3 years ago
Despite the location of Autobahn Motors being extr...
Despite the location of Autobahn Motors being extremely convenient for me (I live one exit away), after my most recent service experience, I am never coming back here to service my Sprinter. Autobahn Motors' service department seems to have fundamental operations issues.
I brought my van in for a routine oil change yesterday. Given my last experience, I tried to stay away from the morning rush and scheduled a 10:40 AM appointment. Around 11:20 AM or so, I was informed by a member of the service team that they "found someone who can write you up" that wasn't the assigned service manager (Mark). Jimmy, the new service manager, was friendly and efficient and I was on my way 10 minutes later, but after a 40 minute wait.
Jimmy told me the oil change would probably be done between 4-5 PM. He texts me on schedule at 4:50 PM asking me if I want to pick up tonight before 6 PM when they close. I texted back at 4:52 PM saying we'll be there around 5:45 PM.
Traffic wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, so we ended up arriving around 5:20 PM. I paid for my oil change at 5:30 PM and was told my vehicle was on its way. Thirty minutes go by (they're starting to clean the floors now since it's closing time) and my van is still nowhere to be found. Jimmy stops by to tell me that the vehicles need to be driven from the shop which is not adjacent to the service department, but across the highway and they only have a certain number of drivers who can ferry cars back and forth. Meanwhile there's four members of the sales team sitting around on the other end of the building doing nothing. I wait another 15 minutes, then strike up a conversation with another woman who has been waiting 45 minutes for her car, equally irritated.
Finally at 6:30, a *full hour* after I had paid for my service, my van arrives. To add insult to injury, my wife who had been waiting outside tells me the driver is honking the horn of my van, waving at his friend, "look what I'm driving!" That's not professional and definitely not the behavior of someone who's been urgently driving cars back to the service center from the shop.
I did get a very nice apology from the woman running the cashier desk about the wait, and I sympathized with her situation. It's clear that while the official closing hours are 6 PM, the place stops functioning at 5 PM, yet Autobahn Motors still encourages customers to pick up their cars only to wait for an hour and she's left to deal with the consequences of that.
Overall, I've seen service here deteriorate significantly over my three visits during the last year. I had a fantastic wheel alignment experience w/ Reed, had a slow and non-communicative experience for my Service A, and then was left hanging for an hour well after closing hours yesterday after a basic oil change. I know I'm going to have to likely drive much further to San Jose to find a suitable service center for my Sprinter, but it's worth it.
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Previous review (from May 2019)
Good:
The work on the vehicle (20K service on a Sprinter van) seems solid.
Needs improvement:
- It took 50 minutes upon bringing my vehicle in to get it checked in (Check-in time 8 AM, I left at 8:50 AM). Any other dealership I've taken a vehicle to has me in and out in 15 minutes.
- The communication about when my vehicle should be ready wasn't clear. I had the expectation it would be done the same day, as was stated on my invoice. I texted my service advisor at 2 PM the same day so I could plan the rest of my day and didn't get a response. I had to call the next morning for an update again.
- I wanted to purchase a quart of 5W-30 oil from the parts department and it took 25 minutes to retrieve it. Thank you to Alex from the parts department who personally drove to the warehouse where the oil was kept to get it for me.