Please don't let it rain!

So our wiper blades disintegrated on Saturday and it's now Wednesday and we still haven't got a replacement blade for the driver's side wiper! I find it incredible that just getting a basic part is proving so difficult. We had to get hold of the dealership (three phonecalls), they had to order it (24 hours) and they are supposed to deliver it to us tonight (they were supposed to come yesterday but never turned up!). In the meantime we have had to hope it won't rain! How can a company operate like this!

One thing after another

I really thought things were going to start to happen last week. On Saturday 10 March we got a phonecall from the Mitsubishi dealership in Stirling saying that they would take over the repair of our car and hire us a 7-seater for the time that our car was in the garage. Finally, we thought, some proper customer service. The Stirling dealership said they'd phone back on Tuesday 13 March to fix a date when we could bring the car in...and guess what, they haven't phoned back yet (it is now Sunday 18 March)!

Meanwhile, our front wiper blades have disintegrated and we have discovered that the driver's side one is a non-standard size and is only available through dealerships. This is a bit of a problem when your blades fall apart at the weekend, as ours did. We actually tried asking Fife Mitsubishi if they had any as we happened to be passing there but the service department was closed (it being a weekend) and the sales people didn't know what they were looking for! So to replace the wiper blades involves a trip to a dealership, not exactly ideal if the problem occurs at the weekend and the dealership is 40-odd miles away!

(and still no email or further phonecall from Mitsubishi head office...)

What do customer services do?

I continue to be absolutely amazed by the complete lack of service to customers provided by the Mitsubishi head office customer services department. As a result of my phonecall on Tuesday with Russell Stanley, the Customer Services Manager at Mitsubishi head office, I was expecting an email from him on Wednesday outlining the main points arising from our converstaion and telling me the result of a conversation he'd promise to have with a Stirling dealership on my behalf. However, yet again I have heard nothing. I phoned him today but he was in a meeting and I left a message asking him to phone me back and he hasn't (it is now 5.15pm).

I thought that one of the basic rules in customer services was always to return a call/email when you said you would.

I am left wondering exactly what customer services at Mitsubishi head office does. Russell told me on Tuesday that they have no power to enforce any action by a franchised dealership and it has taken 6 weeks for me to get any sort of sensible reaction from them to my complaint, so what are they doing? They certainly seem to be doing something because every time I phone them I'm put on hold for about 5 minutes before someone is available to talk to me. I can only assume that there are an awful lot of unhappy Mitsubishi customers out there.

Customer service can't actually help the customer at all

Today I'm feeling very despondent about the whole situation. After two attempts today I finally got to speak to the customer services manager at Mitsubishi head office. Basically he told me there's nothing he can do. He cannot make Fife Mitsubishi collect my car for repair, nor can he make sure they give me a suitable courtesy car (or any courtesy car!) while my car is being repaired. They are doing all that is required in saying they will repair the car if I take it to them. Never mind that they have already had many opportunities over the last few months to repair the fault, but have failed to do so.

After almost 6 weeks I am no further on, in fact I feel I am now in a worse position than before: Fife Mitsubishi will know that I have contacted head office and that they cannot help me, and the time lapse has taken away any urgency in getting the problem rectified.

All I can do apparently is write to Fife Mitsubishi, explain the problems and complaints, and see if they will offer me any compensation. Based on my previous experience I don't see that having any effect at all.

So, you buy a car from Fife Mitsubishi, it has a fault, they don't care, the fault is still there 7 months on and you are left to bear the cost and hassle of getting it repaired, with no prospect of compensation. It's not good is it?

Still waiting

After the euphoria of Friday, I'm now back down to earth having not heard anything from either Fife Mitsubishi or Mitsubishi head office since the letter telling me someone would contact me. I suppose the wording they used ('in the coming days') was suitably vague.

Meanwhile I have to work out how I'm going to transport two adults, three children and a computer packed in three large boxes to my mother's house on Saturday, when I cannot fold away the rear seats to make a boot...

A response!

Hallelujah!

Today I got a letter from the Customer Services Manager at Mitsubishi, sent in response to my letter to the Managing Director. It's taken almost a month since I first contacted them but finally a little bit of action - I say a little bit because all this letter promises is that customer services will 'discuss [the] situation' with the service manager at Fife Mitsubishi, so I'm not holding my breath for a rapid solution.

Watch this space for further developments!

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?