Subaru

I had quite the ordeal with the service Department at Stevens Creek Subaru a few days ago.

I have had a few problems with my car lately, and I have a warranty, so I figured I would get it checked out.

1. My check engine light came on about 2 weeks ago. It came on for about a day and then turned off.
2. My car burns oil like crazy.

I schedule an appointment and bring it in. When I pull in, there is a sign that says stay in your car and service rep will come help you. I sat in my car for 10 minutes until I got out and found someone.

This lady comes out and I tell her the check engine light went on and then went off about two weeks ago. She tells me that it might not have a record of it in the cars computer. I told her to check it out anyway. She said if they don't find anything wrong, they will have to charge me. I then told her that my car burns alot of oil between oil changes. She asks me how often I change me oil. I tell her every 5K-7K miles. She tells me I am supposed to change my oil every 350o miles, but they can do an oil consumption test, and that If they don't find anything wrong, they will have to charge me. I tell her to just check it out, I got a warranty.

6 hours later, I get a call that my car is done, and that the code for the check engine light had been erased, and they didn't find anything wrong with the oil issue. The total for the work was going to be $300. I almost fell out of my chair.

I get in there and ask to talk with the manager. The service manager is gone, but I get the GM of the dealership, who was a pretty nice guy, but was a car salesman at heart. He tells me hes on my side, but he really didn't do anything to make the issue right.

Long story short, the code may or may not be in the computer, and I will never know. The lady told me they were going to do an oil consumption test, but all they did was a visual inspection. To make matters worse, they oil consumption test is free! Had they communicated this to me in the beginning, and done what they said they were going to do, I would have told them to start the oil consumption test immediately and forget the rest.

Although I was really upset after leaving the dealership, I had a revelation as I was driving away. I was kind of becoming like some of my least favorite customers, they ones who always call me and argue about their invoices. So I don't want to sound like that on here. But what I do want is the dealership to make right what they did wrong, and that was:

1. Clearly communicate what they were exactly going to do to my car.
2. Advocate on my behalf to find a problem so that my warranty would cover the work and they would get reimbursed by Subaru, rather than just trying to make a quick $300 off me and tell me there is no problem.

I gave the GM a chance to call me yesterday like he said he would and make it right, but he didn't. The next step is to contact the regional service director and let him know what happened to see if he can correct it. If not, I will dispute the charges on my credit card and hopefully not have to pay it.

Today I plan to go to Subaru Santa Cruz and start the Oil Consumption test. Thankfully all dealerships are individually owned, and I hear Subaru Santa Cruz gets great results, unlike Stevens Creek Subaru.