Duke Automotive

I BEG YOU TO READ THIS Dear GM, My name is Ryan Smith, and I am going to make an attempt to resolve my issue with patience and honesty (unlike some of the people that cont Dear GM, My name is Ryan Smith, and I am going to make an attempt to resolve my issue with patience and honesty (unlike some of the people that contact you) because I was taught that those 2 attributes will get me further in life. With that being said, I would just like to let you get a feel for what type of person I truly am rather than start a conversation with complaints, problems, and a bad attitude. I am 22 years old, currently working full-time as an industrial mechanic in a machine shop that has been a GM supplier for many years. I own a personal business in the field of maintenance and management also and my work truck fleet is…Yep! You guessed it! Nothing but Chevrolet vehicles! I, along with my family have always been proud to drive and maintain my Chevrolet vehicles, and have owned nothing other than GM trucks. I never thought the day would come where I would allow anything other than GM manufactured vehicles in my driveway, so you could imagine the pain associated with the thought of eating my words and buying a truck manufactured by another company. Date of arrival @ Duke Chevrolet January 15, 2015 Now that you have an idea of what type of person is writing this email, I will get to the point. I purchased a 2012 Chevy Colorado with 27xxx miles on it and one previous owner that took excellent care of it about a month or two ago and absolutely fell in love! After driving this truck around 100 miles a day for work, I started to notice a few small things that needed attention from a GM certified mechanic. So I called and made an appointment to have the truck looked at by the service department at Duke Automotive in Suffolk, Virginia for 1:00pm and they informed me over the phone if my warranty did not cover the problem, I would be charged $100 for a diagnostic fee for the two problems I had previously mentioned. I arrived at 12:40pm and made my way inside to speak with the pleasant young lady at the front desk and she informed me there were no loaner vehicles available. I let her know this was no problem at all as long as she could give me ample notice whether or not the truck had to stay overnight in case I had to arrange a ride home. After handing over the keys I proceeded into the waiting lounge. This is where I met a man who was clearly frustrated for some reason. He asked me if I worked at Duke because of my work uniform I had on that is similar to the ones Duke’s mechanics were wearing, and after some small talk we got on the subject of GM warranties and Duke’s role in honoring them. This man’s complaint was that this was the THIRD time back to the dealership over the same problem, and let me know that Duke was not doing their part in honoring his warranty the first two times he brought his vehicle in. He continued to tell me that his 3 year/36,000 mile warranty had expired just before he brought his vehicle in for the third time, Duke said that it was going to cost the man $500 in order to fix the problem. This raised red flags in my head immediately due to my truck having 33xxx miles on it even though I had purchased an extended warranty through my dealer when I bought my Colorado. After wishing me luck with my vehicle the man got up and left, leaving myself and one other person in the room to question if we were going to be having similar issues. I then walked outside to browse at the new Silverados (noticing my truck still had not moved) that were in the sales lot and a few of the pre-owned trucks where I was greeted by a salesman named Stan. He was a great help and knew everything about the white Silverado that caught my eye, after explaining that one of my employees was going to need a new work truck soon, he brought me inside and put a drink in my hand before I could even sit down. That, is the type of Chevy employee I’ve always been told about but had yet to meet. After speaking with him about the price of that truck and all the features it had that I was looking for, I got a business card from Stan and made my way back to the service lounge after checking out one last truck. I happened to look at my phone on the way in and noticed it was 2:13pm and my truck was just now being pulled into the shop. After about twenty minutes in the lounge, I was called to the front desk. Here is where I was told that in order to “diagnose” the reason for my truck leaning to one side, and having a slight drift to the left I was going to have to pay $70 dollars for an alignment, and since I have no money due to just paying my bills I could not afford that. And that the “clicking” noise coming from my a/c (you can hear this noise inside anytime the blower fan is on) was just the system turning on and off. After explaining when the noise happens to the mechanic working on it, he went back outside