I'm done with using Murray Lotus for good! It gets worse!

[renmure]

My experience of Porsche Edinburgh for a service a couple of weeks ago was pretty poor. Infact, so poor that I ended up complaining directly to the DP and to Porsche GB. (I was going to write a strongly worded letter to The Times as well but my pencil was blunt)

The result: a sort of half-arsed apology from the Dealer, followed the next day by a phone call saying, "hey, never mind that, can we sell you a car?" and and from Porsche GB, an "oh, ok, thanks for the feedback. As you were" email.

Maybe car places are so busy and making so much money that they don't have to try very hard.

[Andy G]

Porsche Edinburgh are shocking unless you are lucky enough to get the mechanic who works on the GT cars.

They also dont give 1/2 a f*** let alone a full one.

I just told them to send my deposit back after 18 months. Complained to Porsche multiple times, and havent heard back from them on any one of them.

Its so annoying that they build good cars, although I'll do my best not to buy from them in the future, as they've screwed me royally on the Gt4 . And I'm certainly not alone on that.

They are also about to screw a tonne of people on the next GT3 - guaranteed.

[douglasgdmw]

My experience of Porsche Edinburgh for a service a couple of weeks ago was pretty poor. Infact, so poor that I ended up complaining directly to the DP and to Porsche GB. (I was going to write a strongly worded letter to The Times as well but my pencil was blunt).

Jim,

Sorry to hear about that as I must have been very lucky when I got the Spyder serviced.

When they were servicing the car they noticed an issue and the replacement parts were over £2k which was not exactly heart warming as I did not take out the extended warranty. Luckily they spoke to Porsche GB and managed to get Porsche to pick up the majority of the parts cost. Still left me with a bigger bill than I was expecting but was glad that some of the bill was picked up.

Will definitely take more car when choosing the service centre now I know that you/Andy have had issues.

George

[Jeremy]

Porsche Edinburgh are a disgrace actually, although in fairness I've tried a couple of other Porsche dealers and they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. I'm sure there will be a good one out there somewhere but don't know where that is.

An Edinburgh employee once told me that they sell out their entire allocation of cars hence the reason it's the shrug shoulders, take it or leave it, if you don't buy it the next guy will, we're actually doing YOU the favour type treatment. They'd actually be better replacing the sales staff with an online ordering process because that's effectively all they're doing. And doing it badly.

It's all very aloof and that seems to stem from Porsche GB all the way down. It really does put me off owning another vehicle from the brand.

Sad to hear that things at Murray Lotus have gone to the dogs as well, sooner or later that is going to start impacting on sales.

Regards,

Jeremy

[SAJ]

I'd have updated the thread sooner but wanted to see if MMC would change their ways but they haven't. If there are still any sceptics out there about how utterly crap MMC are now this should probably cement everything that has been said before. Part of the delay in updating the thread is because when the issue I'll describe in a moment came up I had struggled for a week to get in touch with Lotus Customer services as all my e-mails kept bouncing. A quick call to Neil Turner (Lotus Customer Services) problem resolved with the e-mail - the images I was sending were too large.

Anyway so the day before the last Rev Limits track night I picked up on another issue with my car. I went to open the boot of my car only to discover I couldn't open it. This I think was actually the first time I went to open the boot since having my car back but I can't be sure, however I was unable to lift the boot open more than a few inches. I gently lowered and raised it to see what the issue was only to find a crack on the drivers side of the top grill where the heat escapes from the engine bay.

I closed the boot to inspect it further and on closer inspection I could clearly see that the grill section hadn't actually been put back on the car properly following the paint work that was done by MMC. You'll see from the picture the large gap between the grill panel and roof panel on the driver side and from the other picture the passenger side so that you can see clearly the difference and how the driver side should be. I've also now inspected the panel and to my eye the actual panel itself doesn't look to be correctly fitted either as the gap between the panel and the drivers door is larger than the gap between the same panel on the passenger side.

I can open the boot when the car is cold and not driven, but once the car has been driven and the grill panel heats up it is expanding/moving and preventing the boot from lifting open. I have to get someone to push down on the grill panel slightly so that the boot can then fully be raised.

Crack in grill panel and gap between it and the roof panel - driver side



Grill panel - passenger side



Now given MMC decided to ignore me I decided I was done trying to deal with them and went directly to Neil Turner with my issue. I have to say when I spoke to Neil on the phone I got the level of customer service and understanding that you should expect - so a big thumbs up for Neil on this occasion. Neil took the pictures I sent and took over communicating with MMC.

Neil got back to me yesterday with the following:

"Dear Sajid.

Murrays have provided me with photographs taken before and after their repair which confirm that they have not removed or adjusted the rear clam during their paint repair and because of the public negativity shown towards them, they decline to assist further in relation to this specific issue as they feel they have carried out their repair to the best of their ability.

I can do little to influence their stance, so all I can do is to supply you with a new rear cosmetic panel directly to replace the cracked one. If you choose to have this fitted by Craig then so be it, butm I cannot accept any charges or costs in relation to this work, I am sorry.

Would you like me to send you a new panel with our compliments?

Please let me know."

So first off given the response from MMC back to Lotus I'm glad that Neil offered me a new panel even if I do have to fork out for fitting it myself.

