Honda of Frontenac — Attraction in Frontenac

BUYER BEWARE

To anyone looking to buy from them check ALL dealership ads, social media promos, and their website before buying. Don’t rely on staff to inform you of the current sales. As their marketing team is not in communication with their sales team.

This is a lot. But worth a read if you’re looking to purchase from them.

I purchased a vehicle on April 5, only to later find it advertised on the dealership’s Facebook page for $2,000 less—during the month of April. When I raised the issue, I was told by both the salesperson and sales manager (Ken Brown- who addressed the situation very poorly and unprofessional) that they were unaware of the promotion due to lack of their social media usage and communication with the marketing team. The general sales manager Kristopher Riskovsky who I was then put into contact with claimed the sale was intended only for customers who purchased within the past three months, and that a disclaimer was accidentally left off by the marketing team who he referred to as the “adolescents” of the work place. Multiple versions of the post had no disclaimer, and have been deleted off of Facebook since my issue arose, but are still on other social media sites as of today, May 7.

Instead of honoring the sale price, I was offered a $2,000 service credit. I mentioned cancelling some of the warranties I had purchased to make use of that credit over time. I asked for this offer in writing, and then when corresponding via email was told the entire cost of any cancelled warranties would be deducted from the credit—something that directly contradicted what I was told by both the finance person and warranty company (that I’d owe nothing if cancelled within 30 days with no claims made. This situation here is so crazy to explain and would make this review twice as long if I explained in detail. But here is a direct quote from Kris regarding this “The $1653” (price of 2 warranties I was considering cancelling) “would need to be paid by someone and that someone is the dealership. When you cancel any protection packages the dealership reimburses your loan provider for either the full or any pro-rated amount owed. If we were to pay the $1653 towards your loan, plus provide you with $2000 worth of credits, that is a total of $3653.” So essentially he’s telling me cancelling my warranties still results in me paying for them somehow since it would be subtracted from the service credit because they have to pay the lender back, and the whole amount at that. Yes, it sounds crazy because it is.

It feels like they were using my personal choice to cancel my warranties as an opportunity for them to cut their losses. Which is just completely wrong for many reasons.

I have reached out to the general manager Chris Hennekes and he stated he was in agreement with the general sales manager for the offer but will not respond to the issue I have regarding the warranty cancellation. Which is that this credit should have absolutely nothing to do with my warranties and that I'm not in debt to the dealership should I decided to cancel them.

While waiting on a response, I actually cancelled all of my additional warranties and guess what, no debt with the dealership. Hmmm. As a paying customer, this situation deserves an honest explanation and a...

I shared this on Facebook already, and I think you all saw it, but here it is again.

I took my car in for servicing this past Tuesday. It was pretty routine, so I waited around and did some stuff on the computer. I had my backpack, my travel mug, all the stuff I needed. After about an hour and a half, the service associate said everything was ready to go. I gathered up my stuff, paid the bill, and took off in my car. I had to get back to the Saint Mary’s Hospital to finish progress notes on patient charts, and I thought I would stop in the doctor's lounge and grab a beverage. But when I looked at my cup holder, I realized that my SLU travel mug was not there.

“Damn,” I thought. “I probably left it on the table in the waiting room.”

After I finished my work at the hospital, I got in the car to drive back to the dealership and find the cup. On my way out, I called them to see if someone had found it.

“Honda Frontenac. This is Tina. How can I help you?”

“Hi, Tina, I was just there getting my car serviced, and I think I left a travel mug back in the waiting room. Could you connect me with the service department?”

“Oh, that's not a problem. People forget stuff here all the time. I'll go look myself. What does it look like?”

“It’s a dark blue SLU mug with a clear top. I think I left it on one of the round tables.”

“I’ll go look for it now, and I'll call you back in about five minutes.”

“Okay. Well, thank you.” It actually took about 7 or 8 minutes for her to call back, and I was just about to pull into the dealership parking lot when my phone rang.

I heard a sigh on the other end of the line. “Mr. Haller? This is Tina at Honda Frontenac. I am so sorry. I cannot find that travel mug. I looked everywhere.”

She sounded genuinely upset about this outcome., “Hey. It's OK. I guess I left it somewhere else. Thank you so much for trying. I really appreciate it” As I was turning around in the parking lot to head back to the city, a thought occurred to me. “Wait a minute…” I reached my left hand behind the seat… and I found the travel mug in the footwell behind the front seat. Exactly where I'd put it.

I sighed, feeling like an idiot, but I called Tina back. She just seemed so concerned that I wanted to let her know the outcome of all this.

“Honda of Frontenac. This is Tina.”

“Hi, Tina. This is Ken Haller.”

“Tell me you found the cup!” she said expectantly

“Actually, I did. I guess I put it behind the driver's seat, and that's where I found it. It was there the whole time.”

Her voice became joyous. “Oh, my goodness! Thank you SO MUCH for letting me know! I just feel so bad when I can't help people out, and this makes me feel so much better!”

“Well, I really appreciate you looking for it. That's one of the reasons I get my car serviced at Honda Frontenac, because you always go the extra mile, even if it's only 25 feet!” which I thought would make a pretty good advertising slogan!

“Well, I'm just glad you found it. Have a great day!”

“I will. You, too!” I said, a big grin on my face as I drove my newly serviced Honda Civic hatchback home...

I usually go to Honda of Frontenac for all my service but my last visit I had some issues. I'll say this: They really messed up, but then they really fixed it. I went in for what I knew to be a bad wheel bearing. I had suggested which one it was, but I wasn't sure. They completed the work, I stopped by shortly before close and picked it up. Immediately upon picking it up it sounded WORSE than it did when I brought it in. So bad I was concerned about driving it and drove home because turning around in rush hour traffic when they were about to close wasn't an option. I called back the next morning and found out the team that I had worked with was out for the next 5 days. I was able to get an appointment with another team to bring it in. I raised concerns about the safety of driving it back (20 minutes) but they didn't offer any solutions. I went ahead and brought it back. The new team manager I worked with was excellent and got back to me right away with what was wrong---it was the wheel bearing, but not on the wheel they fixed. The manager also mentioned that as soon as they drove it across the parking lot, the sound was obvious prior to them actually repairing it. I was furious that they allowed me to drive it off the lot without actually confirming the repair was correct. So either they didn't check to see what wheel bearing actually needed replaced and mistook the one, both of them needed replaced (unlikely) and they didn't check, AND they did not check the work was accurate before releasing the vehicle to me. However, they did make it right at this point. I was not charged for the second repair (which also, they are marking up the charge on the part quite a bit) and they took care of it for me correctly. I really appreciated the second team that worked on my car, but it was a huge inconvenience for me to have to take my car back and forth TWICE because of their mistake. Finally, the shop manager called me after the incident to discuss and let me know that my issue was heard and he would be talking to the first technician that worked on my vehicle. I would be much, much angrier if he hadn't followed up, but I really just wanted to be heard. I feel like I should've received an additional discount for the trouble--not charging me for the second repair was obvious since they did the work incorrectly in the first place. Overall, the customer service on the second half of this journey was great, but my trust in Honda of Frontenac is damaged and I'm going to spend some time debating if I need to choose a new service shop next time I need service....