Terrible Customer Service from Sytner Oldbury Bodyshop

[The Beast]

I just picked up my X5 last week and took it to a wedding on the first day. Wedding was great but came out to discover that someone had hit the front bumper! Obviously being a new purchase it's been playing on my mind all week, so I checked the Sytner Oldbury website which said that their bodyshop closed at 12 o'clock on a Saturday.

It was 11 am and I live very close to Sytner Oldbury so I called to see if someone could give me a quote on the repair....

Firstly I was told that the bodyshop closes at 11.30 am so I could not get a quote. I was told to call back on Monday.

I told the guy that the website said that they closed at 12 pm and that I could only get there on weekends due to work commitments

He said that they locked up at 11.30 so that they would be ready to leave at 12 pm and asked me to call back next weekend

I said that I could be there in 5 mins and seeing that it was 11 am they had plenty of time to have a look at the damage

He then put me on hold and said that he would see what he could do. When he returned he now told me that quotes were only given by prior appointment and that seeing that I did not have one I would need to book in!

I am totally shocked at the lack of customer service, the website talks about a £2.5 million investment in this facility but they could have done with investing a few thousand pounds on some customer service training for their staff!! There is not point in advertising opening times if these can not be fulfilled.....

I told him that I would go to another dealership and rang Benham Wolverhampton instead. They told me that I could come in at any time up to 3 pm on a Saturday and that someone would be happy to provide a quote.

I guess it's no loss to me as it is Sytners' who have lost the business, but based on this initial experience I will not be using Sytner again!!

[Anneka @ Sytner]

On behalf of the Sytner Group I'd like to apologise for this experience, we pride ourselves on delivering a high level of customer service and are very sorry for the error.

I would personally like take steps to ensure that our bodyshop website pages are quickly reviewed; information regarding opening hours for bodyshop should not have been published on any of our websites as our advisors must see customers by appointment to avoid any disappointment.
In light of this, we would be greatly appreciative if you could kindly point us in the right direction.

On a positive note congratulations on your new X5, I hope that the damage sustained is minimal and that the repair goes well.

Thanking you in anticipation,
Anneka

[BrunoT]

Originally Posted by The Beast

I just picked up my X5 last week and took it to a wedding on the first day. Wedding was great but came out to discover that someone had hit the front bumper! Obviously being a new purchase it's been playing on my mind all week, so I checked the Sytner Oldbury website which said that their bodyshop closed at 12 o'clock on a Saturday.

It was 11 am and I live very close to Sytner Oldbury so I called to see if someone could give me a quote on the repair....

Firstly I was told that the bodyshop closes at 11.30 am so I could not get a quote. I was told to call back on Monday.

I told the guy that the website said that they closed at 12 pm and that I could only get there on weekends due to work commitments

He said that they locked up at 11.30 so that they would be ready to leave at 12 pm and asked me to call back next weekend

I said that I could be there in 5 mins and seeing that it was 11 am they had plenty of time to have a look at the damage

He then put me on hold and said that he would see what he could do. When he returned he now told me that quotes were only given by prior appointment and that seeing that I did not have one I would need to book in!

I am totally shocked at the lack of customer service, the website talks about a £2.5 million investment in this facility but they could have done with investing a few thousand pounds on some customer service training for their staff!! There is not point in advertising opening times if these can not be fulfilled.....

I told him that I would go to another dealership and rang Benham Wolverhampton instead. They told me that I could come in at any time up to 3 pm on a Saturday and that someone would be happy to provide a quote.

I guess it's no loss to me as it is Sytners' who have lost the business, but based on this initial experience I will not be using Sytner again!!

This is a business where the guy you talked to makes nothing more if they wait around for you. It's not surprising. You think they want to be working saturdays? They were probably all wanting to bolt out at closing time to go do something. Even shop employees have weekend plans, you know.

But on General Principle, as a small business owner, I would actually pass on a customer who acts as if his schedule is so important he's going to try to harrangue my employees into giving him a quote when they politely said to come back Monday. It's your choice to go elsewhere, but when you start arguing about it telling them their own policies and hours and that they 'must' do this or that, that tells me you're likely going to be what we call a P.I.T.A here. This is auto body repair, not ordering a pizza. Your inability to come in weekdays is unfortunate, but not their problem. Your not being able to call for an appointment earlier isn't either. How do you know they even had their quote guy available? Like many things, accidents often happen on weekends when it's inconvenient to get things fixed. EVERYONE wants to come in on Saturday, so odds are he was busy. And then there's the fact in ANY retail business that people will regularly call, claim they are headed down, so please stay open late, only to never show.

And I think you may not understand what is involved in an accurate quote. I was in the insurance biz a long time ago. Did you think he could eyeball it and be out of there in 15 min? Sorry, but no. Doing it right means checking for hidden damage and other issues that would have had the shop open past their normal hours. Odds are they are not even allowed to do that. They then must construct a quote and double check that it's right so they don't take a hit because something got left out. This takes time, even with computers. And after all this, you may well not even use them, going with someone cheaper. So the "free quote" isn't free to them at all. Meanwhile, if you keep them late, they have $100/hour of labor sitting around waiting to close up.

Here in the states BMW drivers have a really bad rep, mostly because of a few a-holes who ruin it for the rest of us. Try being flexible and easygoing about things, and you may find you pay less and get treated better. Walk in with an attitude and they will find ways to make you pay for that.

They were not hungry for your business, that's for sure. But again remember that businesses often have things going on you do not realize and that the people working there do not directly pocket the money you pay like with a very small business. They may not even see a dime. If you worked 6 days a week already and had business lined up for weeks, would you really stick around waiting for someone to show up for a last minute quote, especially when you made little or nothing extra for doing so? Their SOP is to quote by appointment only. They did what the boss said to do. I find it quite reasonable.

I run a business where people contract for services that occur weekly for years. They have months to know whether they need a quote or not. So when I get a call on Friday evening from someone in a panic who wants us there TOMORROW, I smell a rat. Long years of experience say that usually means the person is not going to be a great customer. So I pass and tell them when I can be out to quote the job. If that's not good enough, so be it. It's just good business. They don't know you from Adam.