…… MY TALE (nightmare) UNFURLS AS FOLLOWS (via letter sent to VIOC service location manager): Dear Belfair VIOC Manager Kenneth, Due to a series of recent health setbacks and attendant concerns, I have not been able to visit your office as yet in order to speak with you in-person regarding issues encountered with my vehicle following service performed at your facility on 2/5/2021. Therefore, in lieu of a personal visit — and in the interest of timeliness — I have elected to send you this correspondence detailing my explanation of experiential grievance for your edification and consideration.
Sans further ado, the remainder of this communication rolls-along as follows: Whenever I bring my car into a professional automotive services business of any kind for service attention, I expect it to come out in better shape than it was before it came in. Examples of my dissatisfaction with Belfair Valvoline Instant Oil Change facility are herein listed:
(1) The video cam/monitor screen was cut-off (cold-dead, no image-feed, just total screen blackout) at about the 10-minute mark into my service viisit, leaving me essentially “flying blind” for most of the procedure, so I could not see what the service technicians were doing and/or not doing. Although I could not see, I did clearly hear bottomside technician Casey and another technician coversing a number of times with one another, mostly saying that they were having trouble with finding locations of certain things on my vehicle (a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix), so when I inquired about the lack of video monitoring, CSR Reiley informed me that the monitor display screen had been “acting-up” and that a work order to have it fixed had already been submitted ….. but, of course, that excuse — as unbelievable as it was — did not help me one d**n bit at the time in terms of my being able to depend upon video playback evidence to support my claims ….. so it sure as hell seemed to me as if Reiley and the other technicians within earshot were all kinda caught-off-guard by my “loss-of-video-monitoring” complaint, and so just ended-up sorta like B.S.’ing their way through an awkward embarrassing moment they found themselves suddenly immersed and struggling within.
* Why not shut-down the service bay until everything is fully functional, as should be the case in the very first place, per customers’ reasonable expectations? * The total service time expended on my vehicle (time-in / time-out) was a whopping 38 minutes (more than twice the 15-minute typical oil change time proudly touted on the Valvoline website), and I am therefore inclined to believe that the reason for such a protracted service time figure is due to the service technicians’ combined difficulties with locating components and lubrication points, etc., on my particular vehicle ….. along with perhaps other servicing difficulties encountered ….. as their conversations among one another — while in the midst of performing the overall service — seemed to indicate.
(2) I believe that the topside technician Steven may have performed the battery checking test procedure either incorrectly, or problematically, due to the fact that the car computer failed and had to be reprogrammed just a few minutes after I left the premises.
(3) My service report stated that some fluid levels were not checked due to the inlet access ports being “sealed” ….. I found these claims to be questionable. Not too happy at all with ostensibly being denied those important services, and associated fluid top-offs, should any have been necessary.
(4) Another post-service issue I have discovered is sadly that — for some reason, or reasons — the vehicle is running hotter, as the temperature gauge is now registering a significantly higher quiescent operating temperature indication, even rising at a faster rate when idling in heavy traffic and at stop-lights, etc., and this new troublesome quirky thing is disturbing me greatly of late.
Due to the influences attributable to my degree of senior citizen-accumulated life experience — coupled with a firm grasp upon reality — I quite confidently believe that you, Sir — as a good company man, and thus loyally beholden to favoring and carrying-out activities protective of corporate interests over those of customers — will exercise a first instinctive tendency to try and find a way in order to do nothing to resolve my issues, thus protecting yourself, your store — and your corporation entirely — while leaving poor insignificant customer ME out-in-the-cold; thus hangin’ & twistin’-in-the-wind, as per chapter-and-verse of the trusty vaunted universal corporate playbook.
So that initial approach may perhaps be a given, though I certainly hope that will not be the case. I need “a breath-of-fresh-air” in the form of a fair-minded and reasonable response from you at this important point in the grievance resolution process. At this messy juncture I will go ahead and cede listed items #1 and #3, because I believe entirely full well in my heart & soul that your technician staff will conveniently not admit to any wrongdoing re: anything I have reported …. thus leaving me dead-in-the-water with no hope of being believed and/or having things made right by you for me. In light of this exasperating circumstance, I realize that it is not worth my time, waste of effort, nor frustrating energy expenditure to continue pursuing. As for remaining listed items #2 and #4, those issues still remain yet worth pursuing, even against all odds. With regard to voluntarily sacrificed items #1 and #3, please do realize that the reason they have been brought to your attention is to simply serve as a means of communicating to you what really truly happened — whether you choose to believe it or not — during my 2/5/2021 service visit experience at your Belfair facility, and thus also serves as a rationale for my not returning there for future services.
All of that falls duly, deservedly, and squarely upon you and your staff. So yeah, that’s all on you guys!!!! Please just admit it …. then own it and live with it. Should you even consider responding at all, and then actually decide to do so, please direct such response to me via Email or snail-mail — regarding, of course, the aforementioned ostensible comedy-of-errors — at your earliest convenience. Thank you most immeasurably, Sir. Brightest Blessings, Michael Donovan P.S. Please do not consider reprimanding or terminating the employment of either Casey, Reiley, and/or Steven over all this …. as such a mess becomes a golden “teachable moment” opportunity in which to help them to improve as employees — being trained and retained as such — while also easing my conscience that no drastic overreaction overkill actions will occur on your part as any result of this complaint letter …. and finally, to prevent any likelihood of possible angst-driven retaliation coming-my-way as an unfair tragic outcome of the simple innocent exercise of my right to complain and file legitimate grievance accorgingly; therefore naturally and acceptably, as entirely apropos in a free society. —
1. Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy!
2. Ascribe and adhere to the Golden Rule!
3. The Cycles of Karma do exist and function throughout the entire universe!
4. In a similar vein, “Murphy’s Law” does indeed exist and functions throughout the entire universe!
5. Just because one CAN, does not necessarily mean that one SHOULD ! ! !
6. The more one knows, the more one knows that there’s always more to know ! ! !
7. The time is long overdue for all of us to wake-up and get-a-clue ! ! !