Look – some chickenshit posing as Frank Phillips from the Boston Globe has been posting comments to my Herb Chambers posts.

I was first made aware of this when I received an e-mail from Jay Gubala, who is E-Commerce General Manager of the Herb Chambers Companies. Jay asked me to remove the posts because they contained personal telephone numbers for Mr. Chambers, and I told Jay that I would gladly remove them once the original poster asked me to. Well, it turns out that the original poster is a fraud. Frank Phillips (a friendly and decent guy) got in touch with me and explained that he had not made the posts. So, I immediately deleted them.

I’d like to extend an apology to Frank (State House reporter for the Globe) for getting sucked into this through no effort nor desire of his own.

After I deleted the comments, two interesting things happened:

1. I received a follow-up inquiry from Jay Gubala asking me when the information in Google’s search results “would be corrected”. I had to explain to Jay that I have about as much control over Google’s servers as I do over their stock price. Perhaps I misunderstood Jay, but I found it fascinating that an “E-Commerce General Manager” – even at Herb Chambers – could be so clueless about how the online world operates.

2. After I deleted them, the person returned and posted the information anonymously. I now don’t know whether to delete it or not; I will delete a comment from an imposter, because it’s dishonest. But there’s nothing dishonest about anonymity. So, while I ponder this dilemma (and seek some legal advice), the new comment remains.

This leaves out how dumb it seems to call the Globe about this. What if someone decided this was worth a story?

In Herb Chambers’ response to my letter (authored by their executive Jeff Wilson), they smugly denied any responsibility and referred to the fact that I’d blogged it for “lack of something better to do.” Jeff even enclosed a convenient printout from my site, with the relevant text circled. I appreciated this not only because of its usefulness as a tool for following along, but also because until he did that, I’d never seen one of my own blog entries printed out before.

But I’m sure Jeff meant it all in a nice way – after all, he didn’t know about the DigAtari 2600, and probably thinks Google Cred is some kind of pizza. Nor is he aware of the fact that I sometimes eat hash brownies and hide in a cold dark basement and write in my blog over stolen WiFi. (The fact that no one reads it makes me feel much safer saying so.)

The thing is, I thought I was all alone in here, all by my creepy pathetic blogging self, then suddenly I’m dealing with gobs of inbound traffic via search terms like Herb Chambers Infiniti and finding myself in the top results for almost any relevant term one might use when researching their BBB-decal-displaying organization.  All because I had time between my Warcraft tourney and masturbating to Lord of the Rings videos to jot a note in my cute little diary.

I had planned to take legal action against Herb Chambers Auto Group if they didn’t offer to make things right. I really didn’t care about the money. It was about the way I was handled and treated, and the poor quality of service. But with no time or energy to pursue anything more formally (much too busy surfing for ceramic cats on ebay), I had let the matter sit on the shelf since March.

And over that time, I have noticed a constant hum of feedback from people who’ve found themselves in various pinches with the Herb Chambers group, with issues ranging from sales tactics to warranty service.

And having just, late last week, received word from yet another person who read my blog and actually decided to take their Saab purchase elsewhere, I realized that my blog is having a much greater impact than any legal action would.

The latest customer relayed to me that when he called the salesperson to call the deal off, the sales guy said, “are you going to believe some guy on the Internet, or are you going to believe me?”

Perfect.

“Hello?”

[If you have any Herb Chambers complaints, please share so that others might learn from your pain.]

Just to keep you in the loop on my Herb Chambers Infiniti dispute, here’s the update. I sent along a “30 day letter” and copied some consumer advocates and a couple members of the Nissan / Infiniti management team in Gardena. I will keep you all in the loop on the response, if any. The duct tape part is the most fun.

