Im Not Likeing My Dealer At The Mo!

[Mike5483]

I took my car in Monday for it to be looked at, list of faults as follows:

 

CD Changer automatically ejects CD1

CD Changer makes a popping sound through tweeters

Front suspension clonks under quick get aways

Induction/exhaust system blowy suck farty noise!!!

 

Took the car down and the CD changer was behaving itself, so they couldnt sort that.

 

A technician came to look at the car, listened to the farty noise and said it wasnt normal.

 

Anyway, Tuesday, gets a phone call "Hello, Mr Relf?, Your Citroen C4 is ready to pick up. Come down when your ready and we'll talk to you about what we've done"

 

'Oh good' I think.

 

Little knowing, they could have just told me they haven't done anything!!!

 

Got down there and the Billy begins.

 

"We couldnt recreate the suspension clonk so we couldnt sort that"

 

"The Induction/Exhaust noise is completely normal"

 

"We have updated the airbag system" (Incidentally, I didnt get a letter)

 

So anyway, I asked about the noise...

 

"Yesterday, one for your technicians told me that noise definately wasnt normal, now your telling me it is. Is it or Isn't it normal???"

 

(By now im a bit peeved, a list of three things to sort and they have done an Airbag update)

 

So the man from Citroen says...

 

"Ah, well, we though it was a 1600 (It says 2000cc on the job card). Dont see many 2 litres in the VTR+. What the noise is, is that the 2 Litre has a bigger induction kit.

 

When you blip the throttle, the car readies its self for a big performance demand, so opens the induction system and preheats the catalyst to stop the emmisions levels being too high"

 

I was astounded by this imaginitive story so didnt even reply.

 

I purchased an air-freshener whilst I was there. £9.60 for two!!! Ill give Ebay a look next time.

 

I left the dealer in a bit of a hump, got to the exit and floored it...

 

'CLONK' went the suspension....

 

Im not happy!!!

[hertsnminds]

Here's a good one for you...

 

When I got my VTR+ spec C4 it didn't have the covered boot pocket. When I questioned this the dealer said they would order the part for me (December 05). Took the car in for the suspension recall (February 06) and asked when the part would be arriving as it had been over 5 weeks since it had been ordered.

 

The parts department checked their records and said it had not arrived. Then they checked on the shelves and told me the part was sitting there. Someone had not moved a blue piece of paper to the correct folder. They said they could fit the part straight away.

 

I waited for 45 minutes whilst the part was fitted...the service receptionist then called me over to tell me the part they have is the same as the part already on the car (an open, not closed, pocket).

 

I went to the salesman who sold me the car and told him what had happened. He came with me to the service desk and between them they decided that the part I required was not available anymore. As the lady at the service desk handed me my keys back she said. "There you are all the work has been done for you" to which I replied "You haven't actually done anything" (apart from keep me hanging around for over an hour).

 

The salesman and I then went out to the forecourt found another VTR+ spec car took the part off of that and put it into my car.

 

You just can't make these things up, maybe we should collate all the stories and write a sit com set in a Citroen dealers, call it Carry On Citroen or something similar.

 

Ian

Black 55 VTR+

[Mike5483]

Its just so infuriating.

 

I didnt give them the car with a list of made up faults!!! They are there, they just require some investigation.

 

This suspension recall, is that the front or rear??? Could it be my problem???

 

It clonked again today when I pulled away from a junction. It clonks most days at some point and they reckon they couldnt recreate it!!!

 

Still, I took a mate in the car today for the first time and they couldnt believe the interior, proding and poking anything and everything!!!

 

I love it when people do that.

 

I am genuinely thrilled to bits with the car. Its just the bloody dealers.

 

I had a Rover before this car, and I never had any problems with Rover dealers and they always washed the car before handing it back.

 

Citroen and Rover... polar opposites.

 

Citroen, Good cars, dodgy dealers

Rover Good dealers, dodgy cars

[Joeblunt]

I had the same knock, my dealer inspected it and tomorrow they're replacing the F/O/S Shock absorber. They replaced the rear ones but if I catch the slightest pothole it feels like the suspension is bottom'ing out if you happen to be on a bend and hit a pothole the back axle feels as if its gonna come off as the car jumps round the bend................. Might ask em to take another look at the back suspension come to think of it!

[lee_marshuk]

Don't get me started on dealers!!!

 

I think a lot of the problem is to do with Citroen UK to be honest. I had no end of problems with Brindley Autopark Wolverhampton, where I actually purchased my brand new C4 from. After weeks of no-one returning my calls, I decided to get Citroen UK involved. Now, when I had a problem with a BMW dealer once, as soon as I got Beamer head office involved, they couldn't do enough to help!!

 

As for Citroen UK, however, it has taken me 2 months to finally get a letter off someone who seems to care - and has been really upset about the treatment I have had, and is personally sorting it out for me.

