office and factory people who designed and built a gleaming masterpiece of style and engineering deserve as much from the people tasked to keep such masterpiece in fine working order. More so the customers who paid hard-earned money for it.
