Thursday, November 5, 2009

Brotherton Cadillac Experience Part II

I am an avid fan of cars and have purchased cars every 1-2 years. I currently own a Chevrolet Trailblazer, Chevrolet Tahoe, Volvo S80, Mazda Miata and Cadillac CTS. I am not the type of person who gives reviews on consumer websites, however my latest customer car experience has inspired to me share my story in the hopes that no one else is ever treated the way we were treated at Brotherton Cadillac or any other dealership for that matter.

We have yet to hear a response from Mr. Brotherton since our last correspondence on October 28, 2009. We are presuming that they choose to further discuss this.
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date Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 7:27 PM

[Brad] I was early this morning drafting an email to you to see how your tires were handling when I received your email, the tone and content of which was shocking? I will finish my comments on the tire issue before addressing the various issues you raise in your email below.

[Consumer] Brad, I am surprised that you are shocked at where we stand. We have been experiencing mechanical issues with this car for the past 12 months and it has been in the service department for more than 60 days total for the repairs. I have spent a lot of my personal time dealing with this car (taking it back and forth to the repair shop, being on the phone with service advisors, driving to Brotherton to meet with you, and speaking the GM Assistance). How can I not continue to be frustrated at this point?


[Brad] TIRES:

If the tires are not the “type” you want, I will have them switched to a set that you want. Please let me know that type you research and we will get it handled. Contrary to your apparent beliefs, we do appropriately handle our customers concerns, and will be so here in a fair and equitable manner. Tires are a maintenance item, and those on the vehicle you purchased were driven the number of miles within the manufacturer’s norm. Nevertheless, again, we will upgrade those and have offered and equivalent amount of “goodwill” in the form of one months car payment. When I saw Heather and you on Sunday, I asked Heather how she was, thanked her for her patience, told her that if the tires did not address the problem to let me know, and I even introduced you to my son, who is 8, as one of our customers. There was an opportunity at that time to excuse ourselves and talk about how upset you still were. I wish you would have availed yourself of that opportunity instead of sending an email.

I strongly believe that talking is a far better way to communicate and address problems. But, since you elected this medium, I will work within it.

[Consumer] We tried speaking with both you and Arun about this a month ago at your dealership. The option you gave us was to replace the tires or to put the car on consignment. To us, this was NOT a compromise but a decision that you forced us to make without any further discussion. It is you that left us without any other option but to file our grievances with GM Customer Assistance and other agencies.

[Brad] YOUR EMAIL:

Before addressing them issue by issue, we are the retail seller of this used car. It comes with certain warranties from the factory and us. We honor our contractual obligations and often go beyond them, as we feel we have done and offered to do with you.

Vehicle Performance: I am not a technician, but as I have learned, because you have a new torque converter your vehicle had all of its shift adaptations reset to factory specs. So the vehicle must relearn its shift points and that takes 2 – 3,000 miles. The ride should then be as expected.

[Consumer] There seems to be a communication problem among your team. Marvin and Arun both indicated the acceleration problems are fixed and there should not be a problem. Here, you are telling me that I need to wait 2-3,000 miles for the car to adapt to the new settings. Who are we to believe if you and your staff cannot agree to the same assessment?

[Brad] “Other Retail Store” : I am not sure I understand the comment about an “other retail store”. Perhaps I can address it this way. We did not see your vehicle until about 14 months after the purchase as you elected to have it serviced/repaired in Bellevue.. Only after 14 months after you purchased the vehicle did we have knowledge of any issue going on. You told me you selected Bellevue since you NEVER come to Renton after you moved. I did offer to meet you near your home or work and even offered to meet Heather in Seattle. We agreed that the base of Queen Anne was an acceptable location for any future repair work. Then as you the both of you went to lunch I offered to recommend a local restaurant and you then stated that you knew your way around because you are in the area frequently. Such a blatant inconsistency makes me wonder what is going on here.

