Complaint Customer

[Tony-Bones]

Any company that claims not to have a complaint is a liar..... wim does it's best to please everyone but, "if" something goes wrong then i hope we are seen to do our best to resolve the complaint.

We had a TRD MR2 in to fit the owners own lowering coils, during the fitting one of the front top mounts was totally seized so Tony explained the only way to remove the mount was to heat it up....The owner agreed but unfortunately it was to hot and the very top of the damper shaft got cosmetically bent.

On the Geo the rear cambers needed correcting but to do this we had to order some adjuster bolts, so it was agreed we would order the bolts and the customer would return.

I wasn't there when this job was being done but the owner phoned me the next day saying we had bent the top of the shaft and we should replace it.... I explained that he did agree we could use heat and the bend is cosmetic?.... He said he didn't agree plus there was a knocking from that side and another garage said a spacer was missing costing him £70 to have replaced.

I couldn't explain the knocking, although Tony said nothing was left off the mount.... So i agreed we would replace the damper at our expense (£150) and in view of the garage fee we would install the bolts and re-calibrate the chassis free.

Today the owner turns up and we fit the new damper, noting new front drop-links (the knock maybe!!) he also asked we fit his own rear drop-links and ARB bushings.... To fit the bushings the subframe needs to be lowered, plus the ARB mounting bolts snapped so these needed drilling. Total time on the rear around two hours including the new camber adjusters.

So we gave him

1: A new damper £150+

2: two camber adjuster bolts + fitting £60+

3: two additional hours labour £130+

4: A full calibration (half fee) £40+

Once done he then asked we pay the garage bill?.... I explained the additional labour/ bolts exceeded the bill, his argument then was fitting the front drop-links and ARB bushings only took him half and hour. I explained at the rear the sub-frame needs to be lowered plus the bolts snapped so it's a very different job to the front.

It then pans out he hasn't got a bill from the other garage yet?..... So seemingly another garage has worked on the car, cured the knock and let him go without paying.... I said i'm struggling with that and once again i feel the work we have done exceeds the imaginary bill.

Then he asked me to pay for his fuel costs?..... Once again i explained "you" was coming back anyway to have the camber bolts fitted, his answer was he would have had this done locally.... So i asked why did you ask us to order the bolts if you weren't coming back?...... In end we gave him £20 for his fuel

So this car today cost me £380.... plus the £20 for fuel.. plus the lost work whilst Tony was working on his car.

Am i wrong?

[legendswraith]

I think you have been overly reasonable tbh. The damper replacement was a good pr exercise not really needed but if you didn't explain it could have got bent with the heat then you gave them room to argue, bit of a 50/50 ball that one.

As to the rest i think you bumped into a bit of a chancer and they got away with it this time. Under no circumstances should you have agreed to pay a rectification bill without seeing proof the work was done, as obviously you have had doubts yourself.

Chalk it up to experience and be a bit more forceful next time

[Anees]

You have been more then fair! Sounds like a nightmare customer. Hopefully you don't get many of those again! Franky if a garage had acted as fairly as you have I would be embarrised to then start demanding petrol money! :S

Hopefully those customers are few and far between :)

[Mr Mole]

Think you went to far in helping him out mate. He was taking the pi$$

You cant get all that work done free of charge.

Will be coming down to get my geom re-check done next year when you pay for my fuel because I think you did something wrong the last time :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Was his name Richard Head?

[sparkystav]

Was his name Richard Head?

LOL

You sound more than reasonable Tony.

You should of asked for an engineers report and refused to accept any sort of responsibility until he had one. Then threaten him with liable if he dare ask anyone else about it LOL :winky: :shutit:

Hop the to***r get his comeuppance.

[Tony-Bones]

His names Mick.... as in, taking the.

Nice feedback chaps, i just needed to feel comfortable with my handling of the situation.... One thing that's for sure, the owner is not welcome back whatever he wants!

[aztecbandit1]

I know where i would of put his old damper but i wont say it on here, think he took the capital "P" in a big way mate you were more than reasonable to change the damper, but for him to ask for the other things to be done free of charge and then to ask for petrol costs? :tsktsk: G*D i hate rip off G*ts like that!!

Do you have a disclaimer that customers have to sign when they agree to certain jobs Tony?

[Mark W]

Disgusting customer service. You didn't take his family to Disneyland for 3 weeks, provide free garage services for life or arrange for the entire cast of eastenders to sing merry Christmas to him without anyone dying when he collected the car.

All I can say is, if all traders were like you , the world would be a better place.

