experience with 2 different opcs
Discussion
So im suspecting my MAF is on the way out. Its not that bad, but slight flat spot between 5-6000rpm
I ring Colchester, my usual OPC and speak to Andy (he calls me back straight away after I leave a message for him). He says its a simple job, but they need me to bring the car to run some diagnostics before they can order the part which different for the GT3.
Andy says I can come in anytime and get it checked promising Ill only need to wait 20 mins or so.
He also says the total cost is covered under my warranty, so no need to worry.
As they are nearer, I ring a certain Kent OPC. I ring them 5 times , with the lady telling me the service guys will call me back immediately,..no call. I ring them 5 hours later and finally get one of the guys. Y
He says they need to book the car in for 2 hours of diagnostics which I will have to pay for before they can order any part..the fitting of which he cannot promise will be covered by warranty. (which he says might take another 2 hours)
I tell him what colchester said and he just says "oh".
I also tell him I wont ever bother using them again.
This isnt the first time this dealer has taken the piss, but I thought I would give them one last chance.
Thats it now.
I ring Colchester, my usual OPC and speak to Andy (he calls me back straight away after I leave a message for him). He says its a simple job, but they need me to bring the car to run some diagnostics before they can order the part which different for the GT3.
Andy says I can come in anytime and get it checked promising Ill only need to wait 20 mins or so.
He also says the total cost is covered under my warranty, so no need to worry.
As they are nearer, I ring a certain Kent OPC. I ring them 5 times , with the lady telling me the service guys will call me back immediately,..no call. I ring them 5 hours later and finally get one of the guys. Y
He says they need to book the car in for 2 hours of diagnostics which I will have to pay for before they can order any part..the fitting of which he cannot promise will be covered by warranty. (which he says might take another 2 hours)
I tell him what colchester said and he just says "oh".
I also tell him I wont ever bother using them again.
This isnt the first time this dealer has taken the piss, but I thought I would give them one last chance.
Thats it now.
As I've mentioned in a previous thread , Belfast OPC have that feeling of wanting to see your car right rather than your wallet emptied (I'm sure if they could do both it would suit them even better!)
They're very prompt and businesslike .. no BS... They even return your calls sometimes.
I've recommended them to a few mates .. all seem happy with the service.
Anyone else got an opc to add to the 'nearly human' list???
They're very prompt and businesslike .. no BS... They even return your calls sometimes.
I've recommended them to a few mates .. all seem happy with the service.
Anyone else got an opc to add to the 'nearly human' list???
It must be hard to decide who to go to when the consequences of poor service or customer care may not be experienced for months or years later. Because many owners prefer a FPSH when their cars are new - we tend to see cars that have been exclusively serviced/repaired by one OPC and then after say 3-5 years they seem to come our way.
There is a huge variation in the quality and care that the cars have undergone in those first few years. Some have received excellent workmanship and everything has been done properly while others have never had some items checked or touched and are already causing problems with seized nuts and bolts, broken heat shields, stuck variocams, etc and several had clearly had faults for a long time.
I will not reveal some of the horror stories we have come across although many years ago one of the milder ones were the OPC who told a customer the reason his 944 turbo would not go into gear was because it needed a new gearbox - which we insisted was the clutch plate with broken springs - so difficult for the customer to decide what to do - but so confident were we that we offered to change the clutch and put it all back FOC if we were wrong - we were not! but he had also been told that he needed a new speedo cable - which of course was the sender (being fully electronic).
In those days we could often tell which OPC's had worked on a car just from inspecting it and amongst the best OPC's were one in Robin Hood Country linked to King Arthur and a South West Honda manufacturing area convenient from the M4 and M6 (no naming you notice!).
Like independents - there are better and worse everywhere and sometimes a bad reputation can result simply from an unfortunate incident and not be due to a bad business. The thread on here with the 996 and the service we carried out shortly after the owner bought the car demonstrates this very well.
You may remember we found a minute amount of bronze particles in the oil filter housing - but no other sign of a fault anywhere - engine running OK and oil pressure reasonable. We showed the debris to the owner and suggested that the only place it could come from that we could think of was the bronze underneath the white metal on a big end (even scraped some white metal off an old shell to demonstrate what was underneath) and to take good notice of the engine oil pressure etc when driving just in case.
One week later the big end went.
The customer (a solicitor) had to dispute the situation with a well know warranty business and the spcialist who sold the car - but what would he have done if we had either not noticed the tiny particles - or had not shown them to him and included them on his engineers report - or the problem started after our service on his way home. I am not suggesting he would have taken it out on us but the implication is obvious when - a week after we serviced an apparently previously perfectly sound car - his big ends failed.
Fortunately for the debris to be bronze the wear must have already taken place through the white metal before we even received the car and the white metal must have gone with a previous oil change (and we have seen 996 shells that have only run in small local areas and fit badly before) - but it just goes to show how easily a situation could lead to problems entirely unfairly.
