Complaint Review: Hanover Honda - Hanover Pennsylvania

On 7/9/14, I took my Honda CRV to Hanover Honda for PA State inspection, check the tires and to have the oil changed. I was there for three hours.

I left there, came home and parked the car. An hour after doing so, I found a pool of oil under the vehicle. Did the mechanic forget to tighten the oil filter? Was the drain plug properly tightened? I had a long trip to Washington DC scheduled for early the next morning.  I was in the emergency ward of the local hospital a month earlier for excruciating back pain and now I had to crawl under my vehicle on the concrete floor just too see if the filter and drain were tight enough to make it back to Hanover Honda. Both seemed snug but the vehicle frame was literally dripping with foul oil. Viscous droplets were forming all along the left side below the engine.

The dealership was closed for the evening so I would have to disrupt my morning DC plans and drive twelve miles in the opposite direction because of sloppy workmanship.

When I arrived at the Honda shop the next morning, I was warmly greeted. As I waited for the shop manager, I noticed that no one bothered to remove the old oil change/mileage sticker from the upper left area of the windshield, let alone add a new one.  I explained the problem to the guy who seemed to be in charge of the shop. After twenty minutes of waiting, I left while he and a mechanic continued their stern verbal debate about whose job it was to do what. Who needs that?

It took some pretty harsh chemicals to clean the oil from my garage floor. I wasted my time and gasoline because of Hanover Honda’s sloppy workmanship. I sent the above letter to Hanover Honda expressing my displeasure. I received no reply. Of course I had my oil changed elsewhere the next time.

On June 4, 2015 my wife had to visit Hanover Honda because of a faulty airbag. She had Honda change the oil while she was there. About two hours after she arrived at home, old oil began accumulating on the garage floor under the engine. Next day I wasted my time driving back to Honda to have the tightness of the filter and drain plug checked since losing too much oil would be catastrophic for the engine. They washed the filthy spilled oil off the frame and sent me on my way with a smile and a handshake.

If this happened to me twice at Hanover Honda it is surely happening to quite a few others as well. The carelessness represents not only a total disregard for customer’s time but a total lack of concern for the environment as drops of old oil coat the roadways of the county and are washed off to join the pollutants of the Chesapeake.

My wife and I have been driving new vehicles since our big green 1973 Buick. We currently have two Hondas and a Toyota. We consider both makes equal. To us; one is as good as the other. I spoke to a Toyota technician a few blocks from the Hanover Honda dealer recently, who told me that their shop once caused an oil leak on a customer’s garage floor. They “sent two people out to scrub the floor.”

It appears that when I have my oil changed at Hanover Honda I am doing harm to the environment (oil on the roadways and chemicals for clean-up at home,) wasting my valuable time and risking great harm to my engine (which could potentially be catastrophic for driver and passengers.) Imagine where my next new vehicle will be purchased. (Hint: not Hanover Honda.)

6/9/15