Winkle Hummer, Reno, NV

[OldHiker]

Recently, I was on an eight week cross country trip. During this trip, I had some mechanical problems that forced me to stop at Winkle Hummer in Reno, Nevada. The following is the letter that I sent detailing my experience with this dealership. Someone who contributes to the ?Hummer experience?.

I sent it on November 9th. It was received on November 13th. Yesterday, November 27th, I received an obligatory apology from a Mr. Chad Hall. Two weeks to respond to this!

November 9, 2006
Mr. Rod Hall, Owner
Winkel Hummer
900 Kietzke Lane
Reno, Nevada 89502

Dear Mr. Hall:
Recently, I had the unfortunate requirement to utilize your service department. It was the worst experience I have ever had with a Hummer dealer. But let me start from the beginning.

My oldest son was getting married in September in Santa Fe, New Mexico, so my wife and I decided to turn it into a road trip. Like you, I am an avid off-roader and decided to combine this wedding with two different off-road events, the Hummer Club in Moab, Utah and a group of enthusiasts to do the Rubicon Trail.

While in Moab, I noticed a slight oil leak. Since I had to return for personal reasons to Albuquerque, I went into the local Hummer dealer, Galles and Davis Hummer. I arrived in the late afternoon and since they could not look at it until the next morning, within two hours I was furnished with a no charge Hertz rental car. These were on site.
The next morning they immediately checked it out and found a loose oil filter. By noon I had my truck back. Knowing that I was traveling, they afforded me the priority as such. They were just concerned about getting my truck back to me as soon as possible so that I could continue my travel. Exactly the opposite of what I experienced at your dealership.

I then continued my trip and eventually went and did the Rubicon Trail finishing it on Sunday afternoon, October 8th, with no apparent mechanical damage. We returned to the Sacramento, CA, area for the night. On Monday, we drove to Reno, planning on spending the next day, Tuesday, and continuing our trip home on Wednesday morning.

When I drove into the hotel parking lot in Reno late in the afternoon on Monday, I noticed that the wheels seemed to be locked in 4 wheel high. The next morning, October 10th, I drove to your dealership to have it checked out. I explained to Ken that we were traveling and still had seven days of travel to get home. I would greatly appreciate anything he could do to expedite this. His response was that he had a two week back log in the service department. Since we live in New York and still had a seven day drive ahead of us, this was not what I wanted to hear. I requested a loaner, which was denied. I received a shuttle ride back to my hotel. At this time I also requested that the parking brake be adjusted.

Ken called me back late that afternoon, Tuesday, to inform me that my tie rods (Fabtechs) were worn, the idler and Pittman arms were worn and ball joints were worn. When I inquired about the original problem of the wheels locked, he responded and said the technician did not have time to look at that. Again I requested a loaner. Again I was told there were none available, that I could rent a car at my expense if I wanted to get around. Great attitude.

Wednesday morning I called Ken who informed me that the technician had to be pulled from my truck to install a radio! I am stuck in a hotel in Reno without a vehicle, thousands of miles from home and the tech has to install a radio! What about me? Where is a little compassion for a traveler? What about my expenses that are starting to add up? Then I am told still no loaner.

I have the GMPP, so now I have to wait 24-48 hours for an adjuster to arrive. Still no loaner, no transportation. NO COMPASSION AT ALL! Not one person, including Paige, offered any relief. All I was told is how backed up the service department was and that I would just have to wait. Great customer service! They could care less about me and my problem.

I called GMPP to expedite the adjuster. They cooperated. Thursday late afternoon the adjuster showed up. He authorized the repairs, including the replacement of the transfer case. The next sentence is ?unfortunately, GM is backordered on this with no eta. We have given this to the parts manager to locate one.? I then contacted GMPP and Hummer direct to let them know the lack of cooperation that I was receiving.

Friday nothing was located. Neither was anything located Monday or Tuesday. Three business days and not one transfer case could be located by your parts manager at any dealer in the US! Absurd! After getting this news on late Tuesday, October 17th, I went on the Hummer forum at 6:16pm and within one hour had a response from a parts manager who had one! One Hour! What was your parts manager doing that he could not locate any in three days? Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Again, no sense of urgency. Remember, I am in a hotel with expenses adding up everyday with no relief in sight. I have two dogs at the kennels back in New York. These expenses just keep building.

