November 15, 2011

Good Morning Mr. Pratt,

On Friday morning my wife & I were headed to Boston when we blew a tire and your team went out of their way to help get us back on the road as soon as they could. I just wanted to take a second to tell you how much we appreciated their effort – customer service…. Thanks a lot!

PS. Frank is certainly a great representative for your company.

Dan O’Dell

May 06, 2011

Attention: Ian Pratt, Donna Barillaro, Frank Barillaro at Pratt GM, Calais, Maine

My wife and I would like to specifically thank Donna and Frank Barillaro for the excellent manner in which we were handled as GM customers starting with Donna's response to my April 06 email inquirying about Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus ZP replacement tires for our 2007 Corvette, through to Frank's handling of us at the dealership Thursday, May 05 afternoon when we arrived to have the tires installed and the oil / filter changed.

We worked hard for better than three decades to be able to afford the Corvette which I placed on my "bucket list" when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. Thankfully and fortunately, we are both cancer survivors and are realizing many of the "bucket list" dreams we had when we were going through treatments. We - perhaps more, I - am extremely anxious when we give up care and control of the car to anyone. Our local GM - Chevrolet / Cadillac dealer in Saint John, New Brunswick has damaged all three (3) of our vehicles on routine service appointments so I hope Frank understands my anxiety yesterday when the young service technician took the car on a test drive.

That young service technician took the time to assure our car was clean and he took the time, with interest and knowledge to explain how the new "ZP" Michelin tires were different and much better than the Goodyear "EMT" tires. What a refreshing experience and an anxiety relief. As Frank advised, all of our technicians are well trained and are professionals. Agreed!

Pratt represents to us what a good GM dealer / good business should be. Truly customer oriented with friendly, knowledgeable, experienced personnel with the skills to handle well those who could be difficult (worried) customers (me).

For some reason, probably driven by some brainiac at GM Canada with an MBA, our local GM Chev-Cad dealer in Saint John believes they should have product knowledgeless, computer savvy, "friendly" personnel as service technicians and service managers. In as many years as we have returned to New Brunswick from the oil fields of Alberta (2006), the dealership has had new service managers and multiple numbers of new service advisors who probably never have had a wrench on a vehicle. It is a major event when you actually get to talk directly to the service technician who is working on your vehicle. As a retired engineer I want to talk to personnel with technical knowledge. Needless to say we will not be placing any more business at our local GM Chev-Cad dealership in Saint John.

I especially appreciate the technical knowledge and explanations that Frank afforded all customers waiting while their vehicles were serviced.

Again, thank you all very much!

We will be back again to have our 2004 Avalanche and our 2007 Corvette serviced there.
We will figure out away around the GM USA Dealership Agreement restriction to not sell new GM products from US dealers direct to Canadians. (I liked the new Buick Enclaves in your inventory.)
We'll be spreading positive words about Pratt GM to all of our friends.

Maurice Alarie, P. Eng. & Ann Nielsen