Post sale customer Survey, what to do?

All in all I think we got a good price on the car, 2016 GT AWD with Tech and I-active, and are happy with the vehicle. The dealership.... well that's another story. I said I would give exceptional on the survey during our negotiation as bargaining chip for a lower price, but I'm considering not doing that. To many things fell through the cracks during the sale. The inside was a bit dirty with smudges on the door panels and debris in the cracks of the center console as well as dirt around the edges of were their plastic was for test drives and around the accelerator pedal. The pre-delivery check list was never completed and thus we drove home on over inflated tires. They forgot to put the license plates on the car so we had to drive back to the dealership after getting home for them to give us the plates. When we entered the dealership the salesman was like a vulture waiting for us right as we got out of the car. We were never offered anything to drink. It seemed like no one had an office except the finance guy so we did our negotiating at a counter in the middle of the dealership. After settling on a price, the next step was to go through the financing process, we were hungry, so we gave them our info and signed the release so they could run our credit while we got bite to eat and would come back to talk to the finance manager. We arrived at the dealership at 11:45am for a 12 noon appointment to test drive the car. No one knew about our appointment so the car wasn't ready. By the time we went to lunch it was about 3pm. We came back and had to wait another 1.5-2 hours to talk to the finance manager! We finally left the dealership with the new car around 6:30pm but like I said we had to go back to get the plates so left the second time around 7pm. We were sitting at the dealership for 6.5 hours with our 2 year old, who was an angel all day, but I mean come on, it should not have taken that long.

During our time there I asked about the rear cargo cover and how much it would be. The sales guy said he would check on it and he could probably do cost on it. After having to ask him three times to get the price he told us that they didn't have any in stock and he would have to call us Monday with the price and availability. They had 42 CX-5's on their lot and not one cargo cover? I call bulls***, but just wanted to get out of there. I also asked about the roof rack, and if they could get cross bars onto one of the vehicles on the lot so I could test fit my bike trays before committing to buy the factory rack. He told me they couldn't do it because it took something like 1.5 hours to install the cross bars and service just didn't have the man power or time to do it. Again, bulls***. I wanted to give them more money for accessories and it was like pulling teeth to get info about the accessories. Never once did they apologize for the long wait times. They refused to entertain my request for throwing in the cargo cover because of the long wait. And they basically laughed when I asked about a free key chain or license plate frame because of the long wait times.

So if you made it through all that reading, what would you do on the customer survey that mazda sends out? Would you stick to your word and lie about the experience because you said you would rate exceptional? Or would you be honest to the questions and state your frustrations on the survey? I know the dealers get incentives to have perfect surveys. They can't cancel the discounts or anything if I don't rate them the highest can they?

They can't do a thing to you after the fact. So tell it like it was and never look back. I can't believe you couldn't figure this out on your own after writing this post!

I bought my car on August 30, 2014 and still haven't gotten this so-called customer survey that people mention. So, don't hold your breath waiting for it in the mail.

That being said, I had a similar experience wherein I was satisfied with the transaction itself (price negotiations, etc) but not the level of service I received during the purchase (particularly from the finance guy) and after when I attempted to use one of their "free oil change" coupons - the service department would not honor it. But they continue to send me free oil change coupons in the mail!

So if and when I do finally receive a survey...I'm going to be 100% honest!

I got a survey request through email and filled it out on-line. With service like that I'm surprised that you didn't just walk out. I did twice, at two different dealers, but I live near Chicago and there are plenty of dealers that want my money.

This sounds exceptionally piss poor. By the way, the surveys aren't that big a deal.

If my day started out like that when buying a car, I would of walked out the door way before lunch came to mind. Frick, it wouldn't be the first time I simply walked away to see another sales person. On the other hand, I have also gone back to give them kudos because they did a great job.
But since you went through the whole ordeal, write it down as it happened. Who cares if it hurts their image. If nobody ever says anything, they will never improve.

Ride92 said:

So if you made it through all that reading, what would you do on the customer survey that mazda sends out?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I did made it through all that reading even though my reading is slow. I'd not walk out like some people suggested, as you may only have this dealer near you to purchase. The bottom line is you got may be the best deal people can get in the whole US! Dealers just don't make too much money nowadays by selling the new cars. Hence the customer service suffers. I'd still put a little sympathetic thought to these car salesmen as their job is tough when you answer the post-sale customer survey if there is any.

BTW, you can go on-line or Amazon to get all of these CX-5 accessories, such as cargo cover, all weather floor mats and cargo tray, splash guards, and wheel locks with pretty good price and install by yourself. That was what I did.