On Wednesday, October 18th, I called and spoke to Chad and gave him all the information as to where to get it. It was at your place at 8:42am, Thursday, October 19th.

I called Ken about 9:30am and was told that the technician was in class and they did not know when he could get to it! Everyway to delay fixing my truck was tried. After losing my composure with him, Ken switched me to Chad, who I believe is your son. Again I am told why my truck cannot get done in a timely manner. Not what your dealership can do to expedite, but why I have to deal with your dealership and its inadequacies. Why there were more important things for them to take care of.

So, by Friday, October 20th, and you had my truck for 11 days. At a cost of approximately $100 per day for the hotel, $40 per day for food, and $40 per day for my dogs at the kennel, my out of pocket expense is almost $2000.00! My wife and I were almost out of our medications, heart medication for me, and pain medication for her. I had to overnight them to us. Again, more expenses adding up. But do you care? I cannot imagine that you do.

At about 3:00pm, I finally received a call from Ken stating all he had to do was have it aligned and he would call me when it was done. At 4:45 I tried calling, but all I got was voice mail. I left for Enterprise to return my rental. Just before I arrived at Enterprise, Ken called at about 5:10pm stating the car was ready for pickup. When I arrived at your dealership, Paige was talking to Ken. She promptly turned her back on me and left. Ken stated that he just got the car to the alignment shop at 4:45pm knowing it would close at 5:00pm. When I questioned why it had not gone over when he called and said it was going there, he basically shrugged his shoulders. Now I have concerns about what kind of job was done in 10 minutes before the alignment place closed. When I went to my truck, Paige again snubbed me. By the way, a simple parking brake adjustment was never completed. As per Ken, they ran out of time. I guess 11 days is not enough time to do an adjustment. What a bunch of losers you have working for you.

You are certainly not customer friendly. You forget that customers are the reason for your business. Without them, you are nowhere. The only thing I can surmise from this experience is that you feel you are the only dealer in the area and if I don?t like the treatment I can take my car and leave. But as Ken pointed out, if I chose to take my truck and drive to another dealer, nothing will be covered. So I was basically at your mercy, of which you have shown none. I truly feel sorry for anyone who purchases a vehicle from you. Your help has the most unfriendly attitude of any staff I have ever encountered. I cannot wait to receive the questionnaire from Hummer and GM. A copy of this letter will be attached.

Two weeks from the date of this letter, I will contact the all Hummer forums as well as all the agencies that are listed on the bottom. They will receive a copy of this letter. Of course, I don?t expect any kind of response from you. I doubt if you care. If your son doesn?t care, why would I expect you to? It?s a trickle down attitude that emanates from the top.

Remember the credo: If you had a good experience, you tell five people, if you had a bad experience, you tell one hundred! How many will read this on all the Hummer forums?

I await your response.

A very irate customer.

Kenneth L. Bram

Cc:
Better Business Bureau
991 Bible Way
Reno, NV

Hummer
PO Box 33169
Detroit, MI 48232-5169

GMPP

General Motors

I have since sent a letter to Hummer themselves and they are considering reimbursing me for the two weeks of expenses.

[dochummer]

#1/100

[HummBebe]

Lets see the obilgitory response from Chad.!

I'll post the email he sent back to me, and we can compare

[PARAGON]

Originally Posted by HummBebe

Lets see the obilgitory response from Chad.!

I'll post the email he sent back to me, and we can compare

You received a response? Apparently I wasn't nice enough to receive one from Chad nor Rod.

I even warned that this could become a very bad marketing angle for them. Too bad, really.

[HummBebe]

Subject:Re: Some help please...Date:Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:28:00 -0800From:"chadhall" <info@rodhall.com>To:Jacquelyne
Jacquelyne,

I understand your friends problem from being so far away. Our service department is booked 14 days out, but we did push our local customers back so that we could look at Ken's truck less than 24 hours after he brought his vehicle in. His vehicle is not under factory warranty, it is under extended warranty. Their policies are far different. Until they authorize the repairs they have not commited to fixing the vehicle, including paying for a rent a car. Ken was offered a rental, but was told he would have to pay for it until it was known wheter his warranty would cover it. We can not touch the vehicle for repairs until the warranty company looks at it. We are waiting as fast as we can to get that athorization.

