Harry Faulkner’s Red Rock nightmare

UPDATE, Monday, August 7: Red Rock Hyundai fixed the cracked windshield and Harry finally took possession of his 2023 Kona, but it had a dent in the fender that occurred either when they were fixing the windshield or applying the clear bra/window tint. Harry also discovered today that there is an urgent recall on his vehicle over a faulty oil pump that can cause fires. Owners of 2023 Konas are being advised to park their vehicles away from structures due to the fire hazard. The NHTSA says there is currently no repair available for the faulty part. 

UPDATE: June 24, 2023 – Harry left the new, red Kona in the care of the dealership so they could have a clear bra and window tint added to it, and Harry reported on June 24, 2023 that Red Rock Hyundai had called him to tell him there was a crack in the windshield of his new car that they believe is a manufacturer defect. The car is currently awaiting a new windshield.

At age 53, Harry Faulkner of Rifle thought he was finally doing well enough financially that he could afford a brand new car, the first one in his life. So in October, 2021, he went to Red Rock Hyundai in Grand Junction and proudly bought a brand new 2022 Hyundai Venue.

That began an extended nightmare that took a year and eight months to resolve.

His story would have been comical in a Keystone Cops kind of way, if it hadn’t been so stressful, expensive and frustrating for Harry.

Here’s his story:

Two weeks after buying his Venue, Harry noticed a rusted spot on the hatch of the Venue. When he brought it back to Red Rock Hyundai for its first oil change, he brought the rust spot to the attention of the dealership so they could handle it under the manufacturer’s warranty, but they wouldn’t acknowledge it. At his second and third oil changes, he brought it to their attention again, and they took photos of it, but did not do anything about it. During the third oil change, a year after purchasing it, a service tech accidentally locked Harry’s keys inside the car.

The ’22 Venue turned out to be the only Hyundai model at the time that lacked the alarm function most cars have now that prevents drivers from accidentally locking their keys inside the car.

While trying to get into to Harry’s car, service department employees wedged an airbag between the body and door to pry open a gap wide enough to slide something in so they could jimmy the door open, and in the process they bent the car’s front door and scratched the paint on Harry’s new car.

Red Rock said they’d repair the damage. It took 8 months.

All that time, Harry had to keep making payments on a new car he didn’t have, so the bank wouldn’t ruin his credit. He contacted Hyundai Corporation about the situation and was told, “if anybody touches the body of the car, it will void the warranty.”

No one else had told him that. Harry realized if they repaired his car, it would no longer have the manufacturer’s warranty on it.

The Hyundai dealership finally called and said his car was ready. Harry came to Grand Junction to get it, but when he got there, he saw the color was wrong on the repainted area of his car. Red Rock tried two more time to repaint it, and each time Harry came from Rifle to pick it up, the painted area got bigger and bigger, and “each time it was a different color,” Harry said.

Harry’s new car was essentially now a used car without a warranty, that had had body work done, and all by no fault of his own.

Harry was frustrated, disappointed, angry, upset. But he worked hard to try to keep his cool while he dealt with it, knowing if he blew his cool, it would make the mess even harder to fix.

After “lots of fighting” with the dealership, Red Rock finally talked Harry into trading in his damaged ’22 Venue and buying another new car from them, this time a 2023 Kona.

While Harry was inside the dealership signing the paperwork for the ’23 Kona, the dealership scratched that new car while getting it ready for him to take home.

Harry had looked the Kona over thoroughly before buying it to make sure there was no damage on it and found none. He spent hours arguing with Red Rock about the now-scratched ’23 Kona. Harry refused to accept the car, but they told him he had to take it because he had already signed the paperwork for it. Reluctantly, he drove the scratched ’23 Kona home that night. They gave him no other choice. But he got the car back to the dealership as soon as he could so they could fix it, and they gave him a Sonata as a loaner.

So why was so much damage occurring to the cars Harry had purchased?

“I’d call it too much ignorance, ” Harry said.

He added,

“I’m 53 years old. I had finally gotten somewhere in life where I could afford a new car, and I just wanted a new car like the one I bought, not one that’s been damaged. How do you think I felt about this? If I had wanted to buy a used car, I would’ve gone to Modern Classic Motors.” 

The Hyundai Sonata loaner the dealership gave Harry to drive had depot tags on it, which is technically a violation of the use of depot tags, while they tried to fix his Kona. He drove the loaner car for about 3 months. All the while, Harry just kept insisting to the dealership that all he wanted was a new, undamaged car with a full manufacturer’s warranty on it, like the one he had bought.

Each time Harry had to make the trip to Grand Junction it took a multitude of hours and caused him lost work time. He estimates that conservatively he made at least 15 trips to Grand Junction by the end of May, 2023, and probably more. Each trip resulted in lost salary. His boss got angry told him there was “no excuse for taking so much time off.” Harry had to pay for the gas to get there and back. He lost time with his family, too. Harry had to spend his 14 year old twin girls’ birthday at Red Rock Hyundai arguing with them and insisting they should provide him with a new car like the one he had originally bought, not keep trying to hand him a damaged, repainted car without a warranty. His girls got angry with him for having to spend their birthday at a dealership listening to their dad arguing. They were supposed to be going to Get Air at the Silo for their birthday, but they never got there. His girls wouldn’t talk to him for weeks after that, Harry said.

