Bad service from Eastwoods....
 

As I mentioned on here in recent posts I dropped my motor off with Eastwoods two weeks ago to have the roof repainted, a golf ball put a small dent just beyond where the front screen meets the roof line.

I dropped the car off, and as I always do, I zero'd all the settings in my PSI3 Secs monitor.

When I turned up to collect my car on Wednesday, I noticed the fuel guage showed 1/4 of a tank of fuel had been used since leaving the car with them. When I booked the car in I specifically stated that as it was going to be in the dealership for a while I did not want it to be driven or used to collect parts. I was assured this would never happen to a customers car at this dealership.

When I collected the car I noticed the Electric mirrors were not working, and when I looked around the car there were a number of scratches on the drivers side front and rear doors and on the skirt on the same side by the rear door.

I spoke to one of the sales guys who I had left the keys with on the day I dropped off the car, he assured me the car hadn't been off their forecourt. While we spoke I checked the peak values in my SECS monitor and found the following.

Peak speed - 109 Mph
Peak RPM - 6538
Peak Coolant Temp - 98C
Peak Boost - 1.00 Bar

The staff at Eastwoods including Des himself were very quick to deny that the car had been driven, I explained the details in the unit showed otherwise. They claimed there may have been a fault in the unit; I made my view clear that I was less than happy, I do not object to their technicians driving my car when it needs to be driven for a road test, but this should do done legally, with proper insurance cover, but as the car was only in for paintwork there was no reason to drive it at all.

After some discussions outside in the pouring rain, it was agreed that the bodyshop would polish out the scratches on the doors, and the workshop would repair the mirrors, as a compensatory gesture, while Des himself, one of their senior sales staff and the service manger were present, they agreed to fill the fuel tank on my car with Super unleaded.

I called first thing on Thursday morning to advise them not to bother with the mirrors as I recalled when I retunred home that I had replaced the whole central console and couldn't be sure that the mirror switch was working. The guy from sales said not to worry he would sort it out for me and I should see Des about getting sorted out with fuel when the car was ready.

I collected the car tonight, the scratches have been polished out, but it looks like there is much swirling of the paintwork. The service manager confirmed the multi plug for the mirrors was disconnected, and they had put it right. Des explained that there were no filling stations nearby that sold super unleaded, so he was offering me cash to buy fuel myself. As I left I opened the envelope to find two five pound notes, that barely would cover the journeys I have made from home to collect the car.

I have deliberated about whether to post this on here or not, as I have had nohing but exemplary service from Eastwoods over the past 5 years, sadly it seems that standards are slipping.

I will speak to the company tomorrow and remind them they have gone back on their word, and not kept to what was agreed.

I am not dishonest in character and am not out to take advantage of any situation; In fact the service manager forgot to charge for my pant job at almost £400 until I reminded him he hadn't charged it to my card. Eastwoods will obviously have their view on the whole situation, however this is mine.

TT

Jez that bugs me....leaving ur car in to get work done and the staff ripping the guts outta it:mad: , fair enuf if ud left the car in to get a fault fixed like a missfire or knocking suspension they mite have wanted to test drive it, but a paint repair doesnt require driving down the road at 109mph!!

It makes u doubt the garage for future use.:(

Maybe the service manage meant to give u two £50 notes instead of two £5 notes:lol1: :lol1: ....cheeky buggers!!

have to say i am suprised at your experience with eastwoods.i have dealt with them for many years and never had any bother at all,far from it and can say hand on heart i was delighted most times i had work done.
at a guess some of the workers have been up to no good,i can't see marty or des tearing around in your car and im sure they would'nt aprove at all.

I have had a few dealin's with eastwoods, namely chris in sales and with des himself and found them both 2 b very genuine ppl. I have been thinkin about leavin mine up there for a service as I am not happy with donnellys (they 2 hammered the ****e out of my car when it was left in 4 a faulty alarm!!)

I might rethink my decision 2 leave the car in 2 eastwoods now, as ur secs monitor clearly proves it was driven hard.

makes me so feckin angry:mad:

Yip - deep disappointment. I have recommended Eastwoods to everyone I know when the subjec of servicing / repairs etc comes up. I have had faultless service and advice from them until now and despite many UK posters gripes about the cost of subaru parts, I find Eastwood's pricing to be fair.

I really hope this was a one off moment of madness, but am a bit pissed of at their measly gesture, which is not what was agreed.

i wouldnt use any dealer to be honest theres just to many monkeys running about who want take your car out for a hammerin up the back road. For anything mechanical id never look past OMA at least you know the car is in very good hands and Michael is a top bloke, he's alot cheaper too

my cars due a service within the next fortnight and im glad ive opted for performance subaru. Had considered eastwoods after hearing good reports but this has put me right off tbh.
Further i live very close to eastwoods and dont mind driving to coleraine even more after hearing this. I wood go through the roof if i had this evidence of a secs monitor (whatever that is lol) and would not let go of this subject with them as racing your car maybe even when cold could damage it.

Burt 2000
Who is Michael? I need to sort out who to take my car to for a service, I don't mind paying for a professional job but don't want to pay for a lot of unnecessary corporate crap.

Brian

my cars is due a 40k service and MOT due soon. I certainly won't take it to either Eastwoods or Donnellys. TBH I'm probably gonna go to England for a couple of days near XMAS in the car and get all work done at API - I would trust them with my life.......

