We had an issue with the brakes on our 2010 Elantra and took the car to Coconut Creek Hyundai without an appointment, fully expecting to have to leave it overnight.
Neil Gessow, the service adviser arranged for a rental car and we were on our way. The next afternoon, when I hadn't heard anything I called Neil. He told me that a housing around the rear brake cracked and they had to order a part and they'd have to keep the car a second night. No problem.
The next morning, I received a call from Neil, telling me that the rear brakes needed to be replaced at a cost of around $350+.
I was surprised, since the car only had 28,000 miles on it, but told them to go ahead. No sense in asking to look at the replaced parts, since there's no proof that they actually came from my car.
Anyway, I picked up the car, and when I looked at the paperwork, I noticed there was no housing replacement mentioned on the service ticket. Just the brake job.
Called Neil after the weekend and asked why there was no housing. He told me he'd be glad to add the replacement part to the invoice, if I wanted. But, he had to find out what part. First red flag.
A few minutes later, he called back and told me it was a spring that cracked and that the tech replaced it from his inventory. Hmm.. where was the part that needed to be ordered. Hmm... second red flag.
So, I called Mike See (not sure about spelling of his last name) and explained the situation and that I felt I had been taken advantage of and probably got a $367 brake job that I didn't need. Mike promised to talk to the tech and find out what happened.
He called back later that day and the tech had told him that there were no parts that needed to be ordered, no housing, no spring needed to be replaced. But that the rear brakes were causing the noise that we were hearing and needed to be replaced. They didn't get to the car until the second day after I dropped it off because they were busy.
Neil had decided it would be better to feed me some BS, as opposed to being honest and telling me that they were very busy (anyone could see that) and that it would take a day longer to get to my car. I could have easily accepted that as opposed to the BS I was being fed.
I applaud Mike for getting to the truth. But, Neil set the tone for the service department at this dealership, and I suspect that he's not the only one doing this.
I don't know if I'm ever going back there, but Mike did do the right thing with his follow up. But if you go there, and Neil Gessow becomes your adviser, either ask for someone else or go to another dealer.
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