Some of you might remember the whole saga of buying my car. For those of you who don’t, basically, I had to wait for my car to arrive (which, looking back, wasn’t horribly bad, because it is in fact more efficient to have a pull system than a push system (thanks corporate 6Sigma discussion)). But I felt I had been mislead because they gave me an initial date for delivery, and when it didn’t arrive by then, they said they had initially told me it was going to come a few weeks later than that. So, I was frustrated. And I made my frustration heard. I complained to the salesperson that was in charge of my purchase, as well as the manager and anyone else that would listen!
So, when I finally got my car, they knew I wasn’t quite 100% happy with the way things worked out. And Toyota demands high customer satisfaction from all of their dealerships. And in general, it’s a good idea to keep the customer happy, especially when it comes to a rather large purchase (or potential future purchases by me or others). They said when I first drove off with my car that they’d see what they can do for me in the future to make up for it.
Well, my 5k mile maintenance was due. So, I shot an email over to the salesman that I had bought my car from, asking him if he knew of any discounts or promotions going on right now in the service department. I did that with the intent of seeing what he could do for me! So sneaky! He called me on my cell AND my work phone to tell me to come find him when I get there, and they’ll take care of everything.
So, when I dropped off my car, I went down to find him. He was with another customer, but he saw me and came towards me! He then told the manager that I was the one that they should take care of. So the manager came upstairs to the Service Center (how weird is it that the sales floor is below the service floor? so many cars up there!) and told the guy up there that sales was taking care of it.
And that was that. Free!
Of course part of me wonders if that’s always a free service under the warranty (the maintenance). So maybe they were just trying to make me feel better. Either way, it’s good to know that they are trying to stay on my good side. I wonder how many more times this can work…
Moral of the story: sometimes it pays to make a bit of a fuss. Don’t be ridiculous; be reasonable. And be appreciative when they help you out.
Graduated Learning: Life after College 
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