I totally agree.
I would be happy to recommend Wrights Mazda in Norwich, over a period of time we have established an excellent relationship and on the couple of occasions when we have had a complaint they have resolved it in a courteous manner. Ranting about it in public would not have been helpful.
Sometimes the service you get is a direct result of the attitude you display.
Surely, the point of an Owners` Club is for members to share their experiences, good or bad. While true that the circumstances of any specific complaint should first be dealt with the management of the dealer in question, since resolution can only be achieved by this means, following this course of action should in no way preclude sharing the details with concerned members. Wouldn’t a poor report, if a one off, be cancelled out by the contrary in these pages. People are entitled to complain about poor service and it is good of them to warn the rest of us. They are not ranting. They have justifiable issues which may affect the broader membership.
Further, Mazda Riverside, Northampton is an excellent example of what service standards should be about. They are very friendly and helpful and have sometimes done minor work such as resetting the engine management system, reprogramming the radio and other odds and ends for no charge there and then. I know at least a dozen of their 5 customers who are more than satisfied. My only small reservation is that their road tests may be carried out sometimes on sunny days with rather more enthusiasm than you might approve, but the staff are genuinely enthusiastic and involved with both the 5 and the 8 and this probably shows.
Probably true, to a point - if you have a problem with any kind of retailer or other business, the first port of call in trying to engineer a satisfactory solution should be the business themselves.
That said, however, sometimes it’s like banging one’s head against a brick wall - you do everything you can to try to achieve a successful resolution to the problem, and display the patience of a particularly tolerant saint, but nothing appears to work and the business concerned clearly don’t care. At that point, don’t you think it’s useful to post some information about the problems one’s been experiencing in a public forum where they might be seen by others who might have reason to patronise the same business at some point?
I know that if I was about to spend a lot of money with some or other local supplier who is, to me, a hitherto unknown quantity, and I then read a post on here or elsewhere from someone who’s had a hugely unsatisfactory experience with them, I’d be enormously grateful to that person for alerting me to the possibility that I might be heading down the same road. At least I’d be able to make a slightly more informed decision as to whether or not I looked for an alternative.
Conversely, good reports are always nice to hear - and that’s also what this thread is about. If I’m looking for, say, someone to do some work on my MX5 and have identified two local possibilities, neither of whom I’ve used before, and someone posts here to say that they’ve just used one of them and experienced excellent customer service from a business who charged reasonable rates and bent over backwards to make sure the customer was happy, guess which one I’d use?!
Either I am being my usual stupid self
of the google map has stopped working. Anyone able to assist?
Well I recently bought my NC RC from
Oakmere Mazda in Nothwich and think it is about time I
wrote a review.
When I first entered the showroom it
appeared that all the sales people were occupied with other
customers, however, it did not take long before during a natural
break in dealing with his current costumer one of the sales staff
(James) had time to have a quick talk with me before returning to his
original customer. During this time we made an appointment for a
longer talk. I believe that this was a good balance between leaving
a potential customer on there own and not leaving other customers for
too long.
On subsequent visits to the dealer the
James always intermediately greeted me and was clearly helpful and
knowledgeable.
Whist the part exchange value for my
previous MX-5 was not brilliant, I think that given its condition it
was acceptable, and I am happy with the overall deal, after all it is
the bottom line that is the important number.
After placing the order I was kept
informed of progress and was able to pick the car up on the day
agreed when placing the order.
On the day I picked up the car it was
well presented. The only slight fly in the ointment was that despite
asking for euro plates to be fitted they had not been. However, James
was most apologetic and arranged to them to be fitted (which they now
have been).
As part of the after sales care I have
been offered a service plan, which is aimed at spreading the cost of
servicing throughout the year. However at over £530 for the first
three services (excluding ‘materials supplied by the Dealer not
included in the relevant Service’) I thought this was rather
expensive. Especially considering they would have my money in
advance. The other thing to note is that the the price was based on
an annual mileage of 12000 rather than the service interval of 12500.
