Complaint Review: Steve Rayman Chevrolet - Smyrna Georgia

     I purchased a brand new 2012 Malibu in June of 2012 with less than nine miles on it.  Everything was great!  I took my car back to have the oil changed a couple of times; and again, all was well.  On one of the visits, the service dept. recommended that I have a break job done.  Of course their price was high; but I took their advice and got a break job, but I didn't get it there.  Now all the while,l there was no mention of any actual or inpending problems that I should be aware of.

      Recently, I had a map light problem and took the car in for them to check it and was informed that my battery was leaking acid and I needed to have them replace the battery cables.   Now I admit that this was a service recommendation, but the cost was several hundred dollars and Iwasn't able to do it at that time.  The strange thing was that the damage that was occuring to the cables and the battery would have appeared to be a problem that should have been easily caught by service techs. in my prior visits while there was still a warranity on the battery.

       To make a long story short, I had the ocassion to give someone a jump and noticed how heavily corroded my battery was, and how the acid had eaten away the covering of the cables.   I contacted Rick at the service Dept. and scheduled an appointment.  After review, my meeting with him went like this.  I was admonished for declining past service recommendations, like the break job.  I informed him that every service recommendation that he had suggested had been done, but that I had it done else where.  After tasking me in a rather condecending manner, he informed me that I had 54k miles on my less than two year old car, and the warranty was three years OR 34k miles.  So I was outside of the warranty coverage. 

        Now the prior visits to get the oil changed were within the warranity period; but conviently , no one checked the battery until after the that warranty period had passed.  This job will cost me serveral hundred dollars.

        Don't get me wrong, for I am to a degree culpable with my own demise, for reasoning that because my car was less than two years old, I ASSUMED that it couldn've been that bad.   And as any thinking, rational person would deduce from looking at it, for that kind of dammage to occure in such a short period of time, that battery had to be leaking, more than likely, ever since I purchased that car.  Of course the serrvice manager dissagreed.

        I'm not saying that I was ripped off, but I am saying that what happened wasn't fair.  I needed a forum to vent.   I'll get my car repaired obviously; but I wont buy another car for that dearlership; for I dont feel that they are above board in their efforts to present a deceptive free relationship with their customers, and their service practices are rather Macavellian.