—–
February 18, 2005

Herb Chambers
The Herb Chambers Companies / Herb Chambers Infiniti
1198 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02222

VIA FEDEX 7904 3200 0048

Dear Mr. Chambers:

I have tried diligently over the past three months to solve this matter directly with your service manager, Paul Dineen. The only response I have received to my letters of November 24th and November 29th was a forwarded e-mail from Mr. Dineen that had been authored by your Mr. Forero and entitled “letter from Ted”. While no solution was proposed, some of my key concerns were not addressed, and it contained several factual errors, the sequence of events was essentially verified by Mr. Forero’s letter. I responded to Mr. Dineen on January 5, 2005 asking him to propose a solution. He ignored me. I wrote again on January 12 with the same request. Again, I was ignored. Finally, I wrote on January 27th and was ignored a third time. Therefore, you have left me no choice but to pursue remedies under the law.

Under the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 93A, Section 9, I hereby make written demand for relief as outlined therein.

On or about the weeks of July 19th, September 13th and September 20th, 2004, the following unfair and deceptive acts occurred:

- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti represented that unnecessary repairs were needed in order to make the automobile operational;
- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti represented that unneeded repairs were necessary in order to pass the emissions component of Massachusetts State Inspection;
- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti represented that the vehicle was adequately repaired & test driven and ready for delivery when it was not…

…

- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti represented that the vehicle’s emission issue had been repaired, when in fact, they were aware that operation of the vehicle in its delivered state constituted a violation of state and federal emissions laws;
- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti made numerous false assertions about the vehicle’s parts and condition in order to justify additional repairs;
- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti used substandard procedures to install an OEM air intake system (including but not limited to the use of duct tape to seal the automobile’s fresh air intake cowling)
- Employees, agents, or representatives of Herb Chambers Infiniti accepted $x,xxx.xx for this work over multiple service orders;

These unfair and deceptive practices are, in my opinion, declared unlawful by Massachusetts Law, specifically Chapter 93A, Section 2, and by Federal Law, specifically section 5(a)(1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45(a)(1).

As a result of your unfair and deceptive practices, I suffered injury or loss of money as follows:

- Unnecessary repairs on work order #68038 totaling $x
- Unnecessary repairs on work order #69229 totaling $y
- Unnecessary repairs on work order #69345 totaling $z

Therefore, I hereby demand the following relief:

A refund in the amount of $c, which represents the above service orders less $359.90 for a pair of tires that I requested.

Chapter 93A gives you the opportunity to make a good-faith response to this letter within thirty (30) days. Your failure to do so could subject you to additional damages, attorney’s fees and court costs when legal action is commenced against you.

Since my research has turned up numerous similar complaints against The Herb Chambers Companies / Herb Chambers Infiniti, I have copied the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and Mayor Menino’s Office of Consumer Affairs so that they may separately make a determination under Section 4 of 93A as to whether an injunction against The Herb Chambers Companies is in the public interest.

This letter serves as your final opportunity to resolve this issue outside of a court of law. Further, it in no way limits my remedies to those described herein.

I look forward to receiving your response prior to March 23, 2005.

Sincerely,
/s/ Anthony Citrano

cc: Mark Igo, VP and General Manager, Infiniti Division, Nissan North America
Joy Murakami Crose, Vice President and General Counsel, Nissan North America
Diane Lawton, Managing Attorney, Mass. Attorney General for Consumer Protection
Scott D. Schafer, Mass. Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection
Patricia Malone, Director, Mayor’s Office of Consumer Affairs & Licensing

8/22/05 EDIT: For the latest on this matter, see: Herb Chambers update.

After doing some online research, I found that customer complaints against Herb Chambers‘ service department are quite common. Before I get into too many details, I am giving their service manager, Paul Dineen, a few more days to propose a way to make things right. Thus far they have been mostly ignoring me. Those of you who know me know how much I love that.

I suppose the best way to summarize things for the moment is that they sold me several thousand dollars worth of duct tape, and tried to blame it on me. “Wow, that’s a lot of duct tape!” you might say. But actually it really wasn’t a lot – just a couple feet of it. So, I guess it’s just really nice duct tape. *sigh*

EDIT: Herb Chambers update.