I therefore will not be taking them up on the offer and take my
chances when it is time for a service.
I have not had any dealings (other than
handing over the keys while the plates were changed) with the service
department so can not comment on this aspect of the dealership.
Overall I felt like a valued customer,
and they made the experience of buying an new car a pleasurable one.
I have no hesitation in recommending them.
I’m glad to hear you recommend them as my MX5 is in with them today for a combination service.
Personally I think good & bad reports about particular dealers are very useful. I do think the full story of bad service (how they tried to resolve the problem, if at all) should be given.
Rivervale - Portslade, nr Brighton
Contrary to experience of earlier poster, l have found Rivervale to be AWFUL. My '06 mk3 has been i there twice for warranty work and both times they have failed to phone me all day to either tell me the car is ready or discuss faults - l have had to call them both times. In general they just don’t seem to care.
This post illustrates my point, there is nothing good to come from this topic. One person chuffed & somebody else annoyed.
Incidently, Hairdresser, I’d blame the dealer’s system in your case. I believe the Service Receptionist should invite the customer to phone the Service Dept. about their car’s progress not the other way round.
The unpredictable nature of jobs in the Service Dept can and does distract the Receptionist, sometimes for hours.
This will often lead to failure to make that promised call. If there are 20 cars in for work that day, it would take at least 60 minutes for a 3 minute call to each customer reporting on progress. Often that 60 mins isn’t available as the Receptoinist could be chasing parts, emergency breakdown suddenly comes in etc. etc.
" Mr Hairdresser, I’ll phone you at 12:30 to report progress"
This is wrong because if the promised phone call doesn’t arrive at precisly 12:30, Mr H is rightly angry,
So ask the customer to phone the Service Dept. at 12:30 - Then everybody’s happy.
Hi BBR Bob.
'Fraid l disagree with you on both points. I think the topic is great - providing there’s rationale and detail behind the review l find 1st person info very helpful. Secondly - expecting customer to call to check on service of their car? what?! I have worked in the realm of customer service for nigh on 20 years, from frontline to building strategy and l have to disagree wholeheartedly. My expectation (and l am sure you appreciate that’s important) is that once my car is sorted l will get a call to let me know - l shouldn’t have to chase, or remember to follow up myself…surely. This expectation has been built through experiences with other manufacturers/garages.
In my particular case resolution of both faults could have been expedited via a phone call to discuss and would have avoided the need to book my car in again next week! I have had good and bad experiences at BMW, Saab, MG, VW, etc, etc and therefore don’t think l am unable to form an objective view on this.
PS. Please give my regards to Lichfield. I spent the first 23 years of my life there and always enjoy popping home. [:)]
I own an RX-8 and an MX5 both IMO excellent cars in their own right, to date I have purchased 4 RX-8s and I am a member/moderator of the RX-8 Owners Club you should take a visit and see how a proper forum is run [:D] but joking aside my MX5 was a restoration/hobby project that turned out to be more of a restoration than anticipated due to mechanical problems but heigh ho in for a penny and now I love my little wind in the hair dressers car (Ill wind you lot up yet) but the RX-8 just takes the edge well actually a little bit more than that but both cars are excellent examples of something a little different compared to your average run of the mill motor.
We on the RX-8 OC have a dealers review section a very good one but any post is not allowed to be aired until approved by a moderator/moderators for that reason I raised the subject over here with Geoff (hence my post ref Leamington Mazda) and he agreed it was a good idea and I think we agreed there are usually 2 trains of thought ref` dealer service 1. Name & Shame and 2. It serves no purpose if you slag the dealer off (I prefer to call it constructive criticism) and I myself fall firmly into category 1. I have Named and Shamed all of the dealers I have had problems with and certainly with Leamington I have been up to MD level of Mazda UK (let me tell you Mazda will back their dealers to the hilt as they have a good reputation and they are not prepared to see it go with the odd case of appalling service of which I have had more than my fair share) the sole purpose of a dealer review section should be to assist the owner of that marque to make a choice if thinking of using a dealer for purchase/servicing facilities especially if you are making a purchase, a lot of your hard earned is involved so surely you want to know you are making the right choice.
