Dont worry..its not just Ford

[Polyal]

So we hear horror stories about Ford and warranties/service etc, but I just wanted to note that its not just Ford that seems to go out of their way to not produce what could be called simple good service.

I was meeting a service manager of a particular Japanese automotive company located on the Neapan Highway in Brighton the other day buying something completely unrelated to that firm..but thats by the by.

What I saw left me gobsmacked and confirmed how sad our society has become with regards to following procedure and not using our brain.

A little old lady comes in, she would have been in her 60's or 70's, had brought a small sedan some 10 years ago brand new from the dealership. RACV changed a battery in her car and therefore it needed the radio PIN to reactivate it.

So after she tried to explain the situation, and her thick european accent wasnt helping (sounded like my Hungarian grandma), the young service attendant behind the desk said no worries, ill get you your PIN.

He comes back and states very abruptly that "you do know there is usually a charge for this PIN". She obviously has no idea that there would be a charge, she didnt even know her radio needed a PIN in the first place!

Anyway he writes it down on a bit of paper and hands it to the lady.

She looks at the paper and this is the conversation:

lady - "now what do I do with it"
service - "you enter it into your radio"
lady - "how do I do that?"
service - "if I tell you or come out and do it I will charge you $88"

Now I was right next to her and for some reason the young guy walked out fort a bit. I said excuse Miss but that is wrong, I will do it for you when I finish with the guy I want to talk to.

Im not kidding, the car was not even 10 meters from the door..I just couldnt believe he expected a lady of her maturity to "go and do it yourself".

Anyway after myself and another guy waiting for his car have a laugh at how poor the service was the manager comes outside and I get what I was after, and I told him how I thought that guy should have handled the old lady a bit better.

Lucky the manager is a top bloke and went in to her car and sorted it.

But seriously, that is so lazy. Sure you might loose $88 for a rip off code entry, but they just lost that lady and her families business for good.

If I was the manager I would have ripped the young bloke a new backside.

But anyway, just a note to say that Ford and all the others are not alone. Its sad, because good service should be a normal thing but now it seems special when we get it.

[chrisfpv]

Not looking to start a debate or argument here, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to punch four numbers into a radio. As he said he usually charges for the code, as ALOT of other places do yet gave it to her for free, does she expect him to wipe her bum too?

Flame suit..on!

[poppa smurf]

good service and bad service in ALL dealerships

the dealership that I had trouble with sold my wife her "work" car.....she is an in home carer....goes place to place showering and caring for disabled and elderly

just so happens that one of the disabled piddled in her back seat, despite being asked repeatedly whether she needed the loo

I couldn't figure out how to get the seat out so I sent her back to the dealership to ask how to remove the seat

I got a phone call to go and pick her up as the people who do this are at lunch and wouldnt be back till later

11/2 hours pass and I was getting a bit anxy then the phone rang, it was the dealership asking that she come and pick her car up

we arrived, expecting a bill.......the car was out the front fully detailed and smelling like new again

wife went in to get the keys and ask for the bill......could have knocked me over with a feather.....

back seat removed, cleaned, replaced and full vehicle clean......no charge!

I took the detailing crew down a carton of beer!

[fordomatic]

Originally Posted by chrisfpv

Not looking to start a debate or argument here, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to punch four numbers into a radio. As he said he usually charges for the code, as ALOT of other places do yet gave it to her for free, does she expect him to wipe her bum too?

Flame suit..on!

Glad you have your flame suit on surely you are not serious, surely? have you ever worked with old people before? It took me 4 hours just to teach my grandparents how to use a new microwave, a very simple one. the older generation today have been totally left behind in our forever evolving new tech world. It would literally have taken 5 minutes for this guy to quickly jump out the front and help the old lady. If i heard one of my workers speaking to a customer like that he would be out the door with my boot up his a$s. This little old lady has probably already given this company back a crap load of money and probably been ripped off a few times because she is old, and yet you say she didn't deserve to have a little bit of the old customer service?

[Rodge]

^^ I agree, into the naughty corner for you Chris.

[TZENU]

And it just doesn't happen in dealerships... Years ago I was standing in a queue at an automotive parts reatiler where an older gentlemen had just purchased a set of $250 sheepskin covers and had politely requested assistance in installing them. The bloke behind the counter looked at me and I told him Im more than happy to wait while he gives this customer a hand as there were other assistants in the store anyway.
Out of the blue this so called "sales assistant" demands the old bloke pay him $120 cash to have them fitted... I was so blown away by this I dropped the stuff I was going to buy and went and did it for him.. Took all of 10 minutes..
Lack of respect towards elderly people really gets to me and its been on the rise for a while

If that sales guy spoke to my grandfather like that I would have flattened him!!!

[poppa smurf]

^^^ incredible!......

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by chrisfpv

Not looking to start a debate or argument here, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to punch four numbers into a radio. As he said he usually charges for the code, as ALOT of other places do yet gave it to her for free, does she expect him to wipe her bum too?

Flame suit..on!

i wish i was awesome like you...

