A Jeep Girl Once More: A Social Media Tale

I am a Jeep girl.

I'm what you'd call a brand ambassador before such a thing even existed, in the most organic sense possible. I was just a wee lass in high school, barely able to reach the pedals (ahem), when I started driving my Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was the car I first, uh, made out in, the car I had my first accident in, the car I moved my entire life to Toronto in, the car I discovered great music in, the car I brought my babies home from the hospital in.

She was amazing—chock full of some of my most favorite memories.

And then I found myself the mother of three children who all needed giant car seats and I had to say goodbye to my beloved Jeep.

I became a mini-van mom and for eight years I whined about being a Jeep girl in a minivan.

But now there are no more car seats, no more carpool. And the time came to get a new car.

A JEEP.

So we test drove and chose options. We called around and went to different dealerships.

We found the one. We shook some hands. We signed some papers. We ordered a Jeep.

In November.

We were willing to wait the few months for the custom build, because I didn't want the navigation system, but I sure as heck wanted the heated steering wheel and the charging pad.

A few months came and went, as did the heating on our minivan.

We called and were told March 3rd.

When March 3rd came and went, we called and were told March 16th.

When March 16th came and went, we called and were told March 27th.

And then we called a manager.

Who told us that THEY NEVER ORDERED THE JEEP.

Nope. They just didn't order it. And then they gave us false dates for a month. Lied to us. Just didn't order our car.

So when we had questions about how this could happen and how the dealership was going to make this right by us, they blamed us. They told us that it was our own fault for not filling out the right paperwork—oh really? Because we are experts on ordering cars? They told us that because these Jeeps are so popular we wouldn't be any better off now than we would have had they actually ordered it—oh really? I mean, I'm not that great at math, but I'm pretty sure we'd be four months further along in the process.

And the funny this is...all we were looking for was an apology. We weren't looking for deals or special treatment or anything.

Just someone to say HEY, WE ARE SORRY, WE SCREWED UP.

But no. No apology. None. It was our own fault, after all.

So, we tweeted about our experience. We discussed it on Facebook. We sent an email to someone at Chrysler Canada. Because we were confused, because we were angry, because we were treated so poorly, because we had no car, because we have been lifelong fans of Jeep and this just left such a bad taste in our mouths. We figured it couldn't hurt to use the power of social media; to let our voices be heard. To say that bad service is bad news.

And some wonderful person caught wind of our story. And he took care of us. He helped us find an amazing dealership — which we did. Yay Seven View Chrysler! He found us a great salesman. Yay Angelo! He helped us have a seamless Jeep buying experience. And he helped see to it that I got my custom order in less than two weeks. He helped show that the power of social media and the power of good service are two extremely important things.

And most importantly, HE APOLOGIZED.

And now it's here.