HUK Honda customer service

[Parky]

Originally Posted by richierich

Just called Honda Customer Services, who are not aware of any complaints/problems concerning the HFT on the Civic, they have only had compliments, I have proposed to email them a link to this site (any opposition), in the mean time it might be worth more people bringing it to their attention.

Call - 01753 590760
Email - customer.services@honda-eu.com

I spoke to a Lady called Jo.

Richierich

The email address above is not valid, it bounces the email back to me!

Ian

[richierich]

I think the email should be customer.servicescars@honda-eu.com . If you get no look let me know, I have had emails from a lady called Sarah Turner re this, poor service though.

[Parky]

Originally Posted by richierich

I think the email should be customer.servicescars@honda-eu.com . If you get no look let me know, I have had emails from a lady called Sarah Turner re this, poor service though.

That email is not valid either.

[richierich]

Then try xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@honda-eu.com I am sure she will be over the moon to hear from someone else. I asker her on Thursday to get someone to call me, or call me herself. I make it Tuesday now, although a lady did call the Office about my car, could that be for my repair, or was it about the HFT??

EDIT by Pottsy 1/8 16:55: Honda employee email address removed at the request of a paralegal at Honda UK.

[Pottsy]

Richie,

I'm sorry but I've been asked by a paralegal at Honda to remove Sarah Turner's corporate email address, because it contravenes the Data Protection Act by disclosing personal information. I'm going to guess that they want it removed because they'd rather customer service requests come through the correct channel, but sadly that's not how the email was worded.

[Maldax]

Originally Posted by Pottsy

Richie,

I'm sorry but I've been asked by a paralegal at Honda to remove Sarah Turner's corporate email address, because it contravenes the Data Protection Act by disclosing personal information. I'm going to guess that they want it removed because they'd rather customer service requests come through the correct channel, but sadly that's not how the email was worded.

On a plus side it mean they must have read this thread.

[Ancient Nerd]

I am seriously underwhelmed by the response from Honda on this one.

I phoned Customer Services and was sent away with a flea in my ear. Effectively don't bother us, see your dealer.

Response from dealer was - yes, this is a known problem, Honda are looking into it, nothing can be done now, it might be in the future.

Sarah Turner, whose email address has now been removed from this thread, was somewhat offended that I should email her directly, was sorry that she "wasn't aware of my case" (not sorry that I had a problem), and suggested I contacted my dealer or customer relations.

I think the Data Protection aspect is a red herring to stop customers from using a straightforward route for entering written complaints. I doubt that a company email address qualifies as personal data under the terms of the Data Protection Act. It may be worth contacting the Information Commissioner to verify this. having said that, in practice any email address in any forum should be disguised (e.g. JohnDotDoeAtCompanyDotCom) to avoid inflicting spam.

I did however reply to Sarah to explain that as this was a significant failure by Honda to meet their product description, I will probably take action in my local Small Claims court to recover the cost of installing a comparable, but working, Bluetooth system from my local dealer. This route isn't expensive and I can't see any way in which it could successfully be contested.

[CivPilot]

Originally Posted by Ancient Nerd

Sarah Turner, whose email address has now been removed from this thread, was somewhat offended that I should email her directly, was sorry that she "wasn't aware of my case" (not sorry that I had a problem), and suggested I contacted my dealer or customer relations.

I think the Data Protection aspect is a red herring to stop customers from using a straightforward route for entering written complaints. I doubt that a company email address qualifies as personal data under the terms of the Data Protection Act. It may be worth contacting the Information Commissioner to verify this. having said that, in practice any email address in any forum should be disguised (e.g. JohnDotDoeAtCompanyDotCom) to avoid inflicting spam.

On this point I dont agree.
Honda have a customer services email address for all concerns, when mail is sent to this address it will then be distributed to a Customer services person to deal with. The young lady concerned had obviously taken on board Richierich's concern and mailed him directly to assist. It was in fact inappropriate for Richierich to then distribute this person email address to the world via an internet forum (Indeed any distribution of a personal email address without the owners permission is not on really). I'm not surprised Honda Paralegal jumped on it and I hope Pottsy wasn't too badly chastised for the few hours it was visible.

