Kia refuses to renew contribution to KEVOCA
Kia have officially informed me that they cannot renew their contribution to KEVOCA. The reasons given were that Kia Corp are uncomfortable that we did two clearly ‘anti-Kia’ things in recent months and that they cannot fund all Kia car clubs.
I apologise for misleading KEVOCA members by suggesting that Kia Corp making an 11% margin globally, might imply the same margin is made by Kia Australia.
The fact that Kia Australia is so worried about that public news article, has made me wonder – do they make grossly more and we will be concerned that we are being ripped off or are they making grossly less because they don’t offer a great customer experience. Regardless, I am truly sorry that this public news article could have mislead you all.
Feel free to check before you install any third party towbar.
I provided Dean Norbiato, their GM Marketing with ten stories where KEVOCA had escalated matters to Kia staff and helped mitigate disasters. He was sympathetic and appreciative.
To be clear, we received $15K from Kia to run the Club for 12 months. On top of this amount Kia picked up the cost of the merchandise and postage.
When Kia agreed to start the Club they agreed that they would provide the merchandise but it quickly became evident that this was going to be very difficult. So to keep things moving it was agreed with Kia Australia that we do that part. Nathan and I designed, ordered, took delivery, repacked and despatched around 300 shirts. A quick calculation of the hours taken to do all this would say we didn’t make much on that $15K (we also paid the webhosting, domain name, forum software and Mailchimp costs out of that).
I am not losing any sleep over this, but I am very disappointed.
Just over a year ago when Damien Meredith (the Kia Australia CEO) listened to a number of customers at the Tennis. He said that Kia customer service is sub-par and committed to making a big improvement in customer service at Kia.
His staff tell me Damien had been a strong advocate of KEVOCA inside Kia but that he was very cranky and found my frank emails disrespectful.
He is right that my emails were very direct – I said that I understood that some things will take time, but he had committed to several ‘easy wins’ and they had not been done. Included in this was a serious ACCC governance matter that he had agreed was a quick fix.
With that background, I was pleasantly surprised that Kia Australia, through Damien, invited 46 KEVOCA members from all over Australia to the Australian Open Tennis in January. At that night our group were the only Kia guests invited for the evening session. Damien was in the corner of the function room when we arrived and was chatting to a journalist.
I was shocked that he left without talking to a single customer.
This is the guy who stood in front of a similar group of customers a year earlier, said that Kia customer service is sub-par and committed to making a big improvement in customer service at Kia. Blackball me by all reasons but why ignore your customers who have come from far and wide – many wanted to say thanks and say good things about their cars??
So what now?
Two final comments from me
Over a coffee with Dean, I could not help myself. I said “Dean, I’d have thought that getting great product is the hard part of your job. You’ve been handed some of the very best EVs on the planet but your crap customer service means that you will fail in Australia.”
All this on the day that Song Ho-sung (Kia Global CEO) said this
“Chinese brands are challenging legacy automakers, but Kia can handle it with our quality and service,” Song said during an interview with the Korean press on the sidelines of Kia’s EV Day held in Tarragona, Spain.
“Korean and Chinese brands have about 20 percent price gap and we can never overcome the price gap,” Song said. “But Kia has better quality and service than Chinese brands with differentiated cars.”
What can you do?
Happy to get feedback.
Gary Buck
KEVOCA Founder
Kia have officially informed me that they cannot renew their contribution to KEVOCA. The reasons given were that Kia Corp are uncomfortable that we did two clearly ‘anti-Kia’ things in recent months and that they cannot fund all Kia car clubs.
- We promoted towbars in competition to Kia and that those towbars may void the warranties of a Kia customer. The company selected was recommended to us by a local Kia dealer because Kia could not provide towbars. We also had approval from Kia Australia staff before posting this information.
- We posted a public article that showed Kia had the highest margin of major auto companies. Kia felt that this article could mislead KEVOCA members and that this could make things hard between Kia Australia and their dealers.
