Northwood Mazda

[Electra-fire]

hey guys and gals,

Just a heads up.. There is a Mazda dealership just a bit north of TO in Barrie, Northwood Mazda. I have had nothing but bad service from these guys.

1) when I went in to look at the car I was ready to buy that day... The salesperson was rather rude and hardly smiled... which I am a rather happy gal, I was very excited about the car, and he was so rude and dry, that I left unsure about the car.....

I then went to GYRO MAZDA in TO... I had GREAT service from \"Mike\"... Awesome sales guy.. I\'ll find him number and post later... He took the time with me and always had a smile on his face. Never was pushy and totally got me the car I wanted... *thumbs up*

2) My car broke down this week... Fan Belt went.... And since I am from Barrie I had to go back to Northwood... To which they have had my car 4 days and it has yet to be fixed!!! They refused to give me a loaner car. So I called the district Manager.. To which he told me cause I didn\'t buy from them that I had no priority and that they will get to my car when they do. And a loner car will not be provided because it was only for their customers.... I tried to explain that today is my birthday and that I need a car to get to TO so I can go to a preplanned dinner... To which he offered nothing... Pretty sad...

haha ok so what am I sayin.... I am not complaining... I just rather give others a warning.

If you find a dealship that is great stick with it!!! Gyro Mazda ROCKS!!!! Just wish the car broke down in TO...

My second point is that if you are shopping for a new car, please as a headsup do not go to Northwood Mazda in Barrie as they are just looking for the fast buck and really have no concern for Mazda owners.

:D

[wtom]

Originally posted by Electra-fire

So I called the district Manager.. To which he told me cause I didn\'t buy from them that I had no priority and that they will get to my car when they do. And a loner car will not be provided because it was only for their customers.... I tried to explain that today is my birthday and that I need a car to get to TO so I can go to a preplanned dinner... To which he offered nothing... Pretty sad...


I think I would have either (in person) gave him the finger and walked out or (on phone) told him to go **** himself and hang up.

That is NOT the way to service a Mazda customer. It really shows their purpose in life to make the fast buck. They care nothing about \"future customer\" or \"future revenue\" if you need to buy parts or get out-of-warranty service from them. I\'d take them to BBB and call Mazda Canada to file complaints. Hope you really have an alternative to go to rather than them.

That sucks too that your fan belt broke... hope things get better soon and Happy Birthday!

[Dr Butcher]

I dealt with JP, the GM at Gyro and had nothing but good things to say about the whole deal. The dealership is pretty small and parking and getting there can be pretty hairy in traffic are my only complaints.

Thanks for the heads up. You should really complain to head office about your treatment, your complaints go farther than you may think.

I just don\'t understand how the guy can make a logical argument about you not being a customer of theirs while your car is sitting at his dealership. They don\'t make the real money of the sale of a car, they make it on servicing the car over its lifespan anyway.

Tell him you\'re paying his salary and if he doesn\'t want to deal with customers he\'s in the wrong business.

[Electra-fire]

LMAO..
Ya you know what.. Thanks guys.. Its really a nice feeling to know that someone is backing me up. I will take your suggestions and go higher up.. I mean this long just for a fan belt??? haha

[wtom]

No kidding... don\'t let these kinda stealerships take advantage of you! That\'s what these forums are here for. I\'ve learnt tons of stuff from this forum and M3F.com. Never too much to know. Too bad we can\'t all call in or walk in and cause a disturbance... \"you mistreated my good friend, Kareen!!!\" Right on their busy days too!!! Would be a sweet feeling to turn lose on these kinda plicks.

[Electra-fire]

haha Welllll thank you!!
That would sooooo ROCK !!!
It is a great feeling to have a community that shares such a common interest that we can all gain knowledge from.. hehe

[dinu01]

Why would a dealership offer a loaner car for someone that bought a car elsewhere? kinda stupid business decision if you ask me, although it may cost them in the long run...

[Soulcrusher]

FLIPSPEED might know the actual answer to this, but I\'m guessing that part of the expense for the loaner car can be charged back to Mazda Canada if the car was brought into service under warranty.