Now don't you think your friend Ken should have thought maybe if he did the most difficult trail in the US it might beat his truck up a little and that he shoul have planned accordingly.

Chad Hall

These guys would have my second choice as a dealer. But now, I'm not so sure. It must be tough running the #1 Hummer race team and a dealership at the same time. I've met Josh and Rod in person and found them both to be gracious and humble.
I was not as impressed with Chad.

[HummBebe]

Actually, it was all going well until he wrote:

Now don't you think your friend Ken should have thought maybe if he did the most difficult trail in the US it might beat his truck up a little and that he shoul have planned accordingly.

[PARAGON]

ut-oh

I'm thinking he might not should have written that.

[HummBebe]

[PARAGON]

Originally Posted by HummBebe

Hanging Chad is not good enough.

I am starting to get a little pissed about that comment.

WTF. Are you not supposed to reasonably depend on a local dealer's service department for some help?

That's akin to saying, "he drove all the way across the country, it's an H2, not a car, he should have planned accordingly"

Wow, next time I go wheeling, I'll remember that you shouldn't count on a Hummer dealership for helping you fix for freaking Hummer.

[PARAGON]

My tolerance level is getting tested here.

[ree]

x bazillion

BTW, nice, detailed letter Ken.

[partsguy]

His spelling is worse then mine.

[OldHiker]

Originally Posted by HummBebe

Lets see the obilgitory response from Chad.!

I'll post the email he sent back to me, and we can compare

He called me in my office. "It seems like you ran into a lot of problems blah blah blah. I'm busy. Have to go."

Wasn't worth the effort.

[ROX]

I've been to their service department before, and I can say with total conviction that I've seen better.

I had called and set up an appointment to have some of the "Rod Hall Racing Shocks" installed on my H2. I was traveling through Reno at the time, and showed up for a 9a.m. appointment. After arriving, they asked me to wait, (no big deal) but then I realized they did not have the shocks on hand at the service department. 4 hours later I was on my way.
During my trip one of the shocks blew out and another had a leak. I called Chad Hall and told him that the passenger shock was spitting oil and the driver side looked like it had a pin hole leak in the hose. His words to me went something like "we'll determine what's wrong with it when you get here. That shouldn't happen."
I contacted Chad the day I was supposed to arrive, and told him my eta and asked that he have parts waiting.
When I arrived, I again had to wait for them to go retrieve the shocks from some warehouse somewhere and they replaced both front shocks.
Waiting time was 2-3 hours, labor was less than an hour. They warrantied both front shocks but their service scheduling left me wondering what would happen if I had to go there regularly. My service visit was scheduled and they still had no sense of timing. Usually when a customer buys an aftermarket product, the parts are waiting so they can be installed in a timely manner.

I worked in service for years, and I would never have a wait and see attitude. I always had parts shipped ahead so when I arrived I could troubleshoot and replace anything that needed it, and get the heck out of there so the customer could get back to business. If his service department is 14 days out, they need another dealership in Reno or they need more techs,(or they need new management). Our goal in our company was 3 days out max! And it didn't matter if it was Japan or Alaska.

[OldHiker]

Here is the latest. In spite of the crap I put up with at Dinkle, Hummer has agreed to pay all my out of pocket expense for those two weeks!

Hurray for Hummer!

Can anyone guess what my next vehicle will be?

[PARAGON]

Originally Posted by OldHiker

Here is the latest. In spite of the crap I put up with at Dinkle, Hummer has agreed to pay all my out of pocket expense for those two weeks!

Hurray for Hummer!

Can anyone guess what my next vehicle will be?

As a Hummer owner, I would like to thank Hummer for stepping up and going beyond the call on this one. It's obvious that the Halls and Winkle cannot and will not do right by the customer, but Hummer seems to be willing to make sure the customer is taken care of.

Go HUMMER!

[h2co-pilot]

[ROX]

That's great! Good for you And good for Hummer! It's nice to know that they recognize the symbiosis between customers and suppliers.