Ziebart

I don’t feel compelled to write online reviews often, but feel it my duty to when I receive exceptionally good or bad service. Unfortunately, in this case, it’s the latter.
There’s a good rule of thumb that you can really only measure someone’s level of Customer Service when you really need it. This is usually when something goes wrong. Today, something went wrong with my job, and while it could have been resolved quite easily it was handled completely wrong, leaving me an angry and unsatisfied (former) customer.
I had my car booked in for a window tinting job first thing this morning. Simple job: remove the tinting from the 2 front windows, and replace it with Maine compliant tinting (the car is from the south and has 60% tinting on the front windows which is not Maine legal). I dropped the car of at 8:30 as agreed, and was told it was second in line to be done, and should be more than 3 hours.
I ran some errands and on my way home over 3 hours later I called to see if the car was ready. I was told it was next in line to be worked on. Strange, as I was told the same thing first thing in the morning. 2 hours later I called back again and was told they were «just starting to remove the old tint from the windows now, and it should be ready about 3/3:30pm». I had no choice but wait, but then I realized that I had to have the car later in the day, so I called back. This time I spoke to a technician, who told me that it the delays were due to a problem with the doors to their shop being stuck. He agreed to have the car ready for me in 15 minutes to pick up.
I went to pick the car up, thinking it would have no tint on the front windows (as I had been told it was being removed). At least that way I would be able to get the car inspected and stickered, as right now is has no sticker (because the tint is too dark). Imagine my surprise when I get there and absolutely nothing has been done to the car.
Knowing I have no sticker and the car is not road legal, I was expecting them to bend over backwards to get my tinting done so that I could take to the road without the fear of being pulled over (I’ve already been pulled over once for not having a sticker. I got away with a warning but I’m not going to be so lucky second time around).
My message to Ziebart: make some effort to satisfy your customers, for instance: squeeze me in between other appointments, don’t take lunch tomorrow, work a bit late to get the job done, do anything you can to make me feel like you care. Don’t tell me «sorry, we don’t have any appointments available for another 5 days, we can see you then». Don’t lie to me about why the job’s taking so long. If you’ve had equipment failure, own up to it, and then do everything you can to mitigate the problem.
Today I did not receive good customer service, and an attitude like Ziebart’s is going to end up with someone giving them a 1-​star review online.

WARNING! STAY AWAY FROM THIS BUSINESS!
I bought an online deal for an automatic car starter and keyless entry for my car. What a great deal I thought. Wrong! I live in Portland but thought I could drive to Biddeford to get this work done because of the good deal. I called and scheduled an appt with the manager, they were booked for the next two months. They told me to show up at 8am on the day of my appt, and to arrange a ride home for myself because my car would have to be there all day. On the day of the appt I drove from Portland and had someone follow me in their own car to bring me home. I show up and the same manager I had booked the appt with over the phone said I was not on that days schedule, in fact they did not have me in their system at all. Perfect! I took a day off from work so I could drive down here at 8am in the morning on a weekday (because they told me they don’t do weekends) and also had my father drive down here as well, all for nothing! She was very rude and didn’t apologize for their apparent disorganization. They subsequently scheduled me for three weeks later.
I show up three weeks later and left my car there for the day. I get a phone call from the owner Steve while my car is there being worked on. He states that because of how new my car is (2012), they need to order additional parts for my car for the keyless entry portion of the package I bought to be installed. This is going to cost me an additional $ 99. AWESOME! So not only am I not going to get everything I paid for in this visit, I’m going to have to return a THIRD time, and have to pay an extra 100 bucks that I wasn’t told about when I originally paid for this package. (They were well aware of the car I had when I booked the appt). I said fine order the parts and I pay over the phone with my debit card. I ask how long are they going to take to get here. etc. I was told I would receive a phone call when the parts came in.
Three weeks go by and I never receive a phone call. I finally call and ask to speak to Steve the owner about where these parts are. He tells me they aren’t here yet and to call back in a week or so. I literally call this business back about once a week for two months and get the run around from Steve-​who is rude to me each time and acts like I’m annoying him. On one of these follow up phone calls about four months after the original service appt, there is now a new manager who answers the phone and she acts like I’m making up this entire story of me waiting for parts to be delivered etc. I had to explain the whole situation to her. I finally just ask for my money back– apparently these «additional parts are never going to arrive and I should just get my money back at this point. It’s been like 4 months now and I’m STILL waiting for the service to be complete. She asks me where my receipt is– I tell her there is no receipt since I paid over the phone with Steve because he told me about the additional charges over the phone while my car was there being worked on the first time. I said please just put me on the phone with Steve since she has no idea who I am or the struggle I’ve had with this business for the past 4 months. Steve is who I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with this entire time. She refuses to let me talk to Steve on the phone– she says the owner does not come into the business (this is obviously a lie, I’ve spoken to him there more than a dozen times-he’s now avoiding my calls apparently?). I tell her I can print out my bank statement that shows that I paid for the parts over the phone. She hung up.
I’m furious at this point and send my boyfriend into the business in person to talk to the owner– if they’re not going to deliver on the service I paid for then I just want my money back. The owner refused to refund any of my money. He basically just screamed at my boyfriend to get out when he asked for any of my money back. I mean come on it’s been months and they still haven’t delivered on the service I’ve paid for! Plus they charged me an extra $ 100 bucks for «additional parts» that my car never saw! My boyfriend ended up speaking to the police based on the behavior/​threatening at the business when he asked for a refund. He was basically told to contact the better business bureau. There was nothing the police could do about it.
I called the business back a couple of days later to try to come to a resolution. I asked to speak to Steve. The manager said Steve’s not here and hung up the phone on me. I called right back and Steve answered the phone this time and screamed through the phone at me that If I ever called back he would «put a restraining order against me». Excuse me? You’re the ones ripping me off!
I know this has been a long rant, but I felt the need to warn other unexpecting consumers from these horrible people. I never even received the original package I paid and was charged an additional $ 100.

Although I haven’t actually been to Ziebart yet, my experience has already been a positive one. What started as a huge problem was easily fixed. I am having an automatic car starter installed, and although there was originally going to be a problem with my installation, they worked with me to make sure my expectations were met. Staying late and squeezing me in was both helpful and appreciated, as well as the owner’s detailed explanation of what the issues were with my car and why. I have a better understanding of the service my car will be receiving and I am looking forward to having this equipment installed!