Bokkie

The focus of this thread, pure & simple, is to keep folks updated with what's going on with Jenson...and to provide a little ether feedback to Honda. Not to squabble about what is or is not the Honda UK role.

The way I see it though, is pretty much as Lee describes. I may have purchased Jenson from the dealer in Bristol but it's a Honda product with a Honda fault repaired by Honda mechanics, fault investigated by Honda engineers....in short I want to speak with HONDA and for HONDA to give me some very straight answers.

I'm a simple person, I call a spade a shovel (as my friends will attest) and I expect to get some answers tomorrow as I shall have time to speak with Gaxxy & Bristol Honda and, heaven help them, Honda UK.

I'll update the thread as soon as I have confirmed the cause of Jenson (and Snowy's) failure and hopefully provide some answers for those concerned S owners - who are the focus of this thread!

Failing which: does anyone have a set of handcuffs I can borrow - I anticipate a sit-in at Honda UK if the answers are not forthcoming?!

Trip

Ask and you shall receive
http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2008/...-handcuffs.jpg

Bokkie

Cheers Evan, I can't help but wonder: would I get a lot more participants at the sit-in if she came along with the handcuffs...mostly male participants?

Trip

she will get all the attention and you will be simply ignored.. take the cuffs and leave the rest to me.

Deal ?

AquilaEagle

Have you been in touch with Honda (UK) yet?

If not, I don't see why you'd be saying things like heaven help them or planning a sit in.

Is heaven going to help Bristol Honda if they don't provide the answers?

Is it their mechanics working on the car?

Have any technical people at Honda (UK) seen the car or engine?

lower

That's not entirely true.

Its a Honda product with a fault that has been investigated by dealer mechanics and will be repaired by dealer mechanics unless a honda UK representative has been out to inspect the engine, which i doubt. Honda technical usually diagnose over the phone with the dealer mechanics following Honda's instructions.

If you view the mechanