REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

ucsmfu · 10-04-2012, 11:13 PM

Some of you guys might have had good experiences with Rise Auto Salon, however, I just want to share with you guys about the experience that I had.

1 week ago, I was booked in for an remote starter/alarm installation with Rise Auto Salon because I had some friends that had their install done there. They recommended me to go their because of their quality work, service, and reasonable pricing.

So, the big day arrived, this Monday October 1st. The appointment was scheduled for 10am. I was 100% sure of this because I wrote it down on the calender as well as on my smartphone.

I got a friend to come with me because he was giving me a lift home and because it would take them most of the day to complete the job. I arrived 10 minutes early, around 9:50am and waited until 10am.

10am rolled along, and I got out of my car to see if the shop is opened yet because my appointment was for 10am and their working hours were from 10am as well to 6pm. To my surprise it was still closed, so I decide to give them a call. The phone just kept ringing, I figured no one was there and went back to wait in my car.

15 minutes later, I tried calling again because my friend had something to do around noon and I didn't want to keep him waiting, he was super patient with me and told me that it's ok and that he will wait for me. Still no one picked up.

At that time, I thought to myself, maybe I mistaken the appointment time and perhaps it was for a later time. So I waited for another 15 minutes and called their number once more, no one answered and so this time I left a voicemail.

30 minutes had gone by and it's nearing 11am, I told myself to be patient and calm and decided to give them until 11am before I would go.

11am came along and still the store was closed, no one picked up the phone. Nobody called me either.

I decided to wait another 10 more minutes before I leave. So I waited and called 2 more times, still no pick up and the store was still closed.

I drove away and felt really bad for my buddy that waited there with me for 1:10

I got home, called them 2 times every hour, all the way to 2:30pm, still no one picked up the phone. I was boiling hot at this moment and told myself, I would never recommend anyone to go here, and thinking about how bad their customer service had been.

Nearing 3pm, one of their guys finally called me, and asked me if I was still coming in to install the remote starter/alarm system. I told them, I was there waiting for over 1 hour, and they told me, my appointment was for 11am. The person I spoke with, told me he had written down my appointment for 11am. In my mind, I was thinking that's total BS, cause I waited there passed 11am, and I didn't see anywhere in the front or the back of the shop.This matter was quickly brushed off with them asking me if I could come back 2 days later for the installation. I told them that it was ok, but they told me that no one will be there in the morning so I can just park my car in the front and slide the keys in their mailbox. I told them ok, and we ended out conversation there.

As Wednesday approached, I was hesitant to drop off my car and slide my keys in their mailbox, because I haven' had time to talk to them, and ask them about some information I wanted to know about the installation. So that day, I decided to wait until 11am, 1 hour pass their store hour opening time. Luckily someone answered, I told them that I was suppose to have my car installed the other day, and ask them if someone was going to be there while I drop off my car.

They said yes, and I quickly drove off to the shop. When I got to the shop, I asked them about Monday, and what happend ?

The guy told me that his car ran out of gas, I was like WTF ? than, he told me, I was right, the appointment was at 10am instead of 11am, so they straight up lied to me the other day. Now I was super pissed. He said that he was sorry, and said that they can get the installation done asap. Even though I was extremely dissapointed, I really just wanted to get the system installed and get it over with, so I let them begin the installation.

Just as I got home, I received a call from them. They told me that they aren't sure if the remote starter will work etc... because it was a push to start button etc... A bunch of weird excuses. So if that's the case, why don't they tell me that in the first place before they agreed to do the installation on the car, and before going through all this trouble. Somehow, it sounded fishy, so I got my buddy to drive my back to the shop, and when I got there I talked to the manager. The manager was easy to talk to, however, he didn't apologize at all for Monday's incident, he than convinced me that they can install the alarm 100% and that they just can't guarantee that the remoter starter will work on my Toyota hybrid car.

