feeling ripped off and pi**ed off by OPC Notts

andy mac · Feb 28, 2006

Took the Boxster for a minor service today .Arrived 09.20 , Taxi to Notts , good start. 11.00 , garage rang to say they had not started on the car yet and it would not be ready until 16.30. 7 hours for a minor service and MOT is very poor. Picked car up at 16.30. Bill was £391.00 for basicaly an oil change, pollen filter, a system diagnostic check and a mechanical check. Whats really, really pi**ed me off is they have not even changed the oil filter."I DONT BELIEVE IT" Whats the point of putting new oil through a contaminated filter?, and why do they rip us off so massively on oil price. mobil 10w 40 is around £40 a gallon, so why do we pay £103.15 . I was also told that my rear pads and discs only have 500 miles left .Thats strange really, because thats exactly what they said last year and i have done 7000 miles since then.( I Will get them checked again as i did last year) Any ideas why they change oil and not filter would be appreciated. kind regards Andy Mac

danofesher · Feb 28, 2006

I think you should check your guarantee and maintenance book. There are circumstances where they'll only change the filter every 2 years (i.e. low mileage). I think Porsche are very silly allowing this because as you say there's no point in putting £100 worth of oil through a dirty filter that costs under £10 to replace!.

I had a situation where I asked for a 2 year 12k service. For reasons better known to the OPC they didn't change the filter so my car could have gone for 4 years on the original filter - crazy (It was lucky that I noticed that they hadn't changed it). If Porsche didn't try to save us £10 then the error would not have occurred. Needless to say I watched the new filter being changed - they weren't going to put new oil in - I insisted on it though.

Mark_Bennett · Feb 28, 2006

Certainly on most Boxsters (not necessarily the newest ones) the oil is changed every 12K miles, but the filter every 24K (according to the mainteneance booklet).
I always insist they change the filter as well on mine.

Bertroex · Feb 28, 2006

Well, ripp of or simply market economics of cars invalidating their warranty if not maintained inside of the OPC circuit.

Funny that for EXACTLY the same service you pay in europe 30% less; puts a champagne tasting trip into a totally different perspective.

Nonetheless, surely you have heard of Zentrum, 14 CONWAY ROAD
CARLTON NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
NG4 2PU
TEL: 0115 9613 911
FAX: 0115 9613 911
EMAIL: SALES@ZENTRUM.CO.UK

These chaps know their Porsches. Very very reasonable and top technicians.

Helen Goff · Feb 28, 2006

ORIGINAL: Bertroex

Well, ripp of or simply market economics of cars invalidating their warranty if not maintained inside of the OPC circuit.

Funny that for EXACTLY the same service you pay in europe 30% less; puts a champagne tasting trip into a totally different perspective.

Nonetheless, surely you have heard of Zentrum, 14 CONWAY ROAD
CARLTON NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
NG4 2PU
TEL: 0115 9613 911
FAX: 0115 9613 911
EMAIL: SALES@ZENTRUM.CO.UK

These chaps know their Porsches. Very very reasonable and top technicians.

can highly recommend them myself as they service and maintain all MY cars. unfortunatly they are not officially reconnised (even though the OPC use them for some work themselves)by porsche so i guess you might have problems with warrenty issues. hence Larrys Cayenne is off to OPC Notts for servicing [&o]

Guest · Mar 1, 2006

Mmph, I think there's a bit of a theme here. Had my front pads changed last September with 30k miles on the clock at Notts OPC. Car went back in last week for 36k service - amongst other things I was told I'd need to replace the front pads in 4-5k. Given that the first set lasted 30k miles I challenged why they felt this replacement set would only last 10k (particularly as I haven't done any track days since fitted) - at this point the hot air factor in the conversation went straight off the meter [

][

].

I think I will be seeking a second opinion at Zentrum as apparently I also need rear pads and new discs all round [

].......

daro911 · Mar 1, 2006

ORIGINAL: FN53DHE

Mmph, I think there's a bit of a theme here.

