May 11th 3rd Post - An open offer of Resolution to Rosenthal
So I've finally cleaned up the site a bit, let me know if you like this layout better, I know I do, much easier on the eyes.
From all of their broken communication, I've gathered they are under the belief that I am attempting to extort them, which I am not. All along I've been asking them to resolve this, and to that, their only response is for me to come back.
What do I want to accomplish with RosenthalSucks.com? I would like to offer Rosenthal
this;
To help insure that your dealership and its employees take another look at their
practices when dealing with customers, and to most importantly avoid another person
ever having to go through an ordeal like mine, I invite Rosenthal Land Rover and
Jaguar to send Respect Thy Customer
100 POSITIVE new customer experiences. Not only will that have a positive and constructive
outcome, in the end I believe it will help to improve Rosenthal's bottom line.
On another note, I would like to clarify a couple of things. Out of the numerous comments I have received, 2 particular threads emerge.
1. Why did you take all of your family to the dealership, there was no need for them to be there?
During the week it is impossible for my wife or I to drop the vehicle off, that is why I had scheduled it for Saturday morning, although that particular Saturday, my family and I had an event to attend in Maryland, hence the reason I contacted early in the week and schedule to drop off and pick-up my rental, all in 5 minutes as I was wrongly promised by the young lady that confirmed the appointment.
2. Just because someone is pierced, does not mean they arent a good mechanic/individual!
Let me preface my response with this: When I was a teenager I held many odd jobs, including restaurants, telephone sales, and car dealerships. Like I mentioned in my letter, I was in a punk rock band for several years, and I was the apitimy of extreme. I had a nose, brow, nipple, and yes, a Prince Albert piercing (For those who dont know what it is, think about it real hard, or just google it). At all of these jobs, not only was I given flack about it, but I was always FORCED to either remove or hide my expressive punctures.
In no way shape or form did the young "pierced" man make my "Rosenthal Experience" (Sounds like a new wave seventies band, no?) any worse or less. My daughter and niece, who mind you are a little punky, they do listen to Green Day, where actually surprised and uncomfortable. My only point really was this: It is my belief that certain business must maintain a certain level of class, especially if they intent to charge a premium price, which is delivered by their employees attitudes and apearance. It was not the piercings that made me comment, it was the way he appeared to be extremely hungover. He honestly looked ill, which made his appearance all the more noticible.
April 30th - Site Inception Original Letter
Original Letter
This is my experience at Rosenthal Land Rover
I have owned many vehicles over the past 15 years, some better than others, but one brand that I will always remember is Land Rover. Ever since I was a child I knew of Land Rover and their rugged durable vehicles. My uncle’s Land Rover is one of the first I remember, the Big Green Machine, as we kids had dubbed it. I actually recall the day that the odometer rolled over 1 million kilometers, insane! That truck just kept on rolling, no if and or buts about it.
Two years ago my wife and I came across a great deal to purchase a Land Rover of our very own, a 2002 Discovery. Seeing as we have 4 kids, the Land Rover was an excellent choice, not only would it fit all of us comfortably, it is also extremely safe. Over the past 2 years this vehicle has served our family wonderfully, never missing a beat, always there for us when we needed it.
Well, over the past couple of years, we have put some miles on our Rover, so it came time to give her a little TLC. In my experience, with vehicles such as the Land Rover, it is good practice to take them only to certified dealership mechanics, I have more trust in their experience working with the brands they sell, as well has having access to all resources directly from the manufacturer.
So it was time to take "Molly" (our family’s' pet name for our Rover) for service. She sounded like she needed new belts, some new wiper blades, and a good tune up. So I cracked open the Internet, found the nearest dealership, Rosenthal Land Rover, found their online appointment website, and scheduled a Saturday visit. Seeing as I am quite busy running several Internet companies during the week, Saturday would be the only time we would have to drop her off. I expected that the service might take longer than Saturday alone, so I selected the option to rent a vehicle over the weekend while good 'ole Molly was getting some love.
On Friday, the day before my appointment, I received a call from a young lady concerning my appointment; she confirmed the service that I had requested and assured me that there would be a vehicle for rental available for me through Enterprise. I explained to her that I would be in a hurry and that I would need a vehicle large enough to hold all of my kids. She assured me that dropping off the vehicle and picking up the rental would take no more than 5 minutes. I wasn’t sure that I had heard her right.
"5 minutes?!?" I quipped, "I'm sure it'll take longer than that, no?”
"No", she explained, "We'll have you in and out of here quite quickly."
We confirmed the time; she stated that I would be expected anytime between 9am and 11am. "I'll be there by 9:30" I confirmed.
With that we concluded our conversation, and I felt comfortable that all would go well the following day, leaving no room for delays for our family get together.
The following morning, I woke up earlier than usual for a Saturday morning, it takes much longer than you would think to get 4 kids up and ready that early on a Saturday morning. Just to give you an idea of the effort involved in getting a 6 month old baby, car seat and accessories, 4 year old girl + car seat and 2 eleven year old girls (That’s work enough!).
At around 9:15 we arrived to Rosenthal Land Rover and Jaguar, a sight to behold, from what I gathered they were undergoing some renovation, not like they bothered to place any signs to help guide new customers as to where to go. What appeared to be the service bay was cluttered with several vehicles in no particular order, one newer Jaguar, was being serviced by a half shaven, haphazard young man who donned more piercings than I have fingers and toes.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I was actually in a Punk Rock band for several years, and I do have some friends who have pierced themselves one too many times, but when I think of Jaguar and Land Rover, I think luxury, quality, class, right? Definitely not this difficult to look at young man who appeared like he just left an all night bender and not at all happy to be working on a Saturday morning. For goodness sake, my eleven year olds even asked if we were in the right place.
Not knowing where to pull up, I decided to take the place behind the Jaguar, which happened to be in front of the show room entrance. From there I could see a disorderly conjunction of computers on what seemed to be a curved countertop with a pleated skirt and little paper signs that said Service. I asked my wife and kids to wait "I should only be a few minutes, they are expecting me."
So in I walked into this mad house of noise and people running around like headless chickens. Making my way to the disheveled service counter I was greeted by a service advisor with a blunt "Yes?"
Now let me tell you, right off the bat, I was already a little off balance, I had built an expectation of the dealership based on my previous experiences at other "Luxury" dealerships. In the past I owned both a BMW and a Mercedes Benz, and I must say, the service at a "Luxury" dealer, is far above the quality of your run of the mill new car dealership. In my years as a consumer I have developed a taste for the finer things in life, craftsmanship and quality, I don’t mind spending the extra money that dealership charge, because I know they know the vehicle and they will make my experience as pleasant as possible.
So when I was greeted so rudely (I get better reception from McDonald's employees), I was honestly in shock. When I stated my name and that I had an appointment, he blankly stated "You're late". Ok, I thought to myself, it's early on a Saturday morning, he probably had to cover for someone else who called in, lets give this guy the benefit of the doubt. Wrong, this guys was just plain rude, not only was he not paying attention to anything I had to say, (He insisted on asking me what service I needed today, didn't they already have this information, I did make an appointment?) he continued to push on me a $1200 60,000 mile service, after I had repeated that my vehicle only had 54,000 miles, I won't be needing that quite yet. At this point I had already been in this ever growing bad dream for over 15 minutes (So much for the promise of timeliness).
The guy hands me some paperwork and begins to make his way out to my car, he opens the door, to the surprise of my family, without so much as muttering a "Hello" he proceeds to take down the VIN number and place a numbered tag on the keychain. He walks back to his "pit" types angrily into his terminal and then hands me paperwork to sign, the name on the paperwork was the dealership I purchased my Land Rover from. I pointed this out to Mr. Grumpy, to which he gruffly replied "We'll change that next time you come in."
Now I represent a dealership I have nothing to do with other than I purchased a vehicle from them a couple of years back?
By now I was done with this guy, I just wanted to get the hell out of this place and fast, plus I was sure my wife and kids were getting antsy, I promised them this would be quick.
After handing me my copy and stating that I would be contacted when they were done, he pretended to ignore, as if I was already gone.
"Excuse me? My rental vehicle, where is it?" I hesitated.
"Go over there, I'm not Enterprise" wagging his finger towards the showroom entrance.
Geez, I thought, don’t let me bother you anymore buddy. With that, I walked over to Molly and asked my wife to come with me to pick out the rental, she like I was under the impression this had already been taken care of but she agreed to accompany me. Locking the kids in the car with the A/C and radio going, we proceeded to search for the Enterprise office; not having a clue other than it was not in the showroom.
Finally after some walking around, and without the help of several employees, who pretended not to hear us when we asked where we could find the Enterprise office, we found a lonely desk at the end of what appeared to be a long closet, with an Enterprise sign on it. The desk was unmanned, so seeing a TV in the room, we decided that someone must have been getting our vehicle; we'll just sit over here and wait till they get back.
About five minutes into our wait, an elderly man, who so vividly reminded me of the KFC Colonel, storms into this little area yelling “Whose gold disco is that? Is that your gold disco?” He directed at us.
