Complaint Review: O'Rielly Chevrolet - Tucson Arizona

I'll will first start out by saying Yes I crashed my truck. That part is my responsibility. I did $8000 damage to my 2005 Chevy Crew Cab in January 2006. I had only owned the vehicle since May of 05. O'Rielly Chevrolet sent someone out to my home to tow the truck into their body shop. I called O'Rielly because that is where I purchased my truck and they are one of the larger Chevy dealerships in Tucson.

That's when it began. I was dealing with Patrick Grijalva first. Actually a very nice man. But every time he would call us and tell us the truck was ready, we would either not leave with it at all or only have it for a couple of hours before we realized it wasn't fixed. This happened at least once a week for about a month. Then my husband and I were really starting to get upset. We were taking a lot of time off of work to deal with this.

We kept noticing everytime we did pick the truck up for a couple of hours that it had a surging problem. We would be on the interstate and it would sound like it was going to take off on us. They kept on telling us that they could not find it and if we brought it back again for that problem they were going to see about taking the vehicle back and putting us in a new one. This went on for another month.

We would literally pick our truck up and go to open the door and the panel where our window buttons are would fall off. How is this fixed I'd ask. We even joked with them about having visitation rights with them. It seemed like we would pick it up on a Friday and return it on Monday. Then nearing the end of the second month, again, another phone call----Guess what it's done. We'll see.

On my way into pick it up, another phone call. Sorry Mrs. Cassidy but we just crashed your truck. Your kidding!! I went home in disbelief. By the way by the time the second month rolled around we were handed off to the manager Tom Hiller. He had told me that a tow truck had it the opposite side of my accident. (I side swiped a couple of trees. My damage was drivers side front to back) He had hit the rear door on the passengers side. He said not to worry that had it on tape and they would pursue it with the company.

In the mean time they would fix it at no charge to us. I asked if it would show up on a carfax report and he said they could avoid that. Just a little note into all of this--I have been an insurance agent for about 10 years so I know a few things to ask. The next day I popped in and asked to see the "tape". Tom basically told me I was crazy, he didn't know where I got my information from. He didn't know who hit my truck and they didn't have anything on tape. He acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. I did take pictures of the damage with my camera and have that on file. This was a 3 month problem with them.

The surging problem never got fixed until November of 2006 when I took it to the other large Chevy dealership-Watson Chevrolet to have the CD player fixed--again. He told me that there was an update to the transmission and it had been out for a long time. O'Rielly should have known that he said. That was fixed within the hour and I've never heard it again.

Fast forward March 2007.Driving down the road and I kept hearing this noise. It sounded like the passenger side door wasn't shut all the way...but it was. When my husband noticed it he did the normal things. Checked the brakes and whatever to see if something just needed to be replaced. Then he popped the hood. Front fender on the passenger side was all cracked. I called O'Rielly and asked to speak with Tom. I called for almost a week, he would not return my calls.

I popped in there one day and asked to speak to either Tom or Patrick. Patrick came out and I said to him that I had called Tom a bunch of times and he wouldn't return my phone calls. He acted kind of shocked and then said that if one of them had done that they would be in trouble. He said Tom is right here let me grab him for you. I waited for a half an hour. Finally the receptionist either called him or he called her, can't really remember that part..but she told me that he wasn't there and wouldn't be all afternoon and that I needed to speak to Fred. Whatever.

Fred came out and introduced himself and said he needed to go review my file and would be right back and said that Tom wasn't on premises. While I'm sitting there waiting I heard the receptionist put several calls through to Tom and then before my very eyes he walked right by me in the waiting room. (By the way...this waiting room is tiny. Probably only holds about 10 people). He saw me. Wouldn't speak. He walked by me 2 more times while I was there. It's pretty sad when the manager won't even talk to you.

Anyway, I was there for about an hour and a half and Fred looked at the cracks and drove it around the block. Yup it needed to be fixed. So go home and let me look your files over a little more and I'll call you. He did and told me that they never replaced or fixed the right side fender. Well duh! He said it wasn't there deal. I told Fred that I have never been in an accident with that truck except for that one and the only other damage that truck had had was the accident that they had, therefore it was from one of those accidents and they still had to fix it. He then said they never even did any front end work to it.

I pulled my copies of all the work they did from the year before and read off radiator, front grill, bumper and numerous other things that had to do with the front end. We were both pleasant with each other and no one had any attitude so we finally figured it out. I understood that it looked kind of weird a year later to just notice this but then he said maybe since they didn't fix it it just started to get worse and now we hear it. Agreed.

Before I made the appointment, I called my claims agent who dealt with my claim last year and gave him the update and also called Chevrolet/GM. We had put in a claim last year with them. They called Fred and Tom and asked what was going on. Tom said they were willing to work with us and fix our fender at no cost. Well I knew that..all the work was guaranteed by them and by my insurance. So we took it in and they had it for one day. Called us to pick it up the next morning. All was well for about 2 weeks.

Then guess what...same thing. They didn't fix it that well. The fender is cracked and broke again, making the same sound. So as of this morning I put a call into Fred, he said he would let his manager (Tom) know and would probably need to bring it in. My claims rep just called me as I was writing this and I stressed to him again that I didn't want to take it there anymore. He gave me another body shop that I can go to. As of the moment I am still waiting for a return phone call from Chevrolet/GM.

This has been a nightmare for our family. This is our first brand new vehicle. We've always put used, even just a couple of years old. I expect to have problems with those. But when you have a brand new one I expect the job to be done right. We didn't even get upset with them until later in the process. I understand that things happen, I wasn't even that upset about them crashing it. Shock yes, really really mad-no. It happens and if you could see there body department and how the parking lot is set up you would understand.

I don't think that they are all bad, I just think we were one of those ones who got the bad end. Tom Hiller is pretty shady and didn't appreciate him in this whole mess. Why he is the manager I'll never know. Fred and Patrick have tried to cover his but in more than one instance. If you use O'Rielly, try to avoid Tom and if need be...go above his head. It's the only way to get it done and done right.

Miranda

Corona De Tucson, Arizona
U.S.A.