Contacting the "Information commissioner" to varify will leave you feeling rather silly as Honda (Like any company) will have point of contact rules. If their rules state that all queries should be initially directed to a master email, then they will be perfectly within their legal rights to ignore any mails sent to personel directly without prior sollicitation from said personal to customer. In fact they may well be within their rights to contact you and issue a "cease and desist" request for doing such a thing.

The main customer services email exists for a reason, if you get no luck there, call them and speak to a person, if you feel that you are not being heard, write a letter and post it recorded delivery. I dont know many companies who would be able (or even want) to ignore a recorded letter from a dissatisfied customer. Honda have one of the best reputations in the car industry for customer service and so far in my 8 months of ownership they have very clearly lived up to reputation for me. I have had to contact them twice (minor things) and they were fine, called me back when promised etc.

The trick is in all circumstances... never loose your temper or start shouting or making accusations. If you do you might well end up being branded a "difficult customer" and help might not be as quick. Be nice and speak in a clear and polite tone and people will want to help more as you will come across as a nice person. They are a huge company with a massive turnover, they don't sit in the office chatting to each other on instant messenger in between Kit-Kat breaks waiting for your phone call.

Shout and everybody hears you, talk and everybody listens


[ harryenfieldmode ] Calm down, calm down [ / enfieldmodeoff ]

ps. I dont work for Honda, but it annoys me that such a good company is being so ridiculed and moaned about on a forum they obviously read. We want their help dont we? So why slag them off constantly as being crap and never asking questions? Waste of time in my opinion. you wanna moan about a car company? Go and buy a Merc.... they have no customer service!!

[Parky]

Originally Posted by CivPilot

On this point I dont agree.
Honda have a customer services email address for all concerns, when mail is sent to this address it will then be distributed to a Customer services person to deal with. The young lady concerned had obviously taken on board Richierich's concern and mailed him directly to assist. It was in fact inappropriate for Richierich to then distribute this person email address to the world via an internet forum (Indeed any distribution of a personal email address without the owners permission is not on really). I'm not surprised Honda Paralegal jumped on it and I hope Pottsy wasn't too badly chastised for the few hours it was visible.

Contacting the "Information commissioner" to varify will leave you feeling rather silly as Honda (Like any company) will have point of contact rules. If their rules state that all queries should be initially directed to a master email, then they will be perfectly within their legal rights to ignore any mails sent to personel directly without prior sollicitation from said personal to customer. In fact they may well be within their rights to contact you and issue a "cease and desist" request for doing such a thing.

The main customer services email exists for a reason, if you get no luck there, call them and speak to a person, if you feel that you are not being heard, write a letter and post it recorded delivery. I dont know many companies who would be able (or even want) to ignore a recorded letter from a dissatisfied customer. Honda have one of the best reputations in the car industry for customer service and so far in my 8 months of ownership they have very clearly lived up to reputation for me. I have had to contact them twice (minor things) and they were fine, called me back when promised etc.

The trick is in all circumstances... never loose your temper or start shouting or making accusations. If you do you might well end up being branded a "difficult customer" and help might not be as quick. Be nice and speak in a clear and polite tone and people will want to help more as you will come across as a nice person. They are a huge company with a massive turnover, they don't sit in the office chatting to each other on instant messenger in between Kit-Kat breaks waiting for your phone call.

Shout and everybody hears you, talk and everybody listens


[ harryenfieldmode ] Calm down, calm down [ / enfieldmodeoff ]

ps. I dont work for Honda, but it annoys me that such a good company is being so ridiculed and moaned about on a forum they obviously read. We want their help dont we? So why slag them off constantly as being crap and never asking questions? Waste of time in my opinion. you wanna moan about a car company? Go and buy a Merc.... they have no customer service!!

Your email seems to make a lot of sense, but there is one major flaw in it... Honda don't respond to emails sent to customer services!