“They don’t care about people losing their job for having to be off [work] because of the mess their dealership caused to begin with.”

To their credit, in the mean time, the dealership was trying to solve the problem, and

finally, in June of 2023, Red Rock Hyundai called Harry to tell him they had a brand new, white 2023 Kona for him. So on Monday, June 5, Harry went back to the dealership in hopes that his long nightmare might finally be over. Once again, he took time off from his job and drove to the dealership, where the white, 2023 Hyundai Kona was sitting, gleaming, in front of the dealership’s front doors.

Harry walked up to it, looked at it and saw it was splattered with red paint that looked like overspray from another paint job. Harry said he “had to physically point out the red splatter along the car’s entire right side” to the dealership manager, who said it wasn’t a problem, they could just “clay bar that out.”

But Harry didn’t want a car that was splattered with paint and needed to be “clay barred.” As he had done over the last year and a half, he insisted once again that he deserved a brand new car, without damage, defects or a bad paint job, that didn’t need any repairs, like the ’23 Kona he had bought and had been making payments on.

Once again, Harry refused to take the car, and headed back to Rifle, disappointed and frustrated beyond belief with Red Rock.

 

 

 

In the middle of all this, Harry went over his paperwork and found Red Rock had charged him $40 for a first aid kit that he had never gotten. He pointed that out to Red Rock and they got him the first aid kit. He also found a Portfolio extended warranty he was unaware of, didn’t need and didn’t agree to, because he was supposed to have a manufacturer’s warranty. Red Rock canceled that and refunded Harry $1,700 for it.

Finally, in mid-June, 2023, a full year and eight months after buying his first new Hyundai, Red Rock finally supplied him with a new, undamaged 2023 Kona with intact original paint and a manufacturer’s warranty, as Harry had been asking for all along.

It was red.

When Harry arrived at the dealership to get it, it was parked at the back of the lot and, Harry said, all dealership employees had been strictly prohibited from touching it, and it “still had the bubble wrap on it.”

At this point, Harry summoned the courage to ask the dealership for a few thousand dollars to help compensate him for the miserable year and a half of disappointment, anger, inconvenience, stress and expense he had endured. He had actually totaled up the amount of his lost salary from having to take off work so many times, all of the hours it took him to drive to and from Grand Junction all those times, the cost of all the gas he had to buy for all those trips, and threw in a little more for the time he’d lost with his kids that he could never get back. He thought it was a reasonable request.

They cut him a check for half of what he requested.

At least it looks like Harry’s long Red Rock nightmare may finally be over. He’s waiting until the check clears and he is certain that his loan terms will be as promised.

But Harry remains hopeful that he just may finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

UPDATE: June 24, 2023 – Harry left the new, red Kona in the care of the dealership so they could have a clear bra and window tint added to it, and Harry reported on June 24, 2023 that Red Rock Hyundai had called him to tell him there was a crack in the windshield of his new car that they believe is a manufacturer defect. The car is currently awaiting a new windshield.

UPDATE, Monday, August 7: Red Rock Hyundai fixed the cracked windshield and Harry finally took possession of his 2023 Kona, but it had a dent in the fender that occurred either when they were fixing the windshield or applying the clear bra and window tint. He also discovered today that there is an urgent recall on his vehicle over a faulty oil pump that can cause fires. Owners of 2023 Konas are being advised to park their vehicles away from structures due to the fire hazard. The NHTSA says there is currently no repair available for the faulty part. 

Lessons learned:

Harry did a lot of things right:

1. He was persistent and clear to the dealership about what he needed to make the situation right, and never backed down from his demand to get what he had paid for.
2. He arranged financing at his own bank (ANB Bank in Rifle) before going to buy the car, so the bank was easily accessible to him, they could advocate on his behalf and there would be less chance for surprises in his interest rate, and other terms of the loan.
3. He never signed any documents electronically, only in hard copy. (But he kept requesting to get copies of all of his documents on a USB drive, and never got them.)
4. He contacted the manufacturer to discuss his problem, which apparently resulted in the dealership becoming less argumentative, and more responsive and willing to placate him.
5. He brought a friend who was knowledgeable in car repair and body work with him on his visits to the dealership for support, to help advise him and to witness what was said and done.
6. Harry recorded all of the conversations he had at the dealership.
7. He read through all of his paperwork and eventually found the extras Red Rock had tacked onto his deal without his knowledge, and he demanded these charges either be removed (as in the case of the extended warranty he didn’t want) or that he get what he paid for (in the case of the first aid kit).

Mistakes Harry admitted he made:

1. As a first time new car buyer, he got financing from the dealer on his Venue instead of his own bank. A month and a half later he found out the interest rate on his loan had been “jumped” up from 6.5% to a whopping 16.9%. He had to fight to get the lower rate back again for his final car (6.98%), but he succeeded in getting it by working with his bank. Harry’s advice to everyone is “check every avenue available to you locally for a loan to purchase a new car instead of using dealer financing.”

Harry says Red Rock Hyundai had two good employees, Jeremy in the Service Department and Mark Ingleby, who came in at the very end, who helped get it all worked it out. He appreciates their help.