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Old 03-09-2015, 07:47 PM   #1
Matto357
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Default SoA Senior Customer Service Representative Southeast Region

I've put off making this post because this has been an ongoing issue with Subaru that I had hoped would eventually be fixed without me having to air any dirty laundry, but after my last conversation with the SoA Southeast Regional rep (who I will call George from here on out, even though that's not his/her real name) I feel that it's important for those that have to deal with any warranty work that involves SoA to know to avoid this person at all costs.

In October of 2014 I picked up a 2015 ISM WRX Limited with Navigation and Harman Kardon sound system. On the second day of ownership I noticed some pretty loud rattles from the right front door panel, now I know that most of you at this point are going to stop reading, it is a Subaru, we know what we are getting in to. The only thing I can tell you is that these particular rattles were abnormal. At perfectly reasonable volume levels (i.e. 15 out of a 60 scale) the doors would rattle on every bass hit. I scheduled an appointment at a local subaru dealership and took the car in. Long story short, after seven visits to the dealership the rattles in the door panels were even worse than when I bought the car. Sports talk radio would randomly sound like the door was filled with bees any road imperfection would turn into mind numbing rattles. I was the previous owner of a 2006 WRX and it never came close to how the door cards sounded in my 2015.

After the 7th attempt at repair I called Subaru of America and asked for assistance in getting the problem fixed. I was basically told that the problem would be escalated to a senior customer support representative because of the number of repair attempts and that I would hear something back by the following Wednesday (I had called on a Friday). I didn't hear anything from SoA on Wednesday and my feeling now is at this point my case had already been handed off to George and this would be a portend of the customer service I would receive in the future. This was the week of Thanksgiving so SoA was closed on Thursday. I called on Friday and Saturday and got no reponse. At this point I'm not sure when exactly George got back to me though I would assume it was the following Monday or Tuesday, I honestly wasn't keeping track because I never thought I would have to relay this whole process to anyone.

When I finally got in contact with George I was told that they were still "gathering information" and that I needed to send them copies of all the work that had been performed on my car even though George was able to rattle off all of the times I had taken the car in to the dealership. I faxed all the required information in to SoA and patiently waited a couple of days for a call back. When I was finally able to get George on the phone part of the conversation was asking if I wanted to lemon law the car. This was honestly the last thing I wanted to do and requested that we make a final attempt at fixing it. After many phone calls back and forth and three weeks of waiting for the regional engineer to be in town I took my car in and when I picked it up I verified with the service writer that the issues still weren't fixed.

After another week of waiting I was offered a cash settlement, a replacement or a buy back. I opted for the replacement because I didn't want any money out of SoA and I didn't want to have to drive something other than a WRX. After two weeks of trying to locate a comparable replacement the decision was made to order a car to replace mine. It just so happens that decision was made less than 24 hours after they stopped allowing orders for WRX Limited's with Navigation. After trying to get another one shipped in for a week I gave up and decided to let SoA buy the car back.

On Monday I talked to George about what that process would look like and how quickly things would happen because I needed to figure out a replacement car. I was told that as long as I got all the information they needed submitted before Tuesday I would be able to drop my car off at a local dealership and pick up the check for the difference at the same time. After verifying that all the information had been received in time I called George on Friday morning to try to figure out when during the day I would be able to drop my WRX off and got no response. I called the main customer service line at 4:00 and was told that according to their information the check had been sent but that George had left the office early and my best bet would be to call the local dealership and see if they had received the check yet. I called the dealership and they had no idea but offered to let me bring my car in Saturday and leave it on their lot till everything could be figured out.

Today (Monday) I called the sales rep that had originally sold me the car and was trying to help me get everything straightened out and they hadn't received any checks. He called George personally and left a message. At 4:30 today I called to try to figure out what was going on and asked to speak to George's supervisor. I was told I would get a call back but instead got a call from George (this is the second time George has intercepted a request of mine to speak to his supervisor). George told me that the offices had been closed Thursday (true) and that he had been out of the office Friday (not true) and that everything would get mailed out tomorrow. When asked why I hadn't gotten any kind of response I was given no concrete answer, I asked to talk to a supervisor and was told they had left for the day, I then told George that I would call back the main line.

I just got off the phone with a supervisor that confirmed that George was in fact in the offices on Friday (confirming what the person I talked to on Friday told me).

Throughout this whole process the vast majority of my dealings with George followed this pattern:

1. Call Georges direct line in the morning, leave a voicemail.
2. Wait a day
3. Call Georges direct line get voicemail again.
4. Call the SoA customer service line in the afternoon and ask the customer service rep to please ask George to call me back. Half the time George would finally call me back or the rep would walk to Georges desk and get him to pick up the phone.

At the end of the day I'm sure I'll get a lot of "lol Rattles" replies and that's fine, but I think it's important for everyone in this community to know what kind of person they are dealing with if they ever have to get SoA involved in something major with their cars warranty.

