Once again, an apology to readers of this blog that expected to see a post on food, literature, or travel. The previous CarMax posts received considerable attention, however, so I would like to keep those readers updated with this hilarity also.
“You know, Mr. McInerny, I don’t have to do anything for you.” This was, ad nauseam, how Dave Cantu, the general manager at CarMax, Merriam, KS, framed his offer to follow. You see, an email I sent to the VP of Operations and Customer Service at CarMax’s corporate headquarters made Mr. Cantu suddenly want to pick up the phone and call me. It was the first time in our saga that I heard his voice, which I found interesting since it was he that stopped his service manager’s attempt to help us with our now undrivable car, deciding that because we didn’t go to a (closed) CarMax service center when we broke down on a Sunday instead of an (open) Sears auto center, he wasn’t responsible for the state of the car we had just bought – that state now being that of a very large paperweight.
Bottom line – we should have called CarMax to get the car fixed, and because we didn’t, CarMax didn’t have to do anything for us. Hmmm. Why then, I asked Mr. Cantu, wasn’t I told to go to a CarMax for the repair when I called his location the very next morning? Sears had said the repair was too complex for them, and it needed to be done by a dealer, so no work had yet commenced when I called his store to explain my breakdown and ask for his contact information.
“You called the next day, Mr. McInerny?”
“I did indeed, Mr. Cantu. As soon as you opened.”
“I didn’t know that,” he responded. (Think about that for a moment.)
So, what he said he’d do for me is reimburse the cost of the used part they would have installed (which is 1/3 of the total costs we incurred during the breakdown with my family, 500 miles from home), and he would now bring the car in, and if the current issues were related to the problem my wife originally brought the car in for while under warranty, he’d have it fixed. But, I said, his service department had already looked at the car and found no issues – what was the likelihood they were going to connect the dots now to a problem they didn’t find in the first place, and then make the conclusion they were responsible? Seems to me CarMax is already responsible, since they didn’t recognize the problem and fix it in the first place. And that would surely explain why his service manager asked for all our receipts, explained that reimbursement could take a few weeks, and was preparing to tow the car in – until Dave got involved. Hmmm. Me and my pesky logic again.
I responded by asking Dave if he had the authority to simply swap out the non-working car with a working one. His answer was “yes.” When I asked if we could simply start there, Dave’s response was … wait for it … he didn’t think he wanted “someone like me” on his lot again, considering the public way I was handling the situation. I see. Like I would have even gotten a call from him if I’d handled it any other way?
Any guesses how I responded to his offer? You are correct. Conclusion – there is someone in the CarMax organization who will not take my issue and simply put it back in the hands of the general manager in Merriam, KS to deal with. I will find that person.
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