WHAT WOULD YOU DO ?
Discussion
About teo months ago I noticed a run in my 2005 Bosxter S on the near side wing. Took it back to the OPC who took photos and agreed that it was a warranty job and would need to get authorisation from Puk, authorisation having been given the car was booked in to their Porsche approved body shop for the work to be carried out. The car was with them for 4 days then dropped back to the OPC for me to collect which i duely did. Next morning when I washed the car I noticed the area where the run had been was covered in serious swirl marking along with the door and the bonnet where theyu had tried to blend in the new paint. there were also sanding marks, polishing machine burns and over spray over various parts of the bumper bonnet and wing. Suffice to say I called the service manager and explained the problem to him and took the car up to show him. He took one look at the area and agreed that the work was not of acceptable standard and needed to be rectified. Car was again booked in to go the same body shop to be sorted along with a list of all the faults. When the car was delivered back to the OOPC a second time it was again of unsatisfactory quality, the flat spot sanding marks and the swiorling had just been moved to different areas and this was pointed out to the service manager who said that it would help if i could take the car away that night as they needed the space for the 911 turbo evening they were holding with the promise that he would call me the next day. That evening my wife received a call from the service manager stating that the body shop manager said that the work was of and acceptable standard but to put the matter to be so to speak he was prepared to pay for Paul Dalton of Miracle Detaing to come and rectiry the problems, as i had been speaking to him about removing some minor swirl marks and re-doing the Zymol treatment on my car. Graet I thought so I rang Paul to say that Porsche were prepared to meet the costs of rectifying the problems and that the service manager would be calling him to arrange price and date to do it. Those of you who know of Paul will know he is not the cheapest but is damn good at what he does. I later get a cal from the service manager saying that they were not prepared to pay for paul to do my car as he was to expensive and that all he could authorise was a maximun of £350 or I could give it back to the body shop for them to try and sort out again. I made it clear that there was no way I was going to let that body shop near my car again and I would rather pay the additional for paul to come down and sort it. This was arranged for today and Paul duely turned up at the OPC to work on my car after about twenty minute I gat a call from Paul syaing that they really had made a mess of my car and that there was overspray, sanding marks polishing burns over most of the front of my car but he would try. Anyway after about eight hours he gets ny car looking alomst like new except the overspray on both the door sill and alloy which was that severe he would need to sand then down. Suffice to say I am not a happy man due to the fact that what is suopposed to be an approved Porsche body shop had keft my car in such a condition that it has cost me £500 of my own money to rectify their mistakes. Do you think I should complain to Porsche uk or Porsche ag and demand my £500 back or should I leave it count my blessing that the problem is now sorted and learn from it ???
Porsche dealers in German swear blind to me that Porsche AG review all these cases. I'm not so sure how thoroughly they review them now that they're making so many cars (with so many owners suffering problems - no jibe/irony/dig intended), but any letter you send should get reviewed. Perhaps send a letter to Porsche UK detailing your complaint along with the gist of what you intend to write to Porsche AG. If you get no response to this, write to Porsche AG noting that Porsche GB have not responded.
It's worth a go, though nothing may come of it given that an outsider was used where Porsche were still offering to have another crack at it. When my Z8 was delivered with a few niggling problems which weren't being sorted after weeks of hassle (a real nightmare at the time....handover took 4 weeks), Helmut Panke got a letter. I got a reply and things got sorted. In fact, the salesman dealing with me lost his job - though it was aknowledged by all and sundry at my BMW dealership that he was a useless bastard and had it coming anyway.
It's worth a go, though nothing may come of it given that an outsider was used where Porsche were still offering to have another crack at it. When my Z8 was delivered with a few niggling problems which weren't being sorted after weeks of hassle (a real nightmare at the time....handover took 4 weeks), Helmut Panke got a letter. I got a reply and things got sorted. In fact, the salesman dealing with me lost his job - though it was aknowledged by all and sundry at my BMW dealership that he was a useless bastard and had it coming anyway.
dinkmatt said:
Re Loach
Thanks for that but it was actually the Porsche dealer themselves who suggested using the third party but baulked when they realised how much it was going to cost them
Thanks for that but it was actually the Porsche dealer themselves who suggested using the third party but baulked when they realised how much it was going to cost them
Ahh - yes. Missed that bit. In any event - definitely worth taking it a bit further if you feel inclined to. From your post, it seems as though the car is once again as it should be, which is the most important thing. It's a tough call, and one difficult to make from the sidelines. All i can tell you is that Porsche would probably investigate your case if you write.
Dinkmatt, it would be interesting to hear Pauls take on what had been done to your car (I'm guessing it's a dark colour) as these obviously show up polishing and swirl marks the worst.
