Fresno Lexus

Fresno Lexus delivered poor customer service: Lexus Corp. Reference Number 120128-000144

This letter is to recount the events as they happened at the Fresno Lexus Dealership on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 10:30am located at 777 West Palmdon Drive, Fresno, CA, 93722

On Sunday January 22, 2012 the car would not start after stopping for a few minutes at a store. It was determined that the car’s battery was defective and would no longer hold a charge. The Fresno Lexus parts department is closed on Sundays so I made the decision to replace the battery so that my wife and I would no longer be stranded. The car has been running for a week now with a new aftermarket battery without any problems. The 84 month Lexus battery (part number 00544MF240575) was replaced in June of 2009. My wife and I went to the Fresno Lexus dealership for the battery under warranty to be pro-rated and have that difference credited back to me to offset the cost of the new battery. I was met by Jacqueline and explained to her the situation. She said that she did not know what to do and that she had never faced this issue before and went to get help from a co-worker named Dave. I again explained the situation to Dave and he came back with a story to liken my situation to a thief who stole new Ford car parts out of the back of a truck and tried to take them back to a Dealership for money. I said “I’m standing in a Lexus Dealership with a failed Lexus part that is still covered under warranty, what solution do you have available to me?” He ordered me to go to the Service Department because he could not help me. Dave said that without an invoice I cannot prove that I paid for the part. I told him that I was not going to go to the Service Department and that he should go and resolve this issue on my behalf between the Parts and the Service Department while I waited at the front parts counter. A Service Consultant just happened to visit the cashier that we were standing next to and for the third time I explained the issue all over again and I requested that he use the Vehicle ID (VIN) number to pull the service history on the vehicle in question. The Service Consultant came back with the printed information validating my story as I had already explained three times.

Now we had the paper trail that Dave was so insistent on having and at this point I believed that the problem was going to be quickly resolved but, Dave disappeared... Jacqueline then came out and told me that there was “another” problem. She lacked the authority and that “nobody” at the Fresno Lexus Dealership on the weekend has the authority to issue any credit for defective parts. I asked her why is it that as a Lexus customer that I have to resolve things that Lexus ought to be resolving? She said that this was a new kind of problem that she had not faced before. I then asked her Why did Dave liken my situation to a thief stealing parts and taking them to a Ford dealership asking for money? I told Jacqueline that I don’t need the money and that I’m looking for a solution

with a failed Lexus part covered under warranty that I had no option but to replace right away. She said that she would have David (parts manager) contact me on Monday. I told her that Lexus is known for being number one in customer satisfaction, so why does Dave want to compare me to a thief standing in a Ford Dealership with stolen parts? She said that he was a really nice guy and that I was

being intimidating. I was likened to an “intimidating thief” at Fresno Lexus because of a failed Lexus part still covered under warranty for a customer pay item. My dignity and my integrity were called into question and I was thoroughly insulted, in front of my wife no less, by the behavior of the parts staff at Fresno Lexus. This dealership needs to understand why it has become necessary to widely share my experience with their poor customer service.