edsel

iTrader: (2)

They are responsible for their employees actions and I would expect big disciplines for the beach n trust and irresponsible acts. In my EXPERIENCE, the way to handle these "things" is to give them the chance to put things right. ***** bollocks, bottle, backbone etc etc doesn't count for much in consumer law who will be posting the op goes smash the dealers windows in next.

Raptorman

iTrader: (1)

Correct, but 71mph in a 30mph zone is a criminal offence.

I think people here including myself can't quite understand
why the op hasn't reported it to the police.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Yep not the only time his car has been out for a jolly.

Shellyaj

1. I was not talking about libel (thanks for the correction, I do hate how auto correct "fixes" statements) From the poster. Again, reading my comments may be necessary to conduct a civil conversation. As I said, I have been in regular contact with the customer and welcome any questions from anyone on the post.

2. My father passed away in 1998, also so thanks for asking and bringing that up. Perhaps you would like to bring up other memories of my childhood equally relevant to this discussion? I also lost a dog as it was hit by a bus at age 12?

3. I have never scared anyone to my knowledge... Lol


Again, feel free to contact me.

Andrew Shelly
07957338038

BoozyDave

iTrader: (8)

It sounds like the garage owner has the matter in hand from the garage/reputation point of view. What's the most he can do? Tell the lad off? Sack him? even then, the lad could walk straight into a new job and do exactly the same thing

But, the driver made the decision to break the speed limit by a stupid amount and the only people that can issue the correct punishment are the police. They need to be informed of this incident.

I'm sure a GPS tracking device could be sent out on each test drive to ensure this never happens again. It could also help to protect the garage if there was an accusation of speeding, the data could be used to prove innocence


Whatever you choose to do, remember that feeling when you found out. I bet you wanted the driver strung up by his *****. Don't let someone who drives dangerously and rags someone elses pride and joy escape the police punishment

**jay**

iTrader: (1)

Judging by the reply from this company id not even trust them with an old rusty bmx, take the footage to the police i cant beleive you can be so calm about it, if it was mine then there would be a few sore faces at the workshop!

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

The person driving the car, not only broke the law by doing 71mph in a 30mph zone, he also committed Gross mis-conduct which is an offence punishable by Instant Dismissal.

Dirk Diggler 75

Deffo smells fishy ....

edsel

iTrader: (2)

And the plot thickens

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

My dad died 4yrs 1month and 4 days ago, one of my best friends got run over by an ambulance answering a 999 call and died when I was 8yrs old, so what exactly has any of that got to do with one of your employees ragging the **** of a customers car doing 71 in a 30 zone?

What are you going to do about it???????

jayallen

iTrader: (31)

Be interesting to see how the OP gets on at the NEXT dealers when the 2.5 lets go

Dirk Diggler 75

The famous 2.5 according to Subaru it never happened .....

stipete75

Wasn't there a threat similar to this a couple years ago regarding a garage ragging a customers car, either here on snet or over on mlr?

Alan Jeffery

I think as far as road tests goes, the issue is what's appropriate. 70 in a 30 clearly isn't. If you're looking for a specific fault, then often a road test is the only way to discover it. As a professional road tester I'm not joy riding and I don't allow it on my premises in any form. Only Martyn or myself road test cars, and that stops those sorts of capers. I fully understand why inexperienced staff could get a bit excited, which is why we don't allow it in the first place.
I test every new engine build by doing the first 50 miles of running in. That's the distance to my house and back! I often do all the running in for builds, up to 1000 miles, when I drive the cars as my own. In 33 year's trading, we've had NO road risk insurance claims and we have NO points on our licences. Says it all?
Having said all of that, all this worry about "ragging" is a bit much coming from Subaru owners! () and I feel for the guy who is trying to run an honest garage, it wasn't strictly necessary in my view to publicise all this. As I pointed out once before, running a business is like being a captain of a submarine. All it takes is one rating to leave a hatch undone, and everybody dies..

stipete75

The Op took his car in for a service, not a 70mph joyride in a residential estate.
No excuse what so ever. The not so "honest" garage will no doubt loose business and rightly so, I wouldn't take my sons bmx there.
Reputation is everything, without this there is no business.

south_scoob

Agree, I was under the impression 70 in a 30 was the standard impreza commute to work procedure

Shellyaj

Again thanks for all the comments.

My three post comment above was to highlight how spurious the comments have sometimes got. Nothing more. They are certainly not dishonest! Though great to try to bring my "honesty" into disrepute above, lol...

I have never lied, on any of this and welcome (many times) people to contact me directly. I have never shied away from questions and have regularly requested respect and patience and reiterated that privacy for the individuals concerned be upmost while the process of going on.

I have encouraged the customer to do whatever he wishes including going to the police and would support any decision that he makes.

The inference that I or anyone in my company is "closing ranks", misleading or trying to "manage" my way out is frankly laughable. The UK has a aystem and it must be followed.

I particularly find it amusing that there are people who hide behind pseudonyms and comment without basis and again welcome them to contact me on the phone at any stage rather than commenting strongly without basis as an Internet ghost.