 

Since then, I have found a gem of a dealership at Spot of Chasetown, who are absolutely perfect. I think, in a lot of cases, Citroen dealerships are very hit and miss - I just wouldn't settle for that kind of treatment. If you give them a list of faults, they can sort it. Farty noises are not allowed! Clonky noises are not allowed! I couldn't care less if they can't replicate it, its under warranty, its there, you're not going to lie about it, so they can spend more than a couple of hours in one day "replicating" and can actually have your car in for a few days and investigate!

 

I now have to drive nearly 20 miles out of my way to get to Spot, as opposed to 6 for Brindley, but its well worth it.

 

I would go dealer hunting mate!

[Fizzo17]

I agree with you Lee. I took my car to Brindley Citroen for the 1000 mile service and to have a couple of niggles taken care of, but they only cured 1 fault! I have a seat belt that squeeks when in use- they said it was the belt hitting the panel on the side of the car!!! What? when the belt is beening used!!! The struts on the boot are rusty ( the car is 2 months old!). I told them this when I booked the car in 2 weeks earlier, but they could not replace them because they didn't have the spare parts! and as for cleaning the car- ha. The 1 fault they cured was caused by a missing bolt on the passenger side wing and you could see the greasy finger marks all over the wing. I have to take it back there for the boot struts to be replaced, but that will be the last time I go there.

Shame really because I also only live 5 minutes away and it would be really convenient.

[Mat]

We're all falling for the trick. I do the same when i'm 'requested' to do the washing up. Do a bad job, and you wont be asked again. The Citroen dealers dont want to do a good job fixing things under warranty, as they only loose time and money. If they dont put too much effort in, the pestering warranty-fix claimers will get annoyed and go elsewhere, then they can concentrate on pushover customers who will pay extortionate amounts for their services, but never complain. Or am i being over synical?

 

EDIT> By 'Citroen Dealers' i am being stereotypic. I accept that not all are bad.

Edited May 19, 2006 by Mat

[lee_marshuk]

@Fizzo17 - its not just me then!!

 

Know its a bit far for you, Spot of Chasetown - 01543 685544 - absolutely superb. If you go there, tell Paul I recommended you :blink:

[Fizzo17]

yeah I will do Lee. I was going to take my car there for its first service. But it is going back to Brincars one more time (hopefully) to get these boot struts done. I think they have been really poor. It is a shame because I get so many possitive comments about the car but the dealers are letting Citroen down. Didn't have any problems with my previous dealer (Mazda).

[lee_marshuk]

Aaaah you had the rusty boot struts as well eh?

 

Just out of interest, did you ever have any problems with the Mazda dealership in Wolves (on the ring road isn't it?)?

[kfk]

We're all falling for the trick. I do the same when i'm 'requested' to do the washing up. Do a bad job, and you wont be asked again. The Citroen dealers dont want to do a good job fixing things under warranty, as they only loose time and money. If they dont put too much effort in, the pestering warranty-fix claimers will get annoyed and go elsewhere, then they can concentrate on pushover customers who will pay extortionate amounts for their services, but never complain. Or am i being over synical?

 

EDIT> By 'Citroen Dealers' i am being stereotypic. I accept that not all are bad.

This isnt directed at any person here and isnt set out to alienate anyone.

 

Something thats also worth noting is the amount of information the customer gives the service department when dropping it off.

 

In my experience....and i have plenty........if we cant replicate a fault, we try to road test with the customer to get it demonstrated. You would be suprised at the number of customers who go out with me and say its not doing it today......not to mention those that never have the time!!

 

Whilst your vehicle may have a warranty on it, if the fault doesnt present itself within half hour its unlikely that anyone is going to spend any longer on it without demonstration of the fault.......after all we dont get paid for roadtesting/checking where no fault is found......if your problem takes hours of driving or certain conditions to occur we need to know that.......citroen dont provide dealers with crystal balls.....and if we were mind readers we would be sitting at blackpool funfair in a tent.

 

If your not happy about something got to the dealer and explain the problem, take note of the fault if possible.

 

See if you can arrange to roadtest the vehicle with someone to demonstrate the fault before you take it in to them.

 

Get them to agree with your list of faults so you are confident they will be looked at

 

Ask how long they will need the car for....1 day, overnight, a week?

 

If you need a courtesy vehicle see when it will be available and make a booking.

 

Be reasonable with your expectations, if its rattles and squeaks you probably can wait 10 days to get it booked in and sorted out. If its a running fault maybe you need more urgent attention.

 

I regularly have a vehicle in for upto a week sorting faults. It doeant mean i'm working on it 8 hours a day, it might get looked at an hour a day.....most of the time will be taken with replicating the fault, diagnosing the fault and ordering parts.....a small amount of time fixing it.

 

Your own dealer probably has its own way of dealing with things........ask them, maybe you will get your faults fixed and be able to learn to trust your dealer.

