Diablo Subaru of Walnut Creek — Local services in Walnut Creek

Entering this review on behalf of my father who NOTORIOUSLY has had several bad experiences with awful customer service. To preface, the vehicle in question has had issues since the very beginning when it was brand new. Engine problems. Vehicle burning through oil consistently, even after many services to get the issue fixed, the vehicle still burns through so much oil. To today's issue: Radiator coolant problems. In retrospect, we should have filed through the lemon law with this vehicle that has been a problem since day one. But... this is not why I am here leaving this review. This review is for the poor customer service that is provided by the service department who are notoriously rude and lack assistance or care when it comes to tending to their customers. The reason I am leaving this review is because my father is Spanish speaker, and it seems that if you lack the ability to defend yourself in English, the more reason for their service to lack respect and also an attempt at even communicating what is going on. My father's appointment was for 8am this morning. Due to the lack of traffic because it's a holiday, he arrived at the dealership at 7:30am. Was immediately greeted, and I use the term loosely, by an employee telling him he is early and they will not be assisting him until 8am because that's when they start. My father explains to the employee why he was early, to the employee showing no care or empathy to even try to check him in early, but took the keys from my dad. Fine. By 8am, my father approaches the check-in kiosk to "check-in" his vehicle, and was then informed that his vehicle had already been driven to service and they were going to inform him of the status of his vehicle by 3pm today. When he asks why they think it's going to take so long (from 8am-3pm, being that he is one of the first people there with an appointment), he is informed that they have to run a diagnostic first and then they will be able to determine what the issue is. He is told that this may be completed today by 3pm, or they may have to keep the vehicle until tomorrow. Why does a diagnostic take so long...? And, why do they not know if it will even be completed the same day? That is not even for the repair, that is just to figure out what is going on!! When my father says, "so I will have to wait here until 3pm for an answer?" The employee simply responded with a "yes." No offer to assist him with a ride or options to call him later on if he did not wish to wait. And to top off this experience, when I show up to pick up my father, due to their poorly design parking lot, as I was trying to make a u-turn in their lower lot as I was simultaneously calling my dad to find out which lobby he is in, I am met with an employee quickly standing at the front of my bumper preventing me from moving forward telling me I need to reverse because I can not be in that space making a u-turn. This dealership reflects poorly on the Subaru brand. Even though we have had so many issues with this vehicle, I believe the issues are specific to the one we own, and not to ALL of Subarus. With that being said, I would be hard-pressed to buy another Subaru since this is the only Subaru dealership in the area where I can take the vehicle for service, and I would hate to commit to another vehicle having to be serviced at this place for...

Had a poor experience with this dealership. I was in the market for a pre-owned vehicle and found a very good candidate at this dealership. I made an online inquiry for the vehicle on their website and did not hear anything back so made the drive to Walnut Creek to see the vehicle in person intent on making the deal. When I arrived I spoke to Sebastian who was very helpful and checked on the vehicle and he said it was still beimg serviced to be sellable. Fortunately the service technician was driving the vehicle by the storefront at the time so my family and I were able to see it in person. The vehicle looked great and we let him know that we would like to move forward as soon as it was ready. He said it may take till the end of the month and he would let us know when it was ready. I followed up with him via text each day after to check in on the vehicle and to have him keep us in mind. I also filled out the inquiry box on the website multiple times as a reminder we had seen the vehicle and wanted to be there as soon as it was ready. After not getting any response after a few days I called in and was connected with Paul who said the vehicle was still not ready for sale. He said he would keep us apprised. On Tuesday the 28th I texted the same number Paul was communicating from and they said the vehicle would be ready Thursday the 30th and I set an appointment for 9am that day to be there for the vehicle. I later found out this communication came from a third sales person named Jennifer. I moved all of my work appointments to clear my schedule to go to the dealership and make the deal. The following day Paul called me and said the vehicle had been sold on Tuesday evening and was no longer available and that was strange because their service software still showed as in service and not for sale, but was still sold. He told me this was a systematic issue at the dealership and often sales people will line up deals only to find out the vehicle was sold out from under them by other sales people. While he did apologize and I do not blame the sales people for the miscommunication I do not trust a dealership that has such poor systems in place and can miscommunicate with customers on so many levels. I have called repeatedly and asked to speak to a manager and have never been able to connect with one and have left voicemails for many people, but have never had any follow up. Paul did say they will be changing their systems in place so I hope my feedback was valuable to help them better assist their clients in the future.

Update: I emailed Christopher Bongon on Tuesday December 5th at 12:31pm per his request and still have yet to hear back from him. It has been over 3 days and so it seems they are not interested in any further discussions. ...

So, I had an interesting experience with Diablo Subaru. I took my car in to be inspected because it started making a concerning noise when I drove it. After inspecting my car, the Service Center folks tell me it's my radiator, and I need to get the entire assembly replaced for around $2,300. They also tell me they discovered a fuel leak that would cost $10,145 (!!!) to repair because they'd have to remove everything under the hood to address the leak. At this point, I'm considering my car basically totaled.

I declined addressing the fuel leak and agreed to move forward with the radiator assembly. They said before they could order the radiator, I had to first schedule an appointment for next week. Once the appointment was in the books, they could order the parts. Okay, cool. I do that. I show up the following week to my appointment at 7:30am. They take my car in and say it'll be a few hours. I'm waiting until 11:30 (four hours later) before they call me and say the radiator hasn't arrived, and they'll call me another day to schedule an appointment once it has. What the heck?! They could neither check the day before my appointment to see if the parts arrived, nor when I checked in that morning? They just wasted almost my entire morning.

I decide to take my car to a local shop near my house. I have them inspect everything again from square 1. Turns out, there is NO fuel leak, and the cause of the noise was my transmission -- NOT my radiator! They refer me to Subaru Albany, where I can get my transmission replaced for free under warranty. I go to Subaru Albany, who also inspects my car, finds no leak, confirms the issue is my transmission, and replaces my transmission for free. Now my car makes no noise when I drive it.

Diablo Subaru almost scammed me out of over $12,000, almost convincing me to buy a new car. Imagine if I paid to get my radiator assembly replaced and the noise was still there! And God forbid, imagine if I paid the over $10,000 to "fix" a fuel leak that didn't exist. Unfortunately, they did scam me out of over $200 to inspect my car and find these non-existent problems. I've lost COMPLETE trust in Diablo Subaru -- both with my time and money. I'm shocked at how blatant these folks can lie to you -- and if it isn't lies, then I'm shocked at the utter incompetency. I really don't feel good about leaving a negative review, but I'm super disappointed in this whole experience and I feel like others should be aware. I will never be back at...