morto15

Sorry to hear all these negative comments about Powerstation as someone else said you cant please all the people all the time, personally my experience with PS has been faultless they have supplied me with Suspension, Laser alighnment (which the head instructor at Bedford Autodrome told me that my car was one of the best handling cars he had drived in a while), thanks Curtis, they also supplied me with Porsche brake conversion and on top of that more information than above the call of duty with my daily pestering of how to fit the brakes and all was done brilliantly sorry to hear you didnt get the same sort of service but there are plenty of satisfied customers out there
PS didnt you get a quote first? did you know how much the exhaust was going to be? hence you would have known the labour charge i know as most do i get a few quotes first and know the product and the cost of it before i get any work done!!

DCR59

Now that Scoobynet users have found Powerstation GUILTY.

And given that Powerstation are paying advertisers on here, how quickly will it be before this thread is locked and then finally disappear.

The Chief

I think a lot of people will continue to use Powerstation due to their professionalism and experience - even if their prices have risen over the years.

This has to come from somewhere - perhaps they have bigger premises? taken on more staff? their advertising budget may have increased significantly over time, so for what ever reason they feel they may need to price work as they do.

However if people are constantly dis-gruntled then eventually this bad publicity can only be bad for them and PS need to seriously stand back and take a look on their pricing policy.

Its not about being 'just cheap' you need to offer your services that is acceptable to others yet retains adequate returns to shareholders investment (i.e. the owners)

As a company you must always offer value for money to your customers.
if you get greedy people will (eventually) go elsewhere.

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Agree with your sentiments Chief.
I had a less than favourable experience with Powerstation for a number of reasons and my first visit was not a good one. I'm not going to go in to any depth and fan the flames so to speak but a lot of what you say (and whats been said on this thread and other past threads on PS) is true.

PAS

iTrader: (4)

I got a quote for fitting and mapping a motec ecu to my scoob but when the bill came it was 300 quid more for the hire of there own rollers.

Zenperformance would have charged me 100 quid to hire some one elses rollers if i had gone to him.The car is not road legal and needs mapping on the track or rollers.

J_sca001

I live quite near to Power Station. Locally they do not seem to have a particularly good reputation.

However, i had my car put on the dyno there and they seemed ok, until i was left stood like a gimp for 20 minutes at the desk being ignored, when all i wanted to do was pay and leave.

Interestingly, while being ignored i stood at the desk and listened to a member of staff trying to blantantly fob off a person who was obviously trying to complain about something?

Just an observation.

The Chief

Obviously there are issues here with genuine customers and not some kid ranting on how crap they are blah, blah, blah which wouldn't wash with me anyway.

The management at PS need to take stock of this thread, have they got a genuine problem with their customer service and to a degree their pricing policy and how are they going to resolve the situation.

Now whether this is due to them being too busy, big or a small percantage of staff who dont care (which tends to happen in bigger companies) i dont know but there is something amiss here and it needs sorting.

Treat each customer as if its your first when you opened your doors.
Remember your service is first and foremost to the customer - offer them a good service at value for money and he'll come back and tell everyone how great you are, i'm sure you dont need a lesson in customer service but you know what i'm on about.

Come on PS your a good company, lets not let it slip.

On a lighter note our very own CW42 won a remap at PS through S-net and could not be more pleased with the results.

pippyrips

i've never had any problems at all with PS, having said that i was charged just £60 to fit a full turbo back exhaust by a local garage

J_sca001

The Subaru game seems abit like the biking industry. They charge for parts on the basis of what they think the maximum people would be prepared to pay.

I've only owned my Scooby for around a year but the prices people charge for an hours work, like a re-map or in this case £176.00 to fit an exhaust is outrageous by anyones standards!

lordlucan

£176 - thats daylight robbery however the service ! 1hr max for a garage like PS that do this install daily.

I think as a gesture of goodwill you should be getting the fitting charge back, its obviously a genuine mistake that PS have tried to rectify, however at the end of the day you are out of pocket.

http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk if your not happy, no company would bother to contest for this sum, it would cost them alot more in legal fees and bad press.

morto15

Zen has to be the place to go for a top quality job at a reasonable price, i found Paul after i had been to PS i wouldnt go anywhere else now, Top man Top company (will you fit my turbo even cheaper now Paul? hee! hee!)

