Big thanks to Murrays in Edin again

[jason]

MMC fitted a Stage 1 for me on Friday at VERY short notice (Stage 1 suits my needs and happy to take the have-it-fitted easy life option).

The work was done promptly with good communications whilst I waited

[Shug]

Feedback... Okay, here goes. This has been building over a few weeks, so sorry for the length.

Firstly, it needs to be said - Craig is by far the best service guy I've ever dealt with (in any dealership). MMC now have 2 guys (Craig and Graeme) I'd be happy dealing with from now until the end of time - helpful, totally honest and absolutely fair (even when he's having to admit errors and own up to issues on behalf of his guys) But here's the deal.

A few weeks ago Elaine's car went in to Murrays for a B service (and, as it transpires, 4 new tyres) Was quoted SE price for the service and it was done in good time, initially to our satisfaction (in one day while Elaine was shopping in Edinburgh - inc tyre fitting)

On getting the car back up the road, I noticed a chip in the NSR alloy - just around the ridge around the Lotus badge. Only way I could see it happening would be an insert used on the wheel balancer that clamped up on the face of the wheel and it was really growled up on. Then took it for a drive later that night and discovered the wheels were well out of balance (wobble from 50mph up to the speed limit - and a bit more) Typical MMC rush job, is my first reaction...

Emailed Craig with the issues. Immediately, he promised to take the car back and get them sorted. So, sent a driver across to Ayr and picked up the car. A wee while passes while they establish that the wheel simply can't be blown in or fixed, so Craig sanctions a complete refurb of all 4 alloys. All is going well...

I'm in Edinburgh last week for work when I get a call from Craig to aplogise that one of the valeters has reversed it into a wall! He's keen that I go over to see the damage and so he can talk to me face to face. So, I do. No sidestepping and no shirking of responsibility - Craig takes me to see the car and promises me it'll be fixed.

Not a horrendous amount of damage, so I agree that it's probably best to attempt a repair (not through JM Group bodyshop, but a local specialist paint shop they now use for Lotus)

Obviously, neither Elaine or I are particularly amused at this stage, so Elaine is immediately sent an Elise SC demo through to use as a courtesy car while the paint work is done. Offered by Craig without any hassle at all as soon as it happened.

So, car arrives back today - repairs are excellent - the rear clam really is better than factory. The paintshop has even refinished the inside of the clam and resprayed the same colour as the mould, so it's impossible to tell there was ever any damage. Well impressed with the standard of work. Small glitch with one of the alloys which will probably have happened when the car was in the oven with the paint baking on the rear clam - Craig has now offered to refurb 2 wheels FOC in the future to cover this glitch, I'm happy with that.

Accidents happen - it's pretty amazing to me that they can happen twice to one car in the space of the same service work, but I have to accept that it's not a normal occurence. As well as the car being brought back to a better standard that it went in, we have been financially compensated for the hassle (in addition to the loan SC)

So, is the service better than it was? In my experience, it's in a different league. A running gag developed in that Craig was sure I thought he was stalking me, due to the extensive contact we had over the course of the repairs. Not once did he try and shift blame, or shirk responsibility. That, in itself, is totally different to past experiences of MMC service.

Great guy. Has he been given the best tools to back him up? Of that, I'm less sure. What happened to Elaine's car was a pretty freak thing in the case of the clam and a blatent lack of care for the wheel errors. I think with Craig at the helm, this'll be seen as less acceptable for the guys there - although I'd not say the corner had been turned just yet.

Will we use them again for Elaine's car? Probably. We have assurances in place for future care and I do respect what Craig is pushing to do - maybe it'll take a little more time though. Whilst this wasn't a good experience, the way it's been dealt with goes some way to make up for the hassle in the first place.

[lotustype116]

The rental Elise i am using at the moment was picked up at my house this morning given an A service and returned to me this evening. Cant fault Craig's approach to customer service as this was arranged at fairly short notice with no hassle

Incidentally, I have been driving this car daily since November and have felt it to be a gutless wonder! I thought they must all be this way but i am told that its now pulling much stronger again after some attention from MMC.
All this and an SE discount!

[m400kay]

I will never use mmc again after service issues with coolant tank cap left off only discovered by luck of having to go in boot to get radio face, when mentioned it was shrug and well fixed now, even after spending thousands with them on loti.Sorry guys but one swallow does not make a summer.

[Dicey]

I had four Advans fitted at MMC in April 2007 and they scratched the wheels. Quite disappointed to say the least, there's the car sitting on a ramp amongst Aston Martins, the guy takes two and a half hours to replace four tyres and still manages to scratch the wheels.

On this instance I decided to chalk it up to (bad) experience as it's a lot of hassle coming from Dundee to get it rectified. I'd buy tyres from them again, but go elsewhere to get them fitted.

