About a month ago I was visiting my parents with the kids. As we left to go back to Nana's house three and a half hours away, the air conditioner in our Honda Odyssey stopped blowing cold air. That's right. Three and a half hours with three kids in a minivan with the windows down in 100+ degree weather at the end of a Texas August.
We got back and made an appointment to take our van the next day to the local Honda dealer to get it fixed. The next day we did not get our van fixed because the dealer's service center told me it would cost $1800 and require replacing the compressor and six or seven other parts of the air conditioning system. We do not have $1800 laying around, and they don't do payment plans. The manager did tell me I might contact the corporate office, tell them a sob story, and see if they would pay for part of it. Oh, and we could always take it to a local mechanic and get a second opinion.
I called the corporate office a few days later, and the customer service representative told me very courteously that because there were no known issues with the air conditioner in our 2005 Honda Odyssey, there was nothing American Honda could do. He gave me a website where I could find authorized Honda Dealers, and maybe one of them could help me. The first dealer that came up was the dealer we had originally taken our car to. Helpful.
At this point I was so frustrated I sat down and wrote a letter to American Honda to tell them what I thought of their customer service and their vehicle, and I shamelessly included all parts of our sob story, including weekly trips to a distant hospital for a high-risk pregnancy and multiple future scheduled surgeries, small children, and Texas heat.
"A letter. That will show them." Name that movie.
Meanwhile, Jack put all the kids' car seats in the back of our Galant and started taking the van to work.
About a week later, I got a phone call from another customer service rep at American Honda thanking me for the letter and the opportunity to review my case. Then she proceeded to tell me that because there were no known issues with the air conditioner on my vehicle, there was nothing they could do, but they are very sorry about my situation. Super helpful.
I took the kids for another visit to my parents' house, and when my parents didn't see the van they wanted to know what was up. I told them the whole story, and my dad got online to do a little research. (Thanks, Dad.) Google is your friend. If any of you, my friends, have a 2005-2009 Honda Odyssey, you may want to do a little Google search yourself. The information Dad found about "no known issues with the air conditioner" was fascinating.
I forwarded the email detailing "no known issues" to Jack, who took the van to a local mechanic the next day. The local mechanic made a phone call and referred Jack to a different mechanic who specializes in Japanese cars. Two days later, the mechanic, who used to work at a Honda dealership and now has his own repair shop, replaced a coil and a sensor and charged us $300. Amazingly, the air conditioner has worked ever since.
That is my frustrating story. Good thing it has a happy ending.
2 comments:
No idea about the movie quote but so happy this has a happy ending.
Is the movie You've Got Mail? I know either Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan said it in a movie, and that's the only one I remember with both of them in it.
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