Primastar went in for its first service.
I waited the 90 minuits taking the opportunity to work on my books in the show room.
The Service assistant came to tell me all was well and the vehicle was ready.
He then disappeared for a short while and then came back and said "I'm afraid there's a small problem sir"
He then proceeded to tell me that their technician had scraped it on the side of their workshop doors when reversing it out. The damage is minimal but visable. He immediately assumed full responsibility for the damage on behalf of his employer and offered to have the vehicle back next week to repair it. I have the use of a courtesy van for the two days it will take and they would be happy to come and collect/deliver it if I needed them to.
My immediate reaction was to laugh. I just saw the funny side as I know they'll put it right at their expense and I'll not have to worry about the quality of their work.
I'm probably going to ask and pay them to do a couple of other minor jobs on the bodywork - I too have been busy ;) I may see if I can get their quote down a little on the basis that I would be happy to deliver it to them and pick it up.
Above all it's not the mistakes that people make it's what they do to put things right that stick in m mind.
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Hugo you are very generous.
Best Reg's........Martin.
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hugo - my main concern is : where has slinky slunked off to?
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Slinky slunk off in a huff because no one recognised him ;)
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... because no one recognised him ;)
well, as you can see, i did. but i thought he wanted to mainain secrecy and kept quiet about it.
anyway, nice to hear a good-customer-service story about your van.
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I once leased a Fiesta from a driving school that was rear ended on a lesson. (By a Reliant Robin, funnily enough). Minor damage only and the company waited eighteen months before they booked it in for repair. After finishing the job the mechanic backed it out of the workshop while I watched...and scraped the offside rear wing along the wall!
The damage was worse than before I booked it in, and it stayed like that for the further six months I had the car.
--
Robin Reliant, formerly known as Tom Shaw
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Hugo you are very generous.
There isn't really anything I can get annoyed about to be fair to them. OK so it'll take up a bit of my time etc but they've been good to me in the past. They lent me FOC a van for 10 days when they had to repair my handiwork that I did to it 3 months after I bought it.
If they had tried to cover it up, which they could have done as it is only slight, then I would have been very annoyed. But they didn't. This shows that they aim to treat me and my property with respect.
I would have hoped they my have offered a reduction on the service though - still not to worry.
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>> Hugo you are very generous.
And pragmatic. What would be the good of having got annoyed? You laugh where many others would cry.
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Finally got the satelite guys in our new house to put up Polish and English dishes. We chose the cheapest of three quotes and I was a little bit concerned when Laurel and Hardy showed up a couple of evenings ago to do the job. They accessed the roof through my bedroom loft window and they were already squabbling and arguing with each other by the time they'd lugged all their gear upstairs. I hung around in the bedroom, erecting Ikea furniture but really just so I could keep an eye on them. I wish I had thought to move the car at the point when one of them lost his footing and there was an almighty crash and scream on the roof but he didn't fall right off. I got really worried when they started asking me about declination and inclination of the Sky dish and even though I told them it was nine degrees east or west of the Polish system, they still couldn't align the damn thing. They eventually left the house after midnight when I was asleep in the kids' bed.
I was just about to open the car door next morning when my eyes were drawn to a deep and sharp 10 pence-sized ding right in the middle of the roof, as if someone had walloped it with a small hammer. The paintwork is broken around it. I immediately thought jealous neighbour or personal attack until I noticed a piece of my chimbley pot nestling in the windscreen wipers and a chip in the windscreen, still full of red brick dust. Then I realised what had happened and a moment's search revealed the huge metal nut that had caused the damage.
I'm so relieved that it wasn't malicious, just the unfortunate actions of a pair of bumbling idiots, I kind of can see a funny side but choosing the cheapest contractors has probly knocked a few hundred quid off the value of my car. I'm not gonna chase this up or make a big deal out it but if you are ever in Warsaw and you should spot a pair of guys with a pair of satelite dishes inserted firmly where the sun don't shine - you'll know I've bumped into them.
Incidently - 32 - the number of free allen keys I've collected from flat-packed furniture in the last three weeks alone since moving into this house. And - 7 - the number of kilograms I've lost in the same time frame while erecting it.
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Thanks Dave. As usual your words paint a picture......ever thought of wrting for the telly (or radio) ?
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I'm just unlucky. My wife said why didn't you park down the side of the house. Wouldn't have made any difference, the debris would simply have rolled down the side.
Garage is full of packing cases of course.
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Being practical dave, Any Ikea assembly mans tool box should include an electric screwdriver and a series of hex bits.
It makes it a real breeze.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Well I used power tools of course but I do like collecting free shiny things. I'm going home now to touch them. Maybe cellotape them to my face.
Why don't Ikea just give everybody one free allen key as they enter the store?
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Finally got the satelite guys in our new house to put up Polish and English dishes.
Ah, the dishes...
I remember back in the beginning of the '90, when I got my first dish.
