STAY AWAY from Subaru of Gwinnett Serivce Dept...

[AWD OWNZ U]

Subaru of Gwinnett is the worst dealer I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with and here's why...

Part I

I brought my Legacy wagon there for A/C repairs (more on that later) and also informed the service department that my low beams would cut-off randomly and you needed to flash the high beams to get them back on. I told them I believed the problem was the headlight switch but I wanted them to look at it. My mom called to inquire about the car and get some run down of costs. Steve informed her that the headlight switch was indeed the problem and that it would be approx. $655 for parts and 2 hours of labor to install. Of course didn't let them fix it. He also told me when I called back that he was glad I wasn't fixing it because his mechanic didn't want to do it.

However I was suspicious so I gave Exeter Subaru a call and asked for the price of a headlight combination switch. To my surprise (sort of) he said it was about a hundred bucks. I ended up ordering one from Jamie at subarugenuineparts.com for $72.

Here's SOG's quote...


Here's my reciept from Jamie...

[AWD OWNZ U]

Part II

While my car was there I asked Steve if he could get it smogged for me, since I just moved to GA. He said I missed their smog guy but he would get it taken care of. I go to pick up the car the first time and it's not smogged. No big deal since the car isn't either. (more on that later too) He again tells me he will take care of it. So I come to pick up the car and ask if he had gotten it smogged. He told me he took it to two smog places but they were unable to smog the car because they didn't have an AWD dyno. I told him it surprised me that they need a dyno for AWD cars since an AWD dyno is so expensive. He just confirmed that they were expensive and said he thought there was a Shell in Swanee (sp?) that had one.

Of course I don't believe anything he says at this point so I go look it up. I asked on IA (I figure there would be some DSMers) and sure enough AWD cars don't need a dyno. I found the passage on the GA state site, not that anyone would doubt me on this one. I also got my car smogged at a place down the street from my house with no trouble.

http://www.cleanairforce.com/rules/391-3-20-04.htm

The inspector shall perform a 2-speed idle test on all full-time all-wheel drive vehicles and all full-time four-wheel-drive vehicles.

[AWD OWNZ U]

Part III

So I end at the beginning of my troubles. I bought the car with broken A/C, it blew ok but not cold and only on level 4. I took it to my mechanic at home who patched it up and said it worked OK but there were leaks that needed to be fixed eventually (for free mind you). I got in the car only to find it still didn't work. However I needed to get on with moving to Atlanta so I sucked it up and drove the car out and figured I'd fix it out here. I drove out with my mom and my parent's Tundra so I knew I'd have a car to borrow while the Legacy was down.

Which brings me to SOG. I have order parts for my car from them before and had heard good things, so I figured they were my best bet. That was the start of my troubles.

So my mom brought the car to the dealer for me because she is awesome and I had to be at school for orientation. Mind you we do it this day with the expectation that we will get the car back sooner so that my mom can go home. So she drops the car off and decides to take the bus back instead of waiting for me. She calls the bus company and asks where the stop she needs to start at is. They tell her and she asks for a ride to the stop. Someone (Steve I believe) insists that the bus company gave her the wrong stop and drops her off where he says the right stop is. Of course he's wrong and it takes her over an hour just to get back to the correct bus stop. In retrospect this was a good indicator of the sheer incompetence of SOG.

Through a series of phone calls he tells me the compressor is bad and the dryer needs to be replaced to the tune of a little over a g. Sucks for me but I tell them to go ahead and do it. Steve says the car will be done maybe friday if not then monday (it's weds I think).

So no call friday and I figure bummer parts didn't get there oh well. No call monday afternoon so I call and ask. He said parts aren't in yet. I say ok and ask when they will be in. He says probably tomorrow but he won't know for sure until they show up. I figure that's some BS but whatever there is nothing I can do. We do this phone call several times again until they finally get the parts at the end of the week. He said they weren't able to get just a compressor and something about a rebuild. I figured he meant a rebuilt compressor and said whatever when can I get my car and he tells me to come get it saturday (as in a week after they said it would be done).

So I show up on saturday. To my surprise the bill is not the quoted $1085 but over $1300. Turns out what he had meant was they couldn't get just the compressor but instead had to order a whole rebuilt kit which includes the lines. I was a little dumb founded that had intended to replace the compressor and not the lines in the first place to be honest. However Steve agrees to give me the work for the original price. I was happy with that. So Steve pulls the car around and then goes to get who I presume is a mechanic.

