Client Services - Oh Dear
Discussion
Ordered 2 new oil cooler pipes from Aston Martin via Chiltern Aston. They were sent directly by AM after placing the order with Chiltern. There is only one part number for each pipe. The pipes used to be one piece and were well known for leaking. Now AM have produced a leak free modified set of pipes which come in 3 parts. This makes assembly on the car much easier, allegedly, so no need to dismantle the front end.
The parts arrived next day. I wont bore you with all the problems but the quality is shockingly bad. Zero quality control and forcing unions together is not recommended. So I email Chiltern who take it seriously and agree with my findings. They contact AM but no one calls me to discuss the issues. Chiltern chase AM up again and I send the email to Client Services. Initial response was promising but still no call back.
Chiltern discuss with AM's parts dept and tell them it is urgent they call me to resolve. No call back. So I call again and speak to Client Services. The call handler was disgraceful. He told me I should have taken it to a dealer. He admitted he knew nothing about the problem or the issues. He could only send an internal email to parts for someone to call me. I asked him to put me through. 'No.' And on and on it went with him talking over me, refusing to put me through to anyone who could help. Losing the will, I asked for his manager's name. He gave it and I asked to be put through. Simply said, 'No.' You are refusing to let me speak to your manager? 'No.' Put me through then. 'You can't speak to him, he's at lunch.' Very clever man. I ended the call very quickly after this telling him this was not the service I expected.
Later, Chiltern called again to see if I had been contacted. They would try again. I phoned AM and asked for said manager. May as well have spoken to a wall. Made it clear his colleague had informed him of the call earlier. You bought the parts from Chiltern, its up to them, you should not call us even though we sent them. Very heavy comments that I probably did not know what I was doing etc. Absolutely gobsmacked by his attitude. I know best, don't argue with me type.
So I call the owner of Chiltern and ask him for help. Amazingly a short time later a call from a parts manager who promises to look into the problems. Very nice man who takes notes, has the email and will take action and let me know tomorrow. Excellent positive attitude and refuses (understandably) to comment on the Client Services response. Chiltern call me again to se if AM had responded. I cannot fault them at all, outstanding service and attitude. However, this is in direct contrast to Client Services. I really cannot believe how awful they were.
Pursue it or not? Will I get anywhere or am I wasting my time?
The parts arrived next day. I wont bore you with all the problems but the quality is shockingly bad. Zero quality control and forcing unions together is not recommended. So I email Chiltern who take it seriously and agree with my findings. They contact AM but no one calls me to discuss the issues. Chiltern chase AM up again and I send the email to Client Services. Initial response was promising but still no call back.
Chiltern discuss with AM's parts dept and tell them it is urgent they call me to resolve. No call back. So I call again and speak to Client Services. The call handler was disgraceful. He told me I should have taken it to a dealer. He admitted he knew nothing about the problem or the issues. He could only send an internal email to parts for someone to call me. I asked him to put me through. 'No.' And on and on it went with him talking over me, refusing to put me through to anyone who could help. Losing the will, I asked for his manager's name. He gave it and I asked to be put through. Simply said, 'No.' You are refusing to let me speak to your manager? 'No.' Put me through then. 'You can't speak to him, he's at lunch.' Very clever man. I ended the call very quickly after this telling him this was not the service I expected.
Later, Chiltern called again to see if I had been contacted. They would try again. I phoned AM and asked for said manager. May as well have spoken to a wall. Made it clear his colleague had informed him of the call earlier. You bought the parts from Chiltern, its up to them, you should not call us even though we sent them. Very heavy comments that I probably did not know what I was doing etc. Absolutely gobsmacked by his attitude. I know best, don't argue with me type.
So I call the owner of Chiltern and ask him for help. Amazingly a short time later a call from a parts manager who promises to look into the problems. Very nice man who takes notes, has the email and will take action and let me know tomorrow. Excellent positive attitude and refuses (understandably) to comment on the Client Services response. Chiltern call me again to se if AM had responded. I cannot fault them at all, outstanding service and attitude. However, this is in direct contrast to Client Services. I really cannot believe how awful they were.
Pursue it or not? Will I get anywhere or am I wasting my time?
Wow, what a bad experience. I wonder who that "manager" was you spoke to. As far as I am aware the director of Client Services is normally known to handle problems nicely (no personal experience). I´ll send you a PM.