 

More to the point.........if you've got a complaint, go to them and complain, they wont know otherwise.

[Mat]

I booked mine in today for its airbag update. I gave Citroen a list of 12 things i'd like them to look at, and hopefully fix.

I couldnt replicate the door problem, so after 10 mins in the car park, we agreed that i still have two years warranty left, so can bring it back if i can replicate the fault.

They wouldnt do my windscreen, as he thought it was a stone chip and not a structural crack, which i sort of agree wtih.

The other 10 he agreed to look at and fix next week when my car goes in.

Overall, so far, very impressed.

[lee_marshuk]

I for one always give the dealers an A4 sheet with an exact briefing of the problem and all, if any, triggers that I may be aware of - and always make myself available for road tests if they offer them! I work in IT, so I know how frustrating it is when someone brings a PC to you stating that its noisy when you run a DVD, yet its perfectly alright when I run it.

 

My procedure should that happen would be to keep the PC in for, say, 5 days, and stress test it under different situations - e.g. hot, cold, high resource usage etc etc until I could replicate it. If it is simply not replicable, I would return it to the customer stating so and ask them, at the next point it made the noise, to tell me what they were doing at the time, the conditions etc.

 

Now when I had this information, I would keep the machine in until I could fix it. If I can't fix it, then I simply am no good at my job and shouldn't be doing it in the first place - and all this for a PC which I probably sold for £600 with a warranty?

 

Maybe I have high standards, I don't know, maybe that's why I expect high standards of everybody else. And as such, if I give a detailed briefing of faults to a dealer, with triggers I think may be involved (e.g. labour the engine, seems to happen when dry not wet) - then I expect the fault to be fixed. I don't have a problem with waiting (provided I get a courtesy car), and I don't have a problem with waiting to be booked in as rattles are not urgent.

 

But when I complain I will not be ignored - when I present a firm with a list of faults concerning a product I purchased with a 3 year warranty from them (and a rattle, creak is a fault) and even go as far as helping diagnose it for them I will not be turned away because they don't feel like having a look at it.

 

I totally agree with KFK, information is paramount. I mean, if someone brought a PC to me and just said "its noisy", well that's hopeless, and I have all the sympathy in the world for anyone who has clients like that to put up with - it is very difficult to communicate with people like this and makes life awkward.

 

One other point worth mentioning is I consult for a couple of well known branded car dealers (used to for a Citroen garage as well, which went bankrupt) - and after seeing how they treat cars I vet my dealers thoroughly now! I remember once, they let a lad have a thrash in their sports model - without the owner's consent, of course. He got in, and reversed at high speed straight back into a pillar. Owch! Naturally, they bodged it up so it looked superficially alright, and allegedly the customer brought his car back in a few weeks later with some rear axel issues, and the garage billed him for the repair! Thieves!!!

 

[/rant] its far too late for this now!

[Fizzo17]

Hi Lee. The only problem I had with the Mazda dealer was when the got a tyre dealership to adjust the tracking for me. The car just pulled to the right afterwards. I took it back and they appologised and reset the tracking straight away. The garage is a couple of miles off the ring road on the Willenhall road.

[kitsona]

I had the same knock, my dealer inspected it and tomorrow they're replacing the F/O/S Shock absorber. They replaced the rear ones but if I catch the slightest pothole it feels like the suspension is bottom'ing out if you happen to be on a bend and hit a pothole the back axle feels as if its gonna come off as the car jumps round the bend................. Might ask em to take another look at the back suspension come to think of it!

I've got the same rear suspension problem on a 1.4 SX. I haven't made much headway with my local dealer and Citroen UK have been far from helpful. I'm told it's a 'normal characteristic for the model'. I can't believe that this is true. It's not possible to carry passengers without them feeling every moderate bump and the suspension bangs, noticeably and very worryingly when cornering. If I'm not the only one I'll have abtter argument. I think there is something seriously worng with this car but no-ones listening. I'm told no-one else is complaining but that seems hard to believe. I was considering pying someone like the the AA for an indpenedent road test or even talking to Watchdog.

[Mike5483]

I agree with everything that has been said in the last few replies.

 

I'd like to add in my defence that, I wouldnt give it to someone and say 'Its broke'. By trade, I myself have to deal with electrical faults every day (im an electrician) so know the benefits of being told accurate details of the fault.

 

When I dropped my car off, a technician looked at the car with me and agreed the farty noise its making wasn't right (and then I was told it is perfectly normal!!!).

 

I also explained how and when the suspension clonked and all of this was written down on the job card.

 

I can make the car clonk whenever I want, so its not as if it only does it on the odd occasion, when its raining fish and the wind is blowing from the south south west.

 

I think ill let them look at it again soon and ask them if I can show them on a test drive as suggested. Might be the best way to get to the bottom of the problem. At least they cant deny the problem if I myself have demonstrated it to them.

[lee_marshuk]

Thanks for that Fizzo!! :)