I was a little worried at this point. So I go out there and ask what's wrong. Steve says the A/C doesn't blow cold whenever you move the car. As in the same problem it had when I bought the car in (save the $50 fan switch to make it work on all levels which they did fix). Obviously I'm not amused at having just had over a grand worth of work done to the car only to have virtually nothing fixed. Steve tells us it's the cycling switch but won't know how much it will cost or how long it will take to get until Monday when he will call us. So I leave pissed off but composed since I'm frankly a little shocked at the situation.

So I decide to do some homework. First I place a call to my mechanic back home. I tell him what happened and asked if he had looked at the compressor or not (which I knew he had since he told me he had fixed some of the leaks on it). He of course said yes and that it seemed to be working fine but there were a lot of leaks in the lines and what not. Basically confirming what I had thought.

At this point I figure I should check the price of the cycling switch since things are getting fishy. So my next call is to Brian of subaruwrxparts.com aka Exeter Subaru since I trust him the most to be honest. After looking in the parts catalog he can't find it and goes to ask who I presume is a mechanic. It turns out the car doesn't have a cycling switch, wonderful.

So come Monday of course no one calls. So my mom calls the dealer and asks for Steve (she's a salesperson and is capable of not expression the massive amount of anger I would have at this point). Turns out he does work on Monday, I'm shocked (not really). So she talks to Neil. He tells her what is wrong with the car (some expansion valve or something). She tells him the situation and about Steve telling us it was a cycling switch and that she was tired of them haphazardly replacing stuff trying to fix the car. He tells her she should talk to Steve and he will be in tomorrow.

So come the next day and she gets a hold of Steve. I was not there for this conversation (I was in class). Eventually they come to the agreement that the car will be fixed and we will be charged the original quote. Steve insists the compressor was bad and offers that we have it taken somewhere else to have it tested (I'm sure it would become broken by the time I got it) and complains that they aren't making any money of the repair. I'm crying for you buddy. So I go get the car a few days later (finally working, they only had to replace everything!) and finally say goodbye to SOG. Now mind you my mom has had to stay an extra week for this. She has a company to run and had to drive to Canada a day after she ended up getting home.

Cliff notes: SOG took over a week longer than they said they would to fix the A/C on my car because they replaced the wrong parts and failed to test the car before they tried to deliever it to me.

[Tracer]

I will always stay away from Subaru of Gwinnett. Last year before I bought my Sti...the salesmen treated me like crap. Asked me if I could even make payments on a Sti? LoL What kind of service is that? They have no right asking people that!!!

[Trey]

Should have talked to Neil in Service.

[KNHTRDR]

Personally, I would never take a modfied car to a dealership anyway just my .02

[GTScoob]

SOG has done well on my transmission swap (auto to 5speed).

then again I've mainly just been working with Bob, their master tech.

Neil rocks too.

[AWD OWNZ U]

Personally, I would never take a modfied car to a dealership anyway just my .02

This is my daily driver, it's stock.

[j69raw]

I agree, "Subaru of Gwinnett" has the worst customer service!

[HyPer50]

Aside from you being in school at certain times..... why was your mom doing all this stuff for you? Your 21 years old. you shouldn't have your mom do all this shit for ya. Anyways... moral of the story, FUCK DEALERSHIPS.... Avoid them at ALL costs.. Only time I EVER take my car to a dealership is to visit Jeff Harris for a dyno tune. Fuck there prices, fuck there attitudes... just my 2 cents on dealerships in general.

[benwaballs]

Subaru of Gwinnett is the worst dealer I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with and here's why...

Part I

I brought my Legacy wagon there for A/C repairs (more on that later) and also informed the service department that my low beams would cut-off randomly and you needed to flash the high beams to get them back on. I told them I believed the problem was the headlight switch but I wanted them to look at it. My mom called to inquire about the car and get some run down of costs. Steve informed her that the headlight switch was indeed the problem and that it would be approx. $655 for parts and 2 hours of labor to install. Of course didn't let them fix it. He also told me when I called back that he was glad I wasn't fixing it because his mechanic didn't want to do it.

However I was suspicious so I gave Exeter Subaru a call and asked for the price of a headlight combination switch. To my surprise (sort of) he said it was about a hundred bucks. I ended up ordering one from Jamie at subarugenuineparts.com for $72.

Here's SOG's quote...


Here's my reciept from Jamie...

all you have to do is call the owner of the dealer... its easy to find there phone number, and let them know what is going on. they will take care of shit like this and the asshole's that treated you like crap!

