Here is my evaluation of the "service" I received at Newport Hyundai.
Last week I called the Sevice/Parts department because my engine, I thought, was making a whining sound during acceleration and deceleration. I made an appointment for Tuesday the 18th. I was only going to be in town for 36 hours and I needed it fixed. My wife lives in Middletown and I live in Pennsylvania because of work. Needless to say spending time with my family is important and time is precious.
I brought the vehicle in at 7.45a and was given a loaner car. At approximately 12.30p I received a phone call saying that the mechanic/technician drove the car and before he even got close to the Barnes and Noble parking lot he could hear the noise. I was told that the cause of the noise was the scalloping of my rear tires. The service technician was absolutely sure of it. Because they are allegedly experts I accepted the fact that what he was telling me was the truth.
The Service technician then begins to tell me that Hyundai recommends that I do the following:
4 new tires with alignment. costs ranged from $715.00 for Nexen Tires $1070.00 for Hankook tires.
New front brake pads and rotors. cost $428.00
Brake fluid flush. cost $124.95
Spark plugs. cost $140.00
Fuel Injection service. cost $124.95
Engine air filter. cost $32.95
Total cost = $1920.85

I originally bought the tires at Town Fair Tire so I declined the service so I could go and speak with the manager at Town Fair Tire. The Town Fair Tire manager showed true service by admitting that the tires were their fault and gave me $375.00 worth of free tires, balance, and alignment. They provided this service in twenty minutes. I drove the vehicle after the new tires were put on and the car was still making the noise so I went back to Town Fair Tire. The manager, who is not a certified Hyundai mechanic, asked to take my car for a drive. He drove around the block and said that my ball joints were bad but he was unsure which one. That was the cause of the noise in his opinion.
So back to Hyundai I go. I tell the service technician of the problem and his excuse is that we have to eliminate everything before we can diagnose the issue and now that we know the tires aren't the issue we need to again look at the vehicle. Are you kidding me that you were going to charge me almost $1920.00 to eliminate problems to find out what the real issue is? Sounds like a big scam to me. The service tech drove the car with me and after a few turns of the wheel he said it was indeed the ball joints. You mean to tell me that your "certified mechanics" couldn't have figured that out in the first place? I said that I was leaving at 5a the next morning for Pennsylvania and he said that all of the mechanics were going home for the day and he would be unable to get it done. Not only that but they would have to order the parts. It's now 5p and this is something that should have been handled when I got the call at 12.45p. Make a mechanic stay and pay him overtime.
I now had to drive a V8 Chrysler Aspen, my wife's car, to Pennsylvania which cost me $160.00 in gas instead of driving my Sonata which costs me $60 to make the same drive. Since I will not see my wife and kids for a month I have to wait to drive my car. If I wasn't in town and my wife had the car and she was the one dealing with Hyundai and speaking with me by phone we would have paid the $1920.00 because what else would we have been able to do. She doesn't know anything about vehicles.
Hyundai of Newport showed extremely poor problem solving skills when it came to diagnosing a problem. You tried to shake me down for almost two grand and that still wouldn't have solved the issue. Thanks to the guys at Town Fair Tire for doing your job. You should model your "customer service" after their business model. You want to make me happy and show that you care about your customers and you want to make this problem right? How about calling my wife and fixing everything that you recommended for free? You wasted my time, Town Fair Tires time, and you took me away from spending time with my family fixing your issue.
I would be MORE than happy to tell everyone on social media how I have been treated and how the Newport Hyundai dealership is just trying to pull money out of your wallet. I will also let every person involved with Hyundai that I can get a hold of and let them know about the alleged service I received from the East's #1 service center. How does it feel to be on the other end of a shakedown?
I am extraordinarily disappointed in your dealership and how you treated me and my family.

Not Recommended

Jake L., Service Manager from Hyundai of Newport responded on 03/27/2014 05:24 AM

Good morning John,

I just received a copy of your comments and I have to say I’m deeply concerned that you feel that you were part of a “shakedown” while in my service department. If you have a few moments to read this entire email I’d like a chance to explain how we do things. And taking advantage of our guests’ is certainly not one of them.

First, just to be on the same page, your vehicle needed a wheel bearing, not a ball joint. The noise that you were concerned about was a whining noise above 30 mph. This noise can be diagnosed as 2 things, tires and/or wheel bearings. In your case it was both. Due to the condition of the tires that were put on at Town Fair, properly diagnosing the location of the bad wheel bearing becomes virtually impossible. The front tires on your vehicle were worn to 2/32 which by state law is considered unsafe and would not pass state inspection. The rear tires which were put on at Town Fair showed extremely uneven inside edge wear, also known as scalloping, which is caused by an improper alignment. So in order to eliminate the possibility of the noise coming from the tires and only the tires, along with the front tires being extremely low on tread, the technician recommended replacement of all 4. Once Town Fair replaced the faulty tires that they installed, which were faulty due to the vehicle being misaligned, and the noise still being present, diagnosing which wheel bearing was bad became relatively easy.

Secondly, the other recommendations that were made are based purely on mileage and condition. I find it very hard to believe that anyone in my service department told you that all of the recommended work had to be done in order to correct the whining noise. And I can assure that if that is the case that person would/will not be working here. That is not how we do business and that type of selling “technique” will be tolerated. I personally did not look at the condition of the items that were recommended to you but I can guarantee that if you have someone else look at them they are in the condition that we stated. The banners you mentioned seeing in the service department and around the dealership are here because they have been earned. As a dealership, in customer satisfaction we were number 18 out of 832 dealership nationwide for 2013. We consistently provide outstanding service to all of our customers and unfortunately mistakes do happen and your case seems to be one of them. I assure you that if we could have immediately diagnosed your concern and had the parts in stock we would have stayed until 8:00 to make sure your vehicle was finished the same day. Unfortunately, the parts were not in stock so our ability to repair the vehicle the same day became impossible.

Finally, I truly apologize for the inconvenience we’ve caused to you and your family. As a father of 3 children I understand how important spending time with them is and being away from them for a month at a time must be very difficult. Please do not feel like we were trying to take advantage of you. That is/has never been our way of doing business. If you feel comfortable, when you’re back in town, I’d like you to bring your vehicle back in so we can put the car in the shop and go over the recommended items together so you can see for your self that they are indeed in need of attention.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me directly at the number listed below.

Regards,

Jake Lopes
Service Manager
Hyundai of Newport
401-619-3700

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