Couple this with customers who are out to get something free (or threaten bad publicity in entirely unfair situations for the dealer), those who have done something stupid themselves and then try to blame the servicing garage etc and you can see that this problem is often unfair and not always one sided.
We have after all had a 944 turbo owner who had read about back filling the block through the top engine hose connection and promptly put several litres of coolant in the air intake cross over pipe - filling up the cylinders with coolant and sending a rod through the side on start up (due to hydraulic resistance). He was fair, honest and charming as we rebuilt the engine but he need not have been!
Then recently a service car came in that I couldn't drive under power due to clutch slip - which the owner was apparently unaware of. I have never seen such a worn out and destroyed clutch plate before - sometimes it is just lack of finnesse or mechanical understanding that leads to potential problems.
Finally a car that we did a lot of work on some 2000 miles later went to a more local specialist (may have been an OPC - I am not saying) to have the belts re-tensioned (rather than bring it all back to Bolton for such a small job). The customer had it reported that we had pushed a screw driver through both belts when fitting them and he had to have 2 new belts at huge cost. Not only is such an assembly method nonsense (especially as we removed all the rollers as well and replaced them -so no need to lever anything - which we would never do aqnyway) - but after hard correspondence and photos - and great difficulty explaining to the customer that someone else just must have done that damage - we finally received the belts (which we have still retained as evidence) only to find that the 2 holes had pushed fibres through that were still sticking out flimsily and would have been entirely rubbed away if the belts had ever been run - even for a few minutes let alone 2000 miles. But of course we cannot be sure what went on during those 2000 miles and perhaps someone else did something to the car before that specialist was asked to tre-tension the belts - who knows for sure? Similarly a 968 at another part of the same network - taken in for a re-tension after a comprehensive service here - apparently had to have a new distributor cap as well - noticed during the re-tension to be worn out - whereas we had reported it as OK. Not only was it not worn out but you don't need to take it off to retension a 968 balance belt (as the cam belt is an automatic tensioner anyway) - so why was it ever even looked at?.
Although the internet is a great place to expose poor service, it is also a very dangerous place for businesses.
Once a customer arrived unannounced and blocked the way in and out of our factory because a hose was leaking and he wanted it fixing there and then. Although we were prepared to help he would not move his car to allow us to get a car out to make room to get his in - or to get other customers cars in and out - and angry words were eventually expressed.
The following week it was announced on the internet that we had not actually changed his belts but charged for them. Upon phoning him he admitted they had been changed and he did this to discredit us because he thought one us was rude to him during that incident. Without prolonging this story - or justifying the situation - the difficulties are obvious.
So independents can easily come in for difficulties direct with customers or from completely unexpected competitors as well.
Everyone - even the best - can come in for some criticism and of course no one ever gets absolutely everything 100% right all the time (although many get close). In all this - the best protection and advice I can give seems to be not to over-react to a rare individual problem that may be reported on the internet (that may just be a misunderstanding, fraud on either part or not their fault) but to pick out those OPC's and Independents that seem to regularly get more good press than bad and stick with them - cos it aint easy!!!.
Baz Hartech
There is a huge variation in the quality and care that the cars have undergone in those first few years. Some have received excellent workmanship and everything has been done properly while others have never had some items checked or touched and are already causing problems with seized nuts and bolts, broken heat shields, stuck variocams, etc and several had clearly had faults for a long time.
I will not reveal some of the horror stories we have come across although many years ago one of the milder ones were the OPC who told a customer the reason his 944 turbo would not go into gear was because it needed a new gearbox - which we insisted was the clutch plate with broken springs - so difficult for the customer to decide what to do - but so confident were we that we offered to change the clutch and put it all back FOC if we were wrong - we were not! but he had also been told that he needed a new speedo cable - which of course was the sender (being fully electronic).
In those days we could often tell which OPC's had worked on a car just from inspecting it and amongst the best OPC's were one in Robin Hood Country linked to King Arthur and a South West Honda manufacturing area convenient from the M4 and M6 (no naming you notice!).
Like independents - there are better and worse everywhere and sometimes a bad reputation can result simply from an unfortunate incident and not be due to a bad business. The thread on here with the 996 and the service we carried out shortly after the owner bought the car demonstrates this very well.
You may remember we found a minute amount of bronze particles in the oil filter housing - but no other sign of a fault anywhere - engine running OK and oil pressure reasonable. We showed the debris to the owner and suggested that the only place it could come from that we could think of was the bronze underneath the white metal on a big end (even scraped some white metal off an old shell to demonstrate what was underneath) and to take good notice of the engine oil pressure etc when driving just in case.
One week later the big end went.
