5 reasons to avoid car repairs at St-Laurent Volvo
Long one of the top Volvo dealerships in Ottawa, St-Laurent Volvo has become a shadow of its former self. The Ottawa-based dealership now has a long trail of customer complaints focused on the company’s lack of professionalism, abysmal services, and rude staff.
St-Laurent Volvo claims to ensure “all customers receive a premium Volvo experience” but appears to be failing on that promise. A look into Better Business Bureau (BBB) Complaint File #14829945 shows just how unprofessional and terrible the services being rendered to customers at the dealership are.
Rather than receiving the expected prompt service, customers at St-Laurent Volvo must endure a lengthy period of unanswered calls, delayed delivery timelines, and other sketchy practices. Customers expect a dealership of St-Laurent Volvo’s reputation to do business honestly, ethically, and fairly. We do not sell any service or repair that is not necessary.
Nonetheless, if your goal is to get top-notch services to keep your vehicle in optimal condition and maintain the best value possible, you might want to avoid St-Laurent Volvo.
Here are some reasons based on customer experiences to avoid this dealership and patronize other Volvo repair shops in Ottawa like Volvo Carling Motors:
- Poor delivery timelines
Getting your vehicle serviced on time at St-Laurent Volvo is nearly impossible due to their notoriety for delaying car repairs. Service managers at this dealership rarely get back to customers when they promise to and your car will remain in their shop untouched for weeks if you fail to follow up.
According to a BBB claimant, his car had been sitting in St-Laurent Volvo’s garage for almost two months already, despite several service managers promising him timely repairs.
“For weeks they kept promising us they would get the vehicle checked. Cliff and Frank multiple times promised to inspect our vehicle and didn’t,” said the disgruntled claimant.
Another customer, Vincent Gradeau, expressed similar complaints about the poor delivery timelines by service managers at St-Laurent.
“I brought in my car on an appointment and didn’t get any news until closing where I called because I never had any update all day. They told me they didn’t have time to take a look at it,” said Vincent.
“The next day the same thing happens, I call them at closing and ask them why my car is not ready. They made up an excuse saying they didn’t have time,” he added.
- Inexperienced technicians
You run the risk of damaging your car some more if you take it to St-Laurent Volvo, as they appear to have inexperienced technicians in their garage.
Typically, a dealership has more experienced hands than privately owned repair facilities do since there’s a strict manufacturer training requirement imposed on its technicians. However, this Ottawa Volvo dealership appears to miss the mark on this standard.
Many customers have laid complaints about how their car was still experiencing faults—or developing new ones—after taking it for service.
Vincent had taken his car to the dealership when he noticed some problems with his car’s alternator. After spending days in the dark over the status of his car, he eventually called, and they claimed to have fixed the problem, but the car was still problematic. In fact, Vincent’s car had now developed a new fault—a bad alternator belt—that had never existed when he took his car to the dealership.
“The next day comes, they finally call me and tell my car is ready. A few weeks later, my alternator belt started to make a lot of noise. I wait a few weeks hoping the belt will tighten up, but without luck,” he said.
- Poor communication
The employees at St-Laurent Volvo have become notorious for their terrible communication skills. You can go days, even weeks, without getting feedback from them on the status of your car.
“The service I received was night and day different from any other Volvo dealership I’ve been to. It is impressively poorly run. As my calls to the service department weren’t being answered until I went in to speak to them in person,” said Sam, a dissatisfied customer at the dealership.
Apart from just ignoring calls, staff present at the facility also appear quite ignorant of basic information. Claude Brunette visited the dealership and left unimpressed by how poor his communication with the staff was.
“The gentleman at the counter seems totally lost. I asked a few questions which he was at lost to answer. My questions were very simple about spark plugs, winter tires and rims,” he said.
- Bad customer service
One experience you’re bound to encounter during your visit to St-Laurent Volvo is their terrible customer service.
From sheer rudeness to lack of professionalism, the employees at St-Laurent Volvo have little or no regard for customers. They constantly ignore customer’s calls, miss their delivery timelines, make promises they have no intention of keeping, and fail to listen to the customer’s grievances.
A frequent customer for almost eight years, Jody Thompson said the dealership is long past its glory days with a poor service department.
“I call for an appointment and nobody returns my calls. Once they were trying to hand me back another set of keys to a different vehicle and I tried to explain it wasn’t my vehicle but they were frustrated with me and still kept telling me it was my vehicle. That took 15 minutes of me convincing them it was not my car,” said Jody.
Another customer, Kim Render, noted that the dealership lacks professionalism, and they had the “worst customer service ever.”
- Overpriced services
If you choose to get your car serviced or repaired at St-Laurent Volvo, then be ready to pay more than usual.
This dealership charges exorbitant fees on parts and installations when compared to other similar dealerships in the Ottawa vicinity. According to a BBB claimant, the dealership charged him double the rate for the repair and installation of a catalytic convertor when similar repairs had been done for a cheaper rate on another Volvo elsewhere.
“St-Laurent Volvo was seeking to charge us an inflated price of $2,800 for a convertor when I paid $1,400 before on a separate vehicle,” said the BBB claimant.