Bristol Street Motors Citroen, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire Review

“BIG MISTAKE: HUGE. ”

Written on: 30/11/2010 by allabarra (6 reviews written)

BIG MISTAKE: HUGE.



ANY organisation is only as good as the people who work there. The Bristol Street Motors, Nottingham branch is HORRENDOUS.



I am used to taking my car to be serviced at its manufacturer's dealership. The difference experienced here is phenomenal. However, we also own a Citroen and decided to give this branch a try for both cars.



We found the service to be completely inflexible, unhelpful, lacking any understanding of customer needs.



There was an inability to discuss servicing problems as the staff member demonstrated little or no knowledge of servicing cars. When he failed to understand a simple technical query, I asked if he had ever serviced a car?

I received a blank look and was told "that's irrelevant". On the contrary, it was VERY relevant.

In fact "irrelevant" seemed to be his catchword for everything. I found this person cared little for the customer.



Firstly, my car was booked in for an MOT and service, but the staff member was so incompetent that it was booked in for the morning of the same day that I was there booking it in (in the late afternoon)



Consequently, when I arrived on the correct day, they had recorded that I had not "turned up"

Having sorted that out, they did an MOT only and failed to do the service. This I did not spot for 3 weeks as I had to go into hospital straight after they had my car.



There was no apology for booking in on the wrong day (probably my fault) and then it was denied that the car was ever booked in for the service at all ; even though we had sat and negotiated a special price for the combined work. Of course they were right and we were wrong.



The supposedly cheap MOT turned out not to be so, as they diagnosed that my headlights needed adjusting and charged me around £25 for the privilege. I know they did not need adjusting, but when I questioned him about it, the ridiculous explanation was actually embarrassing. ( I am an ex-motor mechanic, who has previously worked on high performance cars in a very professional garage with very high customer service standards). This situation was infuriating ... and administered with such arrogance.



Next: On the first occasion that I went to my car after coming out of hospital, I noticed that my COMPLETE SERVICE HISTORY BOOK was missing.

(It had been left on the passenger seat for the imaginary service).



When I rang the branch about it there was no-one that could help and so it was arranged that someone would ring me back. A week later and still no phone call.

When I went to the branch to see if the book could be traced, there was an abrupt denial that it had ever been touched and I was told "It would not be taken out of the car as there was no service carried out".

There was not even the least concern or attempt to see if it was still in the workshop or had been put to one side. They not even prepared to ask or check.

There were no raised voices or scenes of anger, but essentially there was a refusal to consider that had I ever placed the book on the seat.



On a different occasion they wanted my wife to have her hand-brake serviced, claiming it was inefficient. Her hand brake was actually extremely efficient. Nevertheless she took it to another garage to check it out. They agreed that it was very efficient.



These people could learn much from the usual dealership for my car, who; greet me on arrival, provide me with a cup of coffee and comfortable seating, ask what they can do to help and get on with it.

Here, there is no-one to greet you or direct you, unless you seek them out. In my experience there was seldom anyone attending the appropriate service desks and standing around waiting seems to be the 'norm'.



When we left, the length of the queue awaiting attention was long indeed. (Nothing to do with our meeting).



Finally, a month ago we were persuaded to apply for a 3 Year Service program, where we would pay monthly and avoid large bills. We took a contract out on both cars.



Sadly, the experiences above had soured the taste of this organisation and we decided to cancel these contracts immediately. (Poor starts are almost certainly not going to improve).

It was originally explained that we could withdraw from the contract at any time and any unused credits would be returned.

However, "sure as eggs is eggs" they have kept the money as an administration fee (We have found no reference regarding this in any of their communications or contract paperwork.)



I have now owned an IT Company for 17 years and recently carried out a survey of our customer satisfaction. The lowest score was 10 out of 10. The highest was 11 out of 10. So I feel I know a bit about customer service.