The customer (a solicitor) had to dispute the situation with a well know warranty business and the spcialist who sold the car - but what would he have done if we had either not noticed the tiny particles - or had not shown them to him and included them on his engineers report - or the problem started after our service on his way home. I am not suggesting he would have taken it out on us but the implication is obvious when - a week after we serviced an apparently previously perfectly sound car - his big ends failed.
Fortunately for the debris to be bronze the wear must have already taken place through the white metal before we even received the car and the white metal must have gone with a previous oil change (and we have seen 996 shells that have only run in small local areas and fit badly before) - but it just goes to show how easily a situation could lead to problems entirely unfairly.
Couple this with customers who are out to get something free (or threaten bad publicity in entirely unfair situations for the dealer), those who have done something stupid themselves and then try to blame the servicing garage etc and you can see that this problem is often unfair and not always one sided.
We have after all had a 944 turbo owner who had read about back filling the block through the top engine hose connection and promptly put several litres of coolant in the air intake cross over pipe - filling up the cylinders with coolant and sending a rod through the side on start up (due to hydraulic resistance). He was fair, honest and charming as we rebuilt the engine but he need not have been!
Then recently a service car came in that I couldn't drive under power due to clutch slip - which the owner was apparently unaware of. I have never seen such a worn out and destroyed clutch plate before - sometimes it is just lack of finnesse or mechanical understanding that leads to potential problems.
Finally a car that we did a lot of work on some 2000 miles later went to a more local specialist (may have been an OPC - I am not saying) to have the belts re-tensioned (rather than bring it all back to Bolton for such a small job). The customer had it reported that we had pushed a screw driver through both belts when fitting them and he had to have 2 new belts at huge cost. Not only is such an assembly method nonsense (especially as we removed all the rollers as well and replaced them -so no need to lever anything - which we would never do aqnyway) - but after hard correspondence and photos - and great difficulty explaining to the customer that someone else just must have done that damage - we finally received the belts (which we have still retained as evidence) only to find that the 2 holes had pushed fibres through that were still sticking out flimsily and would have been entirely rubbed away if the belts had ever been run - even for a few minutes let alone 2000 miles. But of course we cannot be sure what went on during those 2000 miles and perhaps someone else did something to the car before that specialist was asked to tre-tension the belts - who knows for sure? Similarly a 968 at another part of the same network - taken in for a re-tension after a comprehensive service here - apparently had to have a new distributor cap as well - noticed during the re-tension to be worn out - whereas we had reported it as OK. Not only was it not worn out but you don't need to take it off to retension a 968 balance belt (as the cam belt is an automatic tensioner anyway) - so why was it ever even looked at?.
Although the internet is a great place to expose poor service, it is also a very dangerous place for businesses.
Once a customer arrived unannounced and blocked the way in and out of our factory because a hose was leaking and he wanted it fixing there and then. Although we were prepared to help he would not move his car to allow us to get a car out to make room to get his in - or to get other customers cars in and out - and angry words were eventually expressed.
The following week it was announced on the internet that we had not actually changed his belts but charged for them. Upon phoning him he admitted they had been changed and he did this to discredit us because he thought one us was rude to him during that incident. Without prolonging this story - or justifying the situation - the difficulties are obvious.
So independents can easily come in for difficulties direct with customers or from completely unexpected competitors as well.
Everyone - even the best - can come in for some criticism and of course no one ever gets absolutely everything 100% right all the time (although many get close). In all this - the best protection and advice I can give seems to be not to over-react to a rare individual problem that may be reported on the internet (that may just be a misunderstanding, fraud on either part or not their fault) but to pick out those OPC's and Independents that seem to regularly get more good press than bad and stick with them - cos it aint easy!!!.
Baz Hartech
I hear what you are saying Barry...internet stories do need to be put in context, but my experience and several friends of mine with 911s, have found over nearly 10 years of contact with this dealership, consistent poor service and an arrogant attitude.
I keep going back to get quotes, ask for advice or "give them another chance" only because they are so near to me.
But everytime I do I end up at colchester OPC because they are so much nicer and seemingly honest.
Oh just to add, when are you moving your workshop to KENT >???
I keep going back to get quotes, ask for advice or "give them another chance" only because they are so near to me.
But everytime I do I end up at colchester OPC because they are so much nicer and seemingly honest.
Oh just to add, when are you moving your workshop to KENT >???
Tif
This a.m. I was trying to source a part from this infamous Kent OPC. Was told computer was down and that they would ring me as soon as it had been booted up. I waited 1 and a half hours for a reply and nothing. I then rang E London OPC for the same part. They were also busy and promised to call back in 5 minutes, which they duly did. Luckily they had the part in stock and so I was able to pick it up half an hour later. On returning home my answerphone showed that the Kent OPC had rung me back over 2 hours later. Goes to show that some OPC's are definitely much better than others.