for 5 minutes and came back with “I couldn’t duplicate the problem”. I asked the young lady at the front desk why I would be charged $70.00 if my truck’s alignment was within spec and she could not produce an answer. I am no master technician, but I have maintained enough vehicles to know the first, number one, most tell tale sign to a bad alignment is uneven or rapid tire wear and stated my truck does not show any unusual wear. Needless to say, the mechanic went back into the shop and the young lady printed out my receipt and told me I was “ready to go”. After asking “that’s it?” She told me to “just bring the truck back if you hear it again” as if I don’t live 39.6 miles away from Duke Chevrolet… I do not drive 39.6 miles just to go to any GM service shop, there are a few closer to my house but I have almost always had a pleasant experience with Duke which is why I bring all of my trucks there for service and always check the sales lot while I wait. I see all of the good reviews about Duke and constantly refer people to take their vehicles there because of my past experiences. I took time off of work to have my truck looked at and nothing was accomplished, I was rushed out of the shop after the youngest mechanic glanced at my truck for 20 minutes, and although I was not charged any money, your GM certified mechanics allowed me to drive off in a truck that leans heavy to the drivers side (almost an inch lower in some spots than pass. Side), still drifts to the left, and still continued the clicking noise as soon as I got on to the highway. I still cannot understand why the shop wanted to charge me money, or why they would expect anyone to pay $70 dollars for an “alignment” when they couldn’t even tell me what was clicking when I turn my heat or air conditioning on… I just want to make sure the folks at GM understand my concern with the poor customer service I received and the fact that whether it may be an alignment issue or something completely unrelated to that, it is UNSAFE to drive a vehicle that is leaning to one side, whether its due to a blown shock, cracked spring, or improperly adjusted Torsion bar. Needless to say, I am very displeased with Duke Automotive’s service department. Considering today was the first time I had a warranty backing me up, I would hate to see the way they treat people with over 36,000 miles on their vehicle. This is not my first complaint to Duke, it’s odd how the last two times I brought a vehicle in (work truck was in before Colorado), It feels like a totally different shop. I am not asking for free stuff, for anyone to bend over backwards, or for any discounts. I just want GM and everyone that reads this to know why I will never take another vehicle to Duke Chevrolet in Suffolk, Virginia, and that they have shown me why more people are buying imports like Toyota and outsourcing our country’s foundation to other countries. To whomever reads this whole thing, thank you. Best Regards, Ryan Smith P.S. I’ve just now read the reviews on Dealerrater.com, and let me just say. WOW! It is a coincidence to see Rick’s name brought up multiple times (he’s always right) and I also want to say when history keeps repeating itself, something MUST change. Prior to the above incident, I have heard one horror story and only had one previous hiccup with the service department regarding one of my work trucks (yes I own nothing but GM in my fleet) . He swore up and down they had diagnosed it properly and actually had to put hands on it to do so and recommended I just sold the truck instead of mess with it because it was going to cost upwards of $1000 just to get it to where “it might start”. When my truck arrived home on another expensive tow truck, and after paying Duke $120 plus tax to “diagnose” the starting problem, I noticed the only fingerprints on the starter were my own, and they didn’t even bother tightening two bolts… How can you properly diagnose a starting issue with a loose starter? You mean to tell me your “technicians” kept trying to start it with a loose starter even after I told you that could be the problem? Either way, I am not here to argue about that again. I knew I should’ve asked for TIM MACINTOSH to be the mechanic to work on it because he has always come and spoken to me when I brought my other trucks to the shop, he’s a REAL mechanic and I hope he is the one Duke values the most and pays right because people that take pride in their work are usually the ones who are the most neglected in the workplace. He is the one and only reason I was a returning customer to Duke and if he is no longer with you all I fear for the service department, and will be beginning my search to find where he works and pay whatever it takes to have him maintain my whole service fleet of GM work trucks. If I end up keeping them after all of this. Tim Macintosh and Stan Bell if you two were to start your own auto shop I guarantee you both would be successful and very