George may be great at being an agent for the consumer. He may make fair decisions about what needs to happen in a given situation but his customer service skills are extremely lacking and the fact that I've been directly lied to makes me question anything else that has gone on.
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Old 03-10-2015, 09:14 AM   #2
rkramer
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So there are times when using the warranty is not the best option! In reality, from your description, you probably have either a failed speaker, or something as simple as the voice coil wire bent so it is touching the speaker cone. In any case, it is a 15 minute fix from start to finish.

I suspect the lack of attention was exactly for what you put the disclaimer on the thread, aka, a rattle in a subaru...
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Old 03-10-2015, 09:18 AM   #3
Matto357
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It was definitely the door panel and not the speaker. When the driver side started making the same noise if I pushed my elbow on it at exactly the right angle and pressure it would stop rattling.
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Old 03-10-2015, 09:48 AM   #4
D-rock240
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2013 MacLeod

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I understand new car usually means you don't want to mess with things yourself. But 7 times to the dealership? I would have gotten frustrated after the first time and pulled the door panel off myself.

Hope you get everything settled!
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Old 03-10-2015, 10:00 AM   #5
Matto357
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Everything is settled pretty much, just waiting for the paperwork to show up at the dealership. This post was more a "everyone should be aware this is what you are dealing with if you have any kind of escalated issue in the southeast" type post.

And yeah, I contemplated doing that a few times but one of the reasons I bought the car brand new is so I wouldn't have to tinker with it.
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Old 03-11-2015, 10:31 AM   #6
blackfang
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I am surprised it made it to 7 repair attempts. On the second one, the dealer is supposed to submit a form(it has been 5 years since i worked a subaru dealer but iirc it is called an URFCA) that escalates it to SOA.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.
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Old 03-11-2015, 02:50 PM   #7
Matto357
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It happens, I bet most dealerships don't want to fill out forms because they can't fix a rattle, but now I'm sitting at the dealership trying to find the paperwork that was supposedly overnighted by George yesterday.

I'm not excited about the giant hole in my bank account right now.
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Old 03-11-2015, 02:55 PM   #8
blackfang
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The form is very simple and it is electronic. Half the info you can copy and paste.
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Old 03-11-2015, 03:23 PM   #9
bicycle_wreck
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I'm surprised you got a buy back out of it, but I'm happy for you if that's the only way you felt they could make it right.

I'm completely confused how they couldn't fix the rattle for you in 7 attempts. Might very well have been the speaker voice coil as someone pointed out. If it was the door panel itself, that should've been a 1 hour fix, with half that hour spent finding some foam.

Sucks.
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Old 03-11-2015, 05:54 PM   #10
Matto357
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bicycle_wreck View Post
I'm surprised you got a buy back out of it, but I'm happy for you if that's the only way you felt they could make it right.

I'm completely confused how they couldn't fix the rattle for you in 7 attempts. Might very well have been the speaker voice coil as someone pointed out. If it was the door panel itself, that should've been a 1 hour fix, with half that hour spent finding some foam.

Sucks.
So was I to be quite honest. All I really wanted was for them to fix it and for me to stop having to go to the dealership every couple of days. Honestly I don't know how much foam they put in it but it got progressively worse as they tried to fix it. The last "fix" actually created more rattles.

Either way at this point I am astounded by the lack of ability to execute by SoA. I was assured by George's direct supervisor yesterday that the check would be at the dealership here in Georgia today. It wasn't. George of course can't produce a tracking number for Subaru of Gwinnett. So I'm once again waiting to hear something.
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Old 03-12-2015, 11:59 AM   #11
iainb
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But if George isn't his/her real name how can we avoid him/her?!?

Sorry to hear about all this and I'm shocked that they are buying your car back, good for you!

It sounds like Subaru is doing right by you, even though you're stuck dealing with an incompetent, lying idiot.
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Old 03-12-2015, 01:09 PM   #12
Matto357
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iainb View Post
But if George isn't his/her real name how can we avoid him/her?!?

Sorry to hear about all this and I'm shocked that they are buying your car back, good for you!

It sounds like Subaru is doing right by you, even though you're stuck dealing with an incompetent, lying idiot.
Yeah, I'm completely happy with the way things have been handled in regards to fixing the problem. My issue is with how the communication was handled.
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Old 03-12-2015, 08:11 PM   #13
Knotsure
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Did you have to work with "George"? Did his/her boss say they would talk to him to whoop him into shape for you (us)?
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Old 03-13-2015, 06:50 AM   #14
Matto357
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Knotsure View Post
Did you have to work with "George"? Did his/her boss say they would talk to him to whoop him into shape for you (us)?
Who knows. I doubt it though since George was laughing at me on the phone yesterday because I refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement about my experience.
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