Is this the GM Business Model?
If this is the General Motor’s Business Model, they’re in trouble...
TL;DR — My wife and I have been through the most excruciating experience at Boardwalk Chevrolet in Redwood City, CA, and I’ve lost faith in their business. We expected a simple repair to take less than a week, but now, nearly 9 months later, we still have a faulty passenger airbag that was never repaired, and we are yet to be refunded for a part that was never even put in our car. We’ve had to pay close to a thousand dollars out of pocket for rental cars and alternative transportation and, after mailing a formal letter to start a reimbursement claim with GM Claims Department, I have been passed around to three separate representatives with no resolution to date. The lack of any competent help and persistent lack of a safely operable vehicle for more than 252 days (as of writing this on June 8, 2020) has caused us to question the legality of this surprisingly arduous ordeal.
Should it be this difficult to ensure the safety of your vehicles (by replacing one module)? Why is the Service department pulling cars apart before verifying they have the necessary equipment to finish the job, and why are customers shouldering the financial burden for such dismal supply chain processes? Why did it take over a month to get our car back when nothing had been done to it? And why is it so difficult to give us the entirety of our money back?
** Itemized invoice here **
Is this the legacy GM wants to leave behind? I sincerely hope not…
This seems like an overreaction, doesn’t it? Listed below is extensive documentation of each encounter to the best of my knowledge.
Monday, September 30, 2019
We brought our car in at 9:15am due to a letter we received for a June 2018 recall for Hybrid Powertrain Control Module 2 (HPCM2). Upon bringing it in, they let us know we should have our airbag module inspected since the dash light had recently come on. The service rep said we should expect our car back “before the end of the week” (approximately four days) and gave me a repair estimate for $600. I asked the service representative if we could get a loaner rental car, and he said we should seek out a rental on our own but that we could request reimbursement after services were finished. We sought a rental car for the week — Redwood City Hertz and Enterprise Rentals were out of inventory so we ended up renting a U-Haul truck since it was the last available option within walking distance.
Friday, October 4, 2019
I called the service department around mid-day, and attempted another call about an hour later, each time with no answer. I left a voicemail each time asking about the status of our vehicle and whether we should extend our rental. I got no response until four days later.
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Boardwalk Chevrolet Service Department finally called me back and was very brief — they said they were waiting for an airbag module to be delivered but they didn’t have it yet, and we just needed to wait. I asked “how long do you think the wait will be?” They said “there’s no way to tell.”
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
I called the Boardwalk Chevrolet Service Department again to ask for an update — no answer, voicemail inbox was full, so I could not leave any messages. I ended up having to catch Lyft rides to and from work, and my wife had to catch one home as well.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Due to a lack of response or any other form of update from Boardwalk Chevrolet Service Department, we reluctantly decided to rent another car out-of-pocket, hoping that the service rep was being truthful about reimbursement after finished services. Our friends gave us a ride to Budget Rentals so we could avoid more Lyft ride charges.
Monday, October 14, 2019
After no response from repeated attempts on October 9, I called the Boardwalk Chevrolet Service Department twice (morning & afternoon) to check the status of our vehicle. No answer, voicemail inbox still full. I finally called the Boardwalk Chevrolet Sales front desk to ask if the Service Department had a working phone and finally learned that Ramon, our assigned Service Tech, had gone on vacation and no other techs had been assigned our case. Our car was apparently sitting in a garage collecting dust.
Wednesday, October 17, 2019
On our way to the airport for a week-long trip to Japan, I got a call from Boardwalk Chevrolet Service Department with “an update that there is still no update. GM is on strike, there’s nothing we can do.” (his words…insert eye roll). After two and a half weeks, he finally suggested the option of getting our car back as-is while they continue to wait for an unavailable airbag module. I told him we will pick it up Saturday October 26, the moment we’re back from Japan. I specified that we expect it to be ready to drive, and he promised it will be ready and says to come to the Service Department vehicle pick-up. We had to catch more expensive Lyft rides to and from work and to the airport due to our car sitting in the service garage.
Saturday, October 27, 2019
I caught a ride from a generous friend (we live 25 minutes from Boardwalk Chevrolet) to the Boardwalk Chevrolet Service Department vehicle pickup location, and the guy helping me (I think his name was Sal?) was extremely unprofessional and said “Dude, why are you here…your car is still in the shop. It’s not ready to drive…I think you’ve made a mistake. We can’t give you your car.” I recounted Wednesday’s call about our car being ready and demanded to speak with someone in a leadership position but after waiting 25 minutes for anyone to return, finally concluded I’d been abandoned and caught another ride home empty-handed and furious.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Ramon called back and profusely apologized, claiming someone dropped the ball and promised our car was put back together, out of the garage, and ready to drive home (even though the passenger seat still had no working airbag…) I cashed in one last favor from friends and caught a 5pm ride to Boardwalk Chevrolet, then spoke with Joel who was also very apologetic for the whole ordeal on the prior Saturday. He said we need to pay for the airbag module part before we could drive the car away, and said “all you need to do is bring the car back when we have the part, and we’ll fix it free of charge.” Then he handed me a bill for $759.85. I demanded reimbursement for financial damages, and he told me to work with GM Claims Department saying “Boardwalk Chevy can’t help with this but you should start a claim and they’ll help you, no problem.”