cherished by people like myself and other private business owners looking to have their vehicles serviced, and if you both ever do so, PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE TO BRING MY VEHICLES AND MY FAMILY’S AND FRIENDS! Note to whomever reads and replies to these. If you read all of this, thank you VERY much. Update: I was contacted by Tine Roberts at Priority Chevrolet because she had received notice that I had an unpleasant experience at Duke Chevrolet and assured me they would take care of me and get to the bottom of this. Took truck to priority Chevrolet on military hwy Monday January 19 @ 1pm for my appointment at 2pm. Left truck running and brought service assistant Tina Roberts out to my truck to have her listen to the clicking noise to describe it to the technician. She said “I must be deaf because I don’t hear it”. Everyone that has been in my truck has heard this noise and commented on it. Tine said she could hear a very faint clicking even with both doors closed and the A/c control on low speed (turn dial to 1 or 2). I could hear it and I had to ask her if she was serious because I could not believe she “could not hear it”. I waited until I was called to her desk again to take my truck home. She told me she sees “a ton” of vehicles coming in with a “clicking noise” that is extremely loud, and also mentioned that it is the actuator for the fan or a/c / heat system that the noise is coming from. When I asked why they weren’t going to fix it she said the technician could not duplicate the problem. Even though she had already told me what the problem was and that there are vehicles coming in with it twice as loud as mine. When I asked her what she thought was going to happen with my actuator over time she could not produce a response. The correct answer would have been “ it will get twice as loud” because it is a faulty actuator. The fact that even she knew what the problem was and did not attempt to have the technician fix it is absurd to me and if she hears vehicles with “that noise twice as loud” tells me that she could hear the noise and she knows exactly what it is, even though she still was denying hearing it in the first place. While we were waiting for my keys to arrive she told me that the technician had “cranked my passenger side torsion bar back down to stock ride height.” I asked where it was before he adjusted it and why it was there and Mrs. Tina could not produce a response to either one of those questions. Maybe I should have asked the technician. As I was leaving the dealership parking lot I noticed the truck was still making the clicking noise, and now it felt as if the steering was loose or something was done wrong because it was not driving the way I feel a 3 yr old truck should. I am normally not a nit-picky person but this is absolutely incredible to me ONCE AGAIN that Chevrolet treats their customers this way when they are simply trying to have their warranty HONORED! Wednesday, January 21 2015 So, I took the truck to my local certified auto shop to see if they could find the problem with the truck’s suspension because it still doesn’t even sit level and now seems to drive worse than before. The wonderful people at Tread Quarters put my truck on the alignment machine and began to perform a full vehicle inspection before “attaching proper equipment” to check the alignment. The response I received after the alignment was checked was “everything checks out, except for the fact that your alignment is not within specifications.” They were nice enough to not charge me a penny for looking over my truck and checking the alignment. They told me they did not adjust anything because this is a problem that I need to have addressed by a GM Master Technician, and to say the least I am not at all surprised. They also gave me an alignment spec printout (unlike Priority) and explained everything to me that this sheet shows. GM, I am at wits end with your employees. To be completely honest, I’m over it. I’ve lost over 10 hours of work to bring my truck to now three different shops, I’ve used over a tank and a half of fuel to get to these shops, and to top it all off I was notified the actuator to fix the clicking noise is about $500+ dollars to fix. You have lost my faith in GM, and everything your company stands for and I will not stop until ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS ARE FIXED. That is, if I can even make my truck payment after losing work, time, and hard earned money to your incredibly disrespectful and irresponsible staff. The traits I have been shown the past few days are true signs of ignorance and I truly fear for your company that I have said so much good stuff about. If my Grandfather was still around he would be twice as appalled as my father is considering our whole family has bled CHEVY since our existence. Sincerely, Future Toyota Owner, Ryan Smith. More

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