How long is it acceptable to wait for a reply? 1, 2, 3, 4 days? I have emailed them and so far not even an automated response to say they got the email. That is not good customer service.

A business email address is also not personal data under the data protection act, but it is still valid for Honda to ask that it is removed.

Ian

[richierich]

Blimey, sorry for lighting this tinderbox. I am glad civpilot has had a glowing relation with Honda CS, I hope you are not in the minority, but I suspect that you are.

Sorry to pottsy for the unwanted attention from Hondas Paralegals, perhaps instead of getting these guys scanning the forums money might be better invested paying attention to the issues going on and solving them, how about getting a Techy in here to do something.

I am sorry for publishing a "personal" company email address on the forum, but had Honda Customer Services actually aimed for delivering customer satisfaction then perhaps the email address would not needed to have been printed, next time I will make sure I pm.

[CivPilot]

Parky,

I often find that a phone call is easier (and just as binding if you take notes/names/times) than an email. As a rule I will always use this method. Takes up a bit more time yes, but at least I get to speak to someone and you can keep that call going and get a prommised noted "action list" at the end of it.

If your not getting a responce then your correct, its not good, I do agree, but there are more constructive ways than posting on forums (although I agree, it is "good to vent" at times with you all on that one). Print out the mails that have been ignored, write up a small "Im a dissatisfied customer" covering letter on your 'puter including your contact phone number and wack it in the post to the manager of customer services (recorded delivery). You WILL get a responce to that one of that I am in little doubt.

What you say about the mail address is not quite correct. If the mail is provided by the company to a particular employee then that mail address is indeed "Business use" terms of internal company business, but general disttribution of said mail address outside of company lines falls under the employee's control. Should Honda wish to provide it for business reasons then obviously they can, but it is not "distributable" by non Honda employees unless the employee "owning" said mail address wishes to make it so (and this includes not only posting it on a forum by distribution by private message too). Giving out individual work email address without permission is inapropriate, not "needed" at any time, and above all, bloody rude .

Richie,


Its not only me recieving good service. Honda share the top spot (swap with Lexus everynow and again) for customer service on the JD Power survey every year. I beleive it is yourself in the minority, you dont see moans like these on the other independant Honda forums out there.
Agree with you about how it would be nice to have some tech support on the forums from Honda, but going by the way this thread has developed I would be highly surprised if Honda wanted anything to do with us. So much negativity exists on this board from the vocal minority, who would volenteer?

Lets all play nice rather than bitch about the manufacturer of our great cars

[Pottsy]

OK lads, I think we've done this one now!

I removed the email address, primarily because I want to work with Honda on this site. If we can prove to be mature and useful to both ourselves and Honda, then maybe they will start to appreciate the value a forum can have and actually start to help directly. Secondly, it just saves Honda having to go through the bore of changing her address.

The paralegal has been helpful, and we are still discussing other aspects of what Honda would like and not like.

Any more discussion on Honda CS on a new thread please!

[CivPilot]

Agree with ya Pottsy

In fact to my mind maybe this thread needs cleaning up a bit so its actually about the microphone again. Go ahead and remove any posts I've made to help get the thread back on topic.. I'm sure the other guys wont mind you doing this to theirs?

[Pottsy]

Done.

[elfa7]

CivPilot's well constructed letter is a wake up call to clean up our act, and possibly change direction with any complaints in future.
Like he says, theres an easy way, and an ignored way.
After all , we are lucky enough to be driving a super little car. Ok, many of us had the shock absorber problem, but that was fixed no probs.
One or two of us has "communication" problems. Honda knows about this, and it will be fixed.
So from to-day, lets go for the "nice" way, and see if things improve for everyone.