Quite often runs are only in the clearcoat and do not effect the base coat underneath.
With careful flatting these runs can normally be removed with very fine grade wet and dry flatting paper (2000 grit mimimum)
Once this has been done it requires the flatted and dulled clearcoat to be polished to replace its gloss.
No competant bodyshop should have to rely on the services of a third party sub contractor to gain an acceptable paint finish having painted it themselves. Something sounds "wrong" here.
This should not have become the massive issue you describe, you have my sympathy.
I'd try and keep things at dealer level to start with, by initially writing and stating your case/financial claim to the dealer principle in question.
This gives you the option to "threaten" to escalate the matter with Porsche GB if you don't get a satisfactory conclusion with the OPC.
Did you take pictures at any point during the debacle ?
Quite often runs are only in the clearcoat and do not effect the base coat underneath.
With careful flatting these runs can normally be removed with very fine grade wet and dry flatting paper (2000 grit mimimum)
Once this has been done it requires the flatted and dulled clearcoat to be polished to replace its gloss.
No competant bodyshop should have to rely on the services of a third party sub contractor to gain an acceptable paint finish having painted it themselves. Something sounds "wrong" here.
This should not have become the massive issue you describe, you have my sympathy.
I'd try and keep things at dealer level to start with, by initially writing and stating your case/financial claim to the dealer principle in question.
This gives you the option to "threaten" to escalate the matter with Porsche GB if you don't get a satisfactory conclusion with the OPC.
Did you take pictures at any point during the debacle ?
Dinkmatt,
Sorry to hear about your prbs but here's my two cents worth:
I recently bought a 997 which had to go back four times in the first two months because of an electrical fault OPC could not fix. The matter is now happily settled but in the process I've had my fair share of battles with OPC...!!
One very useful strategy in dealing with them is to use e-mail. A very courteous but straight forward email to the dealer principal carried a lot of weight in my case (cc'd to every other person I had dealt with). I asked for a reply only in writing which seemed to put them in a lose/lose position. They reply with something unsatisfactory, you have more ammunition to go up the foodchain; they don't reply at all, they know you will use that as evidence of lack of service, etc. I didn't make any wild threats but simply pointed out that I would like all future correspondence to be in writing and it wasn't too long before it was sorted out.
Customers in the UK get walked over by the likes of OPC all the time because they don't know their rights. Most company sales policies (i.e. no refunds, etc) are actually in violation of UK consumer law and a mention of the Sale of Goods Act usually freaks companies out. Porsche is selling a lot more cars than expected and so no dealer principal wants the hassle of lawsuits, etc or being singled out to head office as being crap. I'd therefore recommend going back to the OPC in question via email to the principal and then if necessary escalate from there. Small claims court is easy and basically cost free.
Without going into details, OPC coughed up 3k in my case without blinking so definitely worth chasing them for 500 in what sounds like an 'open and shut case'. Only problem you will have is that you turned down OPCs offer (even though it was blatantly crap..) and volunteered to pay for the repairs yourself and that will count against you.
Good luck and give 'em hell...!!
Sorry to hear about your prbs but here's my two cents worth:
I recently bought a 997 which had to go back four times in the first two months because of an electrical fault OPC could not fix. The matter is now happily settled but in the process I've had my fair share of battles with OPC...!!
One very useful strategy in dealing with them is to use e-mail. A very courteous but straight forward email to the dealer principal carried a lot of weight in my case (cc'd to every other person I had dealt with). I asked for a reply only in writing which seemed to put them in a lose/lose position. They reply with something unsatisfactory, you have more ammunition to go up the foodchain; they don't reply at all, they know you will use that as evidence of lack of service, etc. I didn't make any wild threats but simply pointed out that I would like all future correspondence to be in writing and it wasn't too long before it was sorted out.
Customers in the UK get walked over by the likes of OPC all the time because they don't know their rights. Most company sales policies (i.e. no refunds, etc) are actually in violation of UK consumer law and a mention of the Sale of Goods Act usually freaks companies out. Porsche is selling a lot more cars than expected and so no dealer principal wants the hassle of lawsuits, etc or being singled out to head office as being crap. I'd therefore recommend going back to the OPC in question via email to the principal and then if necessary escalate from there. Small claims court is easy and basically cost free.
Without going into details, OPC coughed up 3k in my case without blinking so definitely worth chasing them for 500 in what sounds like an 'open and shut case'. Only problem you will have is that you turned down OPCs offer (even though it was blatantly crap..) and volunteered to pay for the repairs yourself and that will count against you.
Good luck and give 'em hell...!!
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