[AWD OWNZ U]

Aside from you being in school at certain times..... why was your mom doing all this stuff for you? Your 21 years old. you shouldn't have your mom do all this shit for ya.

I'd love to have some good reason but honestly I just couldn't handle it. I quit my job, spent literally a week running back and forth from the mortgage comapny fighting with them to get my loan through on my condo that was suppose to close literally the next week, then I had to fight with the other shop that had had my Legacy for two weeks to try to make sure it was done in time to drive cross-country. Then I had to drive from the CA/NV border to Atlanta in 3.5 days with low beams that intermittantly turned off and a random ABS light that came on to make my closing. So then I had to run around campus, go to orientation, get shots, fill out my employment applications. This on top of doing plumming repairs, ripping out and replacing sheet rock, and driving all over fucking Atlanta looking for furniture and shit to fill my condo. So after moving cross country, fighting tooth and nail to get my first home, and dealing with all the bullshit of moving to a new town and going to a new school I figured I could let my mom who owns a telemarketing company and has been in sales for 25+ years handle SOME of the dealing with SOG. I'm sorry if that makes me a bitch to you but blow me. Oh and I'm 22.

Anyways... moral of the story, FUCK DEALERSHIPS.... Avoid them at ALL costs.. Only time I EVER take my car to a dealership is to visit Jeff Harris for a dyno tune. Fuck there prices, fuck there attitudes... just my 2 cents on dealerships in general.

All the A/C repair places I called said it was a dealer only item and to go to a dealer to do it.

[HyPer50]

Well you could of just waited couldn't ya? AC? Shoot.... I haven't had AC in any of my cars in a long ass time.. The mustang doesn't run right when the AC is on and the Mirage drops down to 20whp when the AC is turned on so unless I'm going down hill the AC is always off. As for the "blow me" part, ya thats mature. Now I see why you have mommy taking care of everything.

And about the A/C repair places saying it's a dealer only item..... you can still buy the part and have another shop do it. The shop I take my car to does EVERYTHING except for paint work... sounds like you just need to find a better shop.

[AWD OWNZ U]

Well you could of just waited couldn't ya? AC? Shoot.... I haven't had AC in any of my cars in a long ass time.. The mustang doesn't run right when the AC is on and the Mirage drops down to 20whp when the AC is turned on so unless I'm going down hill the AC is always off. As for the "blow me" part, ya thats mature. Now I see why you have mommy taking care of everything.

And about the A/C repair places saying it's a dealer only item..... you can still buy the part and have another shop do it. The shop I take my car to does EVERYTHING except for paint work... sounds like you just need to find a better shop.

I need my car to get to school and work, I can't have it at a shop for days. I'm not from the south I can't stand the heat, I need A/C. My mom taking care of everything? She dropped my car off (only because I couldn't go) and made like four phone calls only one of which was when I was there. I'm not mature? You are ragging on me because my mom helped me resolve a problem I was having. That's hardly anything to be ashamed of.

As for finding a better shop, SOG came recommended and it's had to shop around when you've been in a town for 4 days.

[HyPer50]

I need my car to get to school and work, I can't have it at a shop for days. I'm not from the south I can't stand the heat, I need A/C. My mom taking care of everything? She dropped my car off (only because I couldn't go) and made like four phone calls only one of which was when I was there. I'm not mature? You are ragging on me because my mom helped me resolve a problem I was having. That's hardly anything to be ashamed of.

As for finding a better shop, SOG came recommended and it's had to shop around when you've been in a town for 4 days.

I wasn't ragging on you at all pal... I was just asking why your mom was doing everything. I mean I would feel really bad if my mom took my car to the shop, did all this shit for you, then had to take the bus home and ended up getting the run around for an hour in the meantime. I wasn't ragging on you til you said "blow me" which proves you are immature. Thats all.

[AWD OWNZ U]

I wasn't ragging on you at all pal... I was just asking why your mom was doing everything. I mean I would feel really bad if my mom took my car to the shop, did all this shit for you, then had to take the bus home and ended up getting the run around for an hour in the meantime. I wasn't ragging on you til you said "blow me" which proves you are immature. Thats all.

Well it sure seemed like you were, sorry if I acted immature but I was having a bad day and wasn't in the mood for any shit. Of course I felt really bad but the car needed to be dropped off and I couldn't miss my orientation. She wasn't supposed to take the bus back I was supposed to pick her up, she just called me and told me she was at the bus stop and not to come. What was I supposed to do?

