customer complaints reviews

[car dealer 101 0]

dare i ask just how many of us have had the customer rejects car, for the most ridiculous excuses.

i was wandering whether someone ought to start a customer review website for dealers to leave a review on p**s taking customers

perhaps using toilets instead of stars as ratings. Like mr so and so has a 4 toilet rating

[David Horgan 564]

1 hour ago, car dealer 101 said:

dare i ask just how many of us have had the customer rejects car, for the most ridiculous excuses.

i was wandering whether someone ought to start a customer review website for dealers to leave a review on p**s taking customers

perhaps using toilets instead of stars as ratings. Like mr so and so has a 4 toilet rating

What sort of silly rejections do you suffer then ? 

[petrol head 46]

Interesting topic, in more than 30 years in the business I have seen 100's of cars exchanged and all bar a couple (which we didn't retail) have found new homes without further complaint. I have often tried to find, without success,  a logical answer for this.

[Rory RSC 596]

Every time i've refunded a customer and re sold the car I have never had the car come back again. Every now and again we get unreasonable customers. Try my best to filter it out before it gets to that stage but on occasion we make a mistake and one slips the net.

[Casper 272]

Another thing is a customer in a 5k car always seem to be more understanding if a fault develops that we are doing or upmost to repair and get to the bottom off of the fault as opposed to the customer on a £995 part exchange who will come in all guns blazing demanded that there whole car is stripped and rebuild for something like a squeaky glovebox or creaky door ..

I once offered a full refund inc tax before the changes to a customer on  a £1495 car id been using myself for a few weeks as a park anywhere take home at night use to get to work in the morning car 

had 150k miles but was basically a sound one owner car all matching Pirelli tyres etc fully stamped history all old mots tax discs and service and repair receipts in nice wallet  

but the customer would return daily on the first two occasions we put it through the work shop found no fault but fitted new parts to keep the customer happy then when he thought we were a push over the car was back every day for two weeks 

the final straw was when the customer came in said his son didn't like the aftermarket jvc cd player as he couldn't charge his phone from it  that same one that was in there at purchase  

Edited August 6, 2020 by Casper

[petrol head 46]

3 hours ago, Casper said:

Another thing is a customer in a 5k car always seem to be more understanding if a fault develops that we are doing or upmost to repair and get to the bottom off of the fault as opposed to the customer on a £995 part exchange who will come in all guns blazing demanded that there whole car is stripped and rebuild for something like a squeaky glovebox or creaky door ..

I once offered a full refund inc tax before the changes to a customer on  a £1495 car id been using myself for a few weeks as a park anywhere take home at night use to get to work in the morning car 

had 150k miles but was basically a sound one owner car all matching Pirelli tyres etc full history all old mots tax disc in a receipts in nice wallet  

but the customer would return daily on the first two occasions we put it through the work shop found no fault but fitted new parts to keep the customer happy then when he thought we were a push over the car was back every day for two weeks 

the final straw was when the customer came in said his son didn't like the aftermarket jvc cd player as he couldn't charge his phone from it  that same one that was in there at purchase  

I remember reading a survey that Mercedes had conducted in the late 90’s or early naughties, the results showed that an A Class customer had higher expectations than an S Class customer. 
 

Have had some corkers over the years a few spring to mind:
 

- customer would simply drive into the workshop and grab the 1st mechanic and demand he attended to her car. We banned her eventually under the pretense she was breaking H&S guidelines. 
 

- Guy who had his airbag deploy in the motorway, we had it towed in and he wouldn’t let us work on it and wanted someone from the manufacturer present when the vehicle was inspected, along with the BBC watchdog etc. Despite my best efforts to tell him for us to inspect the car would not change his legal perspective etc, he was having none of it. So the day finally arrived and we had a throng of people, cameras, manufactures representatives etc, so we put the car on the ramp and once high enough in the air there was a large tear in the chassis where he had hit something. With the noise from the impact and airbag being almost simultaneous, he didn’t realize he had hit something. His face was a picture, never has “told you so” felt so good. 
 

- Then we had some woman who had nothing wrong with her car, but clearly decided if she kicked up enough fuss, she would get a new car. So eventually she wants a meeting with me, around 6pm one night, no problem with that, she pitches up with her lawyer in toe. Then says we are not having the loan car back until she gets a new car, I told her under these circumstances I was not having a meeting. Eventually with money changing hands she did get a new car. 
 

- Another corker was a Guy who had his car in for service and as usual we plug the car concerned into the diagnostics and the factory will download the new software with products enhancements. A few days later he’s back and kicking up an almighty fuss as he likes his radio on a very low volume and with the new software when you turn the car back on, it has a default volume higher than when he turned it off. His meeting with the service manager doesn’t go well and the customer hits him. So he ends up in my office, he apologies for hitting the service manager, he didn’t realize he has saved me a job, lol and explains his issue. Cut a long story short I sympathize  with him and promise I will speak to the manufacturer who I know will do nothing and in a round about way tell him. This guy has the cleanest car I have ever seen and has read the instruction manual back to front. He leaves very unsatisfied, but shook my hand and I thought we had a bit of empathy between us. Anyway an hour or so later he’s back outside my office and waves to be let in, which I do and he asks me if he could buy me lunch at a very nice restaurant. The radio was never mentioned and as he ran a pretty large company we ended up supplying all his cars and trucks.  
 

There have been 100’s so I will bore you with just a few. 