Mike.

[alicrozier]

Have to mention Craig again for resolving a potentially sticky (read very expensive) warranty issue* this afternoon.
This is the kind of stuff that makes all the difference.


*anyone know how long the warranty is on a British GT Edition?

To summarise my good experience with MMC recently.

My car had problems sticking in 1st and 2nd gears for which Calum travelled up to Aberdeen to inspect the car, read ECU for warranty etc. This is a great help btw, more than half of the early miles on my old S2 Exige were to Edinburgh and back for warranty work (always at least twice for each issue).

The delivery of replacement parts took a fair bit of time but that's a Lotus issue.

Pick up of the car was offered but would have caused a delay (I think access to the truck is limited which could be improved) so I took the decision to drive the car down to get the repair moving quicker.

There was a warranty scare discovered when the car was on the ramps (see above) but Craig resolved it perfectly in my favour. My feeling is that in the past this kind of thing may have just been dumped back on me - good to see MMC looking after the customer and fighting their corner.

There were a couple of other issues resolved to my satisfaction - front rotors are now 308mm grooved (ones I'd bought when at the factory/Snetterton) rather than cross drilled and had new front wheel arch liners fitted. (I will be modding the old (worn through) arch liners to become the 'track set' - either Frank's GRP bubble solution or alu sheet to protect the back of the lights.)

Again, delivery on the truck would have caused additional delay so I agreed for it be driven back to Aberdeen. It arrived on Wednesday with everything sorted and a full tank of fuel. The replaced parts in the gearbox mean 1, 2 & 3 are a bit stiffer to engage but Craig assures me this will ease with usage and has offered a mechanic to come up if any further adjustment to linkage etc is needed.

Throughout I've been impressed with the level and quality of communication from Craig - this has been a step change in my opinion. All in all a positive dealer experience.

btw when returning calls to MMC, is it just me or is the receptionist trigger happy on the transfer button with everyone?
"I'll just put y...", click!

[Brian J]

Totally agree that dreadful experiences in the past (which I had too repeatedly) should not deter from you trying MMC again now - it is like a totally different operation - prompt, helpful, efficient.

Brian J

[lotustype116]

btw when returning calls to MMC, is it just me or is the receptionist trigger happy on the transfer button with everyone?
"I'll just put y...", click!

I had that three times and was twice passed to Suzuki!

[lotustype116]

Edit. Stupid mobile browser!

[tenkfeet]

Will use Bell and Colville for Lotus parts in the future .

[Peter]

My car was handed over approx 2 weeks ago for a series of repairs and a few warranty bits as well. Without going into too much detail ; after being 'Donkey Punched' last year the car went to Christopher Neil for an assessment (thanks to Paul G for the lift in his trailer ). They replaced a Track rod end and had the car alignment checked by a local supplier, this left some wheel arch cosmetics to be completed.

Over the winter the car was seldom used (as I was pretty peed off with it and had different priorities) but it became obvious that the Geo was still out, the exhaust was blowing and there was a knock coming from the back of the car. I took the rear diffuser off and spotted the issue - a bolt had been knocked clean out the side of the casing Having dug into this some more it appears that Lotus use only 2 of the 3 available holes for the rear engine mount, a specialist that I spoke to confrimed that they had seen a few C64 gearboxes with this issue. i.e.caused by a knock to a drive wheel

I decided to take it into Murray's to get a quote for gearbox casting replacement, new exhaust, repair body work, Geo set up etc etc. I was particularly nervous about the cost of the gearbox fix and Murray's ability to do bodywork repairs, especially on a burnt orange car. (To be really honest I expected to be left with a high benchmark quote that I would then take some of the tasks elsewhere to get the work done.)

I dealt with Craig Moncrieff for the first time and the service was very (very) good. He spent a lot of time re-assuring me that the new bodyshop they use would do a good job and working with me to get the right repair for the gearbox. He sensibly suggested that we started with another Geo check to ensure nothing else was potentially wrong with the car. Once sorted we agreed on an itemised price for the repairs including the provision of a new Lotus Stage 3 exhaust and new spare std silencer wrapped up in a 'bundle price'.

Bottom line is that the car went straight in and was back with me last Friday right on schedule...Looking like it had just come out of the show room. The paint work is amazing (and I'm picky) and the exhaust is excellent..everything else just looks & goes like it did when I first picked it up new (except past 4k rpm ).

