Complaint Review: Kelly Cadillac Service Dept - Chattanooga Tennessee

Penny 31,

It's a shame you couldn't face me personally with your complaint.  I remember you, even though it was many years ago, and all I got was a phone call from you.  Of course any professional would not devulge or reveal any details of a customer's transactions to anyone on the phone, who claimed to be a family member, or in your case, a johnny-come-lately advocate for your "father", without first verifying the true nature of the relationship.  However, if you'll recall, I specifically invited you to come to the dealership when your father picked up his car so that we could discuss in person the details of our agreement.

You not only declined, but called me names like Slick, and various other slurs, and accused me of ripping people off when you had no first hand knowledge of anything that was discussed or agreed to.  I was able to surmise by your inappropriate comments, that you were more interested in the dowery that your father left to you when he died, than his own concerns for his vehicle, which was his choice.  That seemed to me to be the real nature of your complaint...even though you were baseless in any facet of having a complaint; that your father was spending money on an old car,that should have been spent on you.  If you had only presented yourself as reasonable, appropiate and in fact the actual son of a customer with a concern, you and your father would have been met with total professionalism and a bend-over backwards approach to solving any problem or concern that you may have had.  Too bad for you that you couldn't be a grown up.  Hopefully enough years have passed by now, that maybe you have matured a bit. 

First off -If you questioned an item on the reciept you AND your father should have come in and discussed it. Secondly, I'm sure that your initial attitude was such that the service writer turned you off. I have a Cadillac and use the local dealer for all my servicing. Many dealers, especially foreign car ones - Toyota, Honda, etc but also domestic cars have what is called the 36,000 mile "Service" or 50,000 mile "Service". People who bring cars in around that mileage point can be talked into the "Service" which often is heavy on labor, "checks" and usually is far more comprehensive than the maintenance recommended or required in the Owner's Guide. Your father may have fallen into this trap. Normally all that is required on a domestic car to keep the warranty is an oil change every 3,000 miles or when the Oil Minder tells you and a tune up at 100,000 miles (when you are out of warranty anyway). Next time you want to involve yourself in your father's car maintenance go with him to the dealership.

I live in Chattanooga and have for most of my life, and if there is one car dealer in this area that almost NEVER gets complaints, it is Kelly Cadillac. In fact, they have maintained an "A+" rating with the BBB for years. As to the specifics of this complaint, the problem here is clear. Pop takes his car in for some repairs, and Daughter thinks that she knows it all and proceeds to run interference...after the fact. Mind you, she does not state what those "expensive discrepancies" were. Then she quantifies her remarks with references to "rednecks." How quaint. Penny31, no one cares who you think you are. No one is likely going to discuss any portion of the repair bill with you, as you were not a party involved at it's inception. Your father was obviously coherent enough to drive the car into the dealer, discuss what he wanted done to the car, review the repair amounts listed on the bill, and to pay the bill upon completion of those repairs. The proper time to dispute anything would have been when it was presented for payment. I'd have told you to butt out too If you wanted to "protect" your Pop, you should have been there when the car was taken in for work and established yourself as a party to the exchange. I guess you think that all of us "rednecks" are born stupid and subsist on cornbread and buttermilk (Dang...that sounds good, come to think of it). We're not always confused by them, thar fancy letturs with no explanshuns to tell us what they mean. I'm not impressed that you "fight" in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and I doubt anyone else is either. Maybe you need to cut back on the testosterone just a wee bit there missy. Based on how you have presented your complaint, I find that it is far more likely that you were met with absolute politeness by the service department, but that you lost YOUR cool and made some threats when you were told, and I'm paraphrasing of course, that you "did not have a dog in this hunt", to use another clever, but redneckish phrase. And let's also not forget that your Pop drives a Cadillac. When one drives a luxury car, expect to pay some luxurious repair bills as well from time to time. It's never been a secret that when a car is repaired at a dealer, it comes with a premium price. But you always get what you pay for. Kelly is one of the better dealerships in Chattanooga and elsewhere for that matter, and that fact can be discovered very easily by doing five minutes worth of research.

And I'm still trying to find the part about him physically threatening you. If you mean that comment about if you don't change your attitude before you come down that there will be trouble, I don't think that qualifies. The police are going to need a little more than that before you'll get their interest. Just out of curiosity, as a third party, how do you know what services your parents agreed to while they were talking to the service writer? I'm not saying the shop did or didn't pad the repair, but if you weren't there, how do you know what was discussed?