I apologise for misleading KEVOCA members by suggesting that Kia Corp making an 11% margin globally, might imply the same margin is made by Kia Australia.
The fact that Kia Australia is so worried about that public news article, has made me wonder – do they make grossly more and we will be concerned that we are being ripped off or are they making grossly less because they don’t offer a great customer experience. Regardless, I am truly sorry that this public news article could have mislead you all.
Feel free to check before you install any third party towbar.
I provided Dean Norbiato, their GM Marketing with ten stories where KEVOCA had escalated matters to Kia staff and helped mitigate disasters. He was sympathetic and appreciative.
To be clear, we received $15K from Kia to run the Club for 12 months. On top of this amount Kia picked up the cost of the merchandise and postage.
When Kia agreed to start the Club they agreed that they would provide the merchandise but it quickly became evident that this was going to be very difficult. So to keep things moving it was agreed with Kia Australia that we do that part. Nathan and I designed, ordered, took delivery, repacked and despatched around 300 shirts. A quick calculation of the hours taken to do all this would say we didn’t make much on that $15K (we also paid the webhosting, domain name, forum software and Mailchimp costs out of that).
I am not losing any sleep over this, but I am very disappointed.
Just over a year ago when Damien Meredith (the Kia Australia CEO) listened to a number of customers at the Tennis. He said that Kia customer service is sub-par and committed to making a big improvement in customer service at Kia.
His staff tell me Damien had been a strong advocate of KEVOCA inside Kia but that he was very cranky and found my frank emails disrespectful.
He is right that my emails were very direct – I said that I understood that some things will take time, but he had committed to several ‘easy wins’ and they had not been done. Included in this was a serious ACCC governance matter that he had agreed was a quick fix.
With that background, I was pleasantly surprised that Kia Australia, through Damien, invited 46 KEVOCA members from all over Australia to the Australian Open Tennis in January. At that night our group were the only Kia guests invited for the evening session. Damien was in the corner of the function room when we arrived and was chatting to a journalist.
I was shocked that he left without talking to a single customer.
This is the guy who stood in front of a similar group of customers a year earlier, said that Kia customer service is sub-par and committed to making a big improvement in customer service at Kia. Blackball me by all reasons but why ignore your customers who have come from far and wide – many wanted to say thanks and say good things about their cars??
So what now?
- The funding is a small matter and I’ll fund short term while I find a sponsor. I’d rather not charge a membership fee.
- In conversations with Kia, I thought that they were hoping we’d just shut it all down and go away. Dean Norbiato (GM Marketing) emphasised that was not the case but that they cannot fund all the Kia Owners Clubs. I have asked for a list of the other Kia Car Clubs and maybe we can merge with one of them?
- Kia have limited our access to their staff because “…the team can’t be on call for every owner group“ We have access to one of their Customer Service team guys and he has been most helpful to date.
Two final comments from me
Over a coffee with Dean, I could not help myself. I said “Dean, I’d have thought that getting great product is the hard part of your job. You’ve been handed some of the very best EVs on the planet but your crap customer service means that you will fail in Australia.”
All this on the day that Song Ho-sung (Kia Global CEO) said this
“Chinese brands are challenging legacy automakers, but Kia can handle it with our quality and service,” Song said during an interview with the Korean press on the sidelines of Kia’s EV Day held in Tarragona, Spain.
“Korean and Chinese brands have about 20 percent price gap and we can never overcome the price gap,” Song said. “But Kia has better quality and service than Chinese brands with differentiated cars.”
What can you do?
- If you feel so inclined, send an email to GM of Marketing (Dean Norbiato) his email is dnorbiato@kia.com.au . Please be respectful.
- Keep using and promoting the Forum.
- If you want to buy me a coffee then go to my old website and scroll to the bottom. Buy Gary a coffee
Happy to get feedback.
Gary Buck
KEVOCA Founder
