Honda's automated system gone wrong

[coff33 crisp]

My uncle had the most ridiculous experience with his Ridgeline recently.

He went to the Honda dealer in person to book an appointment for an A1 service and a fuel pump recall. Yeah, he's 60 and hates all the automated stuff and wanted to avoid it.

Even after he got a hard copy confirmation, he still got bombarded with three text messages and an email, all confirming the same 8:15 AM appointment. So he drops the truck off the night before, thinking it's all set.

He finally gets a call back around 4 PM, and it turns out the key envelope got stuck in the lockbox.
His truck had been sitting in the same spot all day, and no one noticed until he started texting to ask if it was ready.

They finished the work in two and a half hours once they finally found the key, but it's crazy that with all those confirmation notices, nobody ever noticed the truck wasn't checked in.
This is exactly why he tries to avoid all the automated systems. they're supposed to make things smoother, but they only seem to work if everything goes perfectly.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of frustrating tech fail?

 

[down.work]

Honestly it highlights a bigger issue with relying too heavily on automated systems. Reminders and confirmations are great, but if the staff aren't actively managing the check in process, the tech doesn't help at all

 

[kingragnar]

Man, that's rough, your uncle did everything right and still got burned by a simple mistake the system couldnt catch. Its kind of ironic how all those confirmations don't mean much if no one's actually paying attention. I've definitely seen tech make things harder instead of easier