Is it any wonder dealers are going out of business?

omega man

Bluefoam wrote: »

Thats becuase under the sale of goods act 1980, all repairs must be permanent & the dealer was required to make the second repair... not saying that he didn't treat you well, just stating that you were entitled to the repair...

Agreed but there were other issues too. The dealer never even tried to get out of it. No messing around and just took the car. Im sure it cost them more than they made on the car in the first place. Anyway, in my book its good business.

JHMEG

-Chris- wrote: »

It turns out the customer service in this garage is excellent, but this particular service advisor was having a bad day.

If staff are prone to bad days then excellent customer service is not possible.

There is no excuse. Bad service is bad service no matter what the reason.

Zube

JHMEG wrote: »

There is no excuse. Bad service is bad service no matter what the reason.

That's just what the dealer principal said to the OP.

-Chris-

JHMEG wrote: »

If staff are prone to bad days then excellent customer service is not possible.

Based on that logic, excellent service relies on perfect consistency and cannot accomodate human error, and therefore will never be achievable.

But excellent is probably more of a relative than absolute measure, so someone who is measurably better than everyone else could realistically be considered excellent despite the odd "dropped ball" every now and again.

JHMEG

-Chris- wrote: »

Based on that logic, excellent service relies on perfect consistency and cannot accomodate human error, and therefore will never be achievable.

No, that's not what I said. There's a difference between a mistake and someone having a bad hair day. Companies with excellent customer service don't tend to have staff who are prone to bad hair days, or if they do they don't tend to keep them on.

niceirishfella

Well done Op on your result.
Re; Naming - don't see the reason why not to in the first instance as they (the dealer) treated you shoddily. All the do gooders here can go all PC all they like, but at the end of the day, the OP had mondo hassles getting this sorted when at the end of the day he should'nt have had to.
He may have won the war, but it was quite a battle.

245

-Chris- wrote: »

But excellent is probably more of a relative than absolute measure, so someone who is measurably better than everyone else could realistically be considered excellent despite the odd "dropped ball" every now and again.

It depends how low the ball drops. Surely usual excellence wouldn't result in such a fall? I've worked for good companies and bad companies (for companies substitute management) and in my experience, a good company would have good standards that would permeate to all levels. Similarly, bad companies have bad standards that permeate in a similar manner. If the proper controls and standards are in place, they should limit the impact of one employee with low standards and these controls should have caught the employee earlier.

This happens time and time again and its hard to believe that there isn't a casual attitude (in some cases progressing to contempt) towards the customer among many in the motor trade.

I've experienced excellence in terms of the service that I've received from some people in the trade. I've also been treated like an idiot and with contempt by quite a few sales and service people within franchised dealerships. I wish it was unusual but its not. Anecdotally, the experience of females is much, much worse.

In my experience, average to poor service is common, good service is less than common and excellent service is rare but is out there.

Scouserfan

leitrim lad wrote: »

i hope all the car dealers of the country go bust ,it would be the stuff for them ,the crooked shower of bull****ting wasters ,withv their clocking and they reckon they have an industry,

i would be annoyed too my friend , and i would burst my way into that office trough man woman or child and pin the owner to the wall and threaten every type of explosion and assualt possible on him especially when your child is going to be in the car every day, a small problem could turn into a big problem very handy,

put the foot down your entitled to it, i know a fair bit about warranty myself and fair enough the dealer only has so many warranty hours per car , but there is nothing stopping them doing the job for a valued customer like yourself, and putting it in next weeks book as warranty work,

under the consumer act you are entitled to full 3 year warranty or else you money back full amount including interest or bank charges if you financed it, i know because i took a dealer to court for selling me a dud jeep , and i also spend a 7 figure sum of money on plant and machinery and lorries and cars ,jeeps every year, so i have a fair idea what your talking about, also you could get that woman removed from her position dealing with the general public, as she was intimidating towards you, and refused to carry out a service to you that is compulsary under law, which can also be classed as a form of bullying.

so if i were you i wouldnt stand down from what your entitled to

My understanding is that she didn't refuse to do the work-she was putting you off because the manufacturer pays a reduced rate for warranty work and doesn't pay the dealer for the time they may spend finding the fault, they are only paid for the time (and parts if necessary) it takes to repair the car once the cause has been found

ninty9er

245 wrote: »

It depends how low the ball drops. Surely usual excellence wouldn't result in such a fall? I've worked for good companies and bad companies (for companies substitute management) and in my experience, a good company would have good standards that would permeate to all levels. Similarly, bad companies have bad standards that permeate in a similar manner. If the proper controls and standards are in place, they should limit the impact of one employee with low standards and these controls should have caught the employee earlier.

This happens time and time again and its hard to believe that there isn't a casual attitude (in some cases progressing to contempt) towards the customer among many in the motor trade.

I've experienced excellence in terms of the service that I've received from some people in the trade. I've also been treated like an idiot and with contempt by quite a few sales and service people within franchised dealerships. I wish it was unusual but its not. Anecdotally, the experience of females is much, much worse.

In my experience, average to poor service is common, good service is less than common and excellent service is rare but is out there.

You've obviously never worked in retail. You've obviously never encountered situations where you've spent an hour dealing with a moaning customer that you could have sorted in 5 minutes if they only shut the fuck up, or been marooned with a situation beyond your authority while every manager in the store has disappeared into thin air.

It very difficult to move to the next customer in a good mood when the last one was a nightmare. This doesn't even take into account the variations in staffing.