Macklin Motors / Vertu Motors - Disabled? Who gives a crap! Macklin Motors now saying the reason they cancelled the sale is because I got so irate and were slating their staff yesterday - which is funny because the manager had told me that the car was cancelled the night before. For those that dont know what went on - The sales rep Elaine Ball, who was supposed to be the specialist motability representative made quite a few errors - I will now detail them for you. Firstly, which really got on my wick - we went to Macklin to deal with the same guy we had been dealing with for years - I am not going to mention his name because hes a good guy. We got out of the car and were approached by a member of staff (elaine) and told not to park where we had parked. We explained that we were only getting my mother out of the car because she has secondary progressive M.S and we would be moving it afterwards. Job done, mum in wheelchair and the car was moved. When she found out that we were there for a mobility vehicle she was all over us like a rash. Now I should probably point out that we had bought the previous 2 cars from Macklin in Dunfermline and for weeks before it we kept getting letters from this woman Elaine - For those of you that dont know the motability scheme is for those with severe disabilities on PIP or Disability Living Allowance to help them be able to move around easily. When it comes to the end of the 3 year lease agreement you can either buy the car or renew with a different car paying a substancial deposit and giving the car dealer about half of your monthly DLA benefits to pay for it. Its not a free car, it gets deducted from your benefits. As long as you place an order with the dealership a few months before the previous car goes back you are fine. But elaines letters dont say that. What they do say however is that they have an offer - you need to sign up by next friday. Then friday comes and goes and you get another saying offer extended by her dealership in Dunfermline - then another and another. The offer keeps getting extended. However wise words to the savy. If you are looking for a new car you look at the mnufacturers websites and research the options. When you do this you discover something miraculous. Despite elaines letters saying that it is the dealership giving the deal and that they have been extending it out of courtesy, in fact it is ford themselves that run the offer and in this case that offer ran for two months before we were due to renew, right through to a month after we were due to renew. Some would call this sales tactics. I would call it deception - and I did in the complaint letter. Anyway! Back to the actual day. We were going to see the sales person we had dealt with previously but got accosted by Elaine who would not leave us alone. We only wanted to check one thing - a very important thing - did my mothers wheelchair fit in the boot of the Kuga - it did! We asked her twice to please give us some time. To normal people that means kindly go away and leave me to talk with my family about private issues - to her it means standing 2 feet away and butting into your private conversation every 2 seconds when she hears about a feature of the car being talked about. During that constand butting in she told us about many features - unfortunately she also told us about specs to do with the 2.0l petrol engine when she had already been told a number of times we were going for a diesel. So! she doesnt listen! Check! So - my father and I decided that was the one to go for - my decision because I am the one that deals with the paperwork - his decision because he is the only one able to drive it for mum because she cant drive anymore. So we asked where the guy was we had been dealing with - Elaine said that he could no longer deal with motability - she was the motability advisor - and why question that? because she is sitting in a spliffy new motability office - and she has cards to prove it right? Wrong! Infact the previous guy (who I had actually spoken to for 35 minutes on the phone a few weeks before about the kuga btw and decided that it was the car to go for based on his recommendation - motability wasnt mentioned in that call btw) was perfectly able to process the sale - a lie! and I called it that in the letter of complaint because that is exactly what it was. She gained a sale under false pretences by saying another advisor could not deal with it. A gentleman that in fact could. Bare in mind as well that this is car sales - there are fairly big commissions on car sales - not to mention the fact that advisors are targetted in any sales industry. My father works in sales - he knows there is nothing worse than having a sale stolen - if your one short at the end of the week that could be the difference between a full commission and a kick in the ass from the boss. But elaine didnt care - she lied - she took it. It was only in a later conversation with the gentleman in question we discovered he could have done it - that made both my father and I angry. So we make our way to her splify new motability office. I asked for information on the titanium pack - I got information fired at me at 500mph about the titanium x pack and when we got to the end and she indicated that was the case I said - no it was the titanium pack. No sorry - she just started throwing out the specs for the titanium at a speed no human could understand. Next comes the order itself and boy did it. For anyone going for a motability vehicle and you happen to be a guardian or power of attorney - The sales agent puts the details of the person buying the car in then clicks the little button on motability that says APOINTEE and puts your details in. I told her this 3 times - she didnt listen and instead wasted another 15 mins phoning motability to confirm what i had already told her. Then comes handing over the paperwork - you supply documents partaining to the DLA, drivers