I had an unbelievably horrific customer service episode earlier this week at Magnussen's Fremont Ford Mazda Service. The experience ruin my mood during the entire work week, still angers me today, and so I wish to vent. Thanks in advance for everyone's patience as this will be a very long post.

I had previously had the airbag recall done on the car a while back, but did not realize that my glovebox damper was broken until recently when I read about it on this forum. It turns out, Magnussen Mazda service had broken it during the airbag recall, so I took my car back about a month ago to have the glove box fixed. I was told that the part had to be ordered, it would be available soon, and they would call me ASAP for an appointment to have it fixed. I never received a phone call, so I called back 2 week later to check on status, and they tell me the part was never ordered in the first place! So they finally place an order for the part, and says again that they will call when the part is in. Two weeks later, after no phone calls again, I check back and was told that the part is in today, and should not take more then 30 minutes to install it. I made an appointment with Service Advisor Gary Byrne for Wednesday morning this week.

Wednesday morning at 10am, I dropped the car off at the dealership and Service Advisor Gary Byrne confirmed that the installation would take no longer than 45 minutes. I waited around in the sales room for over an hour, and checked back with the service advisor an hour later. At 11am, I was told that the technician is currently installing the part for the glove box and to check back again in half a hour. At 1130am, I come back and you will not believe what Mr. Gary Byrne told me. He told me that in order to install the damper for the glovebox, the technician will need to take apart the entire dashboard assembly, that it would take approximately another 6-8 hours of labor, and that I had to leave the car overnight since all the technicians were getting ready to go to lunch? I know from reading about this on the forum that its a relatively easy fix, should not require 6-8 hours as the service advisor is saying, so I smelled some bull **** here. At this point, I was not comfortable leaving the car there at the dealership with these guys. He asked if I would like to speak with a technician regarding the glovebox, to which I replied yes, so I could have him clarify the long 6-8 hour required labor as quoted by Gary Byrne. So at this point, Gary Byrne took off, and I thought he would come back with a service technician. What transpired next revealed the unbelievably unprofessional, inept, and incompetent staff at Magnussen's Fremont.

15 minutes later, to my horror, I see Gary Byrne speeding back in my RX8 without any service tags on the car, or any technicians. Now I was agitated and bewilder at what was going on. The service advisor gets out of my car in an irate manner, scolds at me that the keys are in the car, to leave the dealership and never come back ever again. Then he goes back into the service office, screaming and ranting at me. In disbelief, I checked inside my car, there were no service tags, and the glove box was still broken as if nothing was done at all while I waited for 2 hours.

I was extremely pissed, and had had enough of this travesty of customer service so I demanded to speak with the manager. Low and behold, Gary Byrne refused my request, while threatening me to leave the compounds or else. He then proceeded to slander me by calling security, lying, and accusing me of harassing and threatening him. I left the office, looking for a manager to do something about this mockery of customer service, while this guy Gary Byrne was following behind me, shouting and raving. Finally when I got ahold of Operations Manager Clayton King, and told him about the sham of events that had just transpired. He said he would handle and get everything straighten out.

As I was finishing complaining to Clayton King, Gary Byrne runs towards my RX-8, puts the car in nuetral, and attempts to push it out of the dealership himself! In a quick frenzy, I run towards my car, shouting "Don't Touch My Car Bitch!!!" which causes him to back away from my car. I swear if this guy did not get out of my car, I would have probably gone postal on him out of defense of my beloved RX-8. At this point I was sick and tired, had had enough of all this nonsense, and the Operations Manager Clayton King was incompetent, unhelpful, and had done nothing to resolve the matter.

I finally got in my car and took off, feeling disgusted, wasting 2.5 hours of my day in the worst customer service experience of my entire life or anyone elses for that matter. Nobody from Magnussen has yet to call and formally apologized for the absurdness of events. Clearly, the staff at Magnussen's Fremont are unbelievably unprofessional, inept, and incompetent. I love my RX-8, but this experience has caused me to think twice about purchasing another vehicle from a Mazda Dealership. The Mazda service experience at Magnussen Fremont can be best described as putrid. I am considering filing formal complaints to the BBB, and to Mazda Headquarters.