I told him, well that's the main point, and the alarm is just like the icing on the cake. He told me that he was sorry and was went on to gather up my parts to return to me. He told me that he called Compustar, idatalink, and a couple other company's and told me that he isn't sure if the remote starter install will work. He told me that his installer had begin the installation, and handed me back my parts with all the wires loose and left hanging, super messy, box opened, and said " I'm sorry for the inconvenience" and that was that, I didn't feel like talking to dealing with them, and I just wanted to leave that place asap cause I felt they wasted soo much of my time already.

All in all, this experience with Rise Auto Salon totally left a sour taste in my mouth. I Feel that they were dishonest, unprofessional, not passionate with their work, and in a way I felt cheated. The customer service was horrible. I called a total of 20 + times and they picked up 2 times. At the end, after all the incident etc.., they tell me BTW, we changed our work number, and gave me a new number to call. Why da heck, didn't you tell me in the first place ><

I found their customer service to be, unacceptable, inadequate,
, deceiving, and a general lack of integrity. The business itself did not meet a normal shop standards.

Luckily, I found a different shop that I can completely trust, and that will do the install for me with 100% guarantee.

Anyways, I just wanted to share with you guys about my horrible experience with Rise Auto Salon.

Feel free to comment

I hope this doesn't happen to any other Revscene members in the future

Why have a sign saying that your open, even though you are not ?

Eastwood · 10-04-2012, 11:23 PM

Thanks for the info. Its always good to hear personal reviews on RS.

PJ · 10-05-2012, 06:50 AM

My cousin had the a similar experience there too.

Booked an appointment, arrived, no one there. When he called, no one answered.
When he finally got a hold of someone, they said there was no appointment booked. He was certain he had booked this, he even took a day off work for it.

Not trying to bash, but that's what happened. The whole communication thing here seems really flaky?

Acura604 · 10-05-2012, 07:17 AM

you simply cant trust these 'gypsy kwan-do' fly by night 'holes in the wall' shops... and never schedule an appt first thing in the morning with these types of shops.. they were probably too busy the previous night staying up late. completely unprofessional..

the question remains though.. after the initial disappointment, and i know you said you wanted to just get this over with... but your gut shoulda told you.. 'skip this shop'.

bluejays · 10-05-2012, 07:21 AM

Isn't Rise an RS Sponsor?
Posted via RS Mobile

shantz · 10-05-2012, 07:36 AM

I'd hope not...

spyker · 10-05-2012, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluejays

Isn't Rise an RS Sponsor?
Posted via RS Mobile

Yes they are.

zx7rrrr · 10-05-2012, 08:54 AM

U shoulda just went to another shop like nmotion or souundsgood
Posted via RS Mobile

hopalong · 10-05-2012, 09:28 AM

I had a somewhat similar experience a few years bak with my old car. I booked my car for 11am for some work to be done. I arrived 10 mins early and waited until noon. Doors locked and an open sign. I called half a dozen times but no one picked up. I obviously left. At 3pm someone from rise called and asked why I never showed up at 11 am for my appointment. He said he was there at 1030. Lol ok buddy...

Phil@rise · 10-05-2012, 10:38 AM

Criticize away if you feel its warranted. I am fine with that and encourage people to do so. We as a business get by on only word of mouth. IE referrals from one client to the next. Service records are never %100 and I am fine with that if I stressed about it I'd never get an ounce of sleep and frankly thats hard enough with a new born girl lol.
I'm not sure how everything was explained to you as I didnt have the opportunity to do so. I did explain Mondays situation and did apologize for it as I ran out of gas on the way in. Getting a carb'd 67' Coronet to start after that is quite the ordeal (fuel gauge doesnt work I'm not stupid lol).
Wednesday was a whole new day. Your car was booked for me to do. I was here no fuel issues

. When I pulled your car into the shop I noticed the engine didnt start untill I put it in gear and moved a few feet. I thought interesting. How is a remote start supposed to do anything if the gas engine doesnt start untill the car is moving. I tested this five times, same result. So I figured why take your money for a remote start that isnt going to work. Seemed reasonable to me. I was prepared to instal the drone and alarm function and save you some money on the starter part that I wasnt sure would work properly.
I'm not sure thats how it was explained to you and I'm sorry if it wasnt. They were honest intentions apparently perceived as dishonest.

kwy · 10-05-2012, 11:00 AM

I gotta say, OP, you're extremely patient. Same thing happened to me with a shop in Abby(which no longer exists btw, I wonder why). Waited half an hour, and that was my limit. That's simply not how you do business. Needless to say I never went back there again.

Cman333 · 10-05-2012, 11:22 AM

Hey Enoch,

There really is no excuse for what happened. Just a string of bad incidents. Monday, completely our fault. Not much I can say about it but sorry, we felt really bad for wasting your time. So I tried to reschedule you asap to not keep you waiting (which would've meant Phil would be staying late that night because I pushed the other jobs back to try and complete yours first). So I did call the Compustar/Datalink Tech (he's actually on RS too), and inquired about the Prius for all the data I needed to do the install. Needless to say, there was not much info on the car. So I tried calling you but your phone went to voicemail (bad coincidence, your phone was out of battery). So a couple hours later I finally get a hold of you on how you want to proceed. You sent me some links verifying someone has put in a Viper before, but really some of them were broken links (priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ssion/87367-remote-start-doesnt-keep-car.html). So I had to dig around a bit. But I tried calling you but again your phone was dead. From the info I could find in the links, it all just confirmed what I said before. So here I am, not sure where to proceed. Do I "assume" you just want me to put it in and have it not work the way you want. So I spent more and more time, digging around and calling different friends/companies in the industry for insight. I made the judgement call to pull your car up front and get phil to start on the other cars that were pushed back until I figure out the how to proceed.

Last thing I wanted was to start working on your car, have it in shambles, then find out it's not going to run the way you wanted. Unfortunately for newer cars they're alot more complicated to do remote starts in (more so with hybrids) and we heavily rely on info from manufacturers for wiring schematics. I made the assumption that you did all the homework (since you bought everything on your own on ebay, and seemed very thorough with your purchases) and I would have easy access to all the information.

Either way, you showed up mid way and took your car. Not much we can say other than sorry for disappointing you. We tried, but the sequence of events just worked against us. I'm sorry you felt the need to make a big scene out of this. We didn't damage your car, we didn't take any money, we just wasted each others time trying to figure something complicated out. I'm being told by techs at compustar/idatalink there wasn't a way around the car shutting off when the door opens. You tell me it's been done online, but there's zero detail on how it was done.

My bad. I assumed all the data was available because you said it was done by someone online. Sorry.

Oh and I never book for 10am ever, because sometimes Phil runs 10-20 mins late due to Surrey traffic, last thing I want is someone waiting. On average all appointments are 10:30 or later. I'm sorry if somehow you thought I said 10am, I might've said we open at 10, but after moving cars around and setting up we usually don't start until 10:30ish. That's again, communication error on my behalf. Your wiring for the alarm was being prepped, it's impossible to bag it back up the exactly the way it was. I would've assumed that was obvious if we're doing the installation that the wiring harness was going to be used for the alarm, and wouldn't be bundled up in it's original state.

Great68 · 10-05-2012, 11:56 AM

When I realised that no money was exchanged, I found the OP's rant a bit over the top. From what I gather here, rise did the honest thing.

Hence the fail.

Redlines_Daily · 10-05-2012, 12:38 PM

Time is worth more than money imo

freakshow · 10-05-2012, 01:16 PM

It's clear that Rise made some mistakes on the Monday, and unfortunate events escalated the issue into a bad situation for the customer. But knowing that they are willing to confess on a public forum, accept fault, and not attack the OP makes me more willing to go to Rise in the future for their honesty and accessibility.

TjAlmeida · 10-05-2012, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Great68

When I realised that no money was exchanged, I found the OP's rant a bit over the top. From what I gather here, rise did the honest thing.

Hence the fail.

Not going to pick sides as i have never been to the shop personally. But if you booked an appointment and were certain it was at a specified time, and no one was there to even tell you that they were running behind i believe you would not be impressed either.

Hence the fail.

guava · 10-05-2012, 01:47 PM

i have never even heard of this shop.

i-VTEC · 10-05-2012, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guava

i have never even heard of this shop.

I never heard of you

Great68 · 10-05-2012, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tj.GSR

Not going to pick sides as i have never been to the shop personally. But if you booked an appointment and were certain it was at a specified time, and no one was there to even tell you that they were running behind i believe you would not be impressed either.

Hence the fail.

Obviously shit happens. It was unintentional and in my opinion not worth the diatribe on the internet.

Especially this part of it: "I found their customer service to be lousy, unacceptable, inadequate, sketchy
, deceiving, repulsive, and despicable, and it did not totally meet the normal shop standards."

Hence the fail

knight604 · 10-05-2012, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcuraBoy

I never heard of you

because mm fan boys be running about in rs

tiger_handheld · 10-05-2012, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cman333

Oh and I never book for 10am ever, because sometimes Phil runs 10-20 mins late due to Surrey traffic, last thing I want is someone waiting. On average all appointments are 10:30 or later. I'm sorry if somehow you thought I said 10am, I might've said we open at 10, but after moving cars around and setting up we usually don't start until 10:30ish. That's again, communication error on my behalf. Your wiring for the alarm was being prepped, it's impossible to bag it back up the exactly the way it was. I would've assumed that was obvious if we're doing the installation that the wiring harness was going to be used for the alarm, and wouldn't be bundled up in it's original state.

I think there is a lesson for everyone.

Shop: You guys should consider changing your store hours. Open at 10:30. Better to open early than late

OP could've called a few shops and confirmed if remote start will work on a Prius Hybrid before investing time/money into the mod.

side note: OP did you get it installed? Does it work 100%?

dee242 · 10-05-2012, 02:07 PM

why put an alarm in a car nobody wants

Eff-1 · 10-05-2012, 02:08 PM

Of course, there 's no excuse for the shop to screw up the appointments. Give them credit they fessed up to that.

On the other hand, I have always thought you assume the risk when you bring your own parts to be installed. The minute you do bring your own stuff, you're take all responsibility that the parts will work. It's up to the customer to be 100% certain (check packaging, check with manufacturer, etc). If for some reason the shop can't get it to work, that's the risk you take. The customer even said the shop called him as soon as he got home to let him know they didn't think it was going to work. It's unfortunate, but hard to blame the shop for this.

J89 · 10-05-2012, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Great68

Obviously shit happens. It was unintentional and in my opinion not worth the diatribe on the internet.

Especially this part of it: "I found their customer service to be lousy, unacceptable, inadequate, sketchy
, deceiving, repulsive, and despicable, and it did not totally meet the normal shop standards."

Hence the fail

If I have an appointment with you and you are not there on time and lied about the time of appointment that is untrustworthy and unacceptable.
Stop trying to defend the shop. OP had an opinion he thought was important to share to RS and Rise as well said what they had to say. All in all, I agree with OP and had it been me? waiting for an Hour and getting lied too? I would have done something about it cause I'm not that nice of a guy.
But hey I wasn't there so I can't set the mood.

smoothie. · 10-05-2012, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freakshow

It's clear that Rise made some mistakes on the Monday, and unfortunate events escalated the issue into a bad situation for the customer. But knowing that they are willing to confess on a public forum, accept fault, and not attack the OP makes me more willing to go to Rise in the future for their honesty and accessibility.

Being honest about fucking up doesn't mean they didn't fuck up and won't fuck up in the future. We all fuck up, simple as that.

Neither shop nor customer seemed to prepare well enough for the hybrid autostart feature.

Being the RS sponsor they are, they're pretty much obligated to reply here to try and clear things up, or lose a lot of potential customers.