Complain about a product or service

Ray Fladeboe Honda

Irvine CA

Mary of Irvine CA (08/14/08)
I took my car in for a noise that was coming out of the engine. After paying almost $600 and leaving, the sound is still there. I went back and they told me that they fixed the wrong part that was making the noise and that now the noise is coming from the alternator and that I have to pay another $500 just for the part. This is not fair to me because they should have diagnosed the problem correctly the first time.

I have spent $568 already and nothing has been corrected that needs to be in my car. I have gotten a second opinion and the second mechaniec noticed my car has not been corrected and said it might not even be the alternator (which is what Fladaboe is now claiming it is) and that the car needs to be fully examined to see what the issue is. Fladaboe honda just picked two of the most expensive items that can possibly be the issue instead of carefully examining my car. Fladaboe will not return any of my calls.

I have placed numerous calls to service tech Ryan and his manager Scott. Scott returned my call once and then disregarded every other voicemail I have left him and he is THE manager. If I can not get through to him I do not know who else to try to talk to. I just want them to fix the right part, and not charge me because they misdiagnosed it orginally. They are trying to tell me that my car needed all this work and that they took care of one out of two issues my car had which is NOT true. I hear the same exact thing I heard before any work was done to my car. Nothing that NEEDED to be fixed has been fixed. They changed a part that did not need to be changed.

Ivar of Newport Beach, CA (01/21/08)
After much deliberations with Fladeboe Honda I turned them into the Bureau of Automotive Repair concerning servicing of my car. The BOA cited Fladeboe with two violations. 1 for estimate 2 Invoice violation. Complaint # Fl2007009903. I spoke with Inspector Phipip Baker at the BOA 714-961-7940x3103.

Mr Patrick Murphy the GM of the dealership flately denies that the dealership was cited and will not pay me back my money even though in a phone conversation he told me that he was sending me a check for a refund.This was after I comfronted him with written evidence from his dealership that they lied to the court when I took them to small claims court.

Mwarner of Tustin CA (01/10/08)
We purchased a Honda Fit n July, 2007. We had to wait approximately 3 hours AFTER deciding on our chosen car before the paperwork and 'wheeling and dealing' was finished. The finance manager kept issuing the wrong paperwork and had to redo it at least 3 times (I lost count after awhile). I was ready to forgive this annoyance however, because the dealer, in charge in internet sales, was as nice (and dare I say it) as seemingly honest as can be for his chosen profession, and helped ease us into our first car purchase. We were happy with our choice of car - very much so in fact. However, it was nothing but problems with from the beginning (did I mention their inept finance department?) who hadn't added our details onto their system until just last month, to their rude and unhelpful 'service' department, who took forever to sell us the transmission and brake fluid we needed and then weren't helpful at all when the Fit broke down while my husband was at work (luckily not on the freeway) and refused to see the car the same day because it was after 2pm (what kind of ridiculous hours are these?!?) 

Ivar of Newport Beach CA (10/18/07)
My wife took Honda in for FREEEmissions Warranty Extension.

August Spencer the service writer told her as we knew that it was free. My wife told him not to do any other work on the car. August had her sign some papers. We went to pick the car up and there was a $235.00 charge.

We said there must be some mistake. We were shown a piece of paper with my wifes signature that my wife ordered a 15 thousand mile check up and airconditioner service.

We told them that we were assurred there was no charges. They said you signed this paper and we told them that they put it in front of us and said sign and that if it showed it was an estimate we thought that was the charge to Honda.

I said I was not going to pay and they said that if I did not pay now in Cash that I could not get my car back. The next day when I came back to pay for my car.

I turned them into the bureau of Automotive repairs and they were cited twice. they still refuse to give our money back.

Marc of Irvine CA (06/07/07)
We got a great deal on our new Fit (the salesperson screwed up), but everyone we dealt with after the sales team left a sour taste in our mouth (especially Finance). The auto detailers did a poor job of cleaning the car before delivery and we had to send it back TWICE.

The Finance lady was very unprofessional in our dealings (yelling at her colleagues in our presence, would not accept a Capital One Bank Draft) and the finance department ignored our agreement to hold the down payment check for 3 days. We were charged $27 in fees for their mistake which they never refunded us for.

A few weeks later they claimed that they redeposited the bounced check but my bank didn't have any records of that particular check bouncing twice. We are still fighting them on this . . . I won't give them a cashier's check unless they refund the fees that we incurred through their mistake.

Joe of San Clemente CA (06/21/06)
I negotiated a deal with a Sales person, went in and complted and signed all requested paperwork, and left a $500 good faith desposit on a new Honda Fit that was due to arrive in 2 weeks. When the car finally arrived 5 weeks later, I was told they had mistakenly added $1300 worth of dealer-installed packages they orginally had agreed not to install.