1991 or something like that, no scrambling etc. just point it in the right direction.
I loved Sky ONE and Sky NEWS back then (BBC too official for me), helped a lot with my English. And Mr. Ray Cokes on MTV... Those were the times ! Now everything went digital.
Anyway, I don't even know if I could spare any of my free time to stare at that stupid box.
Prefer cycling...
- - - - - - -
Free enterprise is the basis of western economy.
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Funny you should mention this, a client of mine called me today to say that his commercial vehicle had been hit whilst in the workshop. An over zealous fitter had tried to move an artic and backed it straight into his truck, lots of expensive front end plastic damage it seems - but the garage called him straight away to apologise and had already ordered the parts to repair it with and will have it back on the road by Monday - they too were shocked when all he did was stand there and laugh - as he said, "what else can I do, shouting and screaming won't change whats happened."
Seems to be the day for it.
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Or the week for it.....
I took SWMBOs Astra in for a service Thursday.
3:30 that afternoon I get a sheepish call telling me the car is ready but 'the apprentice' has just backed it into a steel strut and it has a new crease line in the hatch.
Like Hugo's case they were very apologetic, have booked the car in for 10 days time for repair.
I'll get a courtesy car and they'll fix the ding I (yes me not SWMBO) put in the rear quarter a few weeks back.
They had mucked up but are doing all they practically can to put it right - that's fair to me.
I left smiling and wishing I could have wound up the apprentice a bit, but otherwise happy.
Dan
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Quite a few years ago I had a Renault 25 V6. Everytime it went near the dealer we ended up in conflict & I had several run-ins with the service manager in the middle of the showroom. In one of the quieter periodsof conflict it went in for a service. I phoned late afternoon & spoke to one of the juniors, who when he realised who I was hurriedly passed me to the service manager.
It transpired that the service was complete & a spares delivery truck was reversing in their car park with his tail hoist down. The driver ran the tail hoist up the full length of the bonnet & into the windscreen! I was told to keep the courtesy car until it was completed.
In a lighter moment the service manager said mine was the only R25 there & the driver missed dozens of smaller renaults & found the most expensive bonnet, windscreen & all in Champagne Gold metallic!
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About 30 years ago my father owned local village garage , one unfortunate customer turned up to see how bodywork repairs to his marina pickup were progressing [having been in quite a shunt] . He was less than pleased to see me , a spotty thirteen year old , reverse an automatic car with no footbrake working, into the side of his 2 week old cortina , wrecking both doors and the rear quarter ,putting it out of action as well.........Guess who did not get pocket money for quitesome time
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Many years ago a friend of mine was working on a farm and was doing corn cart where he was taking the grain from the combine and tipping it into a drier .
He was warned that when tipping the trailer not to pull out of the drier with the trailer up as he would remove the roof.
Now tipping near the entrance he was extra careful, he was using a loader tractor to pull the trailer so he had to lower the loader first (this had a bale spike on) so he had enough hydraulic oil to tip the trailer.
Anyway he was looking up and carefully feathering the clutch watching the roof when the tractor seemed to meet some resistance, there was some grain around the wheels so he gave it some welly.
Seeing he was clear with the roof and the trailer was empty he moved his attension the the view ahead and became aware that the bosses new Subaru was attached to the bale spike and was being shoved sideways across the yard, Whoops.
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Years ago when collecting my brand new Passat it was still in the compound. I foolishly tried to get it out and whilst the post was visible the "lower fin like" supports were not. Needless to say I scraped the door badly.
But from day one the Passat had all sorts of problems with the turbo etc. I kicked up so much fuss with the dealer that I cheekily asked them to fix the scrape. And they did for free.
Same car got bumped whilst in with another dealer. They owned up and put it right. Took two attempts but they did sort it.
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I had a Rover 600 a few years ago...... radiator went on a trip to Devon......(the only thing that went wrong with it over 5 years)....
had a new one fitted in a small Devon garage, picked the car up from their 'back yard' and it had been parked next to an old telegraph pole.
Got in it, pulled forward, turned left and ripped the whole side of the car, really badly, on the metal support wire to the telegraph pole, which came down from the top diagonally and disappeared into the ground.
was a tad vexed................and had to claim on the insurance
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Whilst driving my first car, a Singer Chamois (superior Hillman Imp), in about 1972 I had somone slam into the passenger door and rear quarter (not my fault). After the repair including a new door skin, I had only driven about a mile and a half I was flashed by the car following to stop. Water was pouring out from the left hand side of the car. Believing this was due to the repair I went straight back to the garage. Being a rear engined car there was a water hose going along the left hand side to the car heater in the front. The hose was now about 5 years old and getting slightly brittle, but was obviously damaged in the accident. The repair manager was none to pleased as he had not costed this into his job, but fitted an new one whilst I went a did a couple of hours shopping. Funny, but the other flow/return hose never failed in the 4 years I owned it.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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