[Sam_Boss260]

Originally Posted by TZENU

elderly people really gets to me and its been on the rise for a while

If that sales guy spoke to my grandfather like that I would have flattened him!!!

That sums it up. Gen Y have no idea. It took my mother (RIP Mum) a good 12 months to learn how to use her mibile phone. And even after she learnt how to use it, I'd get a call from the landline saying "The phone is stuffed. I charged it for 24 hours and it doesn't work". So I'd go over there and simply turn it on for her, (she would never turn her phone off, just charge it regularly but it obviously went completley flat and turned itself off. Same with my dad, where he is in the home, the carers sometimes turn his TV off, and turn off his foxtel box by mistake. So he follows my instructions on operating the TV, but if anything outside that routine is required, they struggle.

No reflection on them, just their generation weren't brought up with gadgets and electronics, so they don't know how to use them.

[pottery beige]

respect up old dudes.. one day you will be one...

[GT-E]

It is easy to be critical of the "young person" who did not do the right thing in your eyes, but there is always 2 sides to a story.
Imagine that this young guy has tried to help people before only to have either the boss reem him for leaving his counter/not charging for work, or someone he tried to help only to be taken advantage of or not thanked or appreciated.
I run a Computer service business and I try to instill in staff to think of the problem in the clients shoes. Would they be happy with what is being told to them.
You cannot keep everyone happy all the time, and some things must be charged for.
While I think the PIN should have been entered in Free, you never know what has made the staff member ask for payment. His boss may be riding him hard to recoup some money from his "service".

[EFFalcon]

Originally Posted by GT-E

It is easy to be critical of the "young person" who did not do the right thing in your eyes, but there is always 2 sides to a story.
Imagine that this young guy has tried to help people before only to have either the boss reem him for leaving his counter/not charging for work, or someone he tried to help only to be taken advantage of or not thanked or appreciated.
I run a Computer service business and I try to instill in staff to think of the problem in the clients shoes. Would they be happy with what is being told to them.
You cannot keep everyone happy all the time, and some things must be charged for.
While I think the PIN should have been entered in Free, you never know what has made the staff member ask for payment. His boss may be riding him hard to recoup some money from his "service".

hardly an excuse to be an ****

[Geez Louise]

You know it is not the youngins' fault here. How do they know that they have to charge customers for these sorts of things? They are told by someone else...

As for the radio code...well that just isn't the oldies that don't understand how it works. My festiva lost it's radio code some 10yrs ago now and I had to put it back in....took me awhile to work it out...but then again, I am often told I am special

I do have to say though, it is good to see members stepping in and lending a hand. You guys should be proud of yourselves

Cheers
Col

[blueoval]

Sadly in todays society, the lack of respect and patience for the elderly generation is becoming less and less. Sure they are slow at understand technological gadgets and other things related, but they do still deserve our respect.

My grandmother who is in her late 70's recently bought a new auto Nissan Micra after owning her 12-15 year old manual Nissan Pulsar and needed to trade it in due to a hip replacement.

She didn't purchase the up spec model, she just wanted the base model that was the easiest and cheapest to purchase. The base model came with 4 dr electric windows, electric mirrors, trip computer etc etc.
My grandma, was so overwhelmed with the technology involved just to operate the car under normal driving conditions that it took weeks for her just to get used to driving an automatic without wanting to manually change the auto gear stick into first and put her left foot on the brake.
The electric windows were another problem for her. She has been used to window winders for the past 40-50 years of driving that she was afraid to use them. Trip computer to her? what's that? She doesn't bother touching it.

We may laugh and/or find it annoying to have to explain repeatedly to our older generation about the ins and outs of what we view as menial and superficial gadgets, but for someone who is so used to keeping things simple, we seem to expect them to learn and fend for themselves a lot faster.

How easy is it for some of us to say its too hard to look after our ailing/mature ones and send them off to a nursing home to fend for themselves till they die?

To the OP, well done for showing a level of respect and dignity for that poor lady who just needed 5 mins of someone's time.

[xisled]

I have a question to ask.

If the person who served the customer, came out to do this for free and damaged the radio.

Who would be responsible to pay for the damaged radio?

would it be he customer as they own the car, the employee who did this as a good will gesture or the company the employee works for?

It may not be good customer service but sometimes to be covered under warrenty, isnurance and workers comp, you need to be getting paid for teh job.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by xisled

I have a question to ask.

If the person who served the customer, came out to do this for free and damaged the radio.

Who would be responsible to pay for the damaged radio?

would it be he customer as they own the car, the employee who did this as a good will gesture or the company the employee works for?

It may not be good customer service but sometimes to be covered under warrenty, isnurance and workers comp, you need to be getting paid for teh job.

youre the sort of bloke that would charge $88 to punch in a code ey.....

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by chrisfpv

Not looking to start a debate or argument here, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to punch four numbers into a radio. As he said he usually charges for the code, as ALOT of other places do yet gave it to her for free, does she expect him to wipe her bum too?

Flame suit..on!