The conclusion obviously is that it´s a big difference for them whether you deal with a main dealer or not. But if AML didn´t want customers of independent workshops to contact them directly, why wasn´t Chiltern unable to get a reaction from them regarding the issue.
The conclusion obviously is that it´s a big difference for them whether you deal with a main dealer or not. But if AML didn´t want customers of independent workshops to contact them directly, why wasn´t Chiltern unable to get a reaction from them regarding the issue.
This type of sorry saga with any business, drives me crazy.
'Press 1, Press 4, Press 2, Enter the 18 digit number, Your call is valuable to us, Hold the line and listen to this ghastly musak, we very busy',
are enough to ruin my day.
We know from a number of instances on here, that AP was willing to become personally involved, when customers encountered difficulties.
Why not involve his successor? It would be interesting to discover what standard of customer service, he demands to be provided.
I can certainly confirm the above regarding AP.
I had an issue whilst my car was still under a Timeless warranty which could have been resolved very easily. But it wasn’t. Eventually I got fed up and found AP’s email address. The man replied within 2 minutes and resolved quickly thereafter.
I had an issue whilst my car was still under a Timeless warranty which could have been resolved very easily. But it wasn’t. Eventually I got fed up and found AP’s email address. The man replied within 2 minutes and resolved quickly thereafter.
Dealer service is appalling across the board but I did expect a little better from AML.
Friend had her Toureg in at Reading VW to be fixed. When done it caught fire on their test drive and they put 2 extinguishers through the engine bay to put it out. Nothing heard since November 2020 when they offered a derisory trade in and she is still pootling about in their courtesy car. Tried to contact them so many times but they just ignore all contact
Friend had her Toureg in at Reading VW to be fixed. When done it caught fire on their test drive and they put 2 extinguishers through the engine bay to put it out. Nothing heard since November 2020 when they offered a derisory trade in and she is still pootling about in their courtesy car. Tried to contact them so many times but they just ignore all contact
I made up my own rear oil cooler pipes from stainless steel and hydraulic hose with compression fittings. Should outlast the car. They're not rocket science, just some bent pipe. If you have old ones to use as a template, take them and some correct diameter stainless pipe to a pipe bender. They can bend to the exact shape. From there, you go to your local Pirtek outfit and ask them to make up the rubber hoses with compression fittings to go on to the stainless.
I used the existing tails (connections to the oil cooler) as they're a special fitment and had them chemically cleaned and zinc plated.
Total cost was less than £100 for a better quality product.
Pipe is available on ebay, from memory 10mm o/d 1mm wall thickness, Morrisons Gas Related Products in Liverpool did the bending, Pirtek Liverpool supplied the fittings (stainless for the pipe end, mild steel for the cooler end), Aleo Plating in Liverpool did the zinc plating.
Being installed - tails still need fitting to the transaxle hard lines
|https://thumbsnap.com/7GBU1Ztg[/url]
Hard lines having been zinc plated and then XCP'd for good measure. These are the ones that go over the half shaft on the nearside.
Standard rear oil cooler lines. You can see in the top line where I have fitted a compression hose, rather than the usual crimped hoses. Compression ones are much more flexible in terms of replacing bits. My final pipes were all stainless with compression fittings. These were a spare set of standard which had been zinc plated.
I used the existing tails (connections to the oil cooler) as they're a special fitment and had them chemically cleaned and zinc plated.
Total cost was less than £100 for a better quality product.
Pipe is available on ebay, from memory 10mm o/d 1mm wall thickness, Morrisons Gas Related Products in Liverpool did the bending, Pirtek Liverpool supplied the fittings (stainless for the pipe end, mild steel for the cooler end), Aleo Plating in Liverpool did the zinc plating.
Being installed - tails still need fitting to the transaxle hard lines
|https://thumbsnap.com/7GBU1Ztg[/url]Hard lines having been zinc plated and then XCP'd for good measure. These are the ones that go over the half shaft on the nearside.
Standard rear oil cooler lines. You can see in the top line where I have fitted a compression hose, rather than the usual crimped hoses. Compression ones are much more flexible in terms of replacing bits. My final pipes were all stainless with compression fittings. These were a spare set of standard which had been zinc plated.