Maz

iTrader: (34)

**** me This is exactly the experience I had with Well Lane Turbo Centre a few years back. Stood waiting at the desk whilst several idiots were busy doing nothing. Workmanship was shoddy and prices astronomical, infact all told a similar experience as some have had at Powerstation. Suffice to say my business went elsewhere, to RN Golden Subaru dealers. Okay it was pricy but the workmanship and customer service were second to none.

bob

Only yesterday had another 3" turbo back RCMS exhaust fitted by Subaru dealership. Charged 1hr @ £70 Plus 1 gasket- turbo outlet @ £12:63

At £176 I think you paid there dinner break and bought them there dinner...

scoobyDAZZA

i got charged £180 for having a down-pipe fitted
wish i knew then what i know now.

it wasn't PS by the way

someone in totnes , said they charged me 4 hours in case any nuts/bolts sheered off .

oh how i've learned now lol . . always get my labour prices before letting work commence .

fitzscoob

Did that include the down pipe or did you have to pay for that as well?

mervil

iTrader: (5)

£987 Labour? So, you bought goods for £468 and they charged nearly a grand to fit? Did they do maths at school?

What else did they fit to warrant the other £810.75 labour charge?

billythekid

I dont see the big problem, they made a minor mistake and rectified it as soon as you noticed. They are only human. Regarding the price, they are still in business so people must be willing to pay. However I have noticed more and more recently that prices are going up for everything. Gone are the days of giving someone 20 quid to do a small job, its always £80 - £100 for 30 mins work. I paid £60 recently to get some tyres changed over and balanced. I rememebr when it was £20... about 5 years ago.

RMA26

Remember that day well mate

bob

Best way Daz as it seems labour prices are more than the price of the goods. Had a stud go on the type R but as I agreed with my dealer one hour is what I paid even though the job took nearer 2 hrs.

luke m

For my own sanity I'm ending this - I'm not acheiving anything.

I received a personal email from Iain Litchfield telling me that;

a) This was a 'bizarre personal vendetta against Powerstation'
b) I was 'petty & pedantic'
c) I was doing this only for 'various personal reasons'
d) Powerstations employees 'livelihoods are at stake'

In my view, I've simply posted a thread bemoaning poor service. The price itself isn't such an issue - I agreed to pay it after all. The fact is that for that price you expect it done properly, accompanied by suitbale customer service. That's what I didn't get.

With respect to Iain's utterly odd point d); If I've now put one single person off visiting Powerstation, I'm satisfied. I think I probably have.

Regards

The Chief

Luke i really dont think you've done anything wrong mate and i'm sure you've fallen in line with Scoobynets terms and conditions, you've not comne on here saying they're crap they're this they're that, you've simply stated that 'your' experience wasn't brilliant.

However i really dont think that PS will go pop over this and they're a lot of loyal people out there that will continue to go there due to their reputation and knowledge.

However the fact remains that a percentage of people are not 100% happy with the service and as a company they need to look at why more than the odd person is walking away unhappy.

You cant please everyone, all of the time and i bet there is not one single tuning company that has not p***ed someone off in the past - it just does not happen.

As i've said there are people i know who have been over the moon with PS service and knowledge and will continue to go back but i think in the future PS will need to look at addressing there problems.

you cant just bury your head in the sand in the hope that it will go away.

IMHO i think PS are an excellent company and i think (hope) its just a 'blip' they're going through.

get it sorted

PAS

iTrader: (4)

If they just said sorry we made mistakes with all of you people and we will learn from these mistakes a lot of us would feel better.

But i dont think that will happen.



There are far better and cheaper places to go.but as i said i can not fault them on suspention work as mine is good.

pity

OPC

I read this thread with interest. I haven't had any work done at powerstation, nor have I bought anything from Litchfield Imports. Nor will I because when I visited with a view to buying a car from them I found a poorly prepared car and I also found at least 2 of the mechanics there seemingly clueless about a technical matter and rude to boot.
I'm not saying this is always the case by any means but when you read some of the gushing praise these two enterprises get here and elsewhere you'd think they were perfect. Sadly like everything else they aren't- so go in with your eyes wide open like you would anywhere else.

silent running

An interesting thread. I've never used Powerstation although the way some people on here tell it, we should all be driving hundreds of miles just for the privilege of using having Powerstation work on our cars.

Personally, there is only ONE garage I've ever used where I've been totally happy with their work - that is: good value, quoted prices are more or less what the final price is, know when labour is going to be ridiculous and stop work well before that point to check with me, don't take on work that they can't handle, no need to book more than a week ahead, I never need to fix or fettle anything that they didn't refit properly...which renowned Scooby tuner could this be I wonder?

