If you don’t know Servco Auto Leeward, then I can tell you that this is the car dealer where Michelle bought her Toyota Matrix S last wednesday. Servco Auto Leeward is a dealer of Toyota, Suzuki and Chevrolet in Waipahu, Hawaii, and is part of Servco Auto Centers, a group dealers which is spread all over Hawai’i. They used to be called ‘Waipahu Auto’.

Normally I would not easily write a post about bad service, but in this case I will make an exception for Servco Auto Leeward because both Michelle and I think that we received some bad service here, especially when you think about it that we spend thousands of dollars last week. And it wouldn’t be so bad, if someone just apologized to us for the bad service at Servco Auto Leeward during the last few days, but that did not even happen. I hope that, with a bit of luck, I can prevent some people from making the same mistake as we did.

So what happened? Well, as I wrote in my previous post about Michelle’s new Toyota Matrix S, the dealer, Servco Auto Leeward in Waipahu, would tint the windows, and they would install a car alarm. So they called us last Friday for an appointment, and they asked us if we could bring the car on Monday morning so they could do the window tinting and install the car alarm on that day into the Toyota Matrix S.

However, because I also had to bring our BMW X5 to some bodyshop (because of some minor damage earlier), and because Michelle had to work that day, we told them that this would be a bad timing for us. Tuesday wouldn’t be a good idea either for Servco Auto Leeward, so we decided that we would bring the car on Sunday already. It had to be done around 2 pm in the afternoon.. why this had to be at 2 pm remains unknown to us, they’re open until 6 pm. Oh well, we did as they asked us to do.

We didn’t hear anything from Servco Auto Leeward in Waipahu on Monday, so we decided on tuesday, around noon, to call ourselves as we thought it was taking a bit longer than expected (I will tell you a bit below why we thought this). They told us that nothing had been done yet at that moment, and that they did not know when the car would be done, they would call us. This is something they told Michelle, so I called directly back again to ask some questions about it, because why did we had to bring our car on Monday already if they wouldn’t do anything? The man to whom I spoke at that moment told me that the car was scheduled for that afternoon and that it should be done at around 5 pm. About an hour later we received a call that we could pick up the car at around six pm. The feeling of service started to become quite low at that time, as you can imagine.

Right, at around 6.15 pm, we arrived at Servco Auto Leeward in Waipahu, and we received the keys to the Toyota Matrix S again. When we were inside the car, we started to inspect a few things as we wanted to know if the tint was done nicely and that kind of things…

Well, I can tell you, there were bubbles everywhere. There are a couple of small bubbles but also some pretty big ones. When we asked about this, they told us that it should be looking ok in a few days. Ok, that’s possible, but when we had a few small (really small) bubbles at the BMW after tinting, they told us the same. But after a week they were still there, and they had to redo it again. And while that was only minor, this is pretty big, so I will be surprised if we don’t have to go back.

So we went back again to the car, a bit unsatisfied with the answer but willing to wait a couple of days. When we came to our car again, we noticed that one of the panels of the interior was not closed by the one who, we think, installed the alarm into the Toyota Matrix S at Servco Auto Leeward in Waipahu. So we could go back inside again because I couldn’t get the panel back on again, and I didn’t want to have the risk of damaging the car already, I rather have them do it.

When we showed them the open panel, they (some salesmen of Servco Auto Leeward) tried to reattach the panel to the car again, but they were not able to manage this either. They then told us that it would be best that we left the car another day, so they could show it to those responsible and that they could reattach the panel again. We went back home again, very unsatisfied about the service at that moment (you might expect that they would fix something like that right away) and without the Toyota Matrix S.

This morning, however, there was the well known ‘last straw’. We received a call from someone at Servco Auto Leeward, and he told us dead serious that he could not see/find the panel and that we had to call him back (he spoke into our voicemail). I called him at around 10 am this morning and told him where the panel was (I bet he just looked at one panel, because it was very easily visible). At that time I really didn’t feel like arguing about it again, so I just left it at that. He told me that it would probably be done somewhere today but did not know when. I don’t know why he didn’t just say “We’ll fix it right away”, which is something you might expect. Anyways, after a while we received another call from Servco Auto Leeward, telling us the car was ready for pickup.

Finally.

And is it all ok now? I doubt it… there are still some big bubbles in the tint of the windows (it is some form of film) and I highly doubt these will be gone in a few days (actually tomorrow already, like they said). We will wait until the weekend, but then we might have to call Servco Auto Leeward again. I expected it will happen.

The reason, by the way, why we thought they took their sweet time, was because when we left our BMW X5 at the dealership for tinting and all that, it all went a lot quicker. They did it in a few hours, and it looked a lot better than at Servco Auto Leeward in Waipahu. I’ve also seen the installation of a car alarm a couple of times, and this goes a lot faster also, it does not take days.

No, when you have an appointment for something, then you can also expect them to make the car on the same day as they tell you they will do. If they don’t do this, by whatever reason, they should at least call you to inform you about it. And when something is not done right, they should’ve just fixed it right away if that was possible (and I just know it was possible in our case). It really feels like ‘asskissing during sale, but not giving in after the deal has been closed’. The service feels bad for us, and it is the last time we will spent our money there, or that we will redirect someone to Servco Auto Leeward (this is something Michelle’s mother used to do, they sold a lot of cars there thanks to her, but this wont happen either anymore).