[Consumer] We purchased the vehicle on August 17, 2008 and it was with the dealership for two weeks thereafter because we were on vacation through Labor Day and there were several aftermarket items that needed to be installed. The vehicle exhibited mechanical issues in November 2008 and was serviced in January 2009 with less than 5k miles driven on it. We contacted Brotherton to discuss the prior and current issues on September 16th, 2009. I am not sure how you got 14 months. Furthermore, is it the expectation of Brotherton that we must get it serviced at Brotherton Cadillac? What if we had lived in Leavenworth or out of state? This does not seem logically to require us to bring it back to you every time we have a service issue. The reason we brought it back to Brotherton is because the mechanical issues we experienced did not see the “norm” for a certified pre-owned luxury vehicle. We believe the torque converter, toe cam and rear differential were existing problems that manifested itself back in November 2008 but were not acknowledge by GM until September 2009.

When I used the term “Other Retail Store,” I was referring to for example Lowes. When I purchased a riding lawn mower at any Lowes store and I have a mechanical issue with the product, Lowes does not tell me to go to the manufacturer with my grievances. They honor the warranty by issuing a return or exchange for another product.

As for the inconsistency, there is none. We live in Monroe, I work in Bellevue/Redmond and Heather works in Queen Anne. The reason we are both familiar with the area is because we lived in South West Seattle for 3 years prior moving to Monroe (November 2008) and that is why we are familiar with the area. Heather also used to be a field claims adjuster and worked all over Western Washington. We spend most of our time in Snohomish County. Bellevue Cadillac is close in proximity to work and this is why we decided to use them to service the car. We did not know that Queen Anne would be an acceptable location for pick up and drop off until you offered.

[Brad] Regardless of that, you appear to be attacking the quality of our dealership, something I take as personally offensive and clearly erroneous. We have been awarded the Cadillac Master Dealer Award, we are a Standards for Excellence dealer, Mark of Excellence award winner, Puget Sound Business Journal top 75 Philanthropic Businesses in the State, just to name a few of our awards of which we have many that we are very proud of and our customer satisfaction is among the top in the industry and we are considered to be one of the top 200 in the country). Our record attests to our dealership doing better for its customers than the ‘other retail stores’ you refer to.

[Consumer] We honestly feel that in this particular case, the dealership has not stepped up and taken accountability for the product you sold us. Although we understand that cars do from time to time have problems, we would expect whoever sold it to us to stand behind their product whether they are the retailer dealer or manufacturer. However, I do not think replacing the toe cams, torque converter and rear differential are “minor” issues and the numerous trips to Cadillac to address these mechanical issues have made us lose confidence in this vehicle. Over the past year we have been driving a clunker.

[Brad] Sexist Treatment: As far as your treatment; I would really rather not get into an argument of weather you were treated differently because you are a women, but since it is a point in your letter, I will say you are seriously mistaken. I am sorry if you truly feel that. Does Heather feel that way? You received a tremendous amount of professional and courteous attention from 4 employees. Service advisors, service technicians, sales managers and the owner ALL spent time with you on this matter. Furthermore, we got the manufacturer involved to get assistance, even though your vehicle is under warranty and that is our obligation to repair defects under warranty and also perform service. A person’s gender has no bearing whatsoever in our treatment of a customer and I am personally disgusted and offended that you would enter this in your argument. One of the comments we receive from all of our customers is that over 20% of our staff is comprised of females and we are a very diverse business.

[Consumer]I am not suggesting that any of your staff outright did anything to offend us. What I am saying however is that many of your staff underestimated our knowledge of vehicles. For example, we were told on 9/24 when we picked up the vehicle by Marvin that the vehicle was repaired. When I came to pick up the vehicle and took it out for a test drive, the vehicle still vibrated and pulled aggressively to the right. As experts in your field, we are putting our trust in you to know what you are doing and repair it correctly the first time. I personally felt we were brushed off and our concerns were not taken seriously.

Every time I spoke with either Marvin or Arun, they assured me things were fixed but never went into detail of the repairs until I inquired. On the most recent test drive with Dan the Technician he questioned us about the acceleration issue with the car. We discussed it with Dan but apparently that conversation never left the car because Marvin never gave him a service order for the acceleration problem. We again left the vehicle at Brotherton for another long drive back to Monroe after once again being told the vehicle was “fixed.” We have not received a service record to show that the acceleration issue was address or what was done. This again deepens our lack of confidence in this vehicle and the service that has been performed.

