Until yesterday I was looking forward to delivery of the new Jazz this Saturday. Until yesterday I would have recommended my local Honda dealer to anyone. Then I got the call......
Basically the ordered car has simply disappeared and they can't now get me the car until January "at best". Another colour "maybe in December". No "sorry we screwed up", no "what can we do to sort this out?" just a blind assumption that I would accept the situation.
Honda customer services simply not interested, dealer principal similarly disinterested.
At a guess someone else wanted the car and there was more profit in that deal, or am I just being cynical?
Order cancelled, deposit returned, Honda struck from companies I'll do business with.
I think someone brighter than me once said it takes a lifetime to keep a customer and a second to lose one. Probably doesn't mean a thing to my local dealer or the Honda ivory tower.
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And given the current economic climate, it seems a little silly. Assuming that cars are not selling quickly, why did they not simply offer you a long term loan until your's arrives? How odd.
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I find that staggering.
I find it hard to believe that they are swamped for orders in the current climate.
Have you considered another Honda dealer or someone like carfile or drivethedeal?
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Can't believe this given the number of cars on dealer forecourts and various compounds around the country - had you asked for an unusual specification?
Edited by PhilW on 13/11/2008 at 21:24
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Like others I'm mystified. I'm collecting my new 'old shape' Jazz CVT tomorrow from local dealer, so won't count chickens but they've been OK till now, however as said above, Carfile and Drive the Deal are not to be dismissed. I spoke to both and both were very helpful (as you would hope) and both did their best to pursue the deal and I would have been confident with either. Both offered good prices too and both have good reputations.....Carfile have been going for years and their response to me was excellent and likewise DTD. It just happened that local dealer was seemingly willing to give away as much as they felt they could bear, which was good enough for me, given perceived advantages of local service/goodwill etc.....(hopefully). If the CVT box does give trouble in the future I would sooner have dealt with local dealer than one some distance away. Anyone would express surprise and regret at the treatment you seem to have received and would do as you have done.
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New shape Jazz come by boat from Japan. If there are no more of the colour and spec Buster Cambelt ordered on the boat then that's why he has to wait for the next boat. It's not a situation that can be instantly rectified when a mistake has been made.
When they start building New Jazz at Swindon next summer, then it should be possible to correct mistakes more quickly.
If he ordered an I-Shift, then delivery of them is all delayed while Honda tries to get the model recertificated under 121g/km as originally promised.
HJ
Edited by Honestjohn on 14/11/2008 at 07:12
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Trouble is if you go out and buy something else you will regret it and wished you had been more patient and waited.
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The attitude is surprising - might they be going bust & so not care too much? (the dealer that is, not Honda)
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Weren't Honda claiming that the delay in launching the Jazz was to ensure that they had sufficient stock in the UK to cater for all demand - and that was prior to the credit crunch happening?
I would guess the boat bringing the Jazzes over was somewhere on the high seas when the global economy went into meltdown a few weeks back.
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New shape Jazz come by boat from Japan
Does this really mean 'by boat from China?'
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It probably got HiJacked by somalian pirates, and is now running around as a mogadishu taxi.
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According to Honda, new shape is only built in Japan and Thailand. Old shape came from Gaungzao (probably mis-spelled).
HJ
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I drove one yesterday: it was made in Japan. VIN starts JHM. Was loan car during service: 1.2 engine. Sluggish when baulked on a steep hill, but it was less than 200 miles on the clock. Would have to try the 1,4 with air con etc before making any comment other than it seems pretty good for such a small footprint, and smoother than the older engine!
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That is disgusting treatment from Honda - and I used to be a big fan.
I say Honda because the dealer is nothing more than the Honda representative. I have said before it is a Honda sign above the door.
Isn't there something about entering into a contract with this deal ?
I'm sure that they would not be so quick to return your deposit if you suddenly decided to cancel. Dealerships like this deserve to go out of business and hopefully they will - based on how they treat customers.
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Might make an interesting story for one of the daily tabloids.
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Might make an interesting story for one of the daily tabloids.
