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car woes again
Nov. 11th, 2001 07:53 pmnow a break from the bad news and slight paranoia below. recently, i wrote about all of my adventures with my old Ford Escort, which died an uncertain death on my birthday, August 20th. the resulting series of events resulted in the purchase of a 2002 Saturn that i really can't afford right now, and i left my story there, supposedly finished.
except...
when we filled the car up with gas for the first time (at 221 miles,) we started noticing an odd sound, sort of like a tiny whiney puppy or a sound that a car alarm would make, several blocks away. this gradually began to become a constant sound, and it increased and decreased in volume, sometimes drowning out the radio and the freeway noise. A concerned call to saturn produced some ridicule from the service department, who seemed suprised that we would be complaining about a tiny noise. And since the noise was intermittant, they told us not to bother bringing it in until it became constant enough to "verify." Otherwise, we could just be someone attempting to abuse thier service centers.
We planned on asking about it at one of those repair tech seminars. But the next one was held on ... September 11th.
We all know what happened then. We called to find out when it was rescheduled for, and they told us that they had actually held the seminar, and that we had missed it. We would get a postcard letting us know when the next one would be (more about that in a minute.)
By this time, the noise had become more than intermittant, it was present whenever the car idled. Figuring that this was a good time to bring it in, since it certainly could be "verified" now, we made an appointment, and i took a day off of work (the job i was forced to take in order to make the payments for this car.) And i brought the car in. Several technicians came out and listened to the whiney puppy under the hood...
"huh. sure is a squeaky sound. Can we get steve over here? Steve?"
"yup"
"sounds squeaky, like a mouse."
"more like a chihuahua."
"yup sir, you got a chihuahua in there."
After this witty reparte, they decided to tell me that we should just wait until the car had about a ten thousand miles on it. maybe by then it would "go away" or "get worse." Yes, it was an ODD sound, and yes, it wasn't NORMAL, but there was no reason to believe that anything was WRONG. After discussing this with Mystery, and remembering that there was a 90 day no-questions return policy, we decided not to risk a lemon, and exchange this vehicle for another. Oddly, we could find no mention of the return policy in our paperwork, and when we confronted them, we found that they had a 60 day policy. (which is very odd, since Mystery and I BOTH received the impression that this was a 90 day return, independantly, and without corroboration, which makes me think that we were intially told that it was 90 days, in a sort of slip of the tongue.) In any case, we had gone over our days by two weeks.
They told us that we could call the corporate office to appeal, and so i began a two or three week battle with Saturn corporate. At first they would offer nothing but after some cajoling, they agreed to offer us an extension to our warranty. In the course of the discussion, Saturn corporate told me that i should not be so upset, since it was clear from the service record that our local dealer had hooked our car up to a "diagnostic computer" and that it had passed with no problems. I had to infomr them that unless ridiculing my concerns and belittling me is now a diagnostic method, that this was patently false. BUT, I would certainly be willing to have this diagnostic performed. So i set up the appointment for the next possible day, and I asked for the offer of warranty extension in writing to be faxed to us by that time.
So i once again took a day off of work, and brought the car in for a diagnostic. They then discovered something wrong, and made another appointment to bring the car in and tear it down, and set us up with a loaner.
When i arrived home, saturn had called and rescinded thier offer of the warranty, or at least held back on it, until the results of the repair were known.
This began to look like they would not offer us anything. But Mystery said that she would be fine if they would just fix the damn car.
So we brought the car in, got the loaner, and by the end of the first day, they had located and replaced the faulty part. The car runs perfectly, and we were willing to leave it at that. But then Saturn corporate called, and told us that they had heard that our car had been fixed, and that they would fax us the extended warranty anyhow, so that "thier words would not be hollow." (Saturn's customer rep's words, apparantly thier blurbs are now written by indian chiefs.)
So by and large, this problem was largely smoke and mirrors, but i am pretty dismaye4d that this trouble, which could have clearly been simply and quickly resolved with an investment of less than a week on Saturn's part, took almost three months to clear up.
except...
when we filled the car up with gas for the first time (at 221 miles,) we started noticing an odd sound, sort of like a tiny whiney puppy or a sound that a car alarm would make, several blocks away. this gradually began to become a constant sound, and it increased and decreased in volume, sometimes drowning out the radio and the freeway noise. A concerned call to saturn produced some ridicule from the service department, who seemed suprised that we would be complaining about a tiny noise. And since the noise was intermittant, they told us not to bother bringing it in until it became constant enough to "verify." Otherwise, we could just be someone attempting to abuse thier service centers.
We planned on asking about it at one of those repair tech seminars. But the next one was held on ... September 11th.
We all know what happened then. We called to find out when it was rescheduled for, and they told us that they had actually held the seminar, and that we had missed it. We would get a postcard letting us know when the next one would be (more about that in a minute.)
By this time, the noise had become more than intermittant, it was present whenever the car idled. Figuring that this was a good time to bring it in, since it certainly could be "verified" now, we made an appointment, and i took a day off of work (the job i was forced to take in order to make the payments for this car.) And i brought the car in. Several technicians came out and listened to the whiney puppy under the hood...
"huh. sure is a squeaky sound. Can we get steve over here? Steve?"
"yup"
"sounds squeaky, like a mouse."
"more like a chihuahua."
"yup sir, you got a chihuahua in there."
After this witty reparte, they decided to tell me that we should just wait until the car had about a ten thousand miles on it. maybe by then it would "go away" or "get worse." Yes, it was an ODD sound, and yes, it wasn't NORMAL, but there was no reason to believe that anything was WRONG. After discussing this with Mystery, and remembering that there was a 90 day no-questions return policy, we decided not to risk a lemon, and exchange this vehicle for another. Oddly, we could find no mention of the return policy in our paperwork, and when we confronted them, we found that they had a 60 day policy. (which is very odd, since Mystery and I BOTH received the impression that this was a 90 day return, independantly, and without corroboration, which makes me think that we were intially told that it was 90 days, in a sort of slip of the tongue.) In any case, we had gone over our days by two weeks.
They told us that we could call the corporate office to appeal, and so i began a two or three week battle with Saturn corporate. At first they would offer nothing but after some cajoling, they agreed to offer us an extension to our warranty. In the course of the discussion, Saturn corporate told me that i should not be so upset, since it was clear from the service record that our local dealer had hooked our car up to a "diagnostic computer" and that it had passed with no problems. I had to infomr them that unless ridiculing my concerns and belittling me is now a diagnostic method, that this was patently false. BUT, I would certainly be willing to have this diagnostic performed. So i set up the appointment for the next possible day, and I asked for the offer of warranty extension in writing to be faxed to us by that time.
So i once again took a day off of work, and brought the car in for a diagnostic. They then discovered something wrong, and made another appointment to bring the car in and tear it down, and set us up with a loaner.
When i arrived home, saturn had called and rescinded thier offer of the warranty, or at least held back on it, until the results of the repair were known.
This began to look like they would not offer us anything. But Mystery said that she would be fine if they would just fix the damn car.
So we brought the car in, got the loaner, and by the end of the first day, they had located and replaced the faulty part. The car runs perfectly, and we were willing to leave it at that. But then Saturn corporate called, and told us that they had heard that our car had been fixed, and that they would fax us the extended warranty anyhow, so that "thier words would not be hollow." (Saturn's customer rep's words, apparantly thier blurbs are now written by indian chiefs.)
So by and large, this problem was largely smoke and mirrors, but i am pretty dismaye4d that this trouble, which could have clearly been simply and quickly resolved with an investment of less than a week on Saturn's part, took almost three months to clear up.