Correction on a statement you made in the above paragraph. We made the first contact with GM Customer Assistance not as you have stated above. During our in person conversation, you advised us to file a complaint if we had grievances as you could not help us further except to ask for us to pay for the replacement of the tires.

[Brad ] Media Contact: We fully understand your right to free speech, but do know that there is not a right to commercially disparage us. Whatever comments you make about us must be factual, and not false or deceptive. Keep in mind the following:

[Consumer] We are not looking to disparage you or your business. We are merely evoking our right to share our views on the performance of the car and our experiences with the service we have received from Bellevue and Renton Cadillac.

·[Brad] We score very high with our customers on their satisfaction with us.

· We spent hours (at our expense, not yours) on your vehicle to determine where the problem was coming from. We had more than 2 service employees working on the explanation of your vehicle repair and what was done previously. If you did not understand the explanation of our efforts, it was for you to express that so we would know. I have explained how the torque converter needs to re-learn your driving practices, yet you still say that is not acceptable.

[Consumer] We have also spent countless hours dealing the vehicle issues, taking time out of our work and personal schedule to deal with this. It is not only you the dealership that has incurred this inconvenience. Furthermore the acceleration problem is so-called fixed however it is not documented anywhere in our service documents/receipts that it was even worked on. This leaves us little confidence that someone did actually work on it.


[Brad] · We have asked GM to make one of your payments as a measure of “goodwill” but that is apparently unappreciated by you.


[Consumer] It is not what we asked for. What we asked for was a buy back or trade of another vehicle.


[Brad] · We have offered to upgrade the tires. ( and I will do that at no additional charge )

[Consumer] The tires are the least of our worries. The lack of confidence in this vehicle is our main concern. We truly do not feel safe or feel that the repairs have fixed the problems. We are now just waiting for something to break down and to have to go through this process again.


[Brad] I don’t know where to go from here. I am sad that it is where it is and I feel that you, XX, are unwilling to be satisfied and are seeking something that you have not informed us of. The real issues before us are not insurmountable if you will only let us do what is needed (passage of time re: torque converter) and what we have offered (substitute tires and efforts with GM). We are desirous of solving problems, not seeing them escalate.

[Consumer] Our position has always been the same, we are not confident that the car is safe to drive with all the repairs that have been performed. There should not be mechanical issue within 2 months of purchase and the 110pt Certification should have uncovered these issues. It is hard for me to fathom that these were unnoticed with the amount of recalls and service bulletins we have found during our research.

We are not your average car consumer. We currently own a Tahoe, Trailblazer, Volvo and Miata, in addition to the Cadillac. Out of all of the mentioned vehicles the Volvo is the only vehicle that has been serviced within the last year with a serpentine belt replacement. All other vehicles have simply had the 3,000 mile oil, lube, and filter service. On the other hand, the Cadillac has been in the shop for a total of 60 days with major under body work.

We treat our cars very well and have taken great care of the Cadillac by servicing it at the Cadillac dealership for oil changes and major repairs in hopes that we receive better care than your average repair shop. However, with doing everything an owner could do… we are still stuck with what we consider to be a “lemon” even though it does not fall within the Lemon Law due to mileage and age of vehicle.

Owning a Cadillac should be a wonderful and exciting experience, however in this case it has been nothing but a burden. Every time we look at the vehicle, it reminds us of all the turmoil we have endured over this past year.

Yes, I am unsatisfied with the results because we as the consumer are forced to accept responsibility for a defective product. Furthermore, the GM Customer Service experience did nothing but waste our time. We are willing to work with you, but replacing or upgrading the tires is not a resolution in our opinion. Please let us know when you wish to discuss other option that does not require us to lose more money or time than we already. We hope that Brotherton values the customer relationship enough to do the right thing for the consumer.







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