What other recourse can be done, and thanks for allowing me to vent?

 

Wow that is unbelieveable that a service mgr would act like that. Make sure you send this to Mazda North America, and a copy to the dealerships Owner.

At least they didn't damage your car.

 

Call Mazda. They will get it resolved quickly and to your satisifaction after hearing that story.

1-800-222-5500
business hours are
Monday through Friday:
8:00AM - 4:45PM (Pacific)
9:00AM - 5:45PM (Central/Eastern)

 

Give us their phone# and lots of can call and ask if that ******* service guy is still there

They deserve some return lip service.

 

I would definately take this event to higher echelons. If a manager and service rep. were as CrAZy as this, then the owner may not be of much help. But it never does hurt.

 

We should shedule a meet and drive by all the 8's just to let them know all the business they will be missing.

 

??why was he pissed that your keys were in the car??? because if they weren't he obviously couldn't have gone on that joy ride...lol

that's f-d up man.. u have some restraint.. i know if he was pushing my car off the lot in neutral...i'd have broken his wrist...no doubt...and made a big scene of it so everyone in the dealership saw him on his knees crying before i snapped it....ugh....that pisses ME off! lol..and it's not even my car..

 

Probably ruined his lunch date with some bitch in your car. This cannot be let go. You need to elevate it everywhere and be sure and tell everyone you know in that area the story. Can you write a letter to the editor of the local paper telling what transpired? In KC they have what they call problem solvers on the local news. If you have that I am sure they would be more then interested to inform the public of this. Reporters love dirt. Not sure on the legalities but I would do everything within my legal rights to get this out to the public.

 

We should... it's "almost" unbelievable what happened. We should at least schedule one day in which we all call that dealership and log a complaint to the general manager about Gary Byrne.

 

No, the service ******* was saying: "The keys are in the car. Get lost."

Thanks for the tip. I will never take my car to Magnussen's for service until the guy apologizes to you or is fired. I hope someone from Magnussen's is reading this. The funny thing is I bought my 8 there, and the buying experience was great.

I had exactly the opposite problem at Oak Tree Mazda -- the salesperson (also named Gary, hmmm) was a jerk but the service department was great. I took my 8 there for an oil change and headlight replacement. No problems whatsoever. They even offered me a free rental car when they thought the service would take an hour longer than anticipated.

 

Did anyone else receive a survey in the mail from Mazda after you bought your car and again after you took your car in for service? I think Mazda has hired a third party to evaluate customers' dealership experiences. If you get a survey, I'm sure I don't have to tell you what to do.

 

RedLine, you have to call Mazda's corporate headquarters ASAP (someone posted number above) and ALSO write an official letter and send it to the corporate headquarters, CC'ing the dicks at Fremont. I would also file an official complaint with BBB -- they WILL do something about it.

And post Gary Byrne's # so we can all give him a piece of our mind.

Sorry you went through that but don't be pissed anymore. Enjoy the 8 and don't let this dick ruin any more of your days.

 

I posted this on the other Magnussen rant thread. These are the people you need to start with at corporate
-------------------------------->
If you don't get resolution, always go straight to the top. Here's the direct number to MNAO and a few higher level contacts.

949-727-1990. It's not toll free but you'll probably get a secretary instead of automated phone hell.

VP, Sales and Field Operations Dave Zuchowski
Director, Dealer Affairs Peter Donnelly
Director, Service and Parts Weslow De La Mora
Western Regional General Manager Eric Johnston

 

Hey Redline that does not surprise me one bit I am still waiting over 6 months for them to do simple warranty fixes to my RX8 from Magnussen Fremont. They tell you it will take one day or less and they end up keeping the car over a week!