[legendswraith]

Disgusting customer service. You didn't take his family to Disneyland for 3 weeks, provide free garage services for life or arrange for the entire cast of eastenders to sing merry Christmas to him without anyone dying when he collected the car.

All I can say is, if all traders were like you , the world would be a better place.

i'm coming down to get my geo done and then claim you used up all the smell in my air freshener :P

[Tony-Bones]

I know where i would of put his old damper but i wont say it on here, think he took the capital "P" in a big way mate you were more than reasonable to change the damper, but for him to ask for the other things to be done free of charge and then to ask for petrol costs? :tsktsk: G*D i hate rip off G*ts like that!!

Do you have a disclaimer that customers have to sign when they agree to certain jobs Tony?

The only disclaimer i have is for aggressive Geo setups like road cars intended for Drifting, even then i don't give them a dedicated Drift setup.

In truth this is the first complaint i've had where i stood back and said "no".... Things can and do go wrong when you are working on all manner of cars, and when they do i hold my hands up and deal with it.

Fact was to install his coils we had to do something we've never done before ie: heat the top mount, ok it bent but it wasn't the damper shaft, only the thread that's exposed after the top mount lock nut so cosmetic.

On the plus side another member from the MR2 owners club was there when Tony asked permission to heat the mount, and he has said the owner agreed.

Just to add to the nastiness the owner said unless we satisfy his complaint he will post a "crash & burn" post in the MR2 forum... Fortunately the witness to Tony's request to heat the mount was one of the forums moderators.

[Tony-Bones]

Disgusting customer service. You didn't take his family to Disneyland for 3 weeks, provide free garage services for life or arrange for the entire cast of eastenders to sing merry Christmas to him without anyone dying when he collected the car.

All I can say is, if all traders were like you , the world would be a better place.

i'm coming down to get my geo done and then claim you used up all the smell in my air freshener :P

Ah but in customers cars i only breath out........ "Fail"

[Tony-Bones]

Disgusting customer service. You didn't take his family to Disneyland for 3 weeks, provide free garage services for life or arrange for the entire cast of eastenders to sing merry Christmas to him without anyone dying when he collected the car.

All I can say is, if all traders were like you , the world would be a better place.

Comforting reply.... thank you.

[legendswraith]

I know where i would of put his old damper but i wont say it on here, think he took the capital "P" in a big way mate you were more than reasonable to change the damper, but for him to ask for the other things to be done free of charge and then to ask for petrol costs? :tsktsk: G*D i hate rip off G*ts like that!!

Do you have a disclaimer that customers have to sign when they agree to certain jobs Tony?

The only disclaimer i have is for aggressive Geo setups like road cars intended for Drifting, even then i don't give them a dedicated Drift setup.

In truth this is the first complaint i've had where i stood back and said "no".... Things can and do go wrong when you are working on all manner of cars, and when they do i hold my hands up and deal with it.

Fact was to install his coils we had to do something we've never done before ie: heat the top mount, ok it bent but it wasn't the damper shaft, only the thread that's exposed after the top mount lock nut so cosmetic.

On the plus side another member from the MR2 owners club was there when Tony asked permission to heat the mount, and he has said the owner agreed.

Just to add to the nastiness the owner said unless we satisfy his complaint he will post a "crash & burn" post in the MR2 forum... Fortunately the witness to Tony's request to heat the mount was one of the forums moderators.

In response to that i'm quite sure the reputation you have could quite survive it and besides it would have been amusing to watch the amount of different forums that would queue up to fight your corner. I would imagine that the mr2oc will be trying to distance themselves from this guy as soon as, before they all get tarred with the same brush.

Please tell me you kept the old damper as well

[aztecbandit1]

He calls himself Topgun on the MR2OC forums, not sure about calling him topbum but can think of a few other names i could call him

[DJ Wozza]

I hate p### takers.

I'd have fitted his new damper, and done all the work, then given him a clump round the ear.

You acted in a more than professionial manner Tony, and were more generous than anyone else I have

ever met in the same position. Guy should get ridiculed on the Mr2 forum to which he belongs.....

BANKER !! (mis-spelt)

[Steviewevie]

In response to that i'm quite sure the reputation you have could quite survive it and besides it would have been amusing to watch the amount of different forums that would queue up to fight your corner. I would imagine that the mr2oc will be trying to distance themselves from this guy as soon as, before they all get tarred with the same brush.

Yeah, if he does that I'm sure it'll end up being him that looks stupid. You've bent over backwards to be reasonable to this guy Tony, and he's just taken advantage of you.