I was told by my local useless BMW/MINI outfit (Sytners) that my MCS needed pads and discs all round! the car had done 27000 miles [

] and was due to be changed / returned to leasing company within 5000 miles! I decided to have the brakes checked out by my preferred tyre supplier and was told that front pads looked good for another 8K+ and rears had even more life in them [&o]

A friend of mine at another Sytner BMW/MINI outfit was told the same bullsh*t as me, but his mileage was 30K. He went on to do another 7K miles before changing pads/discs at a local non franchised garage for under 1/2 the money Sytner wanted to relieve him of.

IMO conning the motorist into changing their brake pads /discs early is very much par for the course in todays Rip Off UK climate we now live in.

Helen Goff · Mar 1, 2006

so my friends the moral of this story is.

if thou useith an OPC for service then for goodness sake get a second opinion before agreeing any work that they say needs doing. as they do tell pokie pies.

uuumm wonder if the Cayenne will need new brake pads [:-]

Helen Goff · Mar 1, 2006

also make sure they haven't slipped a nice bottle of Porsche screen wash into your spare wheel then charged you £££ for it [

]

andy mac · Mar 1, 2006

Just spoke to OPC Nottingham, who say the words "porsche policy " alot of times when asked about anything service related. Service manager says they buy there oil from porsche and are told what to charge for it .At £103 for 8 litres, that equates to £5150 for a 50 gallon barrel. Now thats some profit margin. Also spoke to the guys at zentrum, who used to be OPC techs. They were great to talk to and invited me over for a visit to see their facilities. In my opinion i feel OPC do not care at all about customer satisfaction and i will use zentrum from now on and not worry about the precious little service stamp from OPC . kind regards Andy Mac

ClubRacer · Mar 8, 2006

I know Helen has good relations with Notts OPC, perhaps we could use our "numbers" to make a few suggestions to them?

I know some OPCs allow you to supply your own Mobil One (got mine at Costco for about £23/4L). Otherwise perhaps we should talk to all the OPCs in the area (at 7 hrs for a small service it may be worth the time of an extra drive ) and see what they will do for us en masse The price is by no means fixed as my car was serviced at Wilmslow OPC for £300 inc VAT last June (that included £83.13 +VAT for oil).

ianreeves · Mar 8, 2006

For me it seams to be the OPCs don't have to worry about their reputation so much, where as independants do and as such know that word of mouth can be a very powerful thing. I spent 2 hours trying to get spares prices from my OPC, they never return my calls or seam much to care, maybe I don't count as I have an older car.[

]

Where as my independant is very good, before my service is due he will send me the service part & oil costs and make sure I'm happy. [

]

I did have an incident with my Honda at the last service where I was advised I needed new pads etc after 1 year, in this case they had kept the car on the ramp so I could see for myself without asking and were very helpful. Again I got the impression they did care

sawood12 · Mar 8, 2006

It seems that the OPC's are just behaving like any other dealership of any other brand - well and truly ripping its customers off by using the warranty as the big carrot at the end of a stick. One of the reasons Mike of Zentrum broke away from the OPC and set up himself was that he became so dissolusioned with the changing attitude of the OPC network. Why can't the dealerships see that if they treat their customers well there's a good chance that they'll retain peoples custom beyond the warranty.

I find it absolutely amazing that for the sake of a few quids worth of oil filter the dealerships are saying you don't need to replace the filter for every change of oil - unbelievable.

ianreeves · Mar 9, 2006

I think thats partly true, it would be unfair to tar everyone with the same attitude, but yes the warranty is a big issue. I will admit that I have worked for a company who manufactures parts for the car industry and its true that cost cutting is a massive issue. I would very often sit in meetings where they would moan and gripe about points of pennies. This is never done in the interests of the end user ( us ).

For us people with older cars, I would think not may of us get our servies at an OPC. The cost is far too high and the level of knowlege is not always as it should be.

I do feel for those locked into the dealerships with warranties. I do not know the if any major work was done at an independant then the car just serviced at an OPC how this would work, but its more hassle.....