Car dealerships stink.

Okay, I'm sure not all of them stink. But, the one we bought our Honda Odyssey from does. Or, at least the Service Department does. We bought our Odyssey about 4 months ago. The day after we bought it, we noticed one of the snaps on one of the floor mats had fallen off. We figured it was no big deal; we'd just call the dealership and have them replace it. I'm proud to say that 4 months later, 5 hours worth of sitting in the waiting room with 2 kids, and at least 30 minutes on the phone, we finally have a fixed floor mat.

We reported the missing snap the week we bought the van. They said they'd order the mat. After a couple months of not hearing anything, I called in to check on the status. The guy told me that they would have received it and sent it back by now because it had been so long. I told him there must be a glitch in their process since I was never notified before they decided to send it back. Duh. So, he said he'd have the mat overnighted and ready for me the next day. I made an oil change appointment and showed up bright and early. Surprise! No floor mat. They're on back order with no ETA. I then have to wait over 3 hours for a silly oil change. The kids were okay for the first hour. By the second, my pregnant self is exhausted and the kids are ansi and tired. They finally finish after 3 1/2 hours and, oops, they forgot to wash the van. The kids were about to melt down, so I just left. The service advisor then has the nerve to call Chris and ask him if we were satisified with our experience. My charming, gentle husband proceeded to give him an earful.

Last week the guy calls Chris again and said they were finally able to get our mat in. Chris said, "Great, when can we come pick it up?" Not that easy. The guy tells Chris we'd have to make an appointment. "To get a floor mat??" You can imagine Chris' surprise. He was nice enough to promise Chris it would only take 45 minutes. Yeah, 45 minutes to get a silly floor mat installed. I show up today thinking the guy had to be off his rocker. I expected maybe all of 5 minutes. Wrong again. An hour and a half later, I have a new floor mat and they've washed the van. The kids are loosing it and the guy has the nerve to ask me, "So, have we successfully changed your mind about our service?" with a big grin on his face like he had worked a service miracle.

Needless to say, we'll be finding another dealership to go to for future service.