BROWN'S FAIRFAX MAZDA DISHONEST AND OUTRAGEOUS PRICING RIPOFF FAIRFAX Virginia

I would like to share with you my recent experience with your service department. I just purchased a business in the nothern Virginia area and needed service on my Mazda 6. I am from out of state so do not have a relationship with a local Mazda dealership. One of my clients recommended your Dealership as fair and honest. Upon that recommendation I proceeded to call and make an appointment to bring the vehicle in. I had a check engine light on and a problem with secondary engine cooling fan running intermittentaly. In the course of my business I have numerous company vehicles and always have the service work performed at dealerships. This has provided the opportunity to experience the good and the bad. The first impression of your dealership was very favorable. The service writer took the time to walk around the vehicle suggest a number of routine maintence items. I accepted his suggestion with the agreement that he would treat me "fair" on the repairs that were required. I believe in maintenance and think that the "gravy" work was a fair exchange and excellent way in which to start a new relationship with the service writer and dealership for all of future repairs. At this point I really felt that the recommendation that was provided to me was accurate and that your dealership was the place for me to do business. Sadly things went down hill from there. The service writer indicated that he should be able to complete the repairs and suggested items within the day. I explained that if could not this would not be a problem, but to please let me know. Upon which he agreed to keep me informed of the progress. At 3:45 I placed a call to him for an update. After be transfered three times and kept on hold for 15 minutes I finally reached him. He stated that they had been really busy and one tech out and that he would need to check and call me back. After 20 minutes he did indeed call back. He stated that the fan repair would be $480, the check engine light would another $500 to replace the fuel pump, the windshield wipers he recommended being replace would $60, that oil pan gasket needed to be replaced at $380 and that I need a tune up with spark plug replacement at $600. My first reaction was to the wiper blades. I asked the writer where the $60 price came from. He explained that the tech does not work for free and that the wipers were original Mazda parts so that they cost more. Strike one, Mazda does not make wiper blades. I inquired as to the amount of labor, he stated 1/10th flat rate hour. I replied if he was going to way over charge for wiper blades he brings into question what and how is charging for the other repairs. Strike two: The spark plugs and tune up were done at another Mazda dealership within the last 3000 miles. He either did not check or was being deceptive. I again explained to him that if he would be "fair" I would do all of the work with the exception of tune up and 120k service he was now recommending and had already been done at another Mazda Dealer. The service writer explained that if I could not afford the work, I did not have to do all of it now, just the items that needed immediate attention and bring it back later. This really offended me. I did not care about the total amount of the bill. What I did care about was that it was work that needed to be done and that I was treated fairly on the pricing. I explained this and he replied that is what you charge and "take it or leave it". I then inquired if he had started on the "gravy" work (power steering flush, trans flush and oil change). He stated that he had already completed this work. Now I am wondering if he was short a tech, backed up on work, did not have the time to check on the status of vehicle much less call and inform me, when did they have the time to complete those items???? Strike three. At this point I requested to speak with the service manager. Ronnie informed me the Service Manager was gone for the day at 4:30 and not available. I then requested to speak with the General Manager. I was placed on hold for 5 minutes and Ronnie came back on the line and informed me that the General Manager was busy and would call me later. He further informed me that he "just found a recall on my secondary fan" and would have to check that out. He agreed to call me back within 30 minutes and provide the details of the recall. After 1 hour I called Ronnie, the first call resulted in one transfer and being hung up on, the second call resulted in two transfers and being on hold for 10 minutes. Ronnie stated that he had been really busy and that he appoligized for not calling me back but the "good news" was that the fan was covered on the recall but he was incorrect on the pricing for the gasket replacement as it also need a "seal" for an additional $180 and he inquired if I wanted to do all of the other work. Strike four. I told Ronnie to complete the fan recall and the fuel pump and that I would not authorize any additional work. He offered to put the windshield wipers on himself to save the labor. I turned his offer down. I expect and it is certainly one of the reasons that I have service work preformed at the dealership so that the vehicle is always checked for any open recalls or TSB"s.

I am not angry, I am worse than that, I am disappointed. I was recommended to your dealership and I feel that because the vehicle was from out of state that an opportunity to "knock my head off" was the way in which I was treated. I have a strong yet unconfirmed suspision that deception or incompetance on the part of the service writer in his handling of the transaction. I suspect this because of prior work that had already been done (tune up) was recommend, repairs that had been previously done (tune up and fan) were quoted at double what the charge was at another Mazda dealer. The other dealer was within the same posted labor rate as yours, used OEM parts, and I sure that "everybody" uses the same flat rate labor guide.

I strongly recommend that you attempt to call some within service department as a customer and try and get information about your vehicle. The customer service skills are lacking.

Being that I was recommended to your dealership, I think that you should know what has happened and why I would not recommend nor return to your dealership. In fact you can take comfort in the fact that your employees really did not do anything that could be considered materially wrong. But what do you believe that was really done right? I left messages with the service writer for the Service Manager and the General Manager. I have to this time and date not received a call from either. You can choose as to if the messages were given and if so why the call was not returned.

Mark
FAIRFAX, Virginia
U.S.A.