I bought Honda Accord, model EX, in April 2003. The problem that occurred a few days ago was that backlight of Clock/Radio/CD/Climate display went off. Every component of the unit works properly, but I cannot see information on dashboard.
I called my dealership and they told me that just to determine what is the problem, what I already could see, I have to pay $95.00 + tax. I told them that this is too expensive for something so obvious, so they told me to come to service and they will look that for free and give me options what I can do. Next day I went there and they even didnt try to look my car. Instead the service advisor told me that because car is out of warranty I have to pay $1200 to get whole unit replaced. It looked to me they already had these cases and they knew what was wrong.
Because that option sounded to me very stupid (paying $1200 just to get light), I called customer service for Honda Canada. After listening to complain she immediately told me that I have 2 options. To pay $1200 for replacement or to get unit refurbished for $300. Again she sounded like somebody who already came across the problem. I told her that I found on different forums tons of people with the same car and the same problem, and that it was obvious that something is wrong in the design of that unit when it requires replacement/refurbishing of the whole unit just because of light. That would be like selling $300 lamp that has to be replaced when bulb gets broken. So she took VIN of my car but she told me that she could not open the case until proper diagnostic is done on my car. She called the service and they told her they did visual check, but for diagnostic I have to go back and pay $95.00 + tax. After that Honda may pay me part of repair to get that light back.
I am very disappointed with my experience with both Honda customer service and Honda dealership. They all know there is a system problem with the radio unit in the car but instead to fix it, they choose to make profit of it. I understand their motivation to act like that but on the end they will just loose one customer and I hope I can persuade somebody else not to buy their car.
