Paul Miller Honda Of West Caldwell — Local services in West Caldwell

My recent experience was nothing short of awful. I brought my car in at 8 AM on Monday morning for an oil change tire rotation and I asked to look at the ignition because the car was making weird noises when it was starting. At 11 AM I had not heard anything yet although I received a text message to correspond with Honda. I sent a text that time asking if there’s any update, I waited another hour without being told anything so I called and was told someone would get back to me. At 2 o’clock a representative finally did call me back stating they were sorry but no one had to look at my car yet. About two hours later representative called back again stating that the text had looked at the car numerous times and could not find anything wrong with the ignition. Known I was going on a trip in a couple of days and that there was definitely something not right with the car. I was a bit incredulous, and fortunately the representative who called me, went out and tried to start the car and even he noticed that there was something not right. At that point in time it was about 430 and he asked if it was OK if we kept the car overnight and had somebody else look at it in the morning Affirming me that by 10:30 in the morning the next day it would be corrected. Tuesday morning by about 11 o’clock without hurting from anybody, I called again asking for an update and once again was told that I would be contacted shortly with an update. Waiting till about 12 without anybody calling I once again called and talk to somebody else telling them at this point in time, I was not confident That Honda could handle this and that maybe it was best if I brought my car somewhere else. This representative told me that they would go out and talk to the technicians to see what’s going on and would definitely call me back within 20 minutes. 45 minutes later I received a text message with a video of my car from the technician Telling me that there was a problem with the battery. Did not say if they were gonna fix the issue or anything else just there was a problem with the battery and he was not the technician who looked at it prior. I called once again to speak to The representative who at this point in time was not very polite stating he was not the technician and did I want the battery done or not done. And honestly, I told the representative I was 50-50 as to whether I wanted Honda to install the battery because my confidence was completely Gone with the service I was going to possibly receive. I did however tell them if they could do it within the next half hour, please do it and I will come and get my car. At 2:45 on Tuesday I came and did pick up my car For a battery replacement oil replacement tire rotation. I don’t know much about cars, but it seems a bit ridiculous to complete...

EDIT 5/25/23: After 3 weeks, Paul Miller Honda would not respond to HONDA CORPORATE phone calls regarding the customer complaint I filed. Thanks to Honda corporate for doing the right thing and cutting me a check for the cost of the AAA services. Imagine how unprofessional this dealership is that they chose to ignore phone calls for 3 straight weeks coming from a corporate office. Thankfully Honda took pity on me and gave up trying to contact the dealer. Shame on Paul Miller Honda for showing 0% care or empathy regarding their mistake. Stay far away from this business.

After 5 years and nearly 50,000 miles of driving my civic has always been perfectly reliable. I took the car to Paul Miller Honda for an oil change and inspection on a Saturday. I received the car back and proceeded to drive it and park it overnight. The next morning when I went to start the car the battery was dead. I had to call AAA on Easter to have the car unlocked and jump started for $130 so I could get home. Again, I have never had an issue with the car before and this occurs less than 24 hours after receiving the car back from the dealer. To add to this, the battery was left loose and not fully tied down within the engine compartment as discovered by the AAA technician, which I was informed could cause the electronics to short in a worst case scenario. After calling for 3 days I finally managed to speak to the service manager. He offered me no apology or sense of regret for the inconvenience and expense I incurred. I asked only to receive $130 in compensation for what I had to pay AAA as a result of the dealer's actions. The offer I received back was that IF I brought the car in for $1,300 of maintenance I could receive a 10% discount. So basically, if I want to "recover" my expense I need to spend $1170 at the dealer (which they will obviously profit from). An insulting offer. I have tried 3 times to contact the general manager leaving multiple voice mails to no avail. Does it sound like a coincidence that my perfectly reliable car's battery was dead the day after it was brought to Paul Miller? 2 weeks of calling the dealership and I have yet to receive an apology or have more than 1 conversation in which I could explain my problem.

Attached is a video that shows the AAA technicians discovering the loose battery that was not properly secured during...

After suffering senseless and significant damage to my '98 CR-V by Mavis Tire in West Orange (specifically, breaking off the interior hood latch by pulling on it way too hard and somehow damaging what they called an "oil lever" when just opening the hood to do a simple oil change ... and obviously taking no responsibility therefor and blaming it all on the fact that my automobile is "very old"), I was devastated, distraught and, of course, very wary about taking my vehicle to another shop, especially a dealer because I have had several negative encounters when taking my cars to one (mostly extreme overcharging and/or hard pressuring me to approve additional costly repairs I did not request). This is 100% NOT the case at Paul Miller Honda in West Caldwell as Dominick and the service team made me feel most welcome and almost immediately allayed all of my fears as soon as I walked in the door!

Everyone with whom I interacted during this experience was sincerely friendly, professional, caring, honest, knowledgeable, kind and compassionate. Dominick especially was sensitive to my noticeable discomfort as I am agoraphobic, and he carefully explained the whole process from the actual repairs to financing options. He was patient with me to a fault and answered each and every question I asked him.

In addition to the positive atmosphere and environment inside the dealership, I was also blown away and seriously comforted by the outstanding work done here. My car generally feels a little off to me after being repaired or maintained by anyone, but there was none of that when I returned to pick it up a few days later. They also completed the repairs in about half the original estimated time quoted after putting a rush on the parts needed to replace the entire hood latch and cable and stopping the severe oil leakage that inexplicably began after my absolute last visit to Mavis. Although I told them I was in no rush at all to get the car back, the Paul Miller team went far above and beyond to complete the repairs rather quickly and, most importantly, flawlessly.

Clearly, I very very highly recommend Paul Miller Honda for your car needs, and this visit last month was merely my first of many (well, hopefully not too many). They took excellent care of my old and trusted 26-year-old CR-V just as they do with all the newer models that I...