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
I wrote an email to GM Claims Department but it was returned to sender, claiming the email address does not exist. I continued desperately hunting for legitimate contact information so I could start a claim.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
I wrote a Yelp review and a Google review in an effort to seek local assistance with reimbursement, and to warn others about working with Boardwalk Chevrolet. A day later I got a canned response that said “We will make sure to pass on your feedback to our team so that we can improve upon these issues.” (insert another eyeroll)
Friday, March 6, 2020
Fed up with the lack of response from anyone, I drove to Boardwalk Chevrolet and showed a service receipt to Joel and demanded a full refund of $759.85 for parts/labor/taxes since no airbag repair services were rendered, and he said “we can do that, I’ll be right back.” He brought back a receipt and told me a check would be “in the mail soon.” I noticed the receipt showed refund for only $501.00, and I asked why they don’t refund labor or taxes. He said “you’ll have to work with GM Claims to sort out those details. We’re allowed to refund parts only. There’s nothing we can do…” I drove away with a useless receipt for an incomplete check that I apparently should expect in the mail within the week.
Spoiler…the check did not show up within the week.
Sunday, March 8, 2020
After dealing with police and insurance on an unrelated hit-and-run (we obviously have great luck with cars), I finally hunted down a street address for GM Claims Department and mailed a formal letter with highlighted bank statements and an itemized invoice for reimbursement.
Monday, April 13, 2020
A male GM Claims representative called about the letter I sent and told me “we can’t get any reimbursement started until we can verify the vehicle has been fully repaired” and insisted that I take my car back to Boardwalk Chevrolet. I had to repeat myself several times to help him understand that the Service Department had still not received the airbag module so there was no point taking the car back in until the part was shipped and available for immediate installation. He said he’d look into more details and call me back.
Insert 32 days of radio silence…[crickets]…
Friday, May 15, 2020
I got another call from GM Claims, but now with a new representative named June (case #9–5910180907). I asked what happened to my previous Claims Representative, and she said “he’s no longer working here” so I had to repeat the entire process to catch her up to speed. She said she’d look into helping me get a refund for the $759.85 parts/labor/taxes charges first, then “we can look into reimbursement for rentals and rides, but from my experience I don’t think that’s gonna happen…”
Thursday, May 21, 2020
I got an email from June that said, “Research has been started at the parts department per Andrews as of 20 May 20. I am reaching out to the site each day to find out what the outcome of the research is. I will let you know once I get a response.” I got on the phone with her later than day and explained that I had a receipt for a refund check that never arrived in the mail, and that the check did not include labor or taxes. She said she’d look into it and get back to me (noticing a pattern yet?).
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
I got another email from June, saying “I was able to speak with Irma in Finance, and she will take care of the check being sent out. There was a step that was missed that caused your concern to come up. A check for the part that you never received should go out this week no later than next week.” At this point I was struggling to believe anything GM Claims was saying…
Friday, June 5, 2020
I wrote a follow up email asking if the refund check had been mailed since we hadn’t seen anything yet…
Saturday, June 6, 2020
GM Claims called, but it was yet another new representative. I asked what happened to June and she said “June is no longer working here” (insert eyeroll and exasperated sigh). I had to explain the entire process for the third time. She said she’d look into things and get back to me (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)…
Sunday, June 7, 2020
We received a check in the mail today from Boardwalk Chevrolet, however it covers only the airbag module part ($501)…no reimbursement for labor charges ($201) or sales tax toward an unfinished sale ($48)…no reimbursement for multiple rental cars or alternative transportation ($895) while our vehicle was held hostage for an entire month. So I began compiling a detailed Medium article with plans to publish on all social media platforms and tag General Motors executive leadership in an effort to bring this issue to the surface.
20+ painful encounters
252+ excruciating days
1 incomplete (severely delayed) refund
My goal in writing this extensive article is not only to ask for my money back. Sure, I’d like to go back to zero and act as though this never happened, but more importantly I’d like to ask those managing this company if this is intentional — is this the experience you want your “valued” customers to enjoy? It’s terribly unfortunate that this type of treatment happens in the first place. It’s equally unfortunate that this type of prolonged, painstaking effort is required to bring attention to this type of treatment.
It’s even more unfortunate that I expect no response from General Motors leadership. Cheers.
