this is a bit of a side note but i had service experiences twice with two different Porsche dealerships - and both have been horrible. The only worse experience i can think of was at Mitsubishi. (BMW service overall is miles better than Porsche.) the last time i was in for service the guy spent about 2 minutes explaining to me how many different possible reasons and things the warranty does not cover and how i will have to pay for the diagnosis if the they find out that the faulty item is not covered under warranty. I was like, dude, “you have not even looked at the car yet, why are you telling me all this?”

After finally pulling up the record of the car and looking at it, he went on to tell me that because the battery was discharged at some point in the past, that may have screwed up the computer on the car and if that is the case, none of this is being covered under warranty. I proceeded to ask "well, isn't the battery covered under warranty?" And he tells me "not unless you drive the car 33 miles a day or 1000 mi. per month." And here comes the kicker, (which totally floored me) he followed the last sentence by, "but if you would have bought the car new, the salesman would have explained this to you."

Like WTF???? I am somehow a lesser being for not buying my car new???? I never buy new cars. It is just my philosophy in car ownership. This isn’t BMW where the service is prepaid and I would be stupid to go some place else. This is Porsche and I choose to go service the car there. In my opinion, I should have my ballz licked for taking a $100k car in for service at the dealership as opposed to getting my ballz smashed.

I am actually seriously reconsidering purchasing a Boxster s because of these experiences. Also, one of the big reasons I sold my essentially brand new Eclipse was because of the service experience I had with them.

 

i am with you on this one - ; why would you want to turn away service?

 

I would buy another GT3-RS and do donuts in their parking lot.

 

haha, now that would be !

 

IMHO this is why there is a growing, and I appreciated it, independent market out there, I haven't been to a dealer since my last bad experience. I have after market warranty that doesn't care where the car is serviced for warranty items, liked the cracked coolant tank. In the long run they benefited as well since the cost was less then the dealer.

 

you ahve a better chace of finding a virgin than a gt3rs just by walking into a dealership without a markup.

 

CNC I will say that your experience is not the norm with Carlsen. I'm not sure if you just got one bad apple so to speak, which is a shame because most of the guys that work there that I know personally are really good people.

 

i agree. i got my cayenne S from there 2.

 

Didn't read the whole thing so someone may have already suggested this, but contact Peter S. (President of PCNA) here: pschwarzenbauer@porschecars.com
I have emailed him and he has always responded and done his best to help!!
Evan

 

This is it in a nutshell.

The dealer should've been more courteous and straightforward, but business is business. When talking about loyalty, remember that you went elsewhere for both sides of the GT3 non-RS deal.

 

Racer, to me, that's horrible business practice. First of all, why did they go to another dealership and buy a boat that they could have bought from you? To save a few grand? Well, I would also. If you are an agent for Sea Ray (or in the case of this dealership, Porsche) then I'm sure if you offered the same deal to your customer, they wouldn't have gone elsewhere, or maybe just maybe you didn't have exactly what they were looking for and they were FORCED to go elsewhere in order to get what they want. Say I want a red car with Navigation but you don't have a red car w/Nav, should I buy the blue one without Navigation simply to make YOU happy? I am the one who has to live with the car daily. Now for you to hold the grudge against me by refusing to service my car because I went elsewhere to get something that you couldn't provide for me seems pretty unfair on your part. Plus, this is business and rather than hold a grudge and cutting me off as a customer, wouldn't it make a bit more sense to provide me with such great service that I will always look to you first to provide me with the car that I want. So obviously I'm going back and forth between the car/boat analogy but why get pissed over a few grand and prevent yourself from future sales which should amount to more than just "a few grand" simply because I bought something that you couldn't provide. Maybe my next purchase is a huge order item with all the extras which is you really make your money on. A customer can go anywhere that sells the product you provide and has many options, it's very difficult for a business to drum up a loyal customer who will come back time and again for high dollar purchases, so maybe you "missed the boat" (Always wanted to use that pun) this time, but when the customer is in for a service visit, you tell them to please give you the opportunity to meet or beat anyone elses price before making a purchase in the future since you have a good repore. Not to mention, if you ONLY service boats that are bought through your dealership, then that's bad business practice and you'll find your service dept. operating in the red in a very short time. See my point? It's a simple "don't cut off your nose to spite your face" situation.

 

Is that how the survey works. I know my salesman at any dealership is always concerned about the damn survey. One dealer even had the salesman deliver the survey to my office. I am not trying to be negative in any way.

Aloha

Byron

 

haha, yeah, the surveys get these guys very excited. i was going to one bmw dealer for years and over my last year of experience there, they could not fix anything right. so i finally stopped giving them 5's on everything and gave them like 3's (which was still pretty good for the job they did).

a week later my SA calls me and practically yells at me for not giving him a five. i explained to him that they have not been able to service and fix my cars properly for a long time and i finally gave them their fair rating. he went off on my some more and as a result, i never went back.

i guess in his mind he probably did the right thing. but he failed to realize that now another SA at a different dealership (which was able to correct all the problems on my cars that the fist could not) is enjoying my business for over a year. As I am a very loyal customer, if he would have approached the situation properly, he would probably still have me as a customer. But because he felt that it was somehow my fault that his tech's could not fix the car, he no longer gets to see me.

 

Service biz, yes, but warranty work where you lose money for a boat sold at a dealership that won't pay for good help or deliver vessels that have been rigged properly and tested is a bad and expensive idea. Don't you think it makes good business sense to put your own customers first. Also, why should we have had to clean up someone elses mistakes. Just trying to make a point about the value of service. We had the highest customer satisfaction index in the country for a number of years. We did it by caring and having the best people on our payroll. That's why in some cases I couldn't match a price, my overhead was higher. You have to pay for the service. We took fantastic care of OUR customers and offered very competative prices. They loved us and were very saddened when we sold to a public company. If someone choses to save 1-2%, hell even 5%, by going to a dealer they know won't (or can't) take care of them then that should be factored into their decision. Case in point, I buy my Porsche stuff from my service guys at GTPerformance or Motomodz. I know I can go on the net and save a few bucks but I am loyal to the people that take care of me. These guys are great and deserve that loyalty.

My point is that its not all about the lowest cost. Best value and lowest cost rarely go hand in hand.

ScottKelly, what line of work are you in?

 

I bought a Rover from one dealer and had it serviced closer to where I work. They were so good to me that when I went shopping for a DB9 I decided to buy from them because of the good past experiences.

I am still dealing with the same service writer I worked with in 98. This builds a trusted relationship which makes the dealer money in the long run.

A dealer who treats a potential customer badly will wonder why another dealer has all the business when things get a little tight. Service always pays dividends in the long run. Treat people fairly and equally and you will never be lacking for paying customers.