Fauz Ahmad

Review of Toyota of Huntington Beach

I've been working with these guys for my vehicle f...

I've been working with these guys for my vehicle for about 6 months, finally got everything resolved. I have criticism to share, which I would have wanted to be aware of as a customer. Hope Toyota can work to resolve these issues as well, so no future customer has to deal with what I did.

Background:
I had a paint issue for my car. Toyota issued the recall. I go into their shop, they powerwash my vehicle to find extent of damage, indicate Toyota will be able to take care of my repair, but currently no body shops are available. They send me on my merry way until a shop will have time to service my car. Excuse me, what? I'm just driving around in this eyesore, and for an undisclosed amount of time? Please do a quick image search of 'toyota paint peeling recall' to get a feel for what I was working with.

Delays in Service:
Pandemic happened, which contributed to delays. With that in mind, how much time do you think would be have been reasonable for Toyota to take in and service my car? I waited from February 2020 to July 2020 for Toyota to perform the repair. FIVE MONTHS of waiting. Was such an embarrassment to drive in for the entire time.

Pulling teeth to get a response:
For that issue, I had reached out for updates multiple times by both email and voicemail to the member of the service team in charge of my case, kept getting no response. Finally decided in May that I'd kick and scream to get some service, which worked.

Misleading me when providing service updates:
Initially in Feb, I was told Toyota would take me in, and to wait until Toyota HB reaches out with body shop information. After kicking & screaming in May, I was informed that Toyota still hadn't approved my claim, and to please come in for additional pictures for their evaluation. Does that mean I was waiting for no reason? Just dropped the ball in my case? Don't know. Obviously not a fun experienced for me to go in for follow-up, and hope that Toyota would still approve me.

Jerked out around Rental Car compensation: I got documentation indicating the car would be out for repair for approx 21 days, and verbal confirmation that toyota would cover a longer rental than that if needed. I get a call at Fri 4:38pm (11 days in) that repair's done, and I return the following Monday (14 days in). As you might have guessed, this team indicated they'd stop paying for the rental on Sat, implying that I'd be footing some of the bill on my own.

Weak customer service:
Had to pull teeth to find out extent of what was actually done with my car. ie, what was done regarding the spots of my car that had been rusting due to the peeled paint? What was done to my car? Service rep wasn't even going to interact with me until I pushed for answers. When we did speak, service rep was very disinterested and wouldn't answer the full extent of my questions. Fine, you either don't know or you don't want to share, and either way this is not going to be a meaningful interaction. Point taken.

Branch Disorganization:
Cashier indicating to me that I owe $180 when I owed nothing. Blaming the service team which handled my case on this, rather than cashier. Got the pit in my throat once I heard the amount. They resolved pretty quickly, but if I still had any confidence in the branch at this point, it would have dropped to 0. I actually thought they were charging me for the rental issue above at first, but this was yet another mis-managed bill.

Also minor annoyance, two cases where while waiting in service line, the person behind me was helped first. Is this the price I pay for patiently waiting instead of waving/staring down occupied employees until I get help? I can certainly do that instead...

Eh... I could keep going. Quality of repairs tends to be 'okay'. Drop-off drivers, cashier, donuts are cool. For the rest though... just please be aware with what you'll be working with before you get involved with Toyota of HB.