| I put printer to paper and blasted off a letter to Austin Rover France,
and sent a copy (with translation so they didn't have any excuses) to
AR European Service Manager at Cowley, gently reminding him of his
sidekick's involvement and refusal to send someone to check the car over
when the overheating occurred.
A fortnight later I had a phone call from the head of AR France's
Service Dept., advising that he could do nothing because the car was
out of guarantee. I pointed out that his department had been asked on
three occasions to look at the car whilst it WAS under guarantee, and
had refused, and that I now expected him to do something.
He said he could not now have the car looked at because it was not at
an AR dealer. I told him that if his AR dealer had been more
competent, I wouldn't have had the cylinder head removed at another
garage. We then went through the saga of "if you weren't happy why
didn't you go back after your service" "but I DID, and they said it was
only timing", ...
Finally I was told that if I could get my car towed to an AR dealer,
he'd send someone. I said he could send someone to my local mechanic,
and that if he couldn't bend the rules, then I'd get AR Cowley to bend
them, since he was aware that I'd already copied them with the
correspondence. Perhaps in the meantime, he'd let me have Graham Day's
fax number ...
After a phone call to my local mechanic, the AR France Service Manager
came back with an offer of "we'll supply the parts (new cylinder head,
valves, whatever's necessary to shut you up), but as the car's not at
one of our dealers, you'll have to pay for the labour". I accepted this
as reasonable, and a fortnight later handed over the equivalent of �100
(in cash, of course) to the local chap for fitting the parts he'd
picked up from Fontainebleau for me.
Moral of this long story. Don't take NO for an answer. Write letters,
make phone calls, find out who's in charge, keep copies of everything
and be prepared to keep going. Don't give up. You CAN get things done
outside guarantee periods, if you can provide evidence to the
manufacturer that they've been negligent.
Finally, the garage in F'bleau is about to get a letter telling them
what I think of a 2000F service bill which didn't mention a warped
cylinder head (or incidentally a hole in the exhaust, which I knew
about but was expecting them to at least mention) and gently pointing
out that they've not only lost servicing of my MG Metro Turbo, but also
my husband's Rover 827i Sterling. And when either car needs changing,
there are other AR dealers around.
Jacquie
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Hi,
I also experienced just a few problems with my Austin Rover car, an MG Montego
Turbo . But after writing a letter to AR customer service in Cowley,Oxfordshire
they said if I got any major problems then give them a ring and they would
see what they could do.
Well I held them to their promise , when my brake lights stopped working due to
a wiring fault. The garage that repared my car wanted 100 sov's , so I phoned
up AR and they said they would see to it. Mind you , the car was only two years
old and had only broken down 4 times, twice due to ruptured hoses and gaskets.
So it is worth bitching, though the dealers wasn't much use. If you have parted
with X thousands of pounds, then you are entitled to a bit of customer
satisfaction.
Gary.
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I think that many of AR franchised agents do nothing but harm as far as
the Rover image is concerned. I know of several people who have only
got things sorted out by going to AR customer services. (Isn't that one
of the reasons why Penta in Reading was dis-enfranchised - too many
customer complaints)
We've had three new AR cars, and although we have had a couple of minor
problems - all which should have been easily put right, the agrevation
caused by the dealers magnifies these things out of all proportion.
At the moment there seems to be no-one who can set up a pair of
headlights on a Maestro so they are directed correctly!
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Well, I had a Maestro, which I had serviced/repaired at Penta, I now
have a Montego, it gets serviced in Theale, and it would have been
repaired there too, however the insurers chose the higher quote.
And my saga of that repair at the AR dealer is noted here.
Suffice to say that my opinion of both is the same.
Heather
PS: Penta tried to get out of fixing my sunroof by telling me it was
designed to leak!
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| I am aware of two manufacturers, Ford and Fiat, who operate "Goodwill"
schemes whereby parts that have failed well short of expected lifetime
will be considered for warranty repairs. In both cases, one crankshaft
and one clutch, I failed to get recompense only because I wasn't the
original owner though I could prove low mileage from dealer service
records. Otherwise I would not have had a problem. However, in all
cases it pays to be tenacious and thorough in your record keeping as
well as throwing your weight around, ie size of company fleet. In
previous companies a phone call from the fleet manager to the dealer or
to the manufacturer usually results in action.
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