Being nice will get you farA few months back we published a post with tips for Toyota customer service, with some advice for people having problems with their Toyotas. This post gets us a steady stream of emails from people asking for help and advice. We’re happy to help - it’s part of the reason we started this website - but every once in a while we come across an email that just blows our minds. Here’s a great example of what NOT to do when you’re trying to get your problem solved. This person decided the best way to handle his or her problem with his or her 07 Camry was to bring his or her car to the dealership along with a nasty letter:


Problem with Toyota Camry 2007

Dear Sir,

My Toyota Camry 2007 car was showing following problems earlier at around 4000 miles for which it was brought to your repair shop on Dec. 8 , ’07;
• Some sort of Rattling noise from the suspension or wheel area,
• A/C system was not cooling down enough as compared to earlier model Camrys, [Note: I still own two more 2000 Camrys].
• There were hesitations on the part of transmission while trying to accelerate on highway. There is not enough pickup as experienced during acceleration of the vehicle on highway.
• On occasions, Air Re-circulation Switch gets turned off on its own.

Your so called `trained technician’ reportedly could not find any problem[emphasis added by admin]. Only thing was done was wheel balance. Recently, it has been felt that the car noise has increased which is causing us more alarmed about the safety and suspension integrity of the vehicle. This is to note that, a) the vehicle was bought new from your dealership in Aug. ’07, b) now has apprx. 9K miles only, and c) always driven by the same adult driver.


Now it makes sense to document your problems in writing, that way everyone, from the service advisor to the technician to the cashier, knows what needs to be done. But what doesn’t make sense is to put the words trained technician in ‘quotes‘. After all, putting something in ‘quote marks‘ is a great way to convey ‘sarcasm‘ with the ultimate goal being to ‘insult‘ the person reading the letter.

Anyone want to guess how this trip to the service department turned out? While it’s possible the service department did their job and fixed as much as they could, it’s just as likely the technician took one look at this letter and decided not to fix anything.

Here’s the moral of the story - if you want your dealer to help you, you should never insult the person who’s going to be working on your car.

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