I do enjoy bringing loyal, long term buyers together with ethical and value driven sellers, especially when that loyal buyer is me. While I believe that Lexus is, overall, an ethical and value driven seller, nobody (buyer or seller) is perfect. We can all make mistakes.
But, the keys to rectifying or avoiding mistakes are effective engagement, and upfront and continued transparency. I hope I am continuing to do my "buyer" part by posting my constructive safety complaint and educational information in "2007 Lexus LS 460's Retro 1990 Trunk Lid Mechanism "
The "Cluetrain Manifesto" says "Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.", and then, "But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf." This is a recent online BBB response to my complaint that I got from some anonymous person at "Lexus National Headquarters", "Customer Satisfaction": "We apologize that the response the customer received was not what he hoped for."
There, Lexus was explaining to me that there was never a change or improvement in the engineering of the replacement trunk strut part # ending in "31" from "30", besides saying that they originally (back in 2002/3, I assume) offered to replace my trunk struts with the exact same ones under warranty. They also said "Lexus is (STILL) willing to work with the customer to repair his vehicle, if desired." That was posted anonymously by someone at "Lexus National Headquarters" on 3/1/07 on the BBB website. I not only have not heard directly back from Lexus HQ's to my acceptance of their offer to do what I requested in my BBB complaint (no charge for struts due to "safety problem"), but my local dealer's Service Manager tells me he can't do the "no charge struts" (a $469.64 value), and he also can't find out who posted that BBB response from Lexus HQ! So, today makes 12 days that have gone by with me not knowing if Lexus's offer was legitimate or not!
I have multiple goals in pursuing this. Even though I have the $469.64 to have the dealer put in a set of replacement struts, I believe some of the people who have this same trunk safety problem may not (See other's complaints in the "Comments" Section of my last blog post). Plus, I love the Lexus brand, and am loyal to it. I'm convinced that the original (and maybe replacement # "31") trunk struts are weakening too fast. To me, Lexus is too good a quality of automobile manufacturer to let this go on, and let the customer pay for the replacement struts, if their car is out of warranty. So, here is what I'm now suggesting.
In the interest of transparency, and true consumer trust, I am asking that my local dealer's service manager be called by someone at Lexus National Heaquarters, and given permission to replace both trunk struts at no charge to me (as Lexus appears to already have agreed to). However, I'm now asking that I get to keep the old trunk struts, and I will mail them off to the NHTSA to have their engineers examine and test them against the new replacement part # "31's". The NHTSA should be able to tell if they are, in fact, the same exact struts, and even may be able to tell if they are designed well enough to last (under normal "grocery shopping/travel" use) until the 4 year/50,000 mile warranty for that part is up.
I can't help but wonder if those Lesus trunk struts are as of the same long lasting quality as the Bentley 6.0 Continental GT Mulliner Coupe, as shown in Motorpoint.com's Review?
This would go a long way to prove effective engagement with continued transparency in settling this matter. It would also improve Lexus National Headquarter's Collaborative CRM (Customer Relationship Management). I am skepitcal as to what Lexus will do next, though, as I never heard back from Saul at Lexus Customer Satisfaction (Customer_Satisfaction_Inquiries at lexus.com), in response to my 2/22/07 e-mail to him requesting that my Incident # be reopened under a new number and be re-evaluated.
See NHTSA LS 430 Trunk Strut Investigation UPDATE.
See Lexus Customer Satisfaction - A Vehicle For Brand Building? UPDATE.
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