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Toyota Customer Service Hotline sucks!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by lowspeed, Mar 3, 2006.

  1. lowspeed

    lowspeed Member

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    I called Toyota today in regards to the problem that i hear other people are having with the audio system where if you have a burnt CD with Mp3's and Folders when pressing the NEXT/Previous button on the steering wheel it will skip a DISC and not a folder like the manual says.


    So i talked to this lady and she keeps going back and forth between her and the "tech" guy and she asks me maybe i should try to download the songs from another song provider...

    I tried with simple words to explain that i burnt a cd with folder and within the folders i have mp3 files... There's no other option.

    Anyway she told me that they never heard of it and i should go to the dealer so they could fix it....

    I told her i'm not wasting a trip to the dealer since they won't be able to fix the problem a fix should be issues from toyota first.


    Then she tells me they have to diagnose it first... so i go on of how its not just my problem and the dealer could just burn a disc and check on one of their 06 prius equipped with the mp3 and disc changer...


    I didn't go well i felt like she was annoyed that i even ask for it to be fixed and refuse to go to the dealer to show them.
     
    #1 lowspeed, Mar 3, 2006
  2. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Well, I think that with all the stories of dealers being relatively clueless (compared to the collective Priuschat knowledge anyway) we can't expect Customer Service Reps to be vehicle omniscient. There's no way the woman on the other end of the phone can solve your problem. At best, you reported the issue and she said that they would look into it.

    I suffered a total radio freak-out last year. I called and reported it. The woman was very friendly. She said that she would look into the process for getting it fixed and call me back. She did. Everything went fine. They even mailed me the tape that was in the stereo when it died.

    The Customer Service Rep should have given you a case number or something like that. Call back in a couple days and request a follow-up on your case number. If the person is unaware of the issue, calmly explain the situation to them. But you must keep in mind that they might not have a Prius, might not listen to MP3 CDs in their car, and might not even know how to burn CDs. What they do know how to do is shut down angry callers.
     
    #2 TonyPSchaefer, Mar 3, 2006
  3. vega

    vega New Member

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    With, all due respect, if the support person is not familiar with a Prius and does not what mp3 CDs are, then should they really be handling customer support for Prius customers?
    I agree that this should not reflect personally against the support person, but rather points to the fact that Toyota intentionally or unintentionally allowed an underqualified person to handle customer care.
     
    #3 vega, Mar 3, 2006
  4. lowspeed

    lowspeed Member

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    You see the problem was they didn't even want to check into the claim.

    How hard is it to get a techie to check if it's a wide spread problem ?
     
    #4 lowspeed, Mar 3, 2006
  5. Allannde

    Allannde Just a Senior

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    I have had several dealings with Customer service, both Toyota and Lexus. I have been very happy with the results since I don't expect perfection. The first thing they want to do is make the customer happy. I am sure they get brownie points for that. The second fact is that the are the fingers on a great big buearucratic arm. They are told as little as possible to get their job done. Treat them well and they will fall all over themselves to help you. Show them anger or frustration and they will grind to a halt. They have back up people who know more but getting to them is not easy because the first level person is expected to handle most of the calls. Often the call back is from one of the second or third level people. Patience always helps.
     
    #5 Allannde, Mar 3, 2006
  6. KTPhil

    KTPhil Active Member

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    "You see the problem was they didn't even want to check into the claim."

    I can't speak about Toyota in particular, since I have not (yet) had to deal with them. But realize that 99% of "customer Service" desks are merely "gatekeepers" whose job is to filter as many complaints out with baloney, so there is not a large workload for the understaffed "real" tech support group.
     
    #6 KTPhil, Mar 3, 2006
  7. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Digital music introduces a whole 'nother ratsnest of issues.
    How are yours encoded, for example? VBR or not? With ID3 labels
    or not? Different player software hiccups in different ways over
    different files for different reasons, and both you and the Toyota
    front-ender may be missing that fact. Heck, I don't even know that
    much about this stuff but I do know the absolutely miserable decoding
    failures I've seen here and there.
    .
    _H*
     
    #7 hobbit, Mar 3, 2006
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