Quality is easy. Set the standard, and get it right. It is giving people what they expect, what they pay for. I had the dented fender on my car fixed this week and the quality control people must have been on vacation.
Let me see, I dropped the car off on Monday for a job that was expected to take 3-4 days. Picked up a stinky rental car. On Wednesday I get a phone message that the car is in paint and will be ready on Friday or at the latest Monday. WTF? I didn't call them but simmered. On Thursday morning at 9:15 I get a call that the car is ready asking if I can come pick it up right away. I can't I have meetings. I agree that I will be there before they close.
I arrived about 4:00. I owe them for the work (the insurance company had sent me a check.) They look at the file and say $346 please. I am stunned because that is not the right amount, I owe them $846 unless the insurance company was able to collect from the parking people, who say it didn't happen while they had the car (a whole different issue.) I question the amount, and the immediate reaction is "well that is what the file says!" At my urging he opens the file and reads it, and quickly agrees that I owe $846 (less a $50 frequent denter card discount - I was rear ended a year ago and used the same repair shop.) I pay and they bring the car around.
I look at it and the edge of the door they painted does not match the edge of the other four doors on the car. Where the hell are there quality control people? They take it back and buff it differently. I give up and drive it home. I am still not sure that it is right, and I am rather hyper sensitive because they tried to pawn off second quality work on me the first time. The customer should never be the person pointing out that something is not right. Two strikes in less then an hour.
I drive out into the setting sun and can hardly see out of the windshield. Looking at it they had sprayed some kind of a cleaner, like Armor All on the dash to remove the dust, and gotten over spray on the inside of the windshield, and not cleaned it off. Strike three.
They sent me an online customer satisfaction survey today and called when they got the results and I was less then pleased. Pleasing me is easy, get it right the first time.
some businesses/people don't give six shits any more about their work.
ReplyDeleteOh no, no, no, no! My slightly OCD nerve is twitching.
ReplyDeletePaint & undercoat on my car hood (only 20,000 mi.yet out of warranty) has bubbled, burst and started slow but steadily peeling in ONE spot during past month. I know entire hood has to be sandblasted, undercoated and repainted which as we know will not match to my (or your) eye.
You have my sympathies.
Leslie in NJ
I am in northern Virginia, so you won't end up at the same shop - or I would name names. Have you talked to the dealer, some cars have extended warranty coverage on rust.
DeleteI had to have the paint on the hood of my new truck repaired as a bird had crapped on it, and the paint buckled. I dropped it off, got the call two days later, and found the hood was ORANGE while the truck was RED! NO ONE NOTICED THIS?!?!?!?! Apparently they ordered the wrong paint. Then they didn't want to provide a car, since I had 1) been dropped off, 2) it was a Friday and they couldn't fix it before the following week, and 3) they said they had no loaner cars. I asked for a manager. He tried to hem and haw, I asked for the owner. Ten minutes later I had a rental car for free. Fortunately, they got the paint right the second time. I hate body shops.
ReplyDeletePeace <3
Jay
Jay, I'm shivering after reading your experience with hood paint! Did they think you wouldn't notice and just drive off?
DeleteLeslie in NJ