Not wishing to generalise, but your parents are obviously fairly young...
My 78 year old mother still has to ring us up when "the TV won't work", and it's just gone off the channel the aerial comes through from the DVD (Aux 1 or something). She isn't that bad with technology...but she refuses to get a mobile phone, and dislikes anything too technical. The colour display in our G6E amazes her.

[xisled]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

youre the sort of bloke that would charge $88 to punch in a code ey.....

No I wouldnt charge, but at one of the mechanics shops I worked at a few years ago, one of the people behind the counter, who was not a mechanic, went out to fit a part to a car for free and ended up destroying the the electrics in the car. Cost my boss $2000 with parts and labour. From then on, no more free fittings.

[BHDOGS]

I plan On being the same in 40 years yelling at holograms that talk as u walk by waving my cane at young whipper snappers as they cruise by on there hover boards while saying old dude hip cat and giving me The finger then I'll reminds bout the good old days when ford where made in Australia and all we had we're head gasket issues and v8 engines not these 3000hp flying cars of today

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by xisled

No I wouldnt charge, but at one of the mechanics shops I worked at a few years ago, one of the people behind the counter, who was not a mechanic, went out to fit a part to a car for free and ended up destroying the the electrics in the car. Cost my boss $2000 with parts and labour. From then on, no more free fittings.

It was just a radio code, nothing was being fitted. Common sense, you don't charge $88 to punch in a code for an elderly person.

[poppa smurf]

^ why not, I was quoted $800 to wire in 4 ceiling fans (3 wires each)......I put the stringers in, I hung the fans and I wired up the lower light, I mounted the remote

I estimate probably ten minute each fan, took me half an hour but I am not an expert

remote control fans to boot.......needless to say I'm currently doing it myself!

[XD 351 Ute]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

It was just a radio code, nothing was being fitted. Common sense, you don't charge $88 to punch in a code for an elderly person.

Top post of the thread.

Ed

[EL97]

Originally Posted by Sam_Boss260

That sums it up. Gen Y have no idea.

I find that to be quite a generalisation. I've had good and bad experiences with all generations. I once went a wrecker to get a bonnet for my falcon, was negotiating a price with an old bloke who was a part owner, when the other owner comes running over, 'take x amount of dollars or leave' while then preceding to evil eye me, downright rude. The pedders I go to get work done is managed by a guy not much older than me (I'm 22), and while the place is usually busy he will give you the time of day and regularly takes customers into the workshop show them any problems in detail. Best customer service I've seen in a while.

[Uncle Niceguy]

ahhh the old debate of things getting too technical for older people there is one very easy way to avoid getting new gadgety items and thats to keep the old ones!!!

e.g. : i'm 22 on the 8th yet the laptop is coming round to its 8th birthday and the phone is a hand me down thats serviced my mum, dad and now my self. its just passed a decade old.

i love old stuff as it doesn't brake is easily fixed and very well built generally. and the phones battery lasts for ever and is small !!!! try finding a phone as reliable as that in the modern market lol.

and as for the stories in this thread the guys trying to charge for these sorts of things is totally disrespectful.

[Jim Goose]

Sadly this person doesnt understand one day he will be old and wont have a clue how to punch in his radio code in his fully h"electric" car (or is that cart?).

Plus the elderly are much easier "prey" when it comes to being ripped off.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by xisled

No I wouldnt charge, but at one of the mechanics shops I worked at a few years ago, one of the people behind the counter, who was not a mechanic, went out to fit a part to a car for free and ended up destroying the the electrics in the car. Cost my boss $2000 with parts and labour. From then on, no more free fittings.

This instance means the person that did the job shouldn't have touched the bloody thing. No experience, leave the thing alone.

Punching a radio code in. Not rocket science when you're upto date with modern technology....So bloody difficult to screw things up.

Problem is, old fashioned customer service is lacking. I refuse to work for mongrel places like the one described by the OP. Too worried about the mighty dollar and not worried about the people that bring the dollar to them.

[csv8]

Hey !!! I am on the wrong side of 60, I have a smart phone, pvr's and beta Windows 8!!!!!

[Djrystofer]

Originally Posted by chrisfpv

Not looking to start a debate or argument here, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to punch four numbers into a radio. As he said he usually charges for the code, as ALOT of other places do yet gave it to her for free, does she expect him to wipe her bum too?

Flame suit..on!

better be a damn good flamesuit

It's her wanting him to 'wipe her bum' for her, it's the fact that he wanted $88 to do it

[Windsor342ci]

I think its a little bit of a dog shot to say about Gen Ys here. Im a Gen Y and would be gutter kicking peoples heads in if they spoke to my parents likes that. (late 60s).
No excuse and no reason treat them like that. I ended up going to Hyandai myself for my mum as they tried to pull the same stunt.

If your employee is dumb enough to break the car whilst entering in a radio code they dont need a job but a padded room with medication!

[TS50]

Originally Posted by csv8

Hey !!! I am on the wrong side of 60, I have a smart phone, pvr's and beta Windows 8!!!!!

the wrong side of 60, does that make you 40ish?