Action at last, of sorts - a letter from Phoenix Saab Croydon..........

Today, Friday 27th June, I received a letter dated 19th June from a Mr Robin Day, the Group Aftersales Manager for the Phoenix Group.



I'll let you read it and make up your own mind (my response is below):

As it's quite hard to read, here's a transcript:

Mr Rory Muxxxx

19th June 2008

Dear Mr Muxxxx

Reference: Inspection at Phoenix Croydon

Further to your email to Ubhi Hxxx at our Croydon site, the content of your recent blog concerning your experience at Phoenix Croydon has been brought to my attention.

I have carried out a full investigation into the events surrounding your vehicle's repairs and my findings are outlined below:

- There is no known concern with Saabs relating to the timing chain.

- At no point did we say that the engine was stripped. Confirmation of this is that we would have charged you to strip the engine if this operation had been carried out.

- The Vehicle Condition Report does not state that the vehicle was dangerous to drive.

The above facts confirm that your allegations are untrue and potentially damaging with no evidence in support of them. Therefore, I advise that you remove this blog with immediate effect or we will have no option but to seek legal advice.

Yours sincerely

Robin Day

Group Aftersales Manager

So, Phoenix have now taken a stance of sorts, even if it is factually incorrect and just tells me to shut up and stop publicising my problems with their service and approach to customer satisfaction.

The text of my response is below:

Without prejudice

Robin Day
Group Aftersales Manager
Phoenix Group
80 Plough Lane
Wimbledon
London
SW17 0BW


30th June 2008


Dear Mr Day

Reference: your letter of 19th June 2009

Thank you for your letter. I note your points with interest and will post it, in its entirety on my blog, as you obviously have a right of reply in this matter.

I would respond to your points, as follows:

1. I have at no point emailed Ubhi Harpal, as you state in your letter. I initially tried to speak to Mr Jeffery, in order to raise my concerns with him directly, as the business owner. I was passed to a Mr Prince by his P.A. Mr Prince, in turn, passed me to Mr Harpal, who I have now had a number of conversations with. He has always appeared helpful, but has never actually done anything tangible to try and resolve this matter.
2. If, as you state, there is no known concern with Saabs relating to the timing chain, then how do you explain the article in What Car? magazine which specifically refers to this problem. There is a link to this article within the blog.
3. I was told by Pete in your Service Department that my car had been prepared in accordance with the instructions of the warranty engineer. The warranty engineer, in turn, refers to the fact that, when he visited, the car had not been prepared (i.e. partially dismantled) in accordance with his instructions. Furthermore, I was told by Pete that the car had been “put back together and was now ready for collection” – which clearly suggested that at some previous point it had been something other than together. This is all detailed in a factual manner within the blog.
4. I was told that the car was not safe to drive when I asked if I could use it for the weekend and that it was best to leave it at the garage over the weekend until the engineer could look at it. Again, the blog is quite clear about this.

In summary, it would appear that your “full investigation” was not particularly thorough and that the contents of your letter are factually incorrect.


Your website states:
Aftersales
We make it easy to ensure your vehicle stays in the best working order and continues to deliver a premium driving experience. In addition to the highest quality workmanship, you can expect aftersales customer service that is second to none.

It is unfortunate that, rather than trying to provide the levels of customer satisfaction that you seem to promote on your website, you have instead tried to avoid dealing with this issue, despite the fact that it would clearly be financially lucrative for you to have addressed the matter in a professional and efficient manner. I had initially hoped that you would be on my side in sorting this matter out, thereby ensuring many years of regular business from me and referrals to others.

We, as consumers, place a lot of trust in garages when we put our cars in for a service. We trust you to:

- Tell us the truth
- Not overcharge us
- Be honest about additional work that needs doing
- Treat us as you would expect to be treated
- Etc……. in other words, be fair and reasonable.


As a consumer, I feel I have very little “traction” and an extremely limited ability to ensure that you treat me fairly. In this case, as a big company, you are clearly using your position to exert influence over me and get your own way, despite the fact that this is not the best outcome for me as a customer.

The point of this blog is to highlight the quality of service I have been receiving from your garage, so that others are able to make their own, informed decisions about dealing with your organisation, based on my experiences. The advent of the web has enabled people like me to have their say and be heard which, in this case, is clearly an uncomfortable experience for an organisation such as yours, when you would prefer that your failings aren’t aired in public.

At the end of the day, all I am looking for is a satisfactory outcome and, as one person versus a large company, I am using the tools at my disposal to “level the playing field”.

Furthermore, I am certain that if you choose to seek legal advice, you will be advised that the contents of my blog are within the law and that my comments constitute “Fair comment”. I am also confident that the costs you will incur in doing so will exceed the costs of resolving this problem.

I had hoped that, since the problems that my car exhibits are clearly documented by others, including authoritative motoring publications, you would seek to resolve this with Saab and provide me with a satisfactory outcome, which I would have been more than happy to publicise to your ultimate benefit.

However, since you appear to have chosen to put your efforts into trying to silence me instead, rather than seeking to provide customer satisfaction, it entirely possible that this matter will be long, drawn out and acrimonious, with every aspect documented on the web.

One thing you need to be aware of is that over time, these types of blog become more difficult to remove, as the search engines index and cache them.

I am happy to have an “off-the-record” conversation with you, if you feel that it would be preferable to try and resolve this matter amicably. I can be contacted on 07813 xxxxxx or at xxxx@gmail.com.

Yours sincerely



Rory Muxxxx

I'll leave you to make up your own mind about the service I have received from Phoenix Saab Croydon and their Head Office in Wimbledon so far.........

If you'd like to vote on how you feel about this, there are two polls to the right.

The blog continues...........