I myself already called the BBB Magnussen Fremont does not participate in that program and to my surprise neither does Mazda North America. When I called Mazda and I also sent an email all they said is that they will look into it. I have posted before here to stay the hell away from Magnussen Fremont Mazda bunch of ******* baffoons.

So far my Navigation problem I am having they told me to Call NavTech, my ripped seats Call Mazda they are just passing on the problems to me. What makes me more angry is that Mazda is unwilling to do anything about it.

If you need something done still at Magnussen Fremont Mazda talk to Gary's direct boss, Yvonne the Customer Service Manager, after I talked to her I finally got something done on my car.

ALso anyone reading this thread tell everyone to stay away from Magnussen Fremont like the plauge, most horrible customer service EVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR.


What pisses me off even more is that the only reason I bought from here is that my friend bought an Xterra and they treated him like super duper great. I was blown away and I came back as a result of that. I even was telling my friends all the time hey if you need a car I know a great place. So my dumb *** goes and buys a car from them and get the most horrible experience ever. Stupid customer service reps just don't know how many sales they lost because of the **** poor service.

 

Equis, spare yourself the aggravation and take your car to another dealer for service. You can get warranty service from any dealer. You don't have to go back to where you bought it.

 

sounds like he caught you sleeping with his wife or something... apparently theres another member with problems with fremont mazda....

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=50469&page=1

 

Are you saying that service adviser just told you to leave the facility with no reasons given?
I wonder why he got mad, that is very unprofessional.

 

Get the address and directions to the closest mazda dealer. go sit outside their office and tell people what they did to you and that they should not take their cars there and give them a copy of the directions to the other dealer.

 

damn part takes 5 minutes to install.....

 

You are better than me man--I would have swung on his b*!ch *** for pushing my car. They might have had to lock me up for giving him an old fashion 3rd Coast *** woopin.

 

When I filled out the eval on my first RX-8, I trashed the dealer (not Magnussen) on the sales process -- the car I pre-ordered and was called in to pick up wasn't there when I got there, and had to wait many hours until they found one with the features I wanted). When my car got bought back and I purchased my second car from the same dealer, they knew exactly what I wrote and appologized for it (they appologized when I finally got the first car also). It's good to see the feedback goes through to the dealers.

 

Hey everybody, my internet has been down over the weekend, but thanks for everyone's support here. I still cannot understand how dare this ******* Gary Byrne would tell me to "get lost" without any reasonable explanation. Maybe, he had some family problems? Maybe he's mentally disturbed and took his frustrations on me? Who knows, but his actions towards me as a customer is totally unacceptable, unexcusable, unprofessinal, and deemed him unfit for working in a professional customer service environment. I have already reported to the BBB, will contact and write formal letters of complaint to MNAO, and the owners at Magnussen's.

Whats worst is that the Operations Manager did not take any disciplinary actions at all, and this ******* is still over there at Magnussen's.

Service Advisor Gary Byrn - 510-360-7137

Operations Manager Clayton King - 510-376-7010

 

oh ****. I might get my friend drunk today and have some fun with that one...=)

 

If Magnussen’s Fremont Ford Mazda service would be more professional with their customers, provide better customer service, and treat every customer with respect and dignity, Mazda’s customer loyalty would be greatly enhanced. Magnussen’s Fremont Ford Mazda must realize and understand the value of each customer as even one bad service experience can affect the Mazda brand name tremendously. A substantial amount of new business can be created simply by “word of mouth” from a customer’s positive service experience. As a result of my negative customer service experience, Magnussen’s Fremont Ford Mazda is not only losing one independent single customer from this customer service misjudgment. My friends, family, colleagues and their colleagues as well will be informed, and will stay as far away as possible away from Magnussen’s Fremont Ford Mazda Nissan. Mazda North America Operations should be inclined to take action, as bad customer service is defacing the value and brand name of innovative and exciting Mazda products.