GARY SMITH HONDA225 MIRACLE STRIP PKWY S.W. FORT WALTON BEACH, FL 32548 Phone: 888-810-3151 Fax: 850-796-6707 Welcome to Gary Smith Honda–A Fort Walton Beach Honda Dealer, Serving the Pensacola, Panama City and the Gulf Coast area! We’re here to help you buy the vehicle that’s right for you. You’ll find several tools on this site to make the process as easy as possible. Browse Gary Smith Honda’s new or used car inventory, apply for credit or arrange for service.
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Vehicle serviced for
Maintenance
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Accurate estimated wait time
None Given
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Would You Recommend this Dealership
No
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Vehicle year
2008
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Vehicle make
Honda Accord
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Service Technician
Archie Dennison
My Gary Smith Honda reviewWent in for an oil change on 2/23/2011. Talk to a service adviser about some damage that was done to the vehicle. He stated that it looked like it was about $700 worth of work and suggested I take it to the Gary Smith Ford Collision Center to get the work done.
Afterward, the other service adviser handed my keys to the service tech and he sped off to the service bay across the lot.
I stepped outside to use the phone and I notice the service tech backing my car up pretty rapidly. Meanwhile, another tech driving a new Honda Pilot is honking the horn and yelling for him to stop. I thought to myself, no way is he going to back into that other vehicle. After all, the front driver and passenger windows were down in my car. He should be able to hear.
To my dismay, the driver of my car smashed into a new Honda Pilot. As soon as he had the opportunity to get around the other vehicle, he sped off to the service bay.
Before I knew it, the service adviser that told me there was about $700 worth of damage rushes over to assure me that “everything looks the same” and that there was “no additional damage done to the car as a result of the crash” that I just witnessed.
I immediately call my insurance and await for someone in a position of authority at Gary Smith to speak with me about the situation. No one talks to me and all I can get is a business card for the service director while being told, “You didn’t get this from me.”
I call back the next day and speak with the general manager Mark to express my concern with the situation and let him know that I’ll be in to talk with him the following day. He takes my information and says he’ll look into it.
The next day I get a call from Wayne Owens, the service director, and he immediately starts to accuse me of trying to get one over on them and trying to get my car fixed for free. I assure him that that is not what I want. I just need to exchange insurance information just like people normally do when there is an automotive accident.
Mr. Owens continued to insinuate that I was trying to get over on them and refused to share any information about the incident. He raised his voice and used some choice words to tell me that he would not cooperate. I said “Fine. Let’s let our insurance handle this.!” He agreed and said that sounds like a good idea.
Now all I know is, it is over 2 weeks later and my insurance company still does not have the insurance information from Mr. Owens and he refuses to exchange that information.
Mr. Owens seems to believe that the crash his service tech caused did not damage my car any more than it already was. How can the damage go from $700 all the way up to $1700 if they did not cause any more damage to my car? Sure it was added on top of damage that was already there. I did not lie to my insurance and say that my car was perfect before taking my car there. But isn’t that a moot point? I feel from how fast the tech was backing up, the way it sounded, the way the other vehicle looked, and the way the service tech reacted, that the crash would have still resulted in $1700 worth of damages even if the car was in perfect condition.
I have talked to 5 different people about this and they each keep passing the buck, one to the other, even to someone I’ve never heard of and have not directly spoken to that was “handling it.”
I guess the rules don’t apply to “big business.” If I were to back into someone on the street, I would have to exchange insurance information with the other driver or else I could be cited for a hit and run, regardless of the condition of my car before doing so. It is then up to the insurance companies to decide what action they want to pursue.
If you take your car to the dealer and they crash your car into another vehicle, they obviously don’t have the same responsibility as “normal” people.
So far my experience with the service department at Gary Smith Honda can be summed up with 3 words: unprofessional, careless and over-insolent.