license and of course the guardianship order - she took two and went to copy them and came back. Then realised she had forgotten two and left and did them. Then dropped them on the floor several times. The disorganisation was unbelievable. Then comes the sales paperwork - oh goody - turns out she had left a load of stuff off the sale and said - I will just write it on and process it later. Oh no you wont! You will give me a complete sale while I am here! I explained we had already been stung with that by a garage in Galashiels with a mondeo 2.0 - we were told it had ABS braking and it didnt - subsequently we got stuck with a car without ABS breaking and as many of you know for an M.S patient in early stages of decline one of the first things to go is an awareness of how hard you are pushing the brake on a car. The result of this was the breaks locking up about a year later and my mother ending up shunted in the rear end by a van. So noooooo - I wanted complete paperwork and I was nice about it. So shes been provided my fathers photocard license, the DLA paperwork and of course the guradianship order - the counterpart for his license was left at home and she said just to drop it through the door and she would mail it back. My father did so the next morning - a week later no license returned - soooo he goes in and she is ever so appologetic - she says she didnt hear me when i said to mail it back - which is tosh because it was her that offered, not me that requested. Anyway - a week or two goes by and I get a letter asking for me to provide DLA paperwork, the guardianship and my dads license - errrrrrrr whit? So I phone and get the gentleman from our past - good guy - went and pulled the whole order, spent 15 minutes tracking down everything and came back to me to tell me that they had everything except for the photocard license. He also said it seemed that the parking censors had been left off. OFFS - so my father went back in and dropped it off again for copying - the guy that sorted it all also said he would keep an eye out for the parking sensors because they might have to be installed in the garage if they werent fitted at the factory - great! diligent Now somewhere in amongst all this we were told by Elaine that the roof rails and tinted windows were part of the titanium pack. This is not true - infact the goodguy sales person put that one right. The roof rails and tinted windows are now part of a seperate £350 upgrade pack - no matter - we didnt want them anyway but the point is - thats another inaccuracy by the illustrious elaine. So I go away for 2 weeks to get married and I had other things on but I still wanted to raise that complaint so I did. I sent an email 2 days ago to Macklin motors manager in Dunfermline, MR ANDREW SIMPSON. It simply read as above - that we got harrassed from moment one - that she was very disorganised, not diligent in her responsibilities and I was blunt in saying that she was a liar - obtaining a sale by deception is a lie - there is no way to sugar coat that - she took money out of the pocket of another sales person who has dealt with us for years and we like. That is lying. It is also bad for customer relations because we dont get to work with the sales rep we wanted - when we could have. Now one important thing that letter mentioned was and I quote Had it not been for {good guys name} sorting all of the problems we would have seriously considered cancelling the order. That statement does not give any indication of cancelling and certainly doesnt instruct cancellation now does it? Naw! All it does is indicates that we got good service from one person and Elaine should aspire to have the same level of service. So my reasoning by the end of the email was - This other guy had spoken to me before I bought, giving me all the info on the car, he had been the reason we went back to Macklins, he sorted all of the mess after the order and to top it all off was actively continuing customer service and ensuring everything went smoothly. All elaine did was annoy the hell out of us and put it on the computer - and she didnt even do that correctly! So in my reasoning - why does she deserve the sale - honest answer? She doesnt - so i requested for the sale to be transferred to the good sales agent. Thats not unreasonable - that is the right thing to do! Now you would think that ANDREW SIMPSON would respond to you saying - woops! bit of a cockup! - sorry about that - I will feed this back to the agent and give the sale to colin. You would be wrong and to prove this I am actually going to copy and paste the response from him to me about the complaint. ----------------------------- Martin, In reply to your e-mail of today, relating to the issues you feel have happened with regards to the purchase of your mothers new vehicle. You make some very strong comments in your e-mail against my motability sales executive Elaine Ball, on one occasion calling her a liar. I find this surprising as this is the second time I have employed her and I have had nothing but praise and commendations for her so far and indeed the performance of the motability department has increased greatly since I started her. But in saying that I’m in business to look after customers and keep them completely satisfied and we have quite clearly let you down on this occasion. Unfortunately Elaine is not in the business at present and will not be back until the start of next week, when I will carry out a full investigation into this matter. As I have already stated I’m in the business to look after customers and keep them completely satisfied, with this in mind as you stated in your e-mail about wishing to cancel, I will cancel your order with immediate effect and either myself or my General sales manager Paul Lunan, will contact you next week when we have had the opportunity to investigate this issue. Regards Andrew Simpson General Manager Macklin Motors Ford Dunfermline ---------------------------- OK! So where do start? Well firstly I believe it is customary to start a formal letter to someone with dear and when you speak to a client - you address them by their surname. Starting a letter with just their first name, particularly when the client has sent the email addressed formally with TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. OR am I wrong? You make some very strong comments in your e-mail against my motability sales executive Elaine Ball, on one occasion calling her a liar. Well? That is what she is! She deliberately obtained a sale from another person by using deception - she lied to me and my father. We both heard the words! Now the next bit takes a sarcastic turn because if you notice he says that he is in the business of keeping customers completely satisfied. Considering what he says next I get the distinct impression that he too is a liar. Re-iteration in this manner is like me saying you are a really nice person and using my fingers as inverted comments while over emphasising the words. It is sarcasm. So hes going to have a full investigation he says and then goes on to say - only after I terminate you as a customer. So what is the point in keeping me as a bloody customer? None! He obviously didnt read my email because he said as you stated in your e-mail about wishing to cancel, I will cancel your order with immediate effect No I didnt I simply said that had it not been for the other employee I would have considered cancelling - that makes no inference of cancellation - nor does it request such - Infact! I actually said in the last line of my email that I would shake the other advisors hand when I CAME TO PICK UP THE CAR He wasnt bothered he ofloaded me faster than a bag of spuds for daring to question his decision of employing her. And why the hell did he tell me about the performance level of the motability department? ahhhhh it makes sense now! Shes getting readies in the till! I see! This is a manager that doesnt give a crap about the customer as long as pound notes go in the till! So much for good working practices and indeed good customer service eh! He must be proud - I wonder if his membership to the tory party is alive and kicking! He terminated that contract faster than the tories terminate incapacity benefits - oh! DLA! Thats the link! I am sure that he will be re-assured knowing if he loses his job he will have one waiting for him with ATOS. Now! As for a very sneeky tactic - Mr. Simpson is a coward - You see he doesnt actually respond to emails during the day - Instead what he does is sends them at 17.29 - 1 minute before they close. That does 2 things - In otherwords you cant contact him and to top it off you get an immediate sense of dread that you cant deal with until the next day just to put the screws to you. Just a bit more evil from the illustrious Mr. Simpson. But it goes all the way to the top - oh yes it does! Because Mr. Robert Forrester, head of Vertu Motors that actually own Macklin Motors is best buddies with Mr. Forrester. During that night I emailed him and got a swift response the next morning. I told him that the sale had been cancelled by the manager. His response actually made me a little suspicious from the beginning because it was one line and said that he would look at it in the next few days. I subsequently find out that night that he has been involved in the decision making process regarding this sale and that he is buddies with Mr. Simpson and has been for years - he then stipulates that he has been involved in the decision making process. I also find out from another source that it wasnt cancelled the night before - it was cancelled 15 minutes after I emailed them to say that I had contacted raw deal, trading standards and of course motability. So it seems that management stick together - as long as money is going in the till eh! Either way - I am actually not entirely bothered by this because motability WHO ARE AN EXCELLENT TEAM UNLIKE MACKLIN have agreed to extend the current vehicle while we wait for the Kuga which we will be organising from another dealer. What makes it funny is that Macklin will now need to organise the return of the CMAX themselves all the way from Kirkcaldy - I aint taking it back. But the creme de la creme of it all is that the new garage is giving us a better deal than Macklin did by nearly 200 quid on the deposit we paid! Score! Either way the only person I feel sorry for is the original sales person we have dealt with for years. He has lost a sale this time and of course all future business now that we know the score. As for the special motability advisor at macklin in Dunfermline - If your disabled and expecting special assistance dont bother - hell if you are looking for your sale actually done properly dont bother. If you have a problem with it - dont go to the manager Mr. Simpson because hes a grade A tory - and if hes not - he should be an honorary member of their party - if you are looking for sympathy from him you will find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. And if you have a problem with him - you have no other recourse because his directors are best buddies with him. Talk about failing upwards - Simpson will probably be scecretary of the company by next tuesday! Preying on disabled customers probably gets you a promotion. Either way! my advise about Macklin Motors and Vertu Motors - Run a mile! and if you are thinking of working with them - now you know the credentials you need - namely lack of remorse and ATOS like skills! Macklin Motors, Vertu Motors, Vertu Motors, Vertu Motors plc, Macklin Motors (Hamilton), Macklin Motors MS Society UK, National MS Society, MS Society Scotland, M.S. Society, Motability Events, Motability Offers Scotland, Ford Motor Company, Ford Motor Company Careers
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:05:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015