[SoapPlant]

So far, the Pilot is only 2 weeks old, and I haven't had any problems so far that have required me taking it in for service. However, I have been taking my Accord to the same service department for the past 4 1/2 yrs. and am very pleased with the level of service I receive. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a similar Accord forum that provides with the the level of detailed information that I receive here, so I'm not as in the know about our Accord as I am the Pilot. By the way, does anyone know of a good Accord forum?

My experience with the service department on our Pilot has been excellent. When we went to pay for our Pilot it was raining outside, so we didn't get a good look to see if there were any dents in it. When we picked it up on Friday morning, the Service Manager came up and was talking to us. We noticed two small pings in the door panels, and he was immediately very apologetic that they weren't caught previous to delivery. He explained that they were rushing to try to have our Pilot prepared the same day it arrived since we had been waiting so long and needed it for the weekend, and he even had someone stay late to complete it. He said those things are normally caught prior to delivery and immediately indicated that they would be taken care of, as he had a dent guy come in every Monday. We made the appointment for the first Monday, and they did a great job.

Also, when I picked up the Pilot, as I drove away, I noticed that the cross bars were installed backwards, as I hit 35 mph and hear the wind noise. Turned right around, explained the problem and the fix. They didn't question me, took the Pilot right into the bay, and fixed the problem within a couple of minutes. Most shops probably would have wanted to test drive for the noise, and would easily dismiss my suggestion for the fix.

In fact, when I called to confirm the appointment for the dent removal, I told them I was also going to be making an appointment to have them install the auto day/night mirror, and the CD changer. He promptly asked me if I knew how to set-up the day night mirror, and explained that Honda didn't have the instructions for setting it up - only installing. I told him that a copy of the instructions were posted here in the forum and gave him the web site. Then I faxed some quick notes to him. They had installed the mirror for another customer, and couldn't get it to work, and the customer was getting upset. Imagine that - a Service department taking to the time to ask a customer how to fix something! That really made me feel great.

When we were talking to him after picking up the Pilot from the dent removal, he thanked us for the instructions, and explained that he faxed them to the customer and they worked like a charm. I was able to help make their customer happy for them, and they were going to hold on to the instructions so they knew how to do it in the future. He said he also was amazed with the amount of information on the Pilot here. I got the impression he would be visiting the site more frequently.

Too often, dealers are far too smug, and assume that the customer has no value add. In the case of the members at this site, if they maybe just take a chance to listen to what we have to say, then maybe they might even learn something they didn't know before.

For the record, the service department is Faulkner Honda, and the Service Manager is Frank Kaminski. I highly recommend them if you are from the area. If you're having a problem that you can't resolve, and you're in the area, I suggest that you at least give them the chance to see if they can help. I'm not sure if mentioning my name (Chris Graver) would help, but Frank knows us pretty well.

Damn - my true identity is out of the bag now!

I hope you start to receive a better level of service than you have been so far.