Having purchased 4 RX-8 s now I have to date used 5 Mazda dealers, 4 in the Midlands and 1 up North (Jennings Mazda I purchased a new car from them and it was in such an appalling state I had to reject it and have my money refunded the Dealer Principals main concern “You have now left me with a second hand car on my patch to sell”) and frankly the level of service from the Mazda dealers I have used I have found is appalling to say the least to the extent that I refuse to have any further dealings with any of them so I am now on my 6th dealer but not looking good so far my new car 6 months old has a faulty ABS module I spoke to the service manager last Wednesday he said they had been waiting all day for confirmation from Mazda to replace the part (3 year warranty they have to replace faulty parts) and when asked how long to obtain a replacement part “maybe a couple of days” I strongly emphasised my wish to be kept informed and updated of what was happening with my car which I paid a lot of money for I was assured it would happen - the result nothing, you call them but no one to take the call, you are told someone will call you back then no calls back - I am a new customer at this dealership what is my opinion so far!
I have extensive experience of many marques of car inc all the Japs Mitsu Toyota, Suzuki, Mazda, Land Rover, MG Rover etc etc and generally they are much of the same here in the Midlands I know this to be fact because I have a frieind who is connected with Market Surveys for all the Motor Industry and it is recognised that in the Midlands car dealers are poor - they don`t really know why but that is another story.
For example Leamington the pre sales, after sales, service dept are all very poor based on my experience (read my review) and I deeply regret making the purchase of my latest RX-8 from them - the Dealer Principal didnt want to know the attitude being we have your money you have your car - get on with it (hence the MD level of Mazda)
Since my purchase from Leamington other owners have come forward confirming the same findings but if I had been armed with this information I wouldnt have dealt with them in the first place and saved myself a lot of grief - if you think about it Mazda may have a good reputation with sales, dealers etc and many owners may speak well of a dealer but think about it you only get to find out how good a dealer is when something goes wrong and how it is dealt with which I have found is not very good (the Customer Services Manager @ Mazda must have nightmares about me and my Mazdas)
So apologies about the rattling on but a properly managed data base quoting dealer service whether good or bad can only work in every potential or existing owners favour and just maybe when that data base becomes extensive enough the appropriate dealers and Mazda might start to take notice and think “hang on a minute this is our reputation they are talking about here” and then things may start to improve so don`t knock it use it to assist your ownership of a great car.
Like I always say Mazda RX-8 great car - sadly let down by Mazda and it`s dealers.
Del.
I have worked it out. There is a space in the URL, and opera is therefore adding ‘%20’ into the middle
of the URL.
Oakmear Mazda now added to the map.
However we need to praise the positive
as well as name and shame.
To keep the balance perhaps when making
a posting relating to a specific dealer then that post should be
brought to there attention, to give them the right of reply. This is
what I did when writing the review I posted.
Guys, just a thought from the mod who started this thread going. Can we please keep to the topic, which is Reviews of Dealer Service. If anyone wants to start another thread elsewhere, then feel free to do so. I will pull any future argumentative posts from this thread and relocate them elsewhere.
Geoff
Moderator
Mark,
I agree with you, it would be ideal if the dealer were able to have the right to reply on this forum and particularly this post. Sadly this is not possible to two reasons.
A] It’s unlikely that the dealer would be be a member.
B] If the dealer were able to post, they would not wish to (or indead be able to legally ) discuss an individual case here.
So we are only hearing 50% of the complaint a member might have against a dealer.
This can lead to a Kangaroo Court situation where a dealer is Named, Shamed and Presumed Guilty yet the dealer cannot offer a defence.
I’m sorry Mr OP / Mod if you see me as argumentative, and I thank you for your invitation to start another thread elsewhere, but my comments apply to this thread alone.
For my reasons stated here and previously, I see no value to this topic.
Then don’t look at the thread then…
simpels…
i’ve locked this thread, lets do it properly in the other one [son of]