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Not sure how many times people have posted their comments about a specific dealer so here is a thread for just that... dealer naming and shaming. Or naming and praising if you're lucky!
I have to say, in my personal experience the sales department Glyn Hopkin Fiat, Romford were great throughout the whole waiting process, updating me and putting up with me.. that was until they got the car at the dealers.. it took over a week for its inspection and we were at the dealers nearly 2 hours signing all the paperwork only to get a phone call the next day saying they'd forgotten to get me to pay my deposit and sign all the forms!
But my biggest gripe is the with the Servcing Department at the same dealership. Took my car in to have the Bluetooth sorted.. got told I can only use up to a 1GB USB stick (which are very hard to find nowadays!) which apparently seems rubbish after reading some posts on here.. then the car started failing to start in mornings and would emit a nasty burning smell when turning the heater on.. when back and got told it was the ignition switch.. car was booked in for the same week. Took car back and left it with them, only to get a call a few hours later to say that the actual problem was the wiring loom which had melted.. this would need a warranty claim and the part being sent over from Italy and I would lose the car for 3 weeks (as long as I've had it myself!).. I asked for a courtesy car only to be told that they didnt have any at that moment but might get one that afternoon, they would phone me.. by around 4PM (dealer shuts at 6, it takes me 30 mins to get there) they hadnt phoned so I called them only to be told they now did have one and they were just about to call me.. get there and pick the car up, the bloke couldnt tell me what was wrong so he had to ring the engineer (around an hour waiting in the dealers).. so take the 500 away absolutely fine, pretty decent car except the inside is filthy! Got a phone call yesterday to say that the warranty claim had been approved so the part was on order and should arrive next Wednesday. I asked whether it was still having the ignitition switch fitted and the same bloke who told me that it was being fitted suddenly couldnt remember anything about it! So now I'm still waiting but racking up the miles on their loan car :D
It feels like they just look at the car, not taking into consideration what I have told them is wrong with it.. a brand new car should start everytime and should not smell like burning.. Once I get Jack back I will be complaining to Fiat and will be taking him to another dealer to get his servicing, especially when I feel like GH at Romford don't even know what they're looking at!
Rant over :) Any opinions guys?
its isnt the greatest
mine name and shame and praise is to motorvogue fiat/alfa northampton
to start i bought a bravo 120 dynamic dieseil from the start i had problems, i noticied over spray on the car on lights and on under side, and dirt sheilds, i looked further into car and noticied the rear end was a bit all over the place with the fitment of anything, looked bit further to discover it had a rear ender, tailgate out of line, bumper poor fit, rear lights not fitting, poor sealer around back panel, looked again and noticied paint work on front wing, front bumper, driver side door, driver side rear door, and quater panel, and around the arch had filler work, also the blue n me didnt work, a have a rip in front driver side, and also the chrome tim was missing in places,
took car back, about 30 times, and they replced trim, new tyres, sorted the blue n me, but they couldnt do the paint work,
so i kicked off again and they took car in to sort the rear end, tailgate fit, light, bumper etc and new paint on tailgate due to a run, they also found rear screen wasnt sealed correct,
i was given a 500c till was sorted,
i kept on n on about the rest of the car so the manager neil sorted this and said he would give me a new car, i was like ok, has be same value,
2 days later he rang me n said he had a car avalible did i wanna come n look, got there it was 09 reg with 57 miles on clock, tey had it in there show room for while and was at 12k i only paid 9k on bravo, they said would this be any good, i was like yeah should be ok,
so he sorted all paperwork etc out and we are now the owners of 09 reg punto 1.4 16v gp in a blue colour,
if it wasnt for neil nothing would have ever got sorted service dept were rubbish there aswell they never rang back for anything
if you guna get car from them have a bloody good look around it, take someone who knows cars before u buy, cuz they deal with fiat direct who intern deal with the hire car firms,
motorvouge northampton
hi
i think what may have happened at the dealer ,is they have initally diagnoised the ignition switch ,not expecting the loom to have failed soo soon..
reference the actual repair ..what basically happens ,and this applies just about to any make of car ...on any warranty job ,the manufacturer of the car ,fiat in this case ,pays the dealer for the cost of the job and the parts ..so fiat will take the hit for the complete job...
the dealer ,after the inital diagnosis ,won't order ,or fit new parts until fiat have authorised repair , as if he does ,then for example fiat inspect the old loom, for example ,say someone had fitted an accessory incorrectly ,which resulted in the problem ,then the dealer wouldn't get paid if he had just ordered and fitted a loom.....the dealer is making sure his bottom is covered ,and is looking after himself first...
