Complaint Review: Car Max North Houston - Houston Texas

In December of 2007, I experienced trouble with my Honda CR-V which I purchased from a different Car Max. As I now live much closer to the one on the North side of town, I called them and they said "Sure, bring it in." When I explained that it was not starting, they insisted I could drive it in, seeming to not understand what "The car won't start" means. Finally, I got them to give me the number for a towing service covered by my MaxCare warranty. The driver came out, picked up my CR-V and took it to the Car Max North location around 9 am. Darryl, the service manager (according to Kim, the service desk clerk he's the manager, anyway) called to let me know that my car was there and they would look at it "immediately." Five pm comes and goes with no call from Car Max svc department. I call them and get no answer, not even a voicemail or recorded "we're closed" message. This is on a Friday. The service department is closed all weekend. Monday morning, I call and Darryl insists that my husband told them to take the car out of the line and we would be picking it up (keep in mind, it's not running). They'll "get right to it" I'm told. I receive a call a few hours later saying the car is starting, do I want to pick it up. I press them to find out if they fixed it or if it just was able to start. They finally tell me the mechanic tried the key and it started and no, they haven't even opened the hood. I tell them I want them to check and find out why it stopped working in the first place. Tuesday morning my husband receives a call while I'm at school telling us that the car is ready and fixed, come and get it. We hurry over in the rental car and get in just before the department closes. Darryl ducks into an office when he hears Kim mention my name and ask where my car is. The car STILL has not been looked at and there is NO report stating it is ready to be picked up! I tell them I'm out of patience and if they aren't going to look at the car, let me know NOW and I'll just take it somewhere else while it's still able to (miraculously) start. They insist it'll be done Wednesday. I go on Wednesday with my husband and yes, the car is done and they give us a list of items they replaced--gas cap, a fuel line, a gasket cover. They insist that was all that was wrong with the car. I am unhappy with my treatment and the rude attitude of the staff so, when I'm home that night I call corporate and receive the runaround. I would have left it at that and just written it off to piss poor management if the car had not died on me AGAIN yesterday. Four months to the day, almost. I could NOT get Car Max to answer for nearly six hours (between 8 am and almost 2 pm) and then they insist they've "never towed" cars and will not honor my warranty. My husband *finally* got them to appointment for 7:30 am. I had to wrestle the new tow number from Kim this morning at 8 am and it took almost five hours for him to get here. Nearly 1 pm, the tow driver shows up and loads the car to transport. I call Car Max and let them know the car is on the way and yes, I'm aware it's well after our scheduled appointment time and explain about the tow truck's lateness. Im informed that "well, ma'am you should've called much earlier because Mon, Tues and Wednesday are the busiest times." I'm sorry--I didn't know I could schedule my car dying. During this time (between 8 am Monday and 2 pm today, Tuesday), my husband and I called the North Houston store a total of 15 times and were hung up on six times (flat out hung up on) and received no answer or a voicemail loop 6 times. Yes, that's a lot of calls but when you're a one car family and both incomes depend on the car, it's an urgent situation. We were told (at 2 pm when Kim finally answered) that no our appointment was at 9 am and she had "verified" this with me twice (bull) and that they would "get to our car" when they could. when I expressed annoyance, she "guaranteed" they would call me in the morning with a report on the car. I'm holding my breath on that one. I wish I had found this site earlier! When I get my car back I'm taking it to the Northwest Freeway store I bought it from (which has a great service department, in my experience) and trading it in then making a complaint about the North Freeway store to the BBB and anyone who will listen.

M. XXXXXXX

Klein, Texas

U.S.A.

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