After sitting on my car seat in slightly damp khaki shorts (had been swimming earlier and then pulled on shorts when I was basically dried) I discovered a dark grey stain line across my car seats when I got out of the car. I also found a ring on the passenger seat from where a water bottle had sat and perspired during the car ride. Having gotten into other vehicles damp plenty of times (I kayak) and having had no problems I was stunned but figured that it would go away once dry. I opened the car doors and let the seats dry in the sun for about two hours. When I went back to check the stain had gotten worse.
My fiancee suggested I use a Bissel upholstery cleaner machine on the seat, knowing that it had worked on the upholstery in his truck as well as several pieces of furniture. After cleaning the seats with the upholstery cleaner, which includes a scrubber and vacuum to suction any excess water, I again let the car doors open so the seats could dry in the sun. An hour later I found that no only was the stain not gone, it had gotten larger and extended to any area that was touched by the scrubber water.
I looked on the internet to find what i needed to do to clean my seats and discovered several similar complaints about other Cobalts as well as a few HHR's. I contacted Chevy Customer service and was told to go to the closest GM dealership and have them inspect it and if it was a manufacturers defect they would handle it. I explained the closest dealership to where I worked was not the dealership I preferred to get work done at since I worked 80 minutes from home. They said it didn't matter and so I went there. The dealership said that yes it was a manufacturers defect in the upholstery and that they saw the problem constantly with Cobalts.
I reported this to Chevy Customer Service and was bounced to several different representatives over 3 days before being referred to a District Specialist who I was told could solve my problem. After dealing with her for several days she told me that I had to go to a second dealership and have them look at the car because GM would not accept the original dealerships examination since I wasn't having the work done there. She then informed me that since I was the second owner of the car (GM certified, still under extended warranty, 43,000 miles when I called in) and the mileage was so high GM probably wouldn't do anything but if I wanted any hope of getting Chevy to do something about water staining the upholstery I would have to pay for a second dealership to look at the car and submit a report. This was after a week and a half of phone tag, un-returned calls, mis-information, and out right lies from customer service.
Both dealership I went to could not have been nicer. Let me make that very clear, they were both wonderful. The first and second dealerships both told me the same thing. They both stated unequivocabley that the problem was with the upholstery and the seats would continue to stain. They both said this was a common problem. The interesting moment came when the second dealership told me that he was more than willing to take pictures and file a complaint for me but all it would do was waste my time and money because he knew from having gone through this sort of thing before that Chevy would not do anything. When I gave him the information I had from customer service he told me to give up and that I was wasting my time. According to the GM dealership, Chevy customer service has no power and grants no requests, not even the highest level, which is what I was talking to. They, the dealerships, are told to send customers to call center when they didn't want to pay out for something because the whole point of the customer service center was to give people the run around until they gave up.
I thanked him profusely and left, making 2 phone calls to the customer service center, neither of which was returned, big surprise. I still have yet to find out if they will do anything or how I'm supposed to remove a WATER stain from my seat.
After sitting on my car seat in slightly damp khaki shorts (had been swimming earlier and then pulled on shorts when I was basically dried) I discovered a dark grey stain line across my car seats when I got out of the car. I also found a ring on the passenger seat from where a water bottle had sat and perspired during the car ride. Having gotten into other vehicles damp plenty of times (I kayak) and having had no problems I was stunned but figured that it would go away once dry. I opened the car doors and let the seats dry in the sun for about two hours. When I went back to check the stain had gotten worse.
My fiancee suggested I use a Bissel upholstery cleaner machine on the seat, knowing that it had worked on the upholstery in his truck as well as several pieces of furniture. After cleaning the seats with the upholstery cleaner, which includes a scrubber and vacuum to suction any excess water, I again let the car doors open so the seats could dry in the sun. An hour later I found that no only was the stain not gone, it had gotten larger and extended to any area that was touched by the scrubber water.
I looked on the internet to find what i needed to do to clean my seats and discovered several similar complaints about other Cobalts as well as a few HHR's. I contacted Chevy Customer service and was told to go to the closest GM dealership and have them inspect it and if it was a manufacturers defect they would handle it. I explained the closest dealership to where I worked was not the dealership I preferred to get work done at since I worked 80 minutes from home. They said it didn't matter and so I went there. The dealership said that yes it was a manufacturers defect in the upholstery and that they saw the problem constantly with Cobalts.
I reported this to Chevy Customer Service and was bounced to several different representatives over 3 days before being referred to a District Specialist who I was told could solve my problem. After dealing with her for several days she told me that I had to go to a second dealership and have them look at the car because GM would not accept the original dealerships examination since I wasn't having the work done there. She then informed me that since I was the second owner of the car (GM certified, still under extended warranty, 43,000 miles when I called in) and the mileage was so high GM probably wouldn't do anything but if I wanted any hope of getting Chevy to do something about water staining the upholstery I would have to pay for a second dealership to look at the car and submit a report. This was after a week and a half of phone tag, un-returned calls, mis-information, and out right lies from customer service.
Both dealership I went to could not have been nicer. Let me make that very clear, they were both wonderful. The first and second dealerships both told me the same thing. They both stated unequivocabley that the problem was with the upholstery and the seats would continue to stain. They both said this was a common problem. The interesting moment came when the second dealership told me that he was more than willing to take pictures and file a complaint for me but all it would do was waste my time and money because he knew from having gone through this sort of thing before that Chevy would not do anything. When I gave him the information I had from customer service he told me to give up and that I was wasting my time. According to the GM dealership, Chevy customer service has no power and grants no requests, not even the highest level, which is what I was talking to. They, the dealerships, are told to send customers to call center when they didn't want to pay out for something because the whole point of the customer service center was to give people the run around until they gave up.
I thanked him profusely and left, making 2 phone calls to the customer service center, neither of which was returned, big surprise. I still have yet to find out if they will do anything or how I'm supposed to remove a WATER stain from my seat.
- lisa_m_bloom, Ebensburg, PA, US