Edited by JonnyCJ on Tuesday 23 March 11:33
Emilio Largo said:
Wow, what a bad experience. I wonder who that "manager" was you spoke to. As far as I am aware the director of Client Services is normally known to handle problems nicely (no personal experience). I´ll send you a PM.
The conclusion obviously is that it´s a big difference for them whether you deal with a main dealer or not. But if AML didn´t want customers of independent workshops to contact them directly, why wasn´t Chiltern unable to get a reaction from them regarding the issue.
PM received thanks. The conclusion obviously is that it´s a big difference for them whether you deal with a main dealer or not. But if AML didn´t want customers of independent workshops to contact them directly, why wasn´t Chiltern unable to get a reaction from them regarding the issue.
Jon39 said:
This type of sorry saga with any business, drives me crazy.
'Press 1, Press 4, Press 2, Enter the 18 digit number, Your call is valuable to us, Hold the line and listen to this ghastly musak, we very busy',
are enough to ruin my day.
We know from a number of instances on here, that AP was willing to become personally involved, when customers encountered difficulties.
Why not involve his successor? It would be interesting to discover what standard of customer service, he demands to be provided.
However, a parts manager has taken this onboard and has done a check of the stock. A third of the pipe unions could not be tightened by hand so they are talking to the supplier. I think they now believe there is a problem.
JonnyCJ said:
I made up my own rear oil cooler pipes from stainless steel and hydraulic hose with compression fittings. Should outlast the car. They're not rocket science, just some bent pipe. If you have old ones to use as a template, take them and some correct diameter stainless pipe to a pipe bender. They can bend to the exact shape. From there, you go to your local Pirtek outfit and ask them to make up the rubber hoses with compression fittings to go on to the stainless.
I used the existing tails (connections to the oil cooler) as they're a special fitment and had them chemically cleaned and zinc plated.
Total cost was less than £100 for a better quality product.
Pipe is available on ebay, from memory 10mm o/d 1mm wall thickness, Morrisons Gas Related Products in Liverpool did the bending, Pirtek Liverpool supplied the fittings (stainless for the pipe end, mild steel for the cooler end), Aleo Plating in Liverpool did the zinc plating.
Being installed - tails still need fitting to the transaxle hard lines
|https://thumbsnap.com/7GBU1Ztg[/url]
Hard lines having been zinc plated and then XCP'd for good measure. These are the ones that go over the half shaft on the nearside.
Standard rear oil cooler lines. You can see in the top line where I have fitted a compression hose, rather than the usual crimped hoses. Compression ones are much more flexible in terms of replacing bits. My final pipes were all stainless with compression fittings. These were a spare set of standard which had been zinc plated.
That looks ace, great quality job and very cost effective.I used the existing tails (connections to the oil cooler) as they're a special fitment and had them chemically cleaned and zinc plated.
Total cost was less than £100 for a better quality product.
Pipe is available on ebay, from memory 10mm o/d 1mm wall thickness, Morrisons Gas Related Products in Liverpool did the bending, Pirtek Liverpool supplied the fittings (stainless for the pipe end, mild steel for the cooler end), Aleo Plating in Liverpool did the zinc plating.
Being installed - tails still need fitting to the transaxle hard lines
|https://thumbsnap.com/7GBU1Ztg[/url]Hard lines having been zinc plated and then XCP'd for good measure. These are the ones that go over the half shaft on the nearside.
Standard rear oil cooler lines. You can see in the top line where I have fitted a compression hose, rather than the usual crimped hoses. Compression ones are much more flexible in terms of replacing bits. My final pipes were all stainless with compression fittings. These were a spare set of standard which had been zinc plated.
Edited by JonnyCJ on Tuesday 23 March 11:33
So after checking the stock of oil pipe unions a third were found to be faulty. Fortunately the parts manager, Stuart Bailey, has taken the issue onboard and is doing what he can to fix them. He has been a man of his word and has kept me informed regularly. We have now reached an amicable solution and if anyone gets stuck fitting these pipes I have offered to help talk them through it. It may be some time before an improved set up is produced.
I'd like to thank Chiltern Aston for all their help, especially David in parts and the boss, Gordon Wyles.
However, I remain completely dissatisfied with the so-called 'Client Services' at AM, especially the manager.
I'd like to thank Chiltern Aston for all their help, especially David in parts and the boss, Gordon Wyles.
However, I remain completely dissatisfied with the so-called 'Client Services' at AM, especially the manager.
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