So this is a lot late but better late than never when it comes to kudos.

You know me. I yell loud and scream when someone in our community has an injustice against them by a vendor. Its not right and I believe firmnly in the power of the consumer. On the converse, when something goes right or exceeds my expectations, I believe firmly in making sure everyone knows as well. Stories like the below are often hard to come by in the car community and need to be posted to counter act such horrid tales like the Huling incidents. The bad needs to be known but all too often the good is forgotten and never held up.

So as some may or may not know, the second most important lady in my life , aka Suki, aka my car, underwent surgery recently for a new suspension. She looked mighty fine on her new wheels and tires sitting much lower and leaner on her new coil overs. The tech at Les Schwab alligned my car and noticed there was a toe in issue in the rear. the front was perfect but the rear was way out, so said the machine. I freaked out and drove straight to Steve Bjornson at toyota of Puyallup. I showed him the numbers from the Les Shwaub store and shared my conversations and limited knowledge of suspension allignment and told him toe on a torsion bar style suspension is next to impossible. He agreed with the other two shops I visited along the way to the dealership and took my car in. Now between my limited knowledge, Steve's knowledge and resources and Erik's vast knowledge we were stumped. Steve said to leave the car with him and he'd give it to the right techs when they were in on Tuesday and let them pick it apart. I took a TRAC car and off I went. Steve was, by the way, nice enough to loan me a TRAC xA without even thinking so I would not have to pay the cost of a loaner or rental.

I waited till tuesday when the correct people were all at the dealership to take a look at my car and wait for Steve to call me with news. When I finally did get the call it was not good news but not horrible. The tech who double checked the toe using the Toyota of Puyallup machine said it wasnt as bad as Les Schwab thuoght it was but that it was still off. (I will say they use differnt systems and differnet methods of measure so nothing against Les Schwab here. They also were very helpful and their customer service is second to none in their field) So that being said, I was told I needed to leave the car until Thursday when the regional service rep was coming in. He would take a look at the car and make a determination as to what the next move would be.

So the regional service guy takes a look at the car and says that while it does look a little off, they would need to see it without the coilovers on. This presented a bit of a problem as most of you know I had almost all of my tools stolen by a creepy roomate and had no room or place to do this. Toyota of Puyallup could send it out to be done but this would cost around 2 hours of un-install and re-install time that I unfortunately could not afford at the time. Also this presented the problem of uninstalling and reinstalling the Tein suspension if the problem indeed was with the car and not the Teins. I would have to front the cost and be reimbursed if the problem was not the Teins or do it myself which due to space and time contstraints was just not an option.

So now what do I do? Toyota has my car, I'm broke and out of time, and there is still a problem that no one seems to know the answer to. Needless to say I felt bad about getting frustrated with Steve as he was only trying to help but I sense my phone call with him wasnt the nicest tone I have ever used with someone trying to help me. I think in his heart, he understood though as after a few go rounds and me throwing my arms in teh air and flailing around for help like a beached flounder, Steve said he would go fight for me again.

About two hours later, he said they looked at the case again and really tried to see any other options and came across a teeny tiny detail that was left out previously. We discussed my new found options and came to a VERY quick agreement that was perfect for both Toyota and me. Both parties got answers, both parties came away happy and no one was frustrated or angry anymore.

Personally, I want to thank the distrcit service rep and Steve for taking the extra time to take a second and thrid look at the problem. Without their dedication to finding a solution for the customer, I would still be without a car and still be frustrated to the point of getting my scion tattoo removed and saying steve smelled of elderberries.

Its cases like this that remind me why i will continue to buy my toyota products for myself and my wife and I will continue to buy them exclusively from the EXCELLENT people at Toyota of Puyallup. At least with Steve and a few of the other folks there, they exemplify EXACTLY what a car dealership should be.

-dustin

 

Well that's good you are happy now. Reading your story thoogh is kinda like watching an interesting movie and the endind sucked. In otherwairds you don't state what the problem actually was. Can you please inform us?

 

Great to hear Dustin!

 

um... yeah.. what was the problem/fix?

 

simple fix, not really too important, just needed a slight adjustment and a few words with the service guy about a few things.

 

honestly for as long of a 1st post as you wrote, i think you owe it to a few ppl to say what the problem was, esp for us that want to do coilovers on our xb and xa's because you might have some good info that could save someone some trouble...

 

Um I said there was a slight problem and a slight adjustment was made. I relly dont want to point out that someone may have done something wrong because we dont know. We think it may have been a bit of an over eager read on the Les Schwab machine and then again on thefirst run of the TOP machine.

Really didnt feel like calling anyone out because everyone did a great job helping and explaining and this was really just about the customer service I got from everyone along the way.

 

ok good it was the alignment guys... i thought he was being nice and not saying that i screwed up... but yay for me i did it right.

 

aww i was just curious what the exact fix was

 

Glad to hear it all worked out, sometimes you gotta lean on them a bit...

 

Alright. Well, all that matters is that it is all good now. How do you like them? (the coilovers?)

 

im gonna go ahead and guess that some front end monkey didnt mount and/or calibrate the sensors properly and thus read way to much toe in... i say this cause i have done it before. we cant all be pros from day 1.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Steve rocks!