[johnd]

I have to agree with rich on this one, for the problems i had to get sorted took numerous phone calls to customer services which only once did i receive a call back. Having owned Renaults and Fords before, Honda so far has the worst cs of all of them. And i am amazed that they are near the top of the JD Power survey, or was it that most of there previous customers who completed these surveys just carry on buying Hondas without trying anything else and are blinkered into thinking that they are the best company to deal with? I don't think anyone is bitching, its just when you spend in excess of £17000 on a new car you expect all the knobs and buttons, gadgets and gizmos to work . I you want to see some of the unhappy customers of Honda try going on the Type-R forums and see the problems some of them have. I know you get good and bad dealers with every manufactures but the customer service dept should better.

[basegreen]

As some of you might know, I had terrible problems with Customer Service, including one Senior person who deemed it acceptable to talk to me like I was a child.

In the end, it got sorted, but they probably could do with being more open and responsive to the customer base.

This place is a gold mine of information and feedback for them, and they know this.

[Ancient Nerd]

My basic philosphy is that problems do happen, hopefully not too often. If they are addressed quickly and efficiently then I have no problem. If there isn't a quick fix, then I like to be told what is being done and when it is likely to be completed. If the problem is avoided or ignored, then it is unacceptable.

To date, Honda appears to be falling firmly in the latter category, which I for one am very sad to see, but is the reason for much of the griping so far

If Honda is sensible, they will realise that this forum, and presumably others, is a useful resource to identify general problems and customer feedback. If ignored, it will only fuel frustrations.

If they are even more sensible, they will put a forum on their own site (or use this one), with a Honda presence to respond to complaints or requests for information. Handled honestly, they will have a very happy bunch of customers.

KLM-UK tried this approach a few years ago. It worked extremely well, with a Customer Services presence, and also a senior manager responding to some items. They got a lot of feedback, resolved many issues and explained why some things were not possible. It worked wonders for nearly two years until they stopped without warning and quickly lost all the goodwill that they had built up. Ignoring customers is never a good strategy. Listening is.

[elfa7]

Originally Posted by johnd

I have to agree with rich on this one, for the problems i had to get sorted took numerous phone calls to customer services which only once did i receive a call back. Having owned Renaults and Fords before, Honda so far has the worst cs of all of them. And i am amazed that they are near the top of the JD Power survey, or was it that most of there previous customers who completed these surveys just carry on buying Hondas without trying anything else and are blinkered into thinking that they are the best company to deal with? I don't think anyone is bitching, its just when you spend in excess of £17000 on a new car you expect all the knobs and buttons, gadgets and gizmos to work . I you want to see some of the unhappy customers of Honda try going on the Type-R forums and see the problems some of them have. I know you get good and bad dealers with every manufactures but the customer service dept should better.

I sympathise with anyone who has a problem. What I'm saying is try a different tack. It might reap rewards, and its worth a try -- it certainly can't be any worse.

[basegreen]

Originally Posted by Ancient Nerd

My basic philosphy is that problems do happen, hopefully not too often. If they are addressed quickly and efficiently then I have no problem. If there isn't a quick fix, then I like to be told what is being done and when it is likely to be completed. If the problem is avoided or ignored, then it is unacceptable.

To date, Honda appears to be falling firmly in the latter category, which I for one am very sad to see, but is the reason for much of the griping so far

If Honda is sensible, they will realise that this forum, and presumably others, is a useful resource to identify general problems and customer feedback. If ignored, it will only fuel frustrations.

If they are even more sensible, they will put a forum on their own site (or use this one), with a Honda presence to respond to complaints or requests for information. Handled honestly, they will have a very happy bunch of customers.

KLM-UK tried this approach a few years ago. It worked extremely well, with a Customer Services presence, and also a senior manager responding to some items. They got a lot of feedback, resolved many issues and explained why some things were not possible. It worked wonders for nearly two years until they stopped without warning and quickly lost all the goodwill that they had built up. Ignoring customers is never a good strategy. Listening is.

To be fair, they tried to engage with the community, but using the wrong method (a blog - because it sounds very "now"). They do try and do the right things, but I think sometimes it's hard when things are out of your control.

At the moment, this site is absolutely chock full of happy civic owners who care about the car, evangelise the products, and basically are ambassadors for Honda's Civic 2006 vision. Sometimes the smallest of steps towards a group like this can go a long way.