Finally, My Convicted Lemon Has Been Put Out To Pasture!

Nearly 15 months ago, I posted an article about a lemon-law case I had pursued against a well-known car manufacturer.

Briefly, I bought a new car from them in May of 2001, and within a couple months, it started showing signs of lemoness.

After several attempts to get my new car fixed by more than one of their 5-Star (BIG-WHOOP title) service centers, I gave up and requested they buy the piece of junk back.

They refused!

I was told 'the problems you're experiencing are common'.

Really?!?!

After all was said and done, the car had had the steering column replaced, the dash replaced, the brakes and pads replaced several times, the rotors turned several times, and more - with less than 36,000 miles on it, and as of last week, it was ready for another batch of brakes.

That's common?!?!?!?!

Even after all that (more than 10 trips to the shop), and more than a month of the piece of junk living in the shop, they still refused to step up plate and do the right thing by giving me my money back. 

I'm still in disbelief about it!

Anyway, I went the legal route to get my money back, and in Jan 2002, I sued. Nearly a year and a half later, we went to court, and a jury returned a verdict - in my favor!

After two years of headache, I thought the nightmare was over. Then I was introduced to the term 'appeal process'.

I was literally stunned to find out that after all I had been through with this car, and after a jury of peers felt I was in the right, that this manufacturer was going to appeal the verdict - on a technicality!!

They weren't arguing that they felt my car was perfectly fine and that it's quality was misrepresented during the trial. They didn't even bring that up again. They wanted to get out of doing the right thing and giving me my refund based on a legal technicality.

In other words, I felt like they were saying, 'Yes, the car is junk, we can't argue that, but you should be stuck with it regardless, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that you are'.

OK, I can gladly accept idea of having to settle our dispute in court in the first place - that's fair. But to brush doing the right thing aside on the basis of a technicality is the worst kind of customer service. I had bought cars from this manufacturer for over 10 years, but after this experience, my flow of cash to them stops!!

Getting back to the whole appeal fiasco, this process was initiated a month after I won my jury trial in August of 2003, and continued on until the end of August this year, when I won the appeal (take that, you creeps!). Even that wasn't the end of it. It wasn't until this past week that I was given the go-ahead to return my car to the dealership and pick up my refund check. Over three years since the nightmare began, it had finally come to an end.

I have my refund check in hand and the automo-lemon is no longer my problem. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! 

Why am I airing my dirty laundry here, you ask?

Well, for one, this is my soapbox, baby!

Second, consider this my personal consumer report to you. Hopefully my personal experience can help you make a better decision when you go to buy a new car.

Third, this is a perfect example of why you shouldn't give up! As you can imagine, having something like this hanging over your head for three years is not pleasant, but being the stubborn jerk (ask my wife) that I am, I wasn't about to give up! My persistence finally paid off.

It's real easy to get a year into something like this and ask yourself, 'is it worth it?' Let me just state that it definitely is!

If there's one thing that I can't stand, it's a lack of quality, both in manufacturing and in customer relations. In business, there are few things more important than quality, and if you're unwilling to provide it, then close your doors and go home!

In closing (and I should say that my wife, Kathy thinks I'm a goof for even thinking about this), I was thinking about sending a gift to the opposing counsel, something like a lemon cake, a lemon pie, or a stuffed lemon. Is that being childish, or would you do it? Do you have a gift suggestion (keep it clean)? If you do, feel free to post a comment below.

See, as this post shows, I'm not just some emotionless geek who sits in front of my computer daily. I have feelings too!  But really, I should really get back to the geek stuff now...