[David Horgan 564]

4 minutes ago, petrol head said:

- Guy who had his airbag deploy in the motorway, we had it towed in and he wouldn’t let us work on it and wanted someone from the manufacturer present when the vehicle was inspected, along with the BBC watchdog etc. Despite my best efforts to tell him for us to inspect the car would not change his legal perspective etc, he was having none of it. So the day finally arrived and we had a throng of people, cameras, manufactures representatives etc, so we put the car on the ramp and once high enough in the air there was a large tear in the chassis where he had hit something. With the noise from the impact and airbag being almost simultaneous, he didn’t realize he had hit something. His face was a picture, never has “told you so” felt so good. 

That one has made my tea break 

Loved to have seen his face 

[trade vet 702]

3 hours ago, petrol head said:

I remember reading a survey that Mercedes had conducted in the late 90’s or early naughties, the results showed that an A Class customer had higher expectations than an S Class customer. 
 

Have had some corkers over the years a few spring to mind:
 

- customer would simply drive into the workshop and grab the 1st mechanic and demand he attended to her car. We banned her eventually under the pretense she was breaking H&S guidelines. 
 

- Guy who had his airbag deploy in the motorway, we had it towed in and he wouldn’t let us work on it and wanted someone from the manufacturer present when the vehicle was inspected, along with the BBC watchdog etc. Despite my best efforts to tell him for us to inspect the car would not change his legal perspective etc, he was having none of it. So the day finally arrived and we had a throng of people, cameras, manufactures representatives etc, so we put the car on the ramp and once high enough in the air there was a large tear in the chassis where he had hit something. With the noise from the impact and airbag being almost simultaneous, he didn’t realize he had hit something. His face was a picture, never has “told you so” felt so good. 
 

- Then we had some woman who had nothing wrong with her car, but clearly decided if she kicked up enough fuss, she would get a new car. So eventually she wants a meeting with me, around 6pm one night, no problem with that, she pitches up with her lawyer in toe. Then says we are not having the loan car back until she gets a new car, I told her under these circumstances I was not having a meeting. Eventually with money changing hands she did get a new car. 
 

- Another corker was a Guy who had his car in for service and as usual we plug the car concerned into the diagnostics and the factory will download the new software with products enhancements. A few days later he’s back and kicking up an almighty fuss as he likes his radio on a very low volume and with the new software when you turn the car back on, it has a default volume higher than when he turned it off. His meeting with the service manager doesn’t go well and the customer hits him. So he ends up in my office, he apologies for hitting the service manager, he didn’t realize he has saved me a job, lol and explains his issue. Cut a long story short I sympathize  with him and promise I will speak to the manufacturer who I know will do nothing and in a round about way tell him. This guy has the cleanest car I have ever seen and has read the instruction manual back to front. He leaves very unsatisfied, but shook my hand and I thought we had a bit of empathy between us. Anyway an hour or so later he’s back outside my office and waves to be let in, which I do and he asks me if he could buy me lunch at a very nice restaurant. The radio was never mentioned and as he ran a pretty large company we ended up supplying all his cars and trucks.  
 

There have been 100’s so I will bore you with just a few. 

Ha Ha,they are definitely not boring,keep them coming please.Franchise dealer punters must be a lot worse.

[Casper 272]

1 hour ago, trade vet said:

Ha Ha,they are definitely not boring,keep them coming please.Franchise dealer punters must be a lot worse.

Agreed there keeping me amused funny thing is on the car I mentioned he said his son liked the car and I never see it again after he refused the refund 

5 hours ago, petrol head said:

I remember reading a survey that Mercedes had conducted in the late 90’s or early naughties, the results showed that an A Class customer had higher expectations than an S Class customer. 
 

Have had some corkers over the years a few spring to mind:
 

- customer would simply drive into the workshop and grab the 1st mechanic and demand he attended to her car. We banned her eventually under the pretense she was breaking H&S guidelines. 
 

- Guy who had his airbag deploy in the motorway, we had it towed in and he wouldn’t let us work on it and wanted someone from the manufacturer present when the vehicle was inspected, along with the BBC watchdog etc. Despite my best efforts to tell him for us to inspect the car would not change his legal perspective etc, he was having none of it. So the day finally arrived and we had a throng of people, cameras, manufactures representatives etc, so we put the car on the ramp and once high enough in the air there was a large tear in the chassis where he had hit something. With the noise from the impact and airbag being almost simultaneous, he didn’t realize he had hit something. His face was a picture, never has “told you so” felt so good. 
 

- Then we had some woman who had nothing wrong with her car, but clearly decided if she kicked up enough fuss, she would get a new car. So eventually she wants a meeting with me, around 6pm one night, no problem with that, she pitches up with her lawyer in toe. Then says we are not having the loan car back until she gets a new car, I told her under these circumstances I was not having a meeting. Eventually with money changing hands she did get a new car. 
 

- Another corker was a Guy who had his car in for service and as usual we plug the car concerned into the diagnostics and the factory will download the new software with products enhancements. A few days later he’s back and kicking up an almighty fuss as he likes his radio on a very low volume and with the new software when you turn the car back on, it has a default volume higher than when he turned it off. His meeting with the service manager doesn’t go well and the customer hits him. So he ends up in my office, he apologies for hitting the service manager, he didn’t realize he has saved me a job, lol and explains his issue. Cut a long story short I sympathize  with him and promise I will speak to the manufacturer who I know will do nothing and in a round about way tell him. This guy has the cleanest car I have ever seen and has read the instruction manual back to front. He leaves very unsatisfied, but shook my hand and I thought we had a bit of empathy between us. Anyway an hour or so later he’s back outside my office and waves to be let in, which I do and he asks me if he could buy me lunch at a very nice restaurant. The radio was never mentioned and as he ran a pretty large company we ended up supplying all his cars and trucks.  
 

There have been 100’s so I will bore you with just a few.