Abdulah Alsayegh doesn't do subtle. After waiting for weeks for parts from his Jeep dealership to no avail, he spraypainted complaints about their poor service all over his Wrangler and parked it right in front of their door. The dealership scrambled like mad to hide the eyesore, parking cars around it on all sides, covering it in a wrap and holding it hostage. Now his stunt has paid off. The Kuwait dealership's GM has apologized and let Abdulah exchange his car for a brand new one. That's him, perched atop the sand dune, giving a thumbs up in his new ride.
Abdullah said it went down like this at the Al Mulla & Behbehani Motor Co. in Kuwait:
When I first left the car in the parking lot, the management seemed to have panicked as my phone never stopped ringing, the calls were from the garage manager, assistant GM, the GM, and the public relations manager.
When I decided to answer their calls, I was transferred to the GM who asked to meet me to discuss the matter further, During the call he made a verbal apology to me as I have been a loyal customer with a clean record with the dealership since 2001.
He gave me an appointment which I attended with the intention to discuss the bad service received by other customers, I knew this as the pictures I posted [see gallery] were very quickly spread on social media site and started receiving comments and complaints from other people who are having the same problems with the dealership. My intention from my meeting was to raise the GM's awareness of these issues and make sure he understood the magnitude of the problems they are facing.
The GM made me a promise to improve the service and he is willing to show me what improvements they are going to put in place. He also insisted that the dealership compensate me for the bad service I received.
They gave me an offer to exchange my old car for a new 2012 full option Wrangler, and I accepted.
He was very kind and well-mannered during the meeting, and seemed to understand why I took the actions I did.
Regards
Abdulah Alsayegh
The dealership's GM could not be reached for comment.
Congratulations to Abdulah for making his voice heard and to the dealership for making it right. No doubt they will be looking more closely at their customer service operation and have a renewed appreciation for the power of word of mouth.
Sometimes, if you're getting ignored... it pays to do something they can't ignore.