My local backstreet garage run by an old chain-smoking mechanic - Dave. I have travelled near and far to Subaru tuners/specialists and of other makes of cars I've had, and not ONCE can I say I've ever been 100% satisfied. ALWAYS it's either a labour bill that has doubled, or a new fault pops up later on that turns out something wasn't fitted back properly, or a nut or washer is missing, or you end up with a fault that only happens when you're on your own in the car and it can't be tracked down when you go back to have it looked at again, or they don't answer emails, or they have the exact opposite viewpoint from the last expert you went to see, or you come away with the feeling that they think they're doing you a favour by working on your car rather than reality which is that they work for you and you pay them to do a job properly, or they are just too expensive full stop.

IMHO.

In fact I think too many people worship these Subaru specialists and seem to feel honoured that they are allowed to take their cars there to have them worked on. If they haven't done the job you've paid them for and gone the extra mile to keep their customer happy, why should anyone keep quiet about that? I remember a few years ago I had a close (working!) relationship with a well-renowned tuner/specialist (not Subaru) and they told me straight out that their prices were having to go up because they had too much work on. It was not so much that they needed the money, just they had reached the point at which they couldn't keep up.

Bottom line: it's YOU that keep these specialists in business. If you don't like the experience you had, post it up, tell it how it is, and save the rest of us from making the same mistakes.

LitchfieldImports

Luke,

Having had this thread pointed out to me quite frankly its ridiculous and so that people don’t think I mailed after reading the thread and to clarify the points you make.

Below is the full email I sent to you after you contact me (again! ):

Luke

I have no intention on posting on that thread as it’s got nothing to do with me or my business and frankly this bizarre personal vendetta against Powerstation does not warrant a public response.

I’m fully aware of what happened and in my opinion they have done everything necessary to rectify the problem. Don’t forget while it’s easy to make public comments about companies, you are talking about people’s livelihood. They’ve hardly caused the crime of the century.

On ours being unhappy, given the number of cars they work on each day the simple law of averages means; they’ll make mistakes (no ones perfect) and they will unfortunatly meet petty, pedantic customers. I also know that on a number of occasions customers who have gone on to have un-related problems but look for someone else to blame for a variety of personal reasons.

Now you have wasted 10mins of my time as I feel compelled to defend a company that in the 6 years I have used them the have been superb!

Iain Litchfield


I sent this after you had previously called and emailed me on a number of occations presumably because you thought I would have a influence on getting the result you wanted.

Perhaps I did not make it clear enough in the last email ITS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!!! :

Iain

silent running

LOL fair point.

luke m

I agree it's got little to do with you, but your message was sufficently misguided to be referred to on this thread and it's actually what made me give up hope of any humility from your neighbours.


Please refrain from lying; I called you ONCE as I then thought you owned Powerstation - you immediately put me through to Dirk.

I ONCE copied you on an e-mail and then replied to your response below.

Cheers, Luke

LitchfieldImports

Get a life

Tazz Kill Er

Iain,

I think that your resonse to this issue and to luke show a lack of customer service, I too thought that PS and Litchfield were somehow linked, if this is not the case I stand corrected along with many others.

If as you say this has nothing to do with you, then you should just explain that to Luke and leave it there.

However an apology from PS should be forthcoming and possibly some form of ex-gratia payment also. A mistake was made that has led to a certain amount of loss to the customer. This thread is bringing a certain amount of bad experiences to light and no doubt it will soon be locked. Shame really as everyone deserves the right to read of other peoples experiences and the response from the supplier.

I do feel that PS have not gone the extra mile so to speak to provide Luke with the Customer Service that we should all recieve.

The Chief

Sometimes being in business and trying to please the customer is a pain in the ***.

having worked in maufacturing for over 15 years and pops starting the company over 25 years ago i feel i have some input with regards to customers.

as Iain states - it is the law of averages, and to be frank some customers we deal with can be downright a**eholes and you have to bite your tongue.
However we have found by bending over backwards even when you really want to tell them to f*** off reaps its rewards.

That pain in the **** who has just spent 50 quid and probably cost you 300 quid in wasted time might come back and spend 10 grand - i have seen this countless times, over and over.

as a business you have to make profit, but you also have to offer customer service and value for money, although Luke was a little direct he basically pointed out that 'in his situation' he did not feel he recieved the attention or value that he felt he deserved, he then pointed this out on here, and lets face it he never said 'dont use Powerstation' or 'they are crap' and by the looks of it a few have come out of the wood work and aired their grievances with them.

Now for these people to come forward in such a short space of time tells me PS have issues that need resolving, and quick.

as explained in earlier posts i know people (in our club) that have used PS and could be nothing but happy with their treatment. like i said, i think they are a good company they are just experiencing a 'blip'