“Gold disco?” I questioned, Aren’t disco balls made of glass?
“Gold Discovery, is it yours?” A little louder this time, he was obviously frustrated with my lack of Land Rover lingo, sorry buddy, I only speak English and Spanish.
“Yes, we are waiting for a rental” I replied.
“Well you’ve got to get it the hell out of the way, we’ve got to move this LR3 we just sold!” he snapped
My wife, noticing my tension building, offered to move the car, while I continued to wait for our Enterprise rep. She returned a few minutes later, stating that the kids were very ready to leave, I could not blame them, so was I.
After ten minutes or so, we began to wonder what the delay was, how long does it take to get a car? I started looking around and found someone in parts at their desk; I asked "Could someone page Enterprise for me? My wife and I have been waiting for sometime now."
The employee, without acknowledgement, picked up the phone and paged Enterprise in a dull monotonous tone.
I made my way back over to my wife "okay honey, someone should be here any second."
A minute or two later this loud man stormed into our little closet and angrily asked "Who the hell paged Enterprise?"
"Um, I did, I'm waiting for a rental" I said in shock.
"Enterprise is closed today, it's Saturday, and they are not here!" he yelled at me.
What am I, a bad kid who just broke his sister’s toy? I could not believe the manner in which this guy was talking to both me and my wife.
"Well I was told I would have a vehicle waiting for me, I made an appointment" I replied, I'm sure at this point my stress was beginning to show.
"What’s your name?" he grated.
I told him and he rushed off, like he just remembered that he left the stove on.
Again, we waited for several minutes until the angry man returned.
“This is an unusual situation, there is no one here from Enterprise on Saturdays” he fired at me.
Unusual I thought? How often does someone need a rental when they drop of their only transportation to get serviced, what was I thinking?
“There is an office open at the Honda dealership over there” pointing to a building on the other side of a sea of cars.
“Well, I’ve got my wife and all of my kids, including a baby and two car seats”
“So?” He said.
What? At this point I had gathered this angry blue tie guy was a manager, how he made it to this position was beyond me, but after this careless, rude, and unsympathetic remark, I was done. 100% fed up with this place, the people, and the whole experience altogether. I could not believe that this dealership expected me to put up with and actually pay them my hard earn money to be treated in such manner.
As he walked away, I shouted to him “Never mind, I’m done! I’m leaving.”
He made a U turn and began to follow me out to my car.
“Are you leaving?” he asked quizzically.
I turned to him and told him how appalled I was at this level of service, at the fact that this dealership had put in me in such a foul mood, how upset and disgusted I was, and how stressed I had become. I could feel my ulcers beginning to flare and heartburn rushing on as I explained to him how disgusted I was.
To this he simply replied “Bye then.”
At this point I jumped in Molly and left the scene as quickly as possible, I was sick to the point of holding back vomit in my mouth. I did not need this stress; I gave no reason to be treated in such a way that I made me physically ill.
After a few minutes when I had calmed down somewhat, I called and asked to speak with a general manager, which after sometime on hold I was transferred to someone who attempted to transfer me to another manager. He listened to me spout off, assuring me that this is not the way his dealership is run. At no point was I offered something to compensate for my distress.
As a business owner, I have always lived by the golden rule taught to me in through example by my step-father at a very early age; “The customer is always right”. Without customers, you have no business. There have been times where I’ve made clients unhappy; Unfortunately that is a fact in business. But I know full well that if I intend to continue business with them, showing appreciation, in the form of free service or products, can drive a smile out of the customer and keep them happy. Making them feel warm and fuzzy despite the cost, is better than losing them altogether.
Needless to say I was offered nothing, except come back and we’ll prove you wrong. Great incentive, yeah, I’m on the verge of throwing up my breakfast from my first experience, excuse while I whip a Uie and rush back over there for some more torture, what am I a masochist?
During my conversation, I explained to him that I would not wish this experience on anyone and would be sure to make the events of that morning public for all to see. If I can help avoid at least one other person having to go through such ordeal, it’ll make this somewhat easier. If there only existed laws that forced businesses to deliver a certain level of service, not that all businesses have to roll out a red carpet, just ensure that their employees make it a point to treat customers as they would want to be treated, is that so much to ask?
M. Buckman
Sunday April 30th 2006
If you would like to comment or share your story with this dealership or any other for that matter (I think I’ll start an open board for customers to sound off their concerns and gripes with dealerships) please feel free to use my Contact Form
Thank you for taking the time from your day to read this, I hope it helps,
M. Buckman