Customer service? Don't make me laugh!

So where to go from here?

Fife Mitsubishi had made it clear that if we wanted our car repaired we would have to continue to make all the effort and cover the cost. To me this just wasn't acceptable because we'd already spent a significant amount of time and money driving nearly 250 miles taking the car in for repair when the fault was theirs in the first place.

I decided to contact the head office of Mitsubishi, The Colt Car Company in Cirencester, hoping they would be able to help me. This is where I wish I had the wit and humour of Jeremy Clarkson to describe what rapidly became a bit of a farce!

I first contacted head office on 24 January 2007 and was told that if I emailed details of my complaint to them they would intervene with the dealership on my behalf. Great, I thought, and sent off an email with an attachment detailing our experiences over the last 6 months.

A week later (30 January 2007) I had heard nothing from head office so I phoned them again and was told they couldn't find my email on the system so could I send it again, so I did.

The next day (31 January 2007) I phoned to check what was happening and was told my email would be allocated to an advisor that day. I asked if someone could contact me that day to say how they would help, after all a week had gone past since I'd last been in touch with Fife Mitsubishi and I felt the momentum was fading from my complaint.

The next day (1 February 2007), having heard nothing, I phoned again and spoke to Shane. He told me Melanie would be handling my case. I was told she'd phone me after 2pm. She didn't.

The next day (2 February 2007) I phoned again and spoke to Luke, who told me Melanie would phone me back. She didn't. I felt a bit of a pattern was emerging.

On 6 February 2007 I phoned again and spoke to Shane. He said Melanie was not in that day. I got rather impatient at this point and asked that please would someone deal with my case! Shane said he'd look into it and managed to find both my emails on their system.

Later that afternoon I got an email from Shane. He'd spoken to Fife Mitsubishi but the information in the email that they'd sent back to him bore very little relation to what had actually happened and as far as they were concerned the matter was closed. I was a bit puzzled by this so I phoned Shane and discovered that he hadn't actually read the attachments to my emails which outlined the problems before he'd phoned Fife Mitsubishi! I could hardly believe this. How exactly do you solve a customer's problem without first finding out what the problem is?!

I sent the email again, FAO Shane this time, and asked him to get back to me promptly. Needless to say, he didn't.

On 8 February 2007 I phoned again and spoke to Shane. There was the usual delay while he tried to find my emails on their system and then he said he hadn't received the email I sent on 6 February. I asked him to look at the attachments to the original two emails. He said Melanie was dealing with my case. I said Melanie 'dealing with it' appear to involve doing nothing as she had never contacted me. I asked to speak to his supervisor. She was apparently on the phone but he said he'd ask her to call me.

Amazingly, Shane's supervisor, Nadine Hayward, did call me. Excited by this show of interest I explained that I had been struggling to get her team to respond to my complaint. I outlined the problem briefly but explained that all the information was in the attachments to my emails. She said she'd look into it and get back to me that afternoon. But, yes, you've guessed it, that's the last I heard from Nadine.

On 13 February 2007 I phoned and asked to speak to Nadine, but was told she wasn't in the office that day. I left my number and requested that she call me tomorrow.

After that call I felt enough was enough. This was a ridiculous situation. It was now almost three weeks since I'd first contacted customer services and they'd still not, as far as I knew, even read my complaint, far less resolved it. I rang again and asked to speak to the most senior person in customer services. This turned out to be Russell Stanley, who was just going into a meeting that was expected to last about an hour. I asked that he call me back that afternoon. I'm still waiting - it's now 22 February 2007.

On 14 February 2007 I wrote a letter to the Managing Director of The Colt Company. I'm stiill waiting for a response to that too.

What on earth do I do now?