Very Poor Dealer Preparation

[robert997]

Ollie, I'm sorry to hear of your experiences, but it's not unusual I'm afraid. Dealers are only human and as good as their staff sometimes, I know my wife runs one. Things can and do go wrong, they could have been short-staffed for a couple of days with all the flu and sickness bugs going around, or taken-on new valeters or anything. Fortunately from what you describe it sounds like a good valet would fix the interior, and honestly the sales guy should have checked before hand-over. Tyre pressures are unfortunate but even now my OPC, which is normally fairly good, invariable returns my car with under or over-inflated tyres whenever it's in there, despite them being correct when it goes in.

Would you please let us know how you get on ? And if they do their best to keep you as a client please update us ?

Thanks

Rob

 

[David Hooper]

ORIGINAL: adrian996

They are nothing more than car dealers - crooks in suits.

Oy, watch your lip.
Not ALL car dealers are crooks or wear suits.

Like saying all car customers are time wasting tyre kicking know alls with non of their own money who wouldn't dare buy a car without wifey's say so.

Stereotyping does nobody any good.

Am very surprised at OPC Leics though and I hope they sort it out.

Cheers
Dave

 

[mikec]

Tyre pressure can vary due to tempature, unfortunately. If the air is warmer in the workshop then the tyres could be at the correct pressure then but when you measure it it could be colder then the pressure will be lower. Also as you're using a different measuring device, are they calibrated? Probably the workshop one will be well used and maybe inaccurate.

Filling the tyres with nitrogen will overcome the tempature differences somewhat. Using a known calibrated device for reading the pressures will sort out the other problem.

BTW I don't work for an OPC[]

 

[jason]

ORIGINAL: mikec

Tyre pressure can vary due to tempature, unfortunately. If the air is warmer in the workshop then the tyres could be at the correct pressure then but when you measure it it could be colder then the pressure will be lower. Also as you're using a different measuring device, are they calibrated? Probably the workshop one will be well used and maybe inaccurate.

Filling the tyres with nitrogen will overcome the tempature differences somewhat. Using a known calibrated device for reading the pressures will sort out the other problem.

BTW I don't work for an OPC[]

10-15psi out for air temp? get real!

I think you will find Ollie has accurate tyre measuring gauges.....theres no excuse for this kind of error - sorry.

 

[robertc@okw.co.uk]

Sorry for your problems....

I have used two OPCs so far...

Bought the car from Swindon - beautifully prepared and presented on hand-over
Serviced at Bournemouth - spot on valeting and service.

E-mail and phone contacts between both OPCs first class...

So some good news to balance the bad.[][]

Try owning, and have serviced, a Mercedes-Benz!!!!..... just got another recall notice for the stupid E-Class drive by wire brakes, still they can fix the tail gate that does'nt stay up anymore at the same time...and so it goes on..... [][]

 

[yan]

ORIGINAL: robert997

Things can and do go wrong, they could have been short-staffed for a couple of days with all the flu and sickness bugs going around, or taken-on new valeters or anything. Fortunately from what you describe it sounds like a good valet would fix the interior, and honestly the sales guy should have checked before hand-over.

Hi Rob

Yes people get ill etc. but if I was taking delivery as such I would rather receive a phone call to say there was a problem (pro-active sales/management?) and would I be willing to wait until they were satisfied that the job was right rather than deliver something sub-standard. The end result (and I myself have experienced it) is wasted time on the part of the customer, often having to argue with the sales person who starts on the defensive as well as waiting for work to be done again.

If I was having such problems with a BMW, for example, it probably wouldn't be too much of a problem to walk to another dealer, unfortunately OPCs are relatively few that this is often easier said than done. The end result is are the OPCs incentivised to provide good service? Given the number of negative stories floating around I sense not. Maybe you could run a survey to help calm the sceptics, start with something simple along the lines of how many cars have you bought from OPC x, how many of these experiences were good or bad...

For now, with an expectation of less than adequate service, my approach with OPCs is to indicate to the sales/service persons what my expectations are in advance, hopefully avoiding time otherwise spent re-visiting the problem (not to mention the tiring excuses).

OllieW - what was the story in the end?

 

[OllieW]

[/quote]

OllieW - what was the story in the end?

Update so far is that they have offered to valet the car in a couple of weeks when it is nice and dirty...

No mention of any for of compensation (not that that is what my father is after), and nothing in the way of a real world appology.

Been away for a few days so don't know if its been taken any further yet but we intend to inform Reading about the lack of service/preparation and the potential problem that under inflated tyres could have caused.

Cheers all for input, very useful insights.

Ollie

 

[Guest]

I've ordered my 997 turbo from Porsche Leicester in Thurmaston, as I literally live about 5 minutes drive away.... Service itself has been very brief as yet, they came to my house to arrange for the deposit on build slot as the showroom wasn't open yet - and were more than happy (as you would expect) to let me drive 2 turbo's (tip + manual) back to back when they got them in....

However, the actual buying experience I feel is really to begin once they call me in to spec the car....

I was somewhat disappointed though that they never invited me to the official opening or anything of that nature, as they had my deposit about 2 weeks before they opened the doors

 

[Chris5150]

Its not just Porsche dealers though. I have dealt with Porsche, BMW and Maserati over the last year and they are all left wanting. But the thing is its not a Porsche dealer or a BMW dealer anymore, its a Stratstone ( who currently seem to be buying everyone ), or Reg Vardy that owns them, so its all about big pressure coming down from the top to shift boxes & make as much profit as possible. Driving a BMW M5 Touring currently that has just been in for its first service into the local dealership and they were appauling, most of the staff seemed unhappy in their jobs/Company too. You will probably find that the techs/Mechanics are kept right under the kosh on the time spent to do jobs etc with strict time & motion reports...its a sad industry all round. I think its worse as well at the top end of the car chain, some guy prepping a £120k 997 Turbo that he himself could never afford working for an ungrateful boss with unrealistic targets set & generally a low level of moral at work = he doesnt really care too much if your buying your dream car, he doesnt know the customer.
It seems the call centre attitude of banks has reached the prestige car industry, so my words of advice are dont expect too much from your dealer, most of the time you will only be dissapointed

 

[Popolou]

You may be spot on with the underlying issues, but i'm convinced that standards are indeed taking a back seat to everything else nowadays.

A recent incident when taking the car showed that either common sense is hard to come by or targets and turn around times are so vital for their business that they are at risk of building an unfavourable reputation for themselves. The issue was a simple diagnostic check upon which when returning the car i noticed some wally had gone at the trim and leather with a screwdriver. There were levering marks around the geartrim and the custom leather around the clocks, not even discreetly hidden ones either. And they actually presented the car back to me in that state which really defies comprehension. This is just one example.

At risk of taking a rather pessimistic tone, i'm really left wondering whether they're relying on sales to drown out their problems and sign off these issues as as the odd occurrence.

Pop