Jaguar Land Rover of Chantilly

I am writing to describe our purchase and service experiences thisfar with Land Rover. As background, I am a foreign service officer who lives/works in Africa and have owned and driven several Landr experiences thisfar with Land Rover. As background, I am a foreign service officer who lives/works in Africa and have owned and driven several Landrovers in Africa. Regretably, we have had a horrible experience both with the Landrover in Albuquerque, NM and in Chantilly, Virginia. Not only are the services associates rude and unhelpful, but they have cost us money and time that is simply unacceptable. After buying our car in Chantilly, VA in August 2006, we found out that they did not have a second key as promised (we were only given one key), that they did not (and still have not) entered the extended warranty we paid for into the computer system and, to add insult to injury, the engine had to be replaced after 400 miles. and Chantilly did not have time for us so we had to take it to Rosenthal in Vienna, VA (who did a good job but they scratched the hood of the car while in the shop). We had to delay our move from Virginia to New mexico by two weeks and take leave from our jobs to wait for the engine to be put in (1 week after buying the "certified pre-owned car"). We called the service associate Richard Grzesiak dozens of times about the key and warranty and only once received a return call from him. His supervisor, Andy Levin, while somewhat better at returning our calls has not contacted us in weeks about our extended warranty. In Albuquerque when they reprogrammed the new key that we finally received from Chantilly after 3 months and over 15 calls to the associate Richard Grzesiak, they deprogrammed our old key and made us pay to program the new one. Now we have one key that is not cut but is programmed, and another that is cut but is not programmed, so we have to carry around two keys. When we complained to the service associate (who charged us for the programming) he said that we should just go to a key shop to have it cut, but most shops don't cut that kind of key and clearly we should not be the ones paying for this to be done as it was not our mistake. Overall, we have spent in excess of 15 hours dealing with Landrover, delayed our move from Virginia to New Mexico by weeks and made dozens of phone calls. We are absolutely disgusted with the service provided by landrover and the absolute lack of care or consideration given to us by landrover employees (however, to be fair, at Rosenthall one employee, Jack, stood out as the only person who appeared to care about the shoddy service we received.) We are looking to sell our Landrover and will never buy one again. Also, we plan to tell everyone we can about our experience. If it had been one error or one service associate we would have let it go, unfortunately, it has been in two locations with numerous employees. More

UPDATE, November 2006: I moved my vehicle from Rosenthal's service department to Curry's Auto Service in Chantilly. Curry's Auto Service in Chantilly ROCKS!! WOW, what a difference it makes wh Rosenthal's service department to Curry's Auto Service in Chantilly. Curry's Auto Service in Chantilly ROCKS!! WOW, what a difference it makes when dealing with a reputable company that makes it their policy to take care of their customers!! Curry's is clearly a company that the warranty companies trust to provide accurate, honest assessments of repair needs. Curry's is replacing my entire engine, down to the spark plugs and wiring, with a new engine. My cost: the $75 deductible required by the warranty company. Rosenthal demanded an additional $3,500 over the $5,000 authorized by the warranty company just to repair the the lower crank shaft bearings! Read my earlier posting to learn about Rosenthal in Chantilly, Virginia: October 2006: Rosenthal demands $3,500 more than authorized in repair costs ($5,000) – charges $600 to remove oil pan!! Rosenthal Chantilly kept my vehicle for three weeks (didn't even look at it for the first 1 1/2 weeks) in order to "diagnose" that the lower crank shaft bearings were bad. The service staff – Kevin Dooley and Jack Seaver – were entirely unprofessional, completely without scruples, and thoroughly alienated the warranty company and the customer. The warranty company authorized approximately $5,000 to repair the lower crank shaft bearings. Rosenthal's service rep, Kevin Dooley, informed me that they would require an additional $3,500 to perform the repairs. I asked him for a reason for the huge discrepancy in cost – he stated the hours the warranty company authorized did not cover the hours it takes Rosenthal to accomplish the repairs. I asked him for the source he used (Mitchell's, Land Rover Warranty, shop book, etc.) for calculating the hours so that I could talk with the warranty company to try to understand the problem. Kevin told me his shop set their own rates and hours and did not follow any standard. Once I heard from Kevin that Rosenthal charges whatever they want for repairs, I contacted Rosenthal's Service Manager – Jack Seaver – to confirm what Kevin told me. He said Rosenthal sets its own rates and hours and does not provide that infomation to customers. I told him Rosenthal's policy was unacceptable and that I would immediately send over a tow truck (Friday morning, October 27) to tow my vehicle to another repair shop and asked if there were any outstanding items which would prevent me from doing so. Jack assured me that the vehicle would be ready in one hour since I had already paid for the "work" they had done. Rosenthal charged me five hours ($600.00) for their "diagnosis". No surprise – they refused to release the vehicle to the tow truck driver. Here it is Monday morning, October 30. I just spoke with the General Manager of Rosenthal – Andy Lavin. Andy told me he was sorry to hear I was experiencing so many problems and that there was no reason for them not to release the vehicle on Friday. He said I could send the driver back over this morning to pick up the vehicle and he would make sure there were no problems this time. Andy was very pleasant, though, he did not offer reimbursement for Friday's tow truck costs. More importantly, he did not address the $3,500 discrepancy in repair costs; however, I did learn that the service staff works on commission, so there is definitely incentive for their dealings. Luckily, I experienced this problem while I was in the process of purchasing a new RangeRover to replace this vehicle, a 2003 LandRover Discovery. I instead purchased a 2007 VW Tourag V10 TDI. I'm sure the loss of one sale won't bring Rosenthal to their knees, but at least I won't be on my knees when dealing with their service department in the future. More