Michael White, he calls his Buisness OMA

This is surprising. If you had said this about Donnellys I would have said you should have expected as much, but the guys at Eastwoods always seemed to be above this sort of abuse .

Regardless, I always make a point of getting the service guy to sign off the mileage when I leave any car in, and tell them that if there any any miles that they can't justify I won't be paying the bill. It obviously makes the point as I had Bavarian call me once for authorisation to drive to ATS for two new tyres (which I had requseted) :D

OMA-Michael White....
 

The Michael you hear ones talking about here is Michael White, he runs a bussiness in Mallusk near belfast called OMA (Old Mill Autos) Perfomance Tuning and deals mainly wituh scoobs and the like.

Hes a top bloke and knows the ins and outs of Imprezas to the last nut and bolt. :thumb: Hes built some pretty fast imprezas over the last few years(some of them you will find on this forum) running 300-600bhp and all the people who go to him are always very quick to recommend him as the quality of his work is unbelievably good and he has plenty of first hand experience with tuning/servicing subarus and he has tried and tested many many bits and pieces of performance parts on his own car and customers cars, so he could recommend which would be the best bits for ur car etc....he himself runs a very very fast legacy which is at the minute in the workshop for some very serious fettling before next years season of ten of the best/scooby shoot-out etc:norty: :norty: :norty: :norty:

I have been going to OMA now for a couple of years with a few different cars which werent all scoobs (cavalier turbo, astra gsi) and he worked at them just as well as he did the scoobs!!:)

Im not saying OMA is the only company/garage to go to, but in
my experience he definately is the best/tidiest/reliable firm i know, and he wont be out thrashing ur car when its up with him either:nono: ....neither will he just wack bits on ur car that he knows wont work just to make himself a quick pound!!

Top bloke and well worth having a chat with if ur looking work done!!:thumb: :thumb:

did this guy micheal used 2 drive a black blob eye sti?

If so I have heard some very good reports about him!

Yeah he sure did, he sold it to a mate of his a while back there and it now runs big power as well. This is it:

http://jon44w.com/images/events/2007...70900/0070.jpg.

He also has a monaro v8 now lucky begger:lol1:

Aw he is definately a top man with the scoobs, very tidy operator and very easy going:thumb:

i can only agree with this statement about michael he know a lot about scooby s and i ll never go anywhere else

think about it why would he even wanna rake a scooby that as 350 bhp it s gonna feel slow

Life or Wife ?? All the same to us :D

David APi

MW at OMA has serviced my car for a few years now....excellent:thumb:

well yous know who i think ai autosport

AI autosport have a very good rep too and are very nice people to deal with...if i had to choose d go with any of the three mentioned above AI autosport, performance subaru or OMA rather than a dealership.

I will never use a dealer again!

im surprised to hear this about eastwoods,but the fact of the matter is if you cleared the secs monitor before you left it in SOMEBODY knows who had it at109 mph!I wouldnt take it lying down mate,As for the fuel gesture,that is piss poor.And to think i was ready to let them take over the warranty of the rb320 because of the shocking service ive had from donnelly's.F**king hate main dealers anyway!

I run my dads garage in doagh,ballyclare if anyone needs routine servicing,mot prep,brakes,clutches,tyres ect.
ring me on 028 9334 9557 and ill look after ya!

michael at oma is a top bloke knows his round a scoob and he'll give advise on what will make ur car better and what won't.he does'nt advertise all customers are by word of mouth .one of the lads at donnely's give me his number enough said .

Would have to say I echo Dee's comments, wouldnt take my wifes car to Donnelly's and thought the service I got from Eastwoods was first class..........but the facts of the matter are you cant argue with whats in front of you...and if Davy reset his Secs monitor prior to service and the data showed the vehicle had been used in the way described, if I were Mr eastwood I would be speaking to my staff in the strongest terms....and bending over backwards to keep a customer happy......its a small community and news like this travels too quickly......better to sweeten the customer a bit and keep the good press IMHO

Problem is with newer cars and trying to keep service stamps and warranty complete, main dealers have you over a barrel...........as soon as my warranty runs out, Johnny and the AI boys are getting my business straight away.........................

Lets hope you don`t get any speeding tickets thru.

Looks like Michael is the man to go to. I'm sure it is the same Michael that I know from years ago when I lived around Carnmoney - knew more about cars than anyone - Mini's and MK2 Escorts in those days. I live in Bangor now - what about Longs in Newtownards?

Do you have to use a main dealer for warranty stamps? I thought you could use anyone who was vat registered. (This is based on much research trying to decide if I should allow some muppet from Fiat carry out a service on my Ducato based motorhome, or if I should let a motorhoming mechanic acquaintance do the service- After several months of ducking and diving, Fiat confirmed that the warranty would be valid if I got the book stamped by any vat registered mechanic)

?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????

Just assumed the Subaru Stamps were a pre warranty expiration necessity.....

?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????

yep as long as the mechanic is vat registered, and the parts dont have 2 b subaru either, as long as you keep the receipt of the parts purchased, ur still covered by warranty. either that or my garage is lyin 2 me.............

actually dont quote me on the parts remark, it applied 2 another car.........subaru might b different..............

Think u still have 2 use genuine parts but as far as work/servicin goes as long as u get a stamp from a vat registered mechanic ur warranty is still valid.

Thats why AI is servicin my car next week