A Jeep Cherokee that was a monster to drive. Still, it made the following five weeks bearable. Yes FIVE WEEKS!
Each time we contacted Craig Fort, owner of the dealership, we were told that the diagnostic team in Kuala Lumpar had said to try another BSI, or try this or try that.
At week 8, I'd had enough. I rang Peugeot Australia's head office in Sydney and blew a gasket. The girl said she'd get someone on it straight away. This was at lunch time on the Wednesday, I hadn't heard back by the time I'd left for work, but there was a message on the phone from Peter McIntosh at 5pm that day, saying that he was on the case and had contacted the Hamilton dealership. I managed to speak with Peter the following day and he was all apologies about our experiences with Hamilton.
You see, it appears that Peugeot have this policy that if the problem is not diagnosed within three days or five hours of diagnostic time, it needs to be escalated. And this had not happened. So for the next few days, Peter rang me each day to let me know what was happening with our car in Hamilton. He arranged for it to be escalated to France IMMEDIATELY to find out what the problem was. France requested photos of various things. Mark the mechanic had allegedly gone home with pneumonia on Friday, so Peter was waiting for Craig to call him back so Peter could take Craig through step by step the process to use to take these photos and email them to France. By Tuesday morning, France had replied that one of the wires in the BSI was faulty. It was repaired by late Wednesday and Michael could pick up his car on Friday afternoon. Not so hard now, was it Craig!!!!!!
Michael had totake the car back in on Monday because the airconditioner and vents weren't working. They'd start at a reasonable temperature, then whistle and fall to freezing, then whistle again and up to sauna level. That didn't take long to fix and he had the car back on Monday afternoon.
Peter McIntosh kept following up with us on a daily basis, keeping us informed on what was happening - something that Craig could never do. He also got Robert Toonen involved, the aftersales service manager for most of the country. They were most interested in how many Pug drivers we'd spoken to wouldn't go to Craig because of bad experiences.
Then came the bill. Peter said he'd spoken to Craig, who assured him that he would be very generous with the billing, but didn't give him a figure. Michael hadn't received anything in the mail after a week, so he went in to see Craig. Craig handed over the account for over $5000. Michael saw red. Craig then proceeded to say 'Oh, we're not going to charge you that full amount, only $2,900', claiming 46 hrs of labour and diagnosis. Michael almost had a stroke. Craig also said he'd never heard of or spoken to Peter.
He rang Peter McIntosh, who was disgusted. Michael came up with some figures, based on 5 hrs diagnosis, 2 hrs labour and the cost of a BSI and offered Craig $1500. Peter advised that he had advised Craig to accept that offer. We got a letter in the mail from Craig, apologising for our bad experience, blaming his staff for their lack of communication and maintaining that it was sheer coincidence that the matter was escalated on the day that I contacted head office. He would accept the $1500 if it was paid within 30 days. But still no written account for our records, despite weeks of asking!
And then, just under two weeks later, we get another letter in the mail from Hamilton City Motors. It was a reminder notice - and the actual account!!!! And the bank details on the account were wrong! They just can't get it right.
Kudos go to Peter McIntosh, for his empathy, his communication and for being a great support in fixing our dilemma!
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