First off the service advisor Tyler was great and professional. In fact all of the individuals I interacted with in service were great. That and they fixed one of my issues and they were very acomodating with a loaner. I told him I have 4000 Miles left on my warranty and for him to have the car totally looked over.
The good, they diagnosed and replaced all my TPMS sensors on my Pontiac G8 under my extended warranty. That same visit I told Tyler the service advisor that there was some high pitched hum from the rear differential when at 65/70 Mph or higher and at approx 2500 rpms. Was told that they would check it out but wouldn’t drive over 55mph and they didn’t hear it….
I brought the car back a week later to have them transfer the TPMS sensors to my new wheels I bought separately. The did this at a very reasonable rate and I was happy with the work.
Where things went wrong is I told them there was a knocking noise whenever I turn or go into a curve. They had it for a few days and checked it out but could t figure out what was wrong. I researched the issue myself and found that we should check to see if the strut mounts we’re bad. As this turns out to be a known issue with my car and that there was even a GM PI available for this exact issue. The technician whom I was told had 20+ years experience couldn’t tell they we’re bad and found nothing wrong with the suspension as it was all “right and tight”.
I got to the dealership and picked up the car and before I left I popped the hood to check the plate on top of the strut tower. Both sides had approx a 1/4″ gap indicating that the strut mount & bearings we’re bad. He disagreed and said that I’d hear more noise if a strut mount was bad. The mechanic relayed to me that I had to drive it another 500 miles or so and see if it gets worse.
Later after researching, I found the GM PI on the strut mount issue. I sent this to my SA’s inbox on Monday and followed up again a few times and didn’t hear back. (After talking with the manager in response to this survey I now understand that Tyler was on Vacation so I do not fault him)
After not hearing back I figured that they didn’t want to admit a mistake or just didn’t care so I drove an hour from my house to Liberty Buick & GMC in Mathews. I had the service dept look at it and their master mechanic Daryl looked over the car. I am picking it up tomorrow now that they have repaired the following:
-Strut mounts replaced under warranty
-Harmonic balancer replaced under warranty
-Differential REPLACED under warranty. It turns out that the high pitched hum was because my rear end was bad.
Randy Marion, your service department was quick to dismiss my high pitched driving noise which would have turned out to be a very expressive repair on the rear end.
What frustrated me the most was that the strut mounts we’re clearly bad. I felt that the mechanic refused and dismissed as if I didn’t know what I was talking about. All in all the repair bill at Liberty was close to $3900 all in… All of which was covered under warranty so I just paid my $100 deductible.
BTW while I was there I bought a 2015 GMC Acadia for my wife too.
Going forward I suggest that you put an out of office on your email when on vacation. Also when the customer clearly sees an out of spec issue and is disputing that, get the mechanic involved and speak to o the customer…. If not a manager or both. That and with the interstate around the corner I don’t see any reason why the couldn’t drive my car at speed or ride along with me to duplicate the issue with my rear diff.
EDIT: A big thank you to the service dept manager Mike Simms. He reached out to me in response to this survey and listened to my concerns. Aknowledge the miss on their end and offered to make it right. I appreciate the willingness to listen to my feedback in an effort to identify the failure point and be better next time. That in and of itself is good customer service.