Anyway, the next time some dealership gives you the spiel about you not being their customer, you should say to him, \"So let\'s say that I had bought my car in Vancouver and then moved to Toronto. Are you telling me that in order to get full service I will have to drive back to the dealership in Vancouver where I bought my car? Interesting ... I wonder what kind of explanation Mazda Canada will give me when I ask them about this. Can I use your phone, please?\"

If the dealership still won\'t get rattled, then call Mazda Canada on the spot. You should add the phone number (416) 609-9909 onto your cell in case the dealership won\'t let you use their phone :D

[FLIPDADY]

Originally posted by Soulcrusher


FLIPSPEED might know the actual answer to this, but I\'m guessing that part of the expense for the loaner car can be charged back to Mazda Canada if the car was brought into service under warranty.
If the parts are on backorder from Mazda Canada and the car isn\'t safe to drive then a \"loaner\" car is provided and the cost is covered by Mazda.

As far as dealers giving out loaner cars for service it\'s really up to the individual dealership to decide wether or not to provide their customers with cars. A lot of dealerships only give out loaners to people who purchased their vehicle their.

[Electra-fire]

Soulcrusher
Thanks for the tip :D

Ya know I do understand in a sense why they don\'t give a loaner car, but it was how it was told to me... the whole \"tough luck\" attitude... There was 0 empathy on the phone.. Just cold...

Ohhhh well
I know for next time... Soulcrusher ya might have jsut saved me some hassle in the future

[lisamac]

Hey Electra and gang :D

Electra - sorry about the experience you got at Northwood - that sucks and frankly I\'m surprised they weren\'t cooler to you... I just got a pretty lil 3 from them last week and I had a great experience with a salesman named Mac. If you ever get stuck again and have to go back to Northwood (not that I would if I were you) try him directly... he\'s a super nice guy... really went the extra mile for me!

Linda is the business manager - she helped me a tonne with my financing plan - super nice and does her job well. She might be another option... get you started maybe. I haven\'t had any experience with the service group yet as I just got it, but if I get any names I\'ll post them here for you. I\'ve found that often if you ask for people by name you get a better deal...

Anyway... if anyone is watching... seems that Northwood is touch and go. I got them on a good day. Ask for Mac. Especially if you\'re female. He was nothing if not respectful. Much more so than any of the other car salesman I\'ve dealt with. I didn\'t get a great feeling off some of the other guys there... they treated him like crap right in front of me. And one guy had slimy written ALL over him...

Hope you had a good birthday anyway - cool that there are other 3 owners from Barrie on here!
Good luck with your next service experience!

[FLIPDADY]

Make sure they don\'t overcharge you on the oil change. I heard a few customers say at Northwood they were overcharged just because they had a cartridge filter on their 3\'s. All Mazda oil changes are $26.95 plus disposal fee.

[Electra-fire]

Hey very very super glad to hear about other Barrie folk on thsi board.

Maybe we should hang some time?

Drop me a line:)

[Northwood]

Its always nice to hear comments from customers, good or bad. It lets us know when we\'re doing things right or when we\'re doing things wrong. Lets face it, nobodys perfect and its always nice to be able to learn from your mistakes, that is if you made one.

I\'m sorry to hear that you feel you had a bad experience at our dealership. Yes I do work here, I may even be the \"slimy\" one mentioned in one of the responses. But I feel it is my duty as one of the witnesses to this event that I should clear the air and give my take on what happened that day. Lets face it, when we get upset we all can stretch the truth a bit. So here is my totally subjective take on the event.

Yes there was a fan belt that was broken and yes the part was not in stock. Most Mazda3 parts have been a problem getting since the car went on sale. Due to the cars success, not just in Canada, but worldwide. Mazda never expected this great of a demand and therefore has had trouble building enough, let alone stocking \"spare parts\". A fix is on the way though and recently parts waits have been much shorter.

Due to the wait for the belt, this customer needed to get back to Toronto for dinner. Unfortunately we had no courtesy cars available. Her claim is that we refused her one. Not so true. How can we give her something we don\'t have available, they were all booked out. Most cars are booked 3 to four days in advance, hence the reason she could not get one.Our next offer was a rental car which she also didn\'t want. She felt she shouldn\'t have to pay for it. Unfortunatley Mazda does not have a \"reimbursement\" plan in place for rental cars needed unless they have been out of service for more then four days. Our hands were tied.

I also want to make something clear about the cartridge filter. Anyone with any technical knowledge will know that removal of this cartridge is a much more complex operation then a traditional style filter. All 2.3L engines of this type in Mazda3 GT, Mazda3 Sport, Mazda6 2.3, upcoming Mazda5, and the soon to be released Mazdaspeed6 use this filter and they are not included in our nationally advertised oil change price. If a dealer has been charging you that, trust me they\'re making it up elsewhere in your servicing. If your salesperson was doing they\'re job properly they should be telling you this. All of our\'s do.