Many of you will realize that a lot of effort is being put into the SE community to try to win back some lost custom and that makes good business sense based on the size of the potential customer base on this forum. I'm happy to add my bit of feedback, I've never seen service like this from any other aftersales within a car dealership. At every key stage I was phoned to let me know how things had gone, what was next, how the overall schedule was going and any extra parts/labour that may be required.. I would consider this to be a complex job with plenty of opportunity to screw things up (the car had to go through the workshop and 3 different subco's), however, it was back on time, on budget (original agreed!!) and looking better than I could have hoped for..

Oh, and the title of this post.. I've done more miles this weekend in my car than I had since last November, really looking forward to the Summer now

Cheers, Peter

[duggiesmith]

Just had my 2 year service done at MMC and couldn't fault them.
Craig's customer service was top notch (and Graeme's coffee wasn't bad either)

Never had any issues in the past either, although it makes a nice to change to know how much (or little in this case) it's going to cost in advance.
This year's service was £130 cheaper than last years

[ryanaldo13]

My Apologies for the long story...

I've had the car in MMC a few times for some simple little niggles and they are really good at bringing out a mechanic to fix these on the spot if it's an easy fix which is great service. I had to get the lumbar support bag changed which Craig sorted out. Then the geo settings sorted along with the door re-aligned and the sun visor fixed - all of which were done really well and pretty quick by Kirk and another mechanic who's name I don’t know but he has a shaven head. Both of whom seem to be top blokes and are very knowledgeable when I've spoken to them.

But once I sent the car in to fix a rattle/knocking noise from inside the dash, turns out it was some coolant pipe rattling against something. Got the car back with 2 nasty marks on the suede fabric above the stereo and air vents I was quite annoyed with this but I’m not one for blaming folk or naming names or pointing the finger but It never went in with these marks so if someone’s made a boob then I'd expect it to be rectified. Apparently looks like some fluid or latex on gloves reacted badly with it and has caused the problem, I've no idea but I'll go along with it. I quickly calmed down and spoke with Keith at the servicing, he arranged with Fraser for a "dash man" to look at it but this never happened...

About a month down the line I had a massive paint problem at the back of the car as water had got into the paint causing a big scary bubble so I arranged to have a "paint man" and the "dash man" look at it to fix it all (Bracing myself for a massive paint job bill as it's not covered in the warranty apparently).

Got told the dash fabric couldn’t be fixed and they wouldn't pay out for a new one!! Seems like the fabric is built into the whole dash mould and cant be taken out... I'm usually a quiet, calm guy but now I'm ready to go mental! Luckily I had my Ipod with me and put in the earphones and sat down for a while with my head in my hands thinking of a solution. After a few minutes Craig turned up and spoke to me about the situation. We spoke at great length about my troubles and he explained that the paint is of far greater importance than the dash. He could get the dash re-covered in leather stitched over the suede to match the seats but I didn't like that idea. The "paint man" had spotted quite a few other marks/chips/scratches on the car and Craig said he would get the whole lot of these done instead. He also said he would put a new badge on for me aswell as the old one was'nt looking too good. I agreed and left the car with them to get sorted.

It took a lot longer than expected but the wait was worth it!! The paint job is brilliant, I have to congratulate the folk MMC use. As I left I heard some rattle from the passenger door and thought nothing of it, went to get fuel and the noise became clear. Brought the car back to MMC and Craig arranged for a mechanic to check it ASAP. A piece of metal had became detached inside the door so it was taken away to be bonded with something, expecting to wait about an hour I got it back in 20mins!!

This might not change peoples minds about using MMC but after the trouble I've had I'm still happy to use them as I feel the positives far outweigh the negatives. I agree with what Shug and Peter have said before me, Craig gets top marks for his service in my opinion. I’ve got loads of bad story’s about many other dealers in Edinburgh that I’m not going to bore you all with but Craig has made the difference in turning a bad story into a good one.



Sadly the coolant pipe is starting to rattle again so I might have to take it back round to MMC, although I'd quite like to fix it myself if I can as I really like taking things apart (not too good at putting things back together though)... Any help/advice would be appreciated

[111Robin]

Many thank's to Craig for putting so much effort into my warranty gearbox repair. Car picked up from Aberdeen despite MMC's own truck breaking down the day before. Craig arranged transport using a car storage firm from Edinburgh (specialise in storage of classic/prestige cars), excellent service. Kept me informed of progress throughout and delivered the car back today, less than a week turnaround. Can't fault Craig's efforts in turning around MMC's reputation, keep up the good work,
Robin

[dezzy]

Just wanted to add to this . . .

I've been in touch with Craig about a couple of warranty issues recently and he's been very quick to respond and kept me in touch with his discussions with Lotus. I've never dealt with a dealer before where I can email backwards and forwards several times in one day and continue to get prompt responses. Craig has really impressed me with this excellent customer service and his flexibility in looking at the specific warranty issue.

Will update with additional feedback once the car has been in to get looked at

Cheers,
D