About 2 months ago we purchased a certified used 2009 Suburban LTZ with 23,000 miles. We were really looking for a 2011-12 but just fell in love with this one and it had less miles than most of the 11-12 we were looking at. The sales transaction was one of the better experiences we have had. When we bought the truck the interior door handles (both fronts) had the very sharp flaking chrome and the Dealer said they would fix them. After several weeks and many attempts to get the handles replaced. This past weekend we were able to get it to them early Friday evening so they could work on it Saturday. In the mean time (last week) the pass side rear exterior door handle broke. The dealership did not know if they had the parts to fix it so I had to call the parts department to find out if they had the parts. Then I had to call the service department back and inform them that their parts department did have the parts, and that I wanted this work done under the 2 year bumper to bumper that the “certified used” comes with from GM plus we had purchased the extended 100000 mile warranty in case the AFM problem occurs. So Saturday morning I get a phone call from the service department saying that they will only cover the driver’s door handle, the other two handles would have to be warranty work but they have a hard time finding out if this is covered under warranty on Saturdays so they will not perform the work. I told him that this should be covered under the bumper to bumper and asked why he did not look into the warranty issue earlier that week when I made the appointment to get the work done. He simply said that there was nothing he could do. So we just picked up the Suburban and we will never go back there again. I should have known there was going to be problems when we took it in to get the window tint and they were supposed to do the door handles then but they could not figure out how to do the door handles and the window tint at the same time and we could only get the tint done and we would have to bring it back for the handles. What really gets me is that this dealership is 35 miles away and we have to pass 4 Chevy dealerships on our way there. Plus this dealer kept saying we need to bring it to them because if we take it to another dealer they will give us issues about the warranty were as they will just fix it. I am just curious is this a dealer specific issue or is this a GM thing. I have never dealt with this dealership before and I have never had this many issues although, I would always use a good friend of mine that is the service manager at another dealership but he just moved to another dealer about 100 miles away. I am running out of dealerships that I will use my list is any Red Mccombs, any Ancira, Freedom Chevrolet, and now Gunn but it is only because of service the sales was top notch.

Sorry for the rant

 

You might want to check out Ebay, buy your own handles and install them yourself... sometimes there are things that if you can take care of it yourself, your just better off doing it that way.... no BS politics from the dealer...
Or buy them and see if they will install them at no cost...

 

You can either stick w/ this dealer and make his life hell or go find another dealer that values customer service. Believe me, they're out there. Just have to find them.

As an example, when I pointed out that when one of my 3rd row seats was folded, the seat belt buckle managed to stay stuck out and poke itself thru the vinyl on the seat cushion. I didn't expect them to do anything as I was just interested in any ideas they might have about repair. They replaced the vinyl on the cushion under the factory warranty (which expired in three days) w/o me even asking.

 

What do you still need done? I'd stick it out with the purchasing dealer as long as you can stand it. Do not **** off the service manager, maybe even buy some touch up paint or something from them, just to show your goodwill, so they can return the favor. It's easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar.

 

Welcome to GM build quality. I'll sell you my 09 Tahoe!

 

well I am going to try the dealership that's about 13 miles from me, "a country dealership" I plan on giving them all the information let them know that I am aware that these are common issues and that I have done the research on these issues, then let them treat me how they think they should.
I would like to just get the billet exterior handles so I never have to mess with this again, wish I could find billet interior handles too.

Nope, not sticking with them, I gave them lots of chances, we have been trying to get the door handles done for almost 2 months and most of the time I have to do their job for them. More than one time I have had to call the parts department to find out if they have the parts. Not really customer service.

We only need the passanger front interior door handle and the pass rear exterior door handle. I am not the kind of person to **** anyone off I have an "S" type personallity (people pleaser). I just simply told them what I thought should be covered and, that I was dissapointed that they would not perform the work after all we had to go through to get this done. There is alot of other things that have led up to this. These are very simple little things that I could easily do my self, but they were really selling us on how great their service department is. I didn't see it. I will simply find another dealership to give my money to.


Sorry I have heard/read about the issues you have had with your hoe.

But, I really don't have any issues with the build quality, these little common problems (besides the AFM oil burning issue) are very minor to me. the things I hate are the common problems like my Ford F250 (just google 6.0l diesel) that I had a $14,000 estimate to fix the engine, in a $60,000 truck but I fixed that problem for good. Every auto maker has issues, I have owned Nissan, Subaru, Ford, Chevy, and Pontiac. I have had about the same experiance with each maker, and the worst car out of all was the Subaru but I think that was an exeption, I still think Subaru makes a good car.

 

Kudos to you Jokob you are very correct that all makers have their issues but it does boil down to how they work with, not just treat the customer...
I do believe that if you can offer them some paid services i.e. oil changes, tire rotations yada, yada, it should be rewarded with some customer appreciation...
( that's my hope, as I have had my dealer do all my servicing )
but knock on wood, zero unresolved mechanical issues and I only suffer the peeling steering wheel...and she is about to be 6 years old

 

Yes all I ask "is that they work with me a little bit." I understand they are just doing their job, and I would never want anyone to do anything that would get them in trouble. I have noticed that bad sevice usually stems from company policies, and/or poor training.
They make it really hard to give them paid services, however. They gave us free oil changes for 2 years and it has a 2 year bumper to bumper. Service on a new car is not about making money while the car is in warranty it is making a long term relationship and repeat customer for the out of warranty stuff, they have to compete with indipendant garages as well as other dealers. The only thing it could use now is tires, with only 23000 miles (on 4 year old Bridgestones) they have lots of tread but they have a fair amount of dry rot. I like to use a tire shop in New Braunfels for my tires been using them for years and they treat me well, So I will not use the dealer for tires. I have had very good luck with Hankooks so I will probably go that route... never had luck with bridgestone/firestones.

 

i use tirerack.com for all my tires. come right to my house, then i have a place put them on.

SO much cheaper, and SO many more choices than any local place.

 

Just an update...

I called the dealership that is near my house to see what they could do.
They looked up my VIN and said I still have the bumper to bumper certified used warranty and that this should all be covered. He was aware of these common problems and he said they have had several in before to get these fixed. Then I asked if I could drop the burb off Friday night so they could preform the work on Saturdy. He informed me that "only the lube express was open Saturdays" but to make things easier on us, we could drop it off during the week and he would give us a loaner to use for the day.

Now that is what I call service. We are going to set something up for next week I will give an update on how everything turns out.