Lastly with great amusement, I want to address the comment about \"making a quick buck\". We have been in business for 18 years in Barrie. I have have been here 8 of that. In those 8 years I have watched as our dealership has flourished into the largest Mazda dealer North of Hwy 9. We have won numerous awards from Mazda for sales and service excellence. And as a matter of a fact, in our province we are ranked #2 out of 51 dealerships for customer satisfaction. These ratings are determined not by Mazda, but by you the customer.

I plan to be here for many more years to come and take great pride knowing that no matter where I go I can hold my head high knowing that we do our job well and that we have many loyal and satisfied customers backing us up. I\'ll do whatever I can to make sure they stay that way. Its the only way to survive in business.

I love Mazda and I love working here. I\'m sorry you had the experience you did. But next time if you feel you have a valid complaint, post what truly happened, not bits and pieces about it. We all deserve the truth, so I told it.

Thankyou.

[Indusbreed]

Well as they say, there are always 2 sides of a story.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

Originally posted by Northwood

Due to the wait for the belt, this customer needed to get back to Toronto for dinner. Unfortunately we had no courtesy cars available. Her claim is that we refused her one. Not so true. How can we give her something we don\'t have available, they were all booked out. Most cars are booked 3 to four days in advance, hence the reason she could not get one.Our next offer was a rental car which she also didn\'t want. She felt she shouldn\'t have to pay for it. Unfortunatley Mazda does not have a \"reimbursement\" plan in place for rental cars needed unless they have been out of service for more then four days. Our hands were tied.

she should not have to pay for the rental...any dealership worth their salt will offer to pay for the rental; regardless if the customer bought the car at the particular dealership or not.

if she did have the Mazda Added Protection coverage (http://www.mazda.ca/files/2004_map_new_eng.pdf), one should\'ve been offered to her as stated in the benefits:

Alternate Transportation Allowance •Mazda Canada will contribute
to the cost of a rental vehicle while your vehicle is at a Mazda Dealer
for covered repairs.

if she didn\'t have the MAP, STILL one should have been offered out of compassion....fan belts are not supposed to snap within the first year/few months of ownership. your hands were tied, untie them.

i\'ll give you an example of my experience with Avante:

my seat track was loose and the seat back was squeaking. the parts had come in and i had to schedule a day when i was in toronto. unfortunately, where i was working was out of the range of the shuttle service. they only needed my car for the day, i had to be at work, what did they do? they gave me a rental car free of charge for the day.

stuff like this keeps customers coming back.


Originally posted by Northwood
I also want to make something clear about the cartridge filter. Anyone with any technical knowledge will know that removal of this cartridge is a much more complex operation then a traditional style filter. All 2.3L engines of this type in Mazda3 GT, Mazda3 Sport, Mazda6 2.3, upcoming Mazda5, and the soon to be released Mazdaspeed6 use this filter and they are not included in our nationally advertised oil change price. If a dealer has been charging you that, trust me they\'re making it up elsewhere in your servicing. If your salesperson was doing they\'re job properly they should be telling you this. All of our\'s do.

an oil change is an oil change..the complexity of the parts involved should NOT affect the customer. they DID NOT ask for the cartridge filter on their car, nor should they care that it is different from the spin-on filter. if it\'s different, THE DEALERSHIP should deal with it, NOT the customer.

if you can link to the stipulation that the nationally advertised oil change price does not include the cars you listed, it would be great.


Originally posted by Northwood

I plan to be here for many more years to come and take great pride knowing that no matter where I go I can hold my head high knowing that we do our job well and that we have many loyal and satisfied customers backing us up. I\'ll do whatever I can to make sure they stay that way. Its the only way to survive in business.

I love Mazda and I love working here. I\'m sorry you had the experience you did. But next time if you feel you have a valid complaint, post what truly happened, not bits and pieces about it. We all deserve the truth, so I told it.

Thankyou.



there are 2 sides to every story but, in the car business, the side of a dealership means less when compared with that of the customer. you say that you will \"do whatever [you] can to make sure\" that the customers stay satisfied...well, here is a customer who has had a bad experience, what will you do to change her/our perception of Northwood?

words mean very little unless they can be backed up.

btw, welcome to the board.