[Miranda]

Guys.. leave him alone. He's trying to do the Subaru forum a favor by informing it of the treatment he received at the dealership. Who cares whether or not his mom helped him? I'm 22 and my mom still helps me with a bunch of stuff (as a matter of fact, I've been driving her STi for the past month since my car isn't really great for daily driving).

Anyways, like I said on NASIOC, I have a feeling that there are going to be some bigger changes at SoG that will make great customer service harder to come by.

Lisa and Neil are still awesome though!

~ Miranda

[aaronfelipe]

Screw that... me and 2 buddies went to look at an STI which my friend was looking to get after being on leave for the NAVY. Service SUCKED... there was only one salesperson "supposedly" so therefore they did no let him test drive the car. He was freaking told to come back next week. why the hell would you have only one salesperson??? doesnt make sense.... bc every1 who is buying a car has to test drive it..... IMO that the best way to loose a customer....

[soobaroo227]

Wow, I've had nothing but good dealings with Subaru of Gwinnett. Took my car there for power steering repair one time and they had it done in three hours without even having a guaranteed payment yet ( I was using an independent extended warranty company that they couldn't get through to at the time). So, they fixed the car in no time and I just went back and paid with credit card then got the money back from the company. My car was also modded too. SoG also has a well earned reputation for repairing modded cars under warranty. I've dealt with the parts lady there quite a few times and she's done nothing but try her best to help me. Also, the tuning department there with Scott Seigel is great. He definitely knows his stuff. I rode along one time while he was road tuning a friend's car. Well, that's just my two cents. Thought I would throw in my opposite opinion. However, there is one dude there that is a complete jackass. He's a bald guy working in some department, i don't remember. He wasn't a salesman and he had a northern accent. Anyways, he sucks. Other than him, I feel that SoG is great.

[jonnyboy0150]

Wow, I've had nothing but good dealings with Subaru of Gwinnett. Took my car there for power steering repair one time and they had it done in three hours without even having a guaranteed payment yet ( I was using an independent extended warranty company that they couldn't get through to at the time). So, they fixed the car in no time and I just went back and paid with credit card then got the money back from the company. My car was also modded too. SoG also has a well earned reputation for repairing modded cars under warranty. I've dealt with the parts lady there quite a few times and she's done nothing but try her best to help me. Also, the tuning department there with Scott Seigel is great. He definitely knows his stuff. I rode along one time while he was road tuning a friend's car. Well, that's just my two cents. Thought I would throw in my opposite opinion. However, there is one dude there that is a complete jackass. He's a bald guy working in some departmernt, i don't remember. He wasn't a salesmen and he had a norther accent. Anyways, he sucks. Other than them, I feel that SoG is great.

Word!

[integroid]

All I am going to say is Neal is awesome and tries to do whatever he can. Which is very very limited these days.

[KNHTRDR]

I went ther today and test drove a wrx with no problems so far. might even buy the car if i can find which asswhole the payments are commin out of

[LeX]

you could try royal subaru the guys over there seem pleasant enough. I like my nissan dealer. They will try to charge you too much and suggest unnecessary services but the work they do always seems good and timely

[KNHTRDR]

I brought my car from SOG. So far so good.

[AWD OWNZ U]

you could try royal subaru the guys over there seem pleasant enough. I like my nissan dealer. They will try to charge you too much and suggest unnecessary services but the work they do always seems good and timely

Thanks for the suggestion, hopefully I my stupid car won't break anymore. It's just gotta last two years.

KNHTRDR, glad things are working out for you.

[KNHTRDR]

Personally, I would never take a modfied car to a dealership anyway just my .02

Guess I'll be eating those words

[derk73]

Guys.. leave him alone. He's trying to do the Subaru forum a favor by informing it of the treatment he received at the dealership. Who cares whether or not his mom helped him? I'm 22 and my mom still helps me with a bunch of stuff (as a matter of fact, I've been driving her STi for the past month since my car isn't really great for daily driving).

Anyways, like I said on NASIOC, I have a feeling that there are going to be some bigger changes at SoG that will make great customer service harder to come by.

Lisa and Neil are still awesome though!

~ Miranda

I used to go and see a guy named Porter. He was cool, but he ended up going somewhere else. You know where he went? I only ask since you mentioned a couple of other people there.

[Trey]

He went to another dealership then to topspeed and now has moved to Maryland (I think) and gone back to school.


Yes, I stalk him.