However what I don't know is what pictures MMC sent to Neil for MMC to claim the rear clam hadn't been removed or adjusted. MMC have clearly forgotten they sent me a ton of pictures of all the work including this one below which I have sent on to Neil. It clearly shows the rear clam was adjusted to allow the paintwork to be done:



What I don't know yet is if MMC sent the above picture to Neil, I doubt it and they probably sent the one below or similar where you can't really tell the clam has been lifted off. At least you can see the top grill was removed.



I highly doubt though that they sent Neil the first one otherwise I can't see how Neil would believe that the rear clam wasn't removed or adjusted. I am waiting for Neil's response on this so let's see what he comes back with. I suspect he has gone back to MMC with the first image I've given him that counters MMCs claim.

Once Neil gets back to me, I'll provide another update but as it stands this really isn't looking good for MMC's honor and integrity. Even if Neil gets them to fork out for the repair now that he has the evidence of a crap job I don't think I could give my car to them anyway as I simply can't trust them anymore.

It just gets worse...........

[Rascal69]

AV had issues with them too and lotus.

I said to them due to my issues my plans of buying Exige s3 aren't going to happen I won't own another lotus after I sell my Exige in couple of months.

[SAJ]

AV had issues with them too and lotus.

I said to them due to my issues my plans of buying Exige s3 aren't going to happen I won't own another lotus after I sell my Exige in couple of months.

Same, the Evora may now be the last Lotus I ever own. Real shame given I love the cars.

[Simon82]

Seems a bit O.T.T to walk away from a brand because of one dealer no? Seems like Lotus themselves are trying to do the right thing. Has anyone tried the new dealer in Carlisle? Just my 2p worth.

I've had a lot of hassle with Glasgow Audi from day one of getting my RS4 but I wouldn't let them put me off the car.
I've also had issues with Porsche AND Porsche GB which has put me off that brand for the time being but thier antics are pretty well publicised these days so I won't go into that!

[j2 lot]

[SAJ]

Seems a bit O.T.T to walk away from a brand because of one dealer no? Seems like Lotus themselves are trying to do the right thing. Has anyone tried the new dealer in Carlisle? Just my 2p worth.

I've had a lot of hassle with Glasgow Audi from day one of getting my RS4 but I wouldn't let them put me off the car.
I've also had issues with Porsche AND Porsche GB which has put me off that brand for the time being but thier antics are pretty well publicised these days so I won't go into that!

I know what you're saying but if for instance I was to buy the Evora 400 Spyder whenever it shows up from another dealer, it would be a ball ache to have to pop down to Carlisle just to get the warranty work done as there is no way I want to go near MMC again.

[Sanjøy]

Seems a bit O.T.T to walk away from a brand because of one dealer no? Seems like Lotus themselves are trying to do the right thing. Has anyone tried the new dealer in Carlisle? Just my 2p worth.

I've had a lot of hassle with Glasgow Audi from day one of getting my RS4 but I wouldn't let them put me off the car.
I've also had issues with Porsche AND Porsche GB which has put me off that brand for the time being but thier antics are pretty well publicised these days so I won't go into that!

I know what you're saying but if for instance I was to buy the Evora 400 Spyder whenever it shows up from another dealer, it would be a ball ache to have to pop down to Carlisle just to get the warranty work done as there is no way I want to go near MMC again.

If its that bad it cannot continue, the laws of business show us this. Back in the Graeme Robertson days there were similar problems with servicing and then Craig showed up and a sales / after sales satisfaction equilibrium happened. Graeme moved and then Craig has moved on, Sales satisfaction remained but after sales has had a sharp dip. The MMC Management team need to take the negative feedback on board and action else they will see immediate losses in after sales and ultimately sales revenue as this has been going on for over a quarter now.

2p

S

[tut]

I am doing a trackday at KH on Saturday with David Hayton, Lotus Carlisle, so it will be interesting to meet a whole new bunch of Elise owners.

tut

[Andy G]

I'm baffled by this and why MMC haven't done anything to resolve it.

The world of social media allows people a voice and I cant understand why companies think that its ok to stick their head in the sand.

If someone at MMC had actually taken ownership of this issue, instead of denying the entire thing (and from a known repeat customer) this thread could have been a glowing tribute.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

I remember the good old days pre-Craig - I had my Elise in 14 times with an issue (MIL light) before it went pop after 2 laps at KH. Here's hoping we don't return to that.

[hendeg]

because of the public negativity shown towards them, they decline to assist further in relation to this specific issue

Petty, childish and unprofessional approach from MMC. At least Lotus have been open with you and offered a new panel but rather than pass on that message, I would've expected them to tell MMC that's not the attitude they require when it comes to customer service and to sort it out.

It's not right but this is the level of service we have almost become to expect from all dealers now (I know there are some goods ones but they're hard to find). Craig had done an exceptional job in raising the level of service, and I presume sales as a result, but it looks like it's just gone back to industry standard.

[campbell]

Carlisle a ball-ache, Saj? But what do you call your saga above with a "local" dealer? Stand back a bit from this and consider your options.

Also, public flaming appears not to be much help now either so it's time for a new strategy perhaps.

If I can make KH on Sat, Tut, I'd be keen to meet the David Hayton team too.