as i do trucks we are slightly braver ,and just go ahead and fix them first ,and sometimes it is a battle to get paid for a job ,even when we have followed their procedure to the letter ..i once had a gearbox repair rejected ,as they said there was nothing wrong with the parts i changed ,even though the truck was now ok....after having to go to the factory it took me 3 seconds to point to where it had failed for them to agree and pay ..lol apparently they had onlt saw that particular fault once before
sorry for the waffle ,just trying to explain why the dealer may be taking soo long ..hope your still awake lol
phil
Dont worry, I'm still awake .. just :P
I dont mind them taking so long, its just the problem that they dont seem to know whats wrong at all with it! Just usual men thinking they know about cars I guess ;) plus with the ignition switch, I dont mind if they dont fit it but the people at the department are so slow, they dont seem to remember anything past the last 5 minutes!
GRRRR! lol
it's either a training course they have been on ,instructing them how to forget things after 5mins.the deny everything you say ,incase there is comeback,or they have such a tiny capacity,that what they where told 5 mins ago ,has to be deleted from their brains to accept new info ,say being asked the time lol....please note i deny and disclaim anything in this post ,it wasn't me ,you can't prove it ,someone else must have got my password lol..no i don't work at your dealer in case that sounds familiar lol
i can't speak for fiat ,but i personally think ,when you are snowed under with work ,as production is increased ,then suppliers need to increase production etc ,and i'd say quality is affected ,that's just my view ,i just can't see how any company can increase prodution of anything and maintain the quality...
eg if you where given 8 hours to paint a house ,then told you had to do 3 in that same time ,quality would drop as syou would rush
Although I bought Cadbury at Glyn Hopkins, St Albans, I had to pay an unexpected visit to Glyn Hopkins, Romford. One phone call and was told to bring it down immediately and they would look at Cadbury right away. I can only give full praise to their service department for the courtesy afforded to me and Cadbury, and the speed in which they dealt with our issue. Caught them on a good day I suppose
that was a fluke ,i remember with my Y plate punto it was 5month old .and it used to overheat and had a handbrake warning on the dash ..after various visits ,my local dealer won't look at a car straight away so if you have an intermittant fault and just drive in they won't even have a quick look even if you explain it's intermittant ,they book it in a week later ,so suprisingly they cant find a fault ..again i had to tell them the cooling fans brushes where sticking ,and if they read the handbook it needed a new dash cluster ..had intermittant fault on my 02 plate steering warning came on ,the steering was fine but again took months for them to diagnois it ..
on a plus i just got a letter of them ..since it's winter they want to do a FREE health check on my car ...obviously have read my thread on winter checks lol..i may be suspicious but since the car is now out of warranty and this is the first time i have been offered this check,i wonder what faults they would find ...lol ..though may be first time they have offered it ...am tempted to do it just to see what they say ..obviously as a mechanic i would give my car a thorough check before ....could be fun lol
Hi everyone,
I like the idea behind this thread and it's great to hear about your good experiences but I'll need to keep an eye on it. I should say early on, to those who feel eager to 'shame', if you have or are experiencing issues with your dealer, please use the appropriate channels and contact Fiat directly on the number below where someone here can log your issue and assist.
Kind regardsFiat Marketing
sorry FM, didnt want to start a thread that would just slate dealers.. I have had some good experiences with GH but I think they fail to remember that its my car they have in their garage, nearly 10 grand and it means the world to me... just wish one of them would show some care towards anything that is wrong with it.. even my courtesy car needed an oil top up!
Fiat Marketing - What ever happened to freedom of speech?!
Dealers have access to this forum as well so are free to enter responses if they choose to so.
Hi lozzie&jack♥,
It is very unfortunate that you are having these problems. It seems that the dealer is fobbing you off with rubbish about a 1GB USB Flash memory drive. Mine is 16GB and works perfectly ok (except for the radio switching on when I turn the ignition on as described in a seperate post). Other than that I have had only one other problem to do with the indicators not cancelling properly due to a software fault. I am lucky enought that my dealer comes over as being understanding and will try to help with any problems (GK Group in Sheffield). This dealer is a bit out of your way I would imagine unfortunatly.
Jules,
There are appropriate channels through which to raise certain problems and issues. In order to gain resolution to a problem it is not appropriate to sit and wait for a dealer to respond through an online forum.
From the comments that have been made on here, people do seem to be going through the 'appropriate channels' but not getting anywhere & hence forcing people to discuss issues on the forum.
If Fiat dont want discussions like this on the Forum then simply sort out the issues!
As this thread relates to Fiat dealers then the issues raised are likely to be out of our control, which is why I recommend people call customer services if they have a problem.