Today something funny happened, though: Michelle had to wait outside for a bit at Servco Auto Leeward, while I was inside, and a potential customer asked Michelle how the sale and service went. Michelle told them the story and before I was outside again, the potential customer had left the terrain. So this joke might already have cost them a customer. Sorry, but it seems to me this is their own fault for it all.

You know what is the worst thing of it all? That they did not once apologized to us. I think that this bothers me most of all. That no-one tried to undo the mistakes right away and apologized for it. This is not something a customer, who pays a lot of money, should be treated. If they want me to speak good about them again, they really have to try hard.

So, if you’re thinking about buying a car at Servco Auto Leeward in Waipahu, Hawai’i, I can only say: don’t do it. The sale goes nice and all, but the service, as we experienced it, is just bad. I would not recommend it.

Ok, it sounds worse than it really was… well, ok, maybe not for the ones involved but fortunately that’s not us. Anyways, I wanted to write a short message since it has been two weeks since I last wrote something.

Of course things happened in our lives here, but yeah, not everything is suitable to write down or fun to write down, and there are also always things that I wrote before.. I could tell you everytime how it was whenever we went to Honolulu but it is not much fun to repeat what I wrote before and is it also fun to read it time after time? I don’t really think so, so that’s why basically haha.

Anyways, the title says fire, so let’s write a bit about that… there is not much to write about the fire itself but oh well.. like two weeks ago, there was a fire nearby, I noticed it since it really smelled badly like smoke and when I was outside, I also noticed a thick layer of smoke by just watching to the cars and their headlights, it looked a bit like fog. Michelle and I hopped into our car and went to see where the fire was. It might sound pretty spectaculair but it wasn’t really much as we couldn’t get close to it.. Michelle did, however, take some pictures from a distance, here they are:

As you can see, there wasn’t much spectaculair to see but oh well, at least I had something write again haha

I already said it in my previous message, that I would post some more pictures of some decorated houses but from a different part of the island, and here they are:

These are, again, not all pictures but, yeah, it might really become too much and it has to stay fun to watch it all

We also drove through town again to record some of the decorations with our new video camera, I still have to compile, edit, cut, paste and such so we haven’t got those video’s online yet but Michelle took some pictures, here are a few of them:

I hope that the pictures will not become too boring as I will have at least two more series of pictures for you, one of a normal parade and one of a boat parade.. I won’t post these now so don’t worry, they will come next time

This morning we went towards the west, towards Kapolei, where I had to apply for a social security number (in Dutch you would say personsnumber or ’sofi’-number) at the SSA, the Social Security Administration.

I need this number basically to get a drivers license (I got a Dutch drivers license but this is only valid in the state of Hawaii for one year after entry into the US, plus a drivers license is a valid ID over here), to be able to open a bankaccount, to start certain insurances, pay taxes (oh joy :P) and there are so many more things which makes it necessary for me to get a social security number.

Requesting the social security number was pretty simple, I had the form with me to apply for the social security number, I had my ID with and some other papers which, eventually, I didn’t need to have as the form to request for the social security number and the passport were sufficient. It was my turn after about 20 minutes of waiting and after a short while I got to hear that my social security card would be sent to me within two weeks.

After this we drove towards Chinatown in Honolulu to see if we can find a white Hula shirt for me; I want one for our wedding next monday and on our way towards town we always pass by Pearl Harbor where lately you can find some large white ball on pillars in the water, it is some sort of a large radar installation. We took a picture of it from the freeway:

It might look a bit small on the picture but it is really big.

Anyways, we went towards Chinatown and found indeed a white Aloha shirt. It is unbelievable but we were looking for one since I arrived here in Hawaii, for some reason they’re all sold out at all the stores.

Since we were in Chinatown anyways, we went towards some restaurant where we ate at a ‘real’ Chinese. It may sound weird to say ‘real’ Chinese but we like to call it like that as they serve the real Chinese dishes and not the standard watered down Chinese for western people (I admit, it isn’t less yummy but still, I like the ‘real’ Chinese food also).

After this we went back home and on our way home we found out that on the receipt of the social security number request was a wrong zipcode. I called the social security administration and they asked me to go back to the office to get it fixed. After I dropped Michelle of at home (her mom had to leave so she had to watch the clients), I drove back to Kapolei.

Instead of the twenty minutes of waiting time earlier today, I was outside after being inside for less than a minute as there was nobody else (the people in front of me just left). I explained my story and it was no problem at all, they would fix it and I could go home again. I took some pictures on my way home of the area I was driving in (while I drove so some pictures may be a bit blurry):

The first two pictures are taken of the mountains, or the beginning of the mountains, at the west side of Oahu.. I see these mountains every morning when I wake up (a bit more of the side tho so they are a bit bigger and larger), the third picture is of the road which I took back to Waipahu and in the distance you can see the mountains at the east side of Oahu. Here are some more pictures::

On the first picture you can see, if you look careful, Honolulu at the far right side and you should be able to see that radar thing on the right side. In the second picture you can find Pearl City and the mountains in the distance again from the east side of Oahu and the last picture is where you enter Waipahu on the southwest side, a bit the busy side of Waipahu where we do not live (we’re at the east side). You can also see that it is about time for the rainseason to start as the grass can use some water (and from the looks of it, it already seems like the rainseason started a bit as it rained a lot of times the last couple of days (just as you think to get rid of all the rain by leaving the Netherlands haha).

So, now we just have to wait for about two weeks and I can try to get my drivers license, I can ask for a change of status and all those other things. But first: our marriage next monday