[Saphress]

Well, as to which every company does.... It\'s the customer SERVICE that is provided in ASSISTING the customer that makes the great experience that help advertise by word of mouth. You can easily make 10 people happy and one customer upset. And if there was one simple way of making them happy, or at least trying to HELP the customer in understanding, makes great customer service. It takes only one person to voice their opinions. And as to which.... can turn as you can see on this board several people who will avoid Northwood Mazda.

Yes there could have been a misunderstanding, and yes I understand where you are coming from. Considering the fact that I work for TD canada trust .... it does only take one person to have 10 people to stop dealing with you. If you are PROUD of he company that you work for, you would have TRIED to keep up the \"Awarding great Northwood Mazda\" name alive... by TRYING to go past the regulations and limitations that are GUIDELINES given to you to assist this customer. As to everything, there are always Rules and regulations.... but we all know since everyone has always worked for someone... or some company, there are always ways around to bend rules, or perhaps another means to achieve that goal. Anyways, the point is she had a bad experience, nor were there any offers to make her at least feel a bit better... nor was there any sympathy that was given to her dilema at that time to make her feel remotely better. As to which, that is bad customer service, and if you are PROUD to work for Northwood... FYI, yer giving them a bad name and that\'s not the way to be proud of your company that you work for.

[jaM3ican]

Sorry but i guess i am going to revive this thread.

I had my 24k service done here and was not overly please with what was done.


1)Tire pressure was checked if you call letting the air out of the tires
checking it and not reinflating it. I don't even know if they put them on
correctly because i told them that i did not want them rotated cuz i had
winters on.
2)Never saw anyone check the 8k list other than changing the oil and filter

I did see someone take out screw/bolts in the brake area and then putting some sort of goo on them and reinstall them. what that was about i don't know? Can anyone school me on what that was?

They told me that i neede to replace the airfilter and i assume that it needed changing. How often do you have to change this and where is it?

Thinking i would take it to MOT cuz i know that the work will be done right

[wingnut12]

Northwood has some good guys working there, but it seems to take awhile to get to know them. Sometimes, I'll just stand off to the side and watch them work.

Holy crap, man.

This thread was so far dead, the egyptians were asking for their mummies back.

:whoa

[PKock]

Was a good read for me though. Just got my car from them last week so I was curious as to where this thread was gonna go.

[Electra-fire]

This post has been edited...
Issue has been resolved BUT if any conficts persist I will repost it again.

Thanks to all those who gave me their support in this matter!

Cardinal Flag thank you for your post below as it was good advice.

Cheers,

[Cardinal Fang]

Contact the dealership manager and let them know what one of their employees is up to. Making a fair commentary on a business is fair game. What isn't is the threat of retaliation simply because they do not agree with you.

[jaM3ican]

Another good experience at Northwood mazda. The more that i go there i seem to have better experiences.

Thanks to those of you that helped me with the door lock plate, oil change and shock sensor. 1.5 hrs and i was out.

[Houndskull]

i nomally go to dave wood coz thats where i got my car. but sometimes i go to Northwood coz its closer for me only 5 kil from my house and yes i totally agree that their service sucks and the people there i think hates their jobs cocky sales people too.

[PKock]

Good to hear jaM3cain. So far theyve done me no wrong and I hope they keep it up. Whatever happened with your bumper by the way?
PK

[Thunder 3]

Yikes...sounds kind of sketchy. I shopped at Northwood as well as the dealership in Orillia. I wound up purchasing in Guelph because that is where I got the best service. I think I'll just drive there to get my oil changes done...

[jaM3ican]

Here is a link to a problem that i had that Northwood Mazda did my service work on.

http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=287066#post287066

[Houndskull]

personally i never had problems with them except for their service and customer relations. but my friend went to look at a car there and sure enough the sales rep wouldnt even bother talking to him. one good question if Dave Wood and Northwood Mazda have the same owners why is it dave wood has better customer service?

[jaM3ican]

personally i never had problems with them except for their service and customer relations. but my friend went to look at a car there and sure enough the sales rep wouldnt even bother talking to him. one good question if Dave Wood and Northwood Mazda have the same owners why is it dave wood has better customer service?

Try talking to Mac, he is one of the sales reps there. I got my 3 from him. Very informative and he will take the time to explain things. I have not had any experience with anyone else so i can't speak about them.

Mac looked for my car and found my 2006 GT sport in Toronto (had 101km on it so i know it came from Toronto) and gave me the straight up version that i had to think about it quick cuz it was the only one in the color & trim that i wanted.