My recent service experience with Castle Subaru was the worst I've ever had at a car dealership, and as a result I will never patronize them for service or any new car purchase in the future. I took my Forester to Castle for an out-of-warranty quality issue that Subaru of America (SOA) had already committed to cover prior to my visit. SOA had issued a case number and advised me to take it to any Subaru dealer, provide the case number, and, after confirmation of diagnosis, SOA would approve making the repair at no cost (they assured that any dealer service cost in these cases is handled directly and internally). My mother recommended Castle after having purchased from them multiple vehicles and having them always serviced there. My subsequent service visit at Castle failed profoundly in 3 ways:
1. Long wait without update. I dropped off the car at the appointment time (10:30 a.m.) and was told to expect diagnosis around noon. A loaner car was not offered. Having not heard from the service rep by 4:00 p.m., I finally called and, after a series of holds, was told an email was being sent with a list of "critical repair items" that would need to be addressed urgently.
2. Unnecessary "critical" service items. There was no dialogue with me about the items, and all were marked "critical" in red, totaling about $5,000. One of the sizable items was for a 90K mile service. My car is only at 85K and I drive it about 3,000 miles per year. A visit to another dealer later confirmed none of the items was critical nor necessary at this time.
3. Mishandling the quality issue I brought to have serviced in the first place. The diagnosis was made, but the service manager Brian H. insisted that if I wanted the work done, I would need to pay for the $700 repair myself and pursue a refund with SOA on my own. Though I tried to explain what SOA had advised me, he demonstrated no empathy, refused to follow up with SOA directly, and insisted that only he had the authority to make a "goodwill" repair--something he adamantly refused since I was a new customer. My follow up with SOA the next day confirmed that this was wrong. SOA apologized for my experience with Castle and assured that the customer should never have to hassle with multiple silos within the company organization.
I left Castle without having any work done and took it to another Subaru dealer a few days later. That experience was completely different: I was provided a loaner vehicle without asking; multiple follow ups were provided to me on the progress of the repair; I was assured it would be fully covered ("don't worry, we handle this directly with SOA"); and confirmation was made that no other maintenance items were "critical." I truly felt like I was being welcomed into a new family, even though I had never been to that other dealer before. My experience with Castle on the other hand resulted not only in the loss of my potential future service business, but also ended my mom's long-time service and new car-purchase patronage with Castle as well. read more