Conference terri::cars_uk

    I should like to imply that a paticular company Called the One Stop
    Autocentre is not recommended at all for 1990 or any other year. The
    following are also based on a personal opion:
    
    1. That they replace brand new parts without advising you.
    
    2. That they do not answer your letters for compensation.
    
    3. That they blame it on members of staff that have already left the
    company.
    
    4. That the level of service is umentionable and that finally they do
    work on the car that is totally unnecessary.
    
    Regards,
    
    Mike

    Err... how does .24 square with the no-negative-recommendation
    guidelines for notes that we're supposed to follow after some
    complaints by external companies in the US?
    
    
    Rod

There is no such ruling in the UK. I actually checked with Digital UK legal
department when this was first raised.

Dave.

    I want to add my little bit to this....	
    
    PORTERPLOYS in Basingstoke...
    
    I took my Cortina for a PRE-MOT at the above company....	
    
    A young gentleman, gave me the mot certificate and off i trotted
    up to Birmingham to get the chassis welded and a few other small
    things...	
    
    When i returned to porterploys (3 days later), It came out of the
    MOT with extra failures (that weren't spotted on the first MOT)
    
    IE: 2 INCH HOLE IN THE OUTER O/S SILL
        BEARINGS IN TOP STEERING COLUMN   (HOW COULD THEY MISS THESE
                                                                TWO)
    
        And also advise was given on a crack in the anti-roll bar
    
     (he also missed out the HORN wasn't working.....but wasn't noticed
    on the first MOT....)
    
    ETC ETC.....
    
    SO...The guy who tested it the second time said "it was just one
    of those things....".....MMMMMmmmm I wasn't impressed..!!
    
    I didn't bother argueing...and retested it a week later..
    
    The thing was...I took my car up north to get all the welding done
    cheaply...so...I had to pay a lot more to get the sill done...
    
    so....I WON'T be using this company again....so 
    make sure if you do go to porterploys....make sure he's old......!!
    
       craig...
    
    

    My only story about Porterploy was when a friend bought an ex DEC lease
    car that had been serviced by them.  When he took to a dealer garage
    for repair, they were aghast at what had been done under the bonnet!
    
    They had put in cheap parts instead of VW parts in places where only VW
    parts should have been used...their response was no wonder you have all
    these problems.
    
    Whether this was just sales talk I don't know, but the car is now
    running smoothly.
    
    Regards
    Alex

	I noticed this on VTX some while ago, and thought it would be
	useful to post it here:

			   Car Insurance
		     NON-Recommended Repairers

    Owing to payment and vehicle release problems we have encountered
    with certain vehicle repairers, you are advised not to use the
    following: 

    Anchor Ford, Reading. Penta Group, Reading.    Rivervale of Reading.

    Currie Motors Group.  Cowies of Redcar.        Sturgess Group.     

    Quicks Garage, Manchester.     Rowstock Corner Garage, nr. Abingdon.

    Croydon Coachworks.   Paragon Motors, Wisbech.

Mr Mod.

I think entries of the type in .29 are forbidden under Digital policy (because
the offended party has no right of reply).

Brian

    Difficult; the note is a copy of text put in another digital open forum
    (VTX) by the digital Insurance Group. The same could be said of that,
    but presumably the company has evidence?..
    
    Richard

Re.30:

Could you quote the policy please? When I last talked to the law dept on this
matter, such entries as .29 were considered ok.

/Dave.

>>Could you quote the policy please? 

Nope, but every so often there are memos sent around from "corporate" (legal 
group, I think) saying you can't put notes in notesfiles that defame or
otherwise injure any third party.  Latest one was in MEIS::FLYING, to my
knowledge.  Interesting that the original list was in VTX, but it's OK to
put something in VTX from, say, fleet that states quite specifically that
certain garages are not approved, and not have to give any reason.  Bit like
the QVL (qualified vendor list) really.  The problem I have with it personally
is that the innocuous list from VTX now appears in a topic entitled "Worst
garage of 1988 award", which is defamatory.  Perhaps the solution is for the
moderator to change the title to "Garages not recomended for use" or similar?

Brian

This conversation happened in another conference recently.  The ruling that
you can't say derogatory things in NOTES was made in the US to cover DEC
against US companies.  Someone asked the UK legal dept and they'd never heard
of the ruling and said it wouldn't apply in the UK.

Now, how you apply that to a conf on a node in the UK, written to by UK people
but still visible in the US, I don't know...

Scott

Whether the conference/policy/litigation is US or UK is, to my mind irrelevant.
The fact remains that as employees we are defaming in writing (called libel in
the UK as well as the US) persons or businesses who have no recourse to correct
or otherwise deny the allegations made against them.

Consider that I gave you my car to fix because you said you could do a good job
at a decent price (to me) and you really screwed up, in my opinion.  Consider
then that I tell the world of Digital noters that you're a real a**hole when it
comes to knowing anything about cars and that you should be avoided like the
plague.  Remember that you have no access to this notes file, as you're an
outside agent.  Would you feel even a little annoyed that I was talking about
you like this?  Darned right!  I suspect you'd want to do something about it,
too, like come after me for spreading malicious lies?

There is nothing wrong with saying you would not recommend a particular garage
because under certain circumstances they didn't give you personal satisfaction.
Neither is it bad for fleet admin to say they don't want employees to use some
garages because of current bill payment problems.  I'm sure that fleet have told
these garages what they're doing, too.  It is very wrong for me, or anyone else,
to follow the example in the paragraph above.

Yes, I'm in the US, but I am British and proud of it - particularly so since I
came over here!

Brian

PS - nice to see the new topic title.  Thanks

>>   Owing to payment and vehicle release problems we have encountered
>>   with certain vehicle repairers, you are advised not to use the
>>   following: 
    Besides, this also says to me that Digital is complaining that their
    suppliers want paying for work they do! 
    
    - Did Digital pay the bill, and with what payment time 60 days, 90 days? 
    - Do we start another conversation on big corporations helping their
    cashflow with unofficial extension of lines of credit - which is a major
    contributor to the record number of small company bankrupties we are 
    seeing.
    
    Mike

�    - Do we start another conversation on big corporations helping their
�    cashflow with unofficial extension of lines of credit - which is a major
    
    I would expect someone must have raised this in the Digital Contractor
    notes conference.  Are you a contractor, or just 'understanding' ?

    Not a contractor, just pointing out that there are 2 sides to every
    story!
    
    Mike