The Sad Saga of my Sonata Sunroof, Part 2

When I posted my blog about the sunroof on my Sonata blowing off and my frustration with Fredericton Hyundai and Hyundai Canada, I wondered if it would catch much attention. I had no idea what was to come. 

It has been shared literally around the world, beyond Canada to the United States, many countries in Europe, the Middle East, Australia, South America, and heavily throughout Atlantic Canada, especially New Brunswick and Fredericton. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 shares and upwards of 10,000 views and climbing. (Makes me wonder where all these viewers were for my other blogs, but I digress).  

I can’t thank enough those of you who shared it. It’s humbling and very appreciated. And certainly says something about the power of social media in its ability to give voice to the little guy.  

“The fact it was their manufacturer’s defect..... didn’t seem to matter to them”

As I wrote in that original blog “If you have ever been wronged by a company that considers itself too big to need to act responsibly, you’ll know where I’m coming from.” I think that’s what resonated. People are simply fed up with companies taking them for granted and refusing to be accountable, and my experience with Hyundai was I guess somewhat of a trigger for anyone who has been treated shabbily by a large company. I think another factor at play here is the public’s sense of fairness. As I told the Fredericton Hyundai General Manager, “I have faith in the public’s sense of fairness. I am going to tell my story and if people think I am being unreasonable I’m sure they will be quick to let me know.”

I did not want to go public with my beef, but Hyundai forced my hand. The fact it was their manufacturer’s defect that makes sunroofs susceptible to flying off cars like my Sonata, didn’t seem to matter to them one bit. They refuse to reimburse me the more than $4000 they charged for the repair. Two points here – they didn’t tell me more than 70,000 such cars had been recalled because of the sunroof problem until after I paid the bill, in fact they never told me at all, I found out elsewhere. And the other point, to be fair, is that the local dealership did try to have Hyundai Canada reimbursement me, but they refused.  

When they told me they wouldn’t give me my money back and that there was nothing further they could do, I told them that was unacceptable and that my reluctant recourse would be to go public with my story.  

Once I determined I had no choice but to go public, my intent was, and continues to be, to keep this campaign alive, not that it will force Hyundai to change its mind with regards to my case, but to have them perhaps think twice before they treat the next person with the same indifference.  Or put another way “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

I spent much of Monday and some of Tuesday reading the comments my blog prompted. That’s a luxury afforded those of us who are retired, and trust me, it’s great. Anyway, I started to see people sharing their experiences with Fredericton Hyundai and Hyundai Canada.  

At first my thinking was that sharing those stories would be one way to keep this alive. And it still might be. But the problem is the stories just kept coming and coming. It was like I opened the floodgates.

“it has become abundantly obvious that I was absolutely wrong to think the way I was dismissed by Hyundai Canada was somehow unique.”

I had no idea there are so many people out there each with their own story of how they were treated poorly by Hyundai, either the local Fredericton dealership, other Steele Motors dealerships, or Hyundai Canada. And some of these are truly horror stories. I would share some here but there are so many and I wouldn’t know where to stop. Perhaps I’ll take a cross-section of them and turn that into a new blog, or several. And to be fair there are a few stories about other car dealerships too, but Hyundai does seem in a class by itself. Or maybe that’s just because Hyundai is the subject of my blog.

The bottom line here is that it has become abundantly obvious that I was absolutely wrong to think the way I was dismissed by Hyundai Canada was somehow unique. What happened with the sunroof blowing off my car may have been rare, but it sure appears the way I was treated by Hyundai certainly wasn’t.  

Encouraged by so many of you, many with your own stories of mistreatment at the hands of a large corporation, I plan to continue with this pressure, in hopes you continue to share these blogs. Maybe together we can be a force for good, by sending a message to Hyundai and other companies of their ilk, that it is time to treat customers with the respect they deserve.  

Maybe we can take a cue from the 1976 movie Network, where news anchor Harry Beale, played by the great Peter Finch coined what would become the mantra for a generation:

OK, maybe not that. Let’s not get carried away, but share the blog anyway, and we’ll see where it goes. By the way, Network is a great movie. Worth your while if you can find it.  

Thanks for reading.  Please share.