I have a story about my terrible experience with Carter Subaru in Shoreline.
My wife and I have purchased two new cars from this dealership in the past year. The buying experience was awesome! The cars are amazing and the sales staff was very nice and helpful. We were so pleased with our first car - 2009 Forester, that we had to come back and buy a new Impreza when we were in the market for another new car.
All was great until one day I had to come over to the service department to get them to check out on some rattling noise that was coming out from behind the stereo in my wife's Forester. I described to them what the problem was, turned my car in, got the service loaner and left. The next day I received a phone call from one of the service advisers who said that they could not identify the noise I was referring to. I told him that he had to drive the car on the freeway with the stereo turned off to hear the rattling. He suggested that I came in later in the day so that I could drive the car with him to point out the rattling, to which I agreed. In a few hours I received another phone call from a different service adviser who told me that they have done everything they could to my car and it was ready to be picked up. That was a little strange since I agreed to come over later and drive the car with the service adviser but I just figured that they have fixed it.
I came over later that day to pick my car up and as soon as I got in I saw a huge crack in my windshield right in my line of sight. I immediately went back inside and told the attendant about the damage. The service adviser came out, looked at the windshield and said that the mechanic who was working on the car was gone for the day but he would ask him the following day about what happened and then call me back with his findings.
The next day I got a phone call and the service adviser informed me that the mechanic was claiming that I brought the car in with the broken windshield. I could not believe the brazen lies I was hearing! I told him that it was impossible for me not to notice that huge crack in my windshield before and i was expecting them to do something about it! He started saying that maybe my wife was driving the car and broke the windshield, or maybe I brought the car in when it was late, and dark, and raining. I told him that his allegations were ridiculous and he should not have been treating me like a "stupid" person...
I wrote a letter to the Better Business Bureau and after several back and forth exchanges with them and the dealership I arrived at nothing!
I even talked to the general manager of the dealership in hopes that she would do something to set things straight but she ended up delegating the matter to her service department manager who pretty much blew me off.
They did offer me to split the cost of my insurance deductible and it was their final offer but I simply declined this ridiculous offer telling them that it was not the matter of paying for the windshield replacement myself but it was rather a principle. I still do not understand why i have to use my own insurance to pay for the damage that they have caused to my vehicle.
I was completely blown away by their lack of care for their loyal customers and told them that I would rather pay for the repairs myself than accept their so-called "generous" offer to split the cost of my deductible.
The only thing that I can recommend people who are in the market for a new Subaru is to stay as far away from Carter Subaru as possible! They will be nice to you in the beginning but god forbid you should come back to get the basic maintenance done to you car! They will break something and blame you for it making you look like a total fool!!!