Customer orders car, car doesent arrive, customer gets upset.
Err wont quite take column inches away from "council allows child to be battered to death again"
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...and back to motoring, thanks.
Surprised to hear this tale - in my experience Honda are normally brilliant at customer service. I guess even salespeople are allowed an off day once in a while, shame it's tainted Buster's experience though.
What will you go for now? January's not that far away really in the grand scheme of things if a Jazz is what you really wanted.
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Just to clarify, it was a standard spec EX with Premium pack and it was selected direct from the Honda system with a "deliver to dealer" date of 12th November.
Allegedly it the disappeared from Honda's delivery system.
No one thought to tell me until 11th November.
The Jazz is a good car but not that good and I won't deal with companies that treat me badly. It's called customer sovereignty and Honda have lost a customer.
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Out of interest, if they'd been apologetic on the phone, would you have waited until January for the next one?
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Possibly, one of my tests of a good company is how they deal with complaints.
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Our dealer messed up delivery (handover) on our current Jazz. They forgot to order the side bumpers etc and only realised on the day we were to collect so I taken wifey to work and she was expecting to be collected later in the day to get her new car.
The dealer seemed mortified that this has happened and I was given the first service free - a useful saving at Honda prices.
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Wasn't there a similar thread about another Japanese car (Daihatsu?) some time back where it had gone even further in the sense that there was a plate assigned and the "owner" had obtained insurance only to find the car was still on the boat in the middle of the ocean?
Seems odd in this data proficient age that something as obvious as when a boat gets here is missed out when computing a delivery date.
BTW. It points to the absurdity of the VED bands when Honda can "tweak" their i-shift to get it into the next lower band. Too many bands set at (as far as I can tell) arbitrary limits.
Edited by Optimist on 14/11/2008 at 23:01
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BTW. It points to the absurdity of the VED bands when Honda can "tweak" their i-shift to get it into the next lower band. Too many bands set at (as far as I can tell) arbitrary limits.
Banding inevitably provides opportunities for some boundaries to be crossed by tweaks. The smaller the bands, the less the gain from small tweaks; with big bands, those cars which could be tweaked into a lower band would benefit even more.
The fairest system would be to be to dispense with bands and have some formula to calculate VED from any given CO2 rating, but that would be too obscure for people to easily understand.
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BTW, this was a "launch" car, ordered on launch day from cars that were allegedly in the country.
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Buster, someone made a mistake, but how were they going to rectify it? Run a special Jazz off to your specification on the production line, load it on a 747 and fly it to you? I'm aftraid they wouldn't do that. They made you wait for the next boat load.
HJ
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I thought the problem here was that no apology was offered and it was just an assumption that the dealer can think he is correct and the fact we messed you about does not matter because your privileged to be dealing with us and getting a Jazz - type of attitude.
My take on the OP was that if the dealer had apologised, honoured the deal for a January delivery and threw in some free mats or something the OP would have been ok with this.
He was more concerned with the dealer attitude that it did not matter to them that they messed a customer about. I did not think he was expecting any special service, just a fair apology and we will honour the deal as soon as we now can. If a dealer treated me the same way I would be concerned for any future dealings with them at service time etc.
(It would not be the first time I was wrong though).
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Yep spot on, and the fact that they were willing to risk the 4 or 5 new cars a year that I buy for my company makes them..... (fill in the blanks).
I quite understand HJ's point that they screwed up and there was no way to get me a car but it was the WAY they screwed up.
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Had s similar experience with Audi back in 04 - waited 3 months for car built to order, and on the day of collection dealer phones me up to tell me he had just gone out to put the tax disc in to relise it had the wrong interior........ To be fair they put their hands up and took full responsibility - explained to me what had gone wrong and asked me to come in and see the car. Sales manager was most embarased over it and gave me three options of return of deposit, order new car to correct spec, or deal over the car there (already registered in my name). We came to an agreement (more money off and some extras thrown in GAP, superguard etc).
They way they handled the situation is likely to mean that next time I am in the market for another Audi I will go back as I have done for servicing
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