July/August Issue 57 - Flipbook - Page 22
NEWS
30 MINUTES E.T.A - TRY 30 DAYS
Derek Firminger never said a truer
word when he said something like the
30 minute eta is now irrelevant in most
circumstances. Because there is no doubt
about it that society is becoming hopeless
and less punctual in every element of life,
yet are over demanding and unreasonable
most times. Yet when called upon to
deliver good service themselves they
are useless. I have just had to endure
a pointless and ridiculous experience,
courtesy of our local Ford dealer who I
shall forget to name and shame who claim
on their adverts to promise the earth but
most people are still waiting for the first
shovelful of soil.
The story starts with a six monthold Transit Custom. During routine
maintenance it was plugged into and
found to have a slightly leaking injector.
As we know these can have severe
consequences if left unattended over a
period of time. I therefore thought, ever
so simple, book it in, get it changed under
warranty and away we go! How mistaken
can a person be? I firstly rang the Dealer,
who is just a couple of miles up the road,
to find that incoming calls were transferred
to a Call Centre 30 miles away, but it
might as well have been in India. I was
interrogated for the next 10 minutes and
asked many leading questions , obviously
to start a data base on me. None of which
was about the No.2 injector on our van. I
was eventually given a booked date of 26
days ahead, claiming that was the soonest
22
it could possibly be done but if I took it in
at 10 o’clock that day it would be looked
after. Roll on 26 days and I turn up at 9
o’clock prepared to leave the vehicle. I
took the trouble of presenting all of the
information we had gathered, including
the fault code and so forth but this didn’t
seem to appeal to anyone’s better nature
and I was told to just leave the key and
they would contact me. On this occasion
I wasn’t too bothered and, being fairly
patient, after three days (yes three days)
I decided to ring up and find out how
we were doing. Now, this is not simple
either because the phone is diverted to
our 30-mile Call Centre. Finally, giving
up, I was transported to the Dealership
to have a face to face conversation, only
to be told “sorry mate, we have been too
busy and we are going to try and look at it
tomorrow”., and if it needs a part it will be
next week. I had only four words to say to
him – ‘give me the keys’ – and I left. And
I also told him I was not his mate, did he
think I was in the navy
We then rang our Official Ford suppliers,
bought an injector for £78 and dialled it in
off our own software and away we went,
after a total downtime of approximately 29
days and six hours, all for a few pounds.
It appears that the Dealership, apart from
needing a course in customer relations,
is a bit short staffed, but they are not
too short staffed to sell someone a new
vehicle with a three-year warranty which
will be honoured immediately, apparently!
Whilst this was a Ford dealer with all the
best quality systems available in the world
ISO 9000 etc. in many cases it could have
been any one of the larger dealer groups.
These dealers seem frightened to allow a
customer to deal direct, whether its these
call centres or a pretty girl who takes you
to one side for a tea or coffee when all
you want is your vehicle put right I know
someone who went to a Vauxhall dealer
with an engine management light on and
was told it would be £97 plus VAT just to
plug-in. Suffering from ‘stage fright’ and
high blood pressure she returned and
called her breakdown company who, I
guess, would turn up in 30-odd minutes,
having been paid just over £40. They then
plugged in and told her it was an oxygen
sensor. There is a real message hidden in
there about the way the breakdown system
is abused but, on the other hand, £97 is a
bit rich for two or three minutes. Here is an
idea, join the AA for £70.00 and get free
diagnostics for a whole year
It is easy to be critical but these people
give you enough material to work with;
staffing and workload are becoming a
serious problem within the motor trade. It
might be hard work to get a plumber but I
think it is becoming harder to get a motor
mechanic.
More on this next time.
Fred Henderson