Steve
This a.m. I was trying to source a part from this infamous Kent OPC. Was told computer was down and that they would ring me as soon as it had been booted up. I waited 1 and a half hours for a reply and nothing. I then rang E London OPC for the same part. They were also busy and promised to call back in 5 minutes, which they duly did. Luckily they had the part in stock and so I was able to pick it up half an hour later. On returning home my answerphone showed that the Kent OPC had rung me back over 2 hours later. Goes to show that some OPC's are definitely much better than others.
Steve
paulburrell said:
Tif
This a.m. I was trying to source a part from this infamous Kent OPC. Was told computer was down and that they would ring me as soon as it had been booted up. I waited 1 and a half hours for a reply and nothing. I then rang E London OPC for the same part. They were also busy and promised to call back in 5 minutes, which they duly did. Luckily they had the part in stock and so I was able to pick it up half an hour later. On returning home my answerphone showed that the Kent OPC had rung me back over 2 hours later. Goes to show that some OPC's are definitely much better than others.
Steve
This a.m. I was trying to source a part from this infamous Kent OPC. Was told computer was down and that they would ring me as soon as it had been booted up. I waited 1 and a half hours for a reply and nothing. I then rang E London OPC for the same part. They were also busy and promised to call back in 5 minutes, which they duly did. Luckily they had the part in stock and so I was able to pick it up half an hour later. On returning home my answerphone showed that the Kent OPC had rung me back over 2 hours later. Goes to show that some OPC's are definitely much better than others.
Steve
reg had exactly the same problem with them not calling back..
It was to do with them losing one of his 911 key sets and he had to do all the chasing for nearly 2 weeks before he got any joy.
They never called him back once despite promising about 10 times.
On top of that, their "recommendations" for brake an disc changing was a bloody joke..but that was a few years back when we were rather ignorant about what was acceptable with disc wear.
He had 3 sets of pads and 2 sets of discs changed by them within a year!!!! and he wasnt even tracking it then!!!
In my experience the OPC near Canary Wharf are competent and professional. Had a frustrating time with a well known independent GT3 specialist (the one near Hemel Hempstead).
Just as an aside...I was surfing around Porsche's web site a few months back and I came across the list of specialist tooling and equipment required to service the current model range. If I recall the capital cost was in excess of £2M.
Just as an aside...I was surfing around Porsche's web site a few months back and I came across the list of specialist tooling and equipment required to service the current model range. If I recall the capital cost was in excess of £2M.
S1XXR said:
In my experience the OPC near Canary Wharf are competent and professional. Had a frustrating time with a well known independent GT3 specialist (the one near Hemel Hempstead).
Just as an aside...I was surfing around Porsche's web site a few months back and I came across the list of specialist tooling and equipment required to service the current model range. If I recall the capital cost was in excess of £2M.
Just as an aside...I was surfing around Porsche's web site a few months back and I came across the list of specialist tooling and equipment required to service the current model range. If I recall the capital cost was in excess of £2M.
is that lancaster Bow???
Colchester OPC is my local dealer and they are always really good.
Always phone back when they say they will,always have time for you when you pop in the showroom,and don't make you feel uncomfortable.
Service department couldn't be more helpful aswell,always return calls promptly and if they can't answer your question will find out and call back.
Would recommend them to the anyone,and when i replace my current car i would purchase a car from them again.
Always phone back when they say they will,always have time for you when you pop in the showroom,and don't make you feel uncomfortable.
Service department couldn't be more helpful aswell,always return calls promptly and if they can't answer your question will find out and call back.
Would recommend them to the anyone,and when i replace my current car i would purchase a car from them again.
wrightyrs said:
Colchester OPC is my local dealer and they are always really good.
Always phone back when they say they will,always have time for you when you pop in the showroom,and don't make you feel uncomfortable.
Service department couldn't be more helpful aswell,always return calls promptly and if they can't answer your question will find out and call back.
Would recommend them to the anyone,and when i replace my current car i would purchase a car from them again.
Always phone back when they say they will,always have time for you when you pop in the showroom,and don't make you feel uncomfortable.
Service department couldn't be more helpful aswell,always return calls promptly and if they can't answer your question will find out and call back.
Would recommend them to the anyone,and when i replace my current car i would purchase a car from them again.
Have sent them a new car enquiry via email so will let you know how long it takes them to get back to me.
I would be happy to post the pictures of the clutch plate mentioned above - but don't know how to do it - can anyone help? There may be other pictures in the future that could be of interest - they are in my computer but how to get them posted - I don't understand. I have looked on the formatting codes to try and work it out and picked up http://www,website/picture.jpg [/pic] but what do I put in where - to post the pictures. Probably a phone call from a patient computer expert is needed to talk me through it - please - 01204 302809 Baz Hartech
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