Either way, I am glad this has come out, as I have said before and glad to have read all these comments, I personally wish more companies and owners in particular, would speak to the public and allow direct contact as I do.

Again, thanks for all your comments and please feel free to contact me.

Regards

Andrew Shelly
07957338038

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Credit where it's due, at least you're not hiding.

Lillyart14

Quite an interesting thread this, lots of different opinions being thrown about. At least the owner has come on board and fessed up that it was bang out of order and an internal investigation has taken place.

My only real concern is how the car and more importantly, the engine is now. If that was all done right after being started, I'll be wanting the garage to pay some compensation if the thing goes bang next week.

Dave Y

iTrader: (52)

Totally agree.

Shellyaj

This is a good thought and it brings me to answer a point raised before as to why people would chose a main dealer as opposed to an independent.

Let me premise this by saying that there are plenty of extremely talented independent specialists out there with significantly greater experience than my company and that someone who has been loyal to a person is likely to receive both cheaper and faster solutions than a main dealer could ever supply regardless of make (not always true but a good reference point)...

There are two primary reasons for main dealer repairs:

1. THe stamps in the book.
Some people find that their cars hold value better. Certainly you need a VAT service representative to maintain warranty in the UK.

2. Guarantees and support
Manufacturers and dealerships have to offer a 12 month parts and labour warranty on all they do. So if (heaven forbid) anything were to go wrong then the customer is covered. More than this, unlike an independent, if the dealership were to change or go out of business the manufacturer would support further claims. An independent has no such support nor guarantees.

Tidgy

For me No1 is the exact opposite, as you say specialist have way more knowledge and tbh some seem to have more of a clue than subaru themselves.

No2 i can see being an extremely grey area, as to what would an wouldn't be covered.

bluenose boy

iTrader: (1)

Very much so to say the least.
Car was previously took out for a joy ride which the op new about but did nothing and still returned to the dealer for more of the same treatment months later doesn't add up.
And the fact this is over a long period of time clearly highlights that the owner of dealership has no clue how his staff are conducting there self.

Shellyaj

True that. But as a main dealer I must use Subaru parts. As part of my agreement. An independent has no such compunction. If you know and trust the independent (and they have been in business for a long time) then that is very telling.

Customers who don't have local knowledge can be assured that anyone with main dealer stamps and service at least has correct components in their car.

I too think that consistent stamps (same person services) should out weigh anything else. Particularly if the name is known. But then I'm not speaking for every buyer and user in the UK.

Shellyaj

Let's clear this one up straight away and stop the "joy ride" nonsense.

Two of my technicians have the same car as the customer, the have no need to joy ride at all. More than this, they have access to the latest WRX STi and can take it out whenever they fancy it. I have never restricted their access to vehicles on my books and would never.

More than this, I have a classic car which I have no issue with lending out either and have done so for weddings and other events when asked to my employees.

Can we please quit with the "joy ride" and wait until the invesatigation is done as I have requested before?

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Ok so it's not a joy ride, we get it.
There's no pleasure being extracted from the event.
It's purely business and fact finding.
How often do your technicians break the law in the prosecution of your 'business', because it's plainly not the first time this has happened is it?

bluenose boy

iTrader: (1)

That's even more strange you have no issue loaning cars out after the 70 in 30 zones joy ride nonsense.
That's shocking.

**jay**

iTrader: (1)

It was a joy ride how dare a company member treat someones property they way they did, can assure you im glad its not mine as id be sorting it with a few broken jaws!! Quite glad my syvecs has a setting to limit revs and boost to very low levels

Shellyaj

Simply put, I have no idea how many times this has happened. I do not go out on every test drive and road test so simply cannot.

What I can say is that this is the first time it has been brought to my attention. I have acted instantaneously to the concerns and have been both honest and forthright in my appraisal and condemnation of the "71 in a 30" and have repeatedly stated that it was irresponsible, dangerous and not in a manner I would like to have my employees conduct themselves on any level. I have never once defended the speed limit breach and myself and the cusomer have agreed a process that we should follow. I have kept him and the majority of yourselves up to date and been honest in my information.

More than this I have been in regular and honest contact with the customer. If you wish to villify please take this elsewhere. I am trying to be constructive and assist people who have genuine concerns. I would love to assist you if you have any genuine questions that need answering that cannot be answered with logical and genuine forethought.

Shellyaj

No, it wasnt a "joy ride" as I explained. There is no need for it from the techs that I allow to service these performance vehicles as they themselves have the exact same car.

Can you please tell us the system used to control boosts and pressures? That sounds interesting. I am always looking to improve experiences and a boost adjustment is somehting that I feel customers may want to have in their car?

Just a quick one though. How does your service centre do a heavy load test, emergency brake test and a turbo test if you have the thing turned al the way down? Do they notify you and you turn the wick up temporarily? Is it something you can do remotely using an app? If so, could you shut the car down? Is it something that is only on turbo vehicles or is at an engine management thing?