Monday, August 17, 2015

First Time Customers / Honda Recall Customers :: BEWARE -- They WILL rip you off

First Time Customers / Honda Recall Customers :: BEWARE -- They WILL rip you off.
BEWARE of Lee and the manager Richard Sugarman -- they will NOT take your side EVEN if you are correct and they made the mistakes; not only that, they won't even consider that they CAN make mistakes--it's ALWAYS customer error, in their opinion.

Honda's been sending out letters to me about the recall for 2003-2004 Odyssey; something to do with their air bag valve infiltrator or something since March/April of this year, 2015. I own a 2004 Honda Odyssey and live in Reseda and naturally gave this place a call asking for the detail and whoever the (female) receptionist was, told me they would do it, and when asked if it's FREE, she said, yes it is FREE. They had to order the parts and took about a week.

August 14 the Friday, I took my minivan to the the Kolbe service center. This old guy LEE  started doing my paperwork and he showed me the usual PACKAGE X, Y, Z gets your oil change, this change, that change, this flushed, that fixed, timing belt, whatever belt, blah blah blah. He asked me if I wanted ANY of them done. I said NO, I ONLY want the FREE recall stuff done and I'll let you know LATER if I want anything done on my minivan. He said okay. I again asked him to confirm if the services were FREE and he said yes.

I was offered a Pilot courtesy vehicle and Jessica helped me out.

After few minutes, LEE gave me THREE (3) papers to SIGN. I laughed and asked, what do all these say? I DID NOT READ -- Because I saw the LOGO on their webpage that says they've in the valley since 1959 and thus they should be legit and wouldn't dare ripping people off or TRAPPING them in any way. WAS I WRONG!

Lee told me those are the 'services' they will perform on my minivan. I AM NO DAMN CAR MECHANIC -- to me that means; aka 'services' =  HONDA'S FREE RECALL PARTS replacement.

I signed.. DID NOT SEE... ANY $ (dollar sign) anywhere in the documents, nor was I pointed out to any. $900+ of SCAM -- you would think they'd mention it???

LEE  did NOT tell me ANYTHING about costing me ANY money. He did NOT mention ANYTHING about EVEN ANY ESTIMATED COST I'll be paying out of pocket WHEN I SIGNED the 3 documents .. NOT READING THEM...because he is a OLD DUDE, wearing a Hawaiian shirt..relaxed -- I THOUGHT HE WAS old and calm and MUST be STRAIGHT FORWARD. I did NOT expect such an old guy to be SOOOO DECEIVING.

***Please read on -- so you don't end up in the same TRAP as I did. ***

Saturday the 8/15/2015 -- I called at 10:52 AM. LEE told me it'd be ready by end of the day, OR maybe even an extra day; he told me Friday they were busy. I said okay. Even NOW He did NOT say, 'Oh Hey.. we are doing the timing belt change and stuff on our minivan'. NOTHING. ZIP.

> Missed call :: 12:11 PM by Lee -- Voice Message. Mohammad, please call me back and so on.
> Called Lee :: 12:32 PM -- He offered me 3 services..3 packages .. one of them for $100+, another for $200+ and another for $300+ I believe and total would be $650-ish dollar.
I said... EXPLICITLY .. like this.. "I AM ON A TIGHT BUDGET AND I WOULD LIKE TO SKIP ALL OF THESE SERVICES".
He said.. EXPLICITLY.. Like this...(sounding dissatisfied) "OKAY, WE WILL LEAVE YOUR MINIVAN AND WON'T DO ANY OF THE ADDITIONAL SERVICES."

IS THIS NOT ENOUGH PLAIN ENGLISH??? It is very much so!

> Missed call :: 3:11 PM By Lee
> Incoming call received:: 3:12 PM By LEE  -- Mohammad your minivan/vehicle is ready to be picked up. We close at 5 PM, can you make it by then. I said yes.
> Incoming call received:: 4:13 PM By LEE  -- Mohammad, can you make it today? I said, yes, I'm stuck with something and should be in your place by 4:50 PM.

He sounded SHOCKED. 4:50?? (He didn't yell, but certainly his tone changed and sounded unhappy, as if I have said something awful).


I did go there around 4:50 (maybe 4:49 or 4:51 PM). As I was unloading, he said, can you please go to the 'cashier' first and then do the rest of the unloading.

I STILL HAVE NO CLUE -- I thought, all 'sign off' process required customers to go to the 'cashier'. I handed over my Driver's license to the cashier to sign the release.

She said :: "What credit card will you be using?.. we can't swipe your Driver's License." Look at the subtle RUDENESS at this state.

I was like what?? Why do you need my CC. She said you are charged $923.xx. I said for what? She said for the 'services'. Again .. damn 'SERVICES'. She went to call Lee  and he came out raising his voice.. "BALONEY".

I told him what I wrote above. I was dumbfounded. My 2 year old was playing around in the office area. Our voices started raising. My daughter started getting scared; she started pulling me by my hands and I then picked her up.

I am NOT trying to dramatize the situation here by mentioning about my daughter. My car, money, money wealth -- all of this is MUCH inferior to me than a single 'glimpse' of my daughter. She is MUCH more valuable to me that everything I own and certainly more important than the FRAUDS at Kolbe Honda. Because of these unprofessional crooks, my daughter got scared.

MONEY.. I CAN GET BACK EASY. MY DAUGHTER'S FEAR -- I CANNOT UNDO THAT.

LEE MOSS Still trying to raise his voice more lounder than mine; I told him to get his manager and RICHARD SUGARMAN came and IMMIDIATELY blaming me that 'you signed for this'. I said, PLEASE Play back your TELEPHONE RECORDINGS. You will hear. Please play back your VIDEO RECORDINGS from YESTERDAY and you will see if he mentioned ANYTHING about the cost to me when I was signed. He said WE CAN'T DO THAT.

I said, I won't pay. RICHARD said, then we can't release your vehicle. I said, OKAY, this is how your rip of your customers. I will pay and call mY credit card right after.