[cameron is200sport]

just wish i got that kind of service,and the garage was not even paying a bean on the car,just goes to show you some folk are total ***** takers,you have more than done your fair share of work,just hope that when i get a phone call with the go ahead to get my car done,i get the same leval of service you guys at wim give out,keep up the good work and just put it down to one of those days.if i get to jae next year i will be poping in past also will need it done again once the car is lower.

[Tony-Bones]

I know where i would of put his old damper but i wont say it on here, think he took the capital "P" in a big way mate you were more than reasonable to change the damper, but for him to ask for the other things to be done free of charge and then to ask for petrol costs? :tsktsk: G*D i hate rip off G*ts like that!!

Do you have a disclaimer that customers have to sign when they agree to certain jobs Tony?

The only disclaimer i have is for aggressive Geo setups like road cars intended for Drifting, even then i don't give them a dedicated Drift setup.

In truth this is the first complaint i've had where i stood back and said "no".... Things can and do go wrong when you are working on all manner of cars, and when they do i hold my hands up and deal with it.

Fact was to install his coils we had to do something we've never done before ie: heat the top mount, ok it bent but it wasn't the damper shaft, only the thread that's exposed after the top mount lock nut so cosmetic.

On the plus side another member from the MR2 owners club was there when Tony asked permission to heat the mount, and he has said the owner agreed.

Just to add to the nastiness the owner said unless we satisfy his complaint he will post a "crash & burn" post in the MR2 forum... Fortunately the witness to Tony's request to heat the mount was one of the forums moderators.

In response to that i'm quite sure the reputation you have could quite survive it and besides it would have been amusing to watch the amount of different forums that would queue up to fight your corner. I would imagine that the mr2oc will be trying to distance themselves from this guy as soon as, before they all get tarred with the same brush.

Please tell me you kept the old damper as well

He thinks he's a big player in the forum because he owns TRD number one, i just hope members can see him for what he really is if he bad mouths us...... And yes i did keep the old damper.

[TheDon]

I personaly will be writing to the pope asking for Tony to be Sainted!

Amazing customer service... even though he was a nightmare of a customer.

I personaly would impliment a small disclaimer for any works of that type...

And get some decent CCTV internaly with Voice recording... could save you a fortune!

I shall now refer to you as Saint Tony of WIM if you dont mind

[legendswraith]

I personaly will be writing to the pope asking for Tony to be Sainted!

Amazing customer service... even though he was a nightmare of a customer.

I personaly would impliment a small disclaimer for any works of that type...

And get some decent CCTV internaly with Voice recording... could save you a fortune!

I shall now refer to you as Saint Tony of WIM if you dont mind

Information from this forum has also been passed on to other geometry establishments. What to do is send an email out to every geo place in the UK and get them a ban . Then when they have to come back to you for more work you put them on a special hourly rate of say 3x the normal :winky:

[Tony-Bones]

I personaly will be writing to the pope asking for Tony to be Sainted!

Amazing customer service... even though he was a nightmare of a customer.

I personaly would impliment a small disclaimer for any works of that type...

And get some decent CCTV internaly with Voice recording... could save you a fortune!

I shall now refer to you as Saint Tony of WIM if you dont mind

I've been called many things but never a Saint....... am i still allowed to fart in the bath

I tell you what though, the disclaimer is a very good idea, i will implement this tomorrow, thanks.

[DJ Wozza]

You really should get an 'airtight' disclaimer (like someone else you know), just for self protection mate,

many members of LOC know the high standard of your work as we have been paying customers.

We know you are customer satisfaction driven, with the highest professional standards in the industry.

It is just being prudent to protect youself...

[aztecbandit1]

I personaly will be writing to the pope asking for Tony to be Sainted!

Amazing customer service... even though he was a nightmare of a customer.

I personaly would impliment a small disclaimer for any works of that type...

And get some decent CCTV internaly with Voice recording... could save you a fortune!

I shall now refer to you as Saint Tony of WIM if you dont mind

I've been called many things but never a Saint....... am i still allowed to fart in the bath

I tell you what though, the disclaimer is a very good idea, i will implement this tomorrow, thanks.

Thats why i asked about you having a disclaimer earlier matey, I had to sign one a few years back when i had 18" wheels fitted to an old mini that i used to show, so i couldn't go back if i ripped the arches off it (which i did) and blame them for fitting the wrong size Just think its a good practice and it gives you a bit of cover for jobs like this one :)

[DJ Wozza]

18" Wheels on an old mini omg bet that was a picture Chris