While negotiating with them over these adders, they decided to no longer honor my original agreement. Instead of the discounted price for these two packages they offered my one morning, they decided their new offer was full price for both packages, plus an additional $900 markup on the car price.

I sent an email and left voicemails for the General Manager, who did not respond. When I finally did reach him in his office, he put the General Sales Mgr. (GSM) on the phone, who claimed I refused to sign a Purchase Order., and this is why my original deal was no longer being honored. This is of course nonsense, as I signed everything I was asked to sign and was there 5 weks ago for the sole purpose of buying this vehicle.

The GM claimed he wanted to get my sales person in on this call, and he would call me back in 10 minutes. Of course many hours passed with no return phone call. My repeated attempts to reach the GM during the day came up short. Finally late in the day they had my sales person call me. She informed me they were now willing to honor my original deal, but also informed me they had sold the car I was wating for!

I asked her for the new deal inwriting, via email. She agreed to get this done. The next day (while still waiting for this email), I called and reached he GM, to find out when the next vehicle meeting my criteria would arrive. He asked me to call the GSM in an hour.

The GSM acted like he had never heard of me, even though we have spoken many times, and they had spent all of the previous two days dealing with this issue. Once I got him on the right track, he told me the deal was not what I was told the previous afternoon, but a higher price and the packages would be installed on the car at full price. Once again the deal was moving on me.

I have been paying for a rental for the last 5 weeks waiting for this car. Now I am going to go buy something else.

Ray of Irvine CA (02/09/05)
I have 2 complaints about this company.

The first one stems from the company stealing approx. $500 from me for repairs on a vehicle that I traded in. The vehicle had been towed to their service dept. and while awaiting approval from our insurance company for repairs, we decided to trade the vehicle AS IS instead of repairing. We made the trade with the understanding that the repairs would be responsibility of the dealership.

We called our insurance company and asked them to send us the check for the damages that were covered because our car was appraised in a condition of disrepair... meaning we took less money for the trade because of it's condition. We also called the dealership and told them if they should receive a check to return it to us... they reluctantly agreed.

After not receiving the check for several days, we called our insurance company again to discover that the dealership had cashed the check. The dealership has refused to refund the money. So, basically our insurance company is paying for repairs to a vehicle that does not belong to us.

While researching the internet regarding this matter, I discovered that we had been illegally duped into buying an extended warranty for approx. $1500.00. We were told that because of our low credit score that they would not finance us unless we purchased the extended warranty. My understanding is that this is an illegal scam.

We want this dealership to refund the $500.00 that is rightfully ours or return it to our insurance company. We also want to be reimbursed for the extended warranty that we were coerced into buying.

Meg of Los Angeles, CA (08/01/03)
It is not that serious, but I just wanted to mention that their service is really bad. I took in my car there for service at 7:30 AM. I thanked them for opening so early for our convenience. Art and the other guys at the service desk commentted as well, at leat that is not our choice! I have been to Santa Monica HONDA, Gardena HOnda, and Huntington Beach Honda World service desks, and this was my first time visit to Fladeboe Honda...Gosh, people here are negative..not friendly at all.

To top this, they never called me to tell me about the estimate, or to let me know when my car is ready. I have to initiate both calls. I paid $900+ and walked by ART's desk to leave to pick up my car..I would probably be happy to spend that kind od money if I could see him smile, and said Thank you! Come again! He totally ignored me.

I will never ever bring my car back to Fladeboe Honda.

Amy of Orange CA (4/18/03):
Two years ago I purchased a 1998 Honda CR-V at Ray Fladeboe Honda. The Finance Director at the time, Steve, suggested I purchase the service contract for approximately $1,500 and he would wrap it into the financing package. I was happy with the low interest rate and happy knowing I could cancel the service contract within 60 days if I changed my mind. Yet, when I did in fact decide to cancel my service contract, the dealership ignored my request. Even a letter from an attorney did not get their attention. Simply put, they don't want to return my $1,500. The Customer Relations Director is not any help either. Now my alternative is Small Claims Court.

David of Irvine writes:
Their customer service is horrible, it takes a week just to get an oil change, and the service contracts (a BIG mistake) are only good at the dealer. This forces you to wait on them. BEWARE!!! I also had experiences with the "mystery fees" on the invoice. Also, the finance manager LIED when selling the service contracts, explaining that it covered ALL service items up to 60,000 miles. When I got it in the mail, it included oil changes, one coolant flush, and injector cleaners. Not even rotating the tires! What a joke.

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