Don Docksteader Subaru Service Department Scratched My STI Lip Kit.
 

Hey everyone, long story-short... I went to the dealer for a scheduled warranty service to take my Pioneer radio out to get it shipped to Pioneer HQ for a reflash because they could not figure out what the passcode was after I removed the negative battery terminal. They want to charge me $75 for the reflash even though it's not my fault from the beginning. Eventually if I end up getting a new battery or need to work on the car I always disconnect the negative to be safe... and eventually sooner or later this will happen.

To make matters worst, when I got back to the car after the service, the car was parked facing the curb. Immediately I knew something was not right (they even said they normally, as per policy, park backing up). Anyways, low and behold, I found nice scrapes underneath my STI front lip. How do I know I didn't do it? Well, I checked and took a photo of my front lip in my own garage before I headed down to the dealer on that very same day! Service Manager said that they refuse to fix it and do anything about it; what made me more upset was the fact that he said it is not a Canadian product (referring to the lip), and that if they scratched it, it would have left a mark on the concrete...Seriously?!

Now, I understand that if my car was lowered it would be my fault for putting it out of spec, but blaming the kit from overseas BUILT for the BRZ by STI is utter BULLCRAP. I also understand that scratches and scuffs of the underside of any lip is inevitable, but the fact that these guy did it and not admit to it is what ticks me off and unfair. Anyways here are some photos and videos for you to decide. Also I need some transcripts for the videos to make out what they are saying, I know you guys can be really good detectives... I have already emailed Subaru Canada about this and hope to get a response soon.

Any help would be much appreciated!

I am so paranoid that I took pictures of the front dash and front lip right before taking her into for service...

Before Picture in my garage on the same date.
http://i44.tinypic.com/k0h83r.jpg


After the fact, when I came back to the car after the service.
http://i44.tinypic.com/v46szl.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/fcuzaa.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/291kk06.jpg


Technician, parked the car too close and you can hear the scrape right after he put it in Park.



Service Advisor and Service Manager talking amongst themselves while I was waiting in the waiting room.






Modded/Non-modded Subaru/Volvo owners BEWARE!

P.S. Date and time on dashcam are wrong.

i had to take my friends sti in for an inspection, i told the guys at the desk that its too low/heavily modified and i would rather them not look at it and have me pay the fee

took them 2hours to look around and tell me "exhaust has been modified, seat has been changed, brakes appear to be aftermarket"

Honestly man ... scratches are just the reality of owning an aftermarket lip. Given that they are on the underside I wouldn't sweat a bullet. If it didn't happen now it would happen eventually. This is going to become a classic example of he-said-she-said... if the dealer is willing to compensate in some form (complimentary servicing, etc.) fantastic... otherwise, do you honestly have the time and energy to pursue this?

Also - I owned an STi for many years that sat low on coilovers and had a front lip amongst many other things. The dealer was supportive but uncomfortable with working on my car and I didn't blame them at all... aftermarket parts come with costs/risks beyond the initial purchase/installation.

It's more of their customer service ethics I am not happy with. The Service Manager had no remorse or any sympathy at all, gave me horrible attitude and refused to anything... Even chuckled when I told them I take before pictures just in case.

They also have a policy for not backing up a customer's vehicle into a stall for safety reasons. (What my salesman said)

U wont even be able to see it..
Posted via RS Mobile

Somebody call the waaaaaaaabulane :cry:

I understand that but the it's very hard to substantiate what that conversation actually looked like ... certainly not suggesting that you are fabricating the context of the discussion but I'm sure everybody here can appreciate both sides of conversation.

I know dealerships do a thorough walk-around of the vehicle when it is being signed in (we do) but I have never known one to check underneath the car for damage... had the front of the lip been scratched or cracked I'm sure this would be an entirely different story.

They did the check because I complained to them after I took a look. I always inspect my vehicle thoroughly before even getting into it.

I may get my first fail posting this but oh well. Firstly I feel your pain... we are all car enthusiast here. I really hope they can do something to resolve this to your satisfaction.

I only post this because I hope it can ease some of your headaches.
Do you ever plan on lowering your car? do you drive it daily? is it wrong for me to say that it will eventually happen? but in this case you don't have to hate yourself or your GF. You can hate on them! *temporary hate*

I do not think I have ever seen a car *not suv* last its life without undercarriage scratches. I would be way more concerned if it was visible from the front or sides.

sorry, not a car expert here, but would the underside still scratch if the lip wasn't installed since they are blaming the lip. maybe go at it with that angle and see what they say. and if their policy is to back in, why didn't they with your vehicle?

I should have asked them that. Unfortunately I found out after I went to talk to my salesman. He even showed me the whole lot and about 98% of the cars were parked backed-in. The few he said are most likely driven and parked by customers. Their Techs are "supposed" to be trained to back into stalls.

It's the underside of the lip. When will you walk by and look there? You would have done the same sooner or later.
I don't deal with Don Docksteader, I just don't like their customer service. Langley Subaru is much easier to deal with and more modfied car friendly.
Posted via RS Mobile

I understand that scratches and scuffs of the underside of any lip is inevitable, but the fact that these guy did it and not admit to it is what ticks me off.

So, is this a public service announcement to avoid Don Docksteader or a thread simply to vent your frustrations and to share your experience?

its not for someone else to scratch first, he paid $2000 for the lip so he should be the one to scratch it first

What the fuck is a wabulane?
OP go there with 50 grit sandpaper and scratch the bottom of all their BRZ lips. But seriously, if that part of my car got scratched I'd never even look at it, never mind care, although I understand the frustration in them not admitting it. A simple sorry and I'd let it go, but since they can't even do that drag their name through the shit and let them know you are doing it.

$2000 for a lip lol! could have been worse, what did you expect them to do? buy you a new lip?

All of the above, it seems.

Wow. $2000 for that stupid lip kit? You should get a home depot lip instead.

$2000 for the full lip kit. The front lip is about $400-$500.

I'm pretty sure 2k is for the whole kit. The front lip if I recall is around 600 bucks or so

Wait, you spent $2000 on a lip kit?

edit: godamnit took too long to read through this stupid thread and got beat

SUBARU : ?????? > ??????? > SUBARU BRZ > ?????????? > STI???????

The lip is 42,000 yen ($441 Canadian @ today's rate)
+ shipping I guess?

If you go on their website, New and Used Subaru Dealer | Vancouver, British Columbia | Docksteader Subaru

http://docksteadersubaruvancouver.ca...o/Reviewus.jpg

and it will lead you to this website. Docksteader Subaru Reviews, 8530 Cambie Street , Vancouver | Subaru Dealers, Auto Service, Used Car Dealers | n49.ca

^ anyways what I was trying to show you was that you can probably give them crap ass rating, maybe post pictures or link you youtube videos if you can.

as far as scratch goes, unfortunately there aren't much you can do.
If you want to take it far and file a lawsuit, I suspect that you would win since you got both pictures and videos as an evidence.

However lawsuit like this is going to be very slow process just like we all know, even small civil claims will take up to few years.
I am not sure if you want to spend extra time and effort going through all this just so that they will pay the repair or replace your front lip.
For most people, it's not really worth it for a sake of few hundred bucks at most.

I know you're frustrated and everything but it's not really worth your time worrying about it. Life is too short.

What you can do is to let people know what they did to you, conveniently we have internet. You can go to business review sites and post it there.

To make a long story short, there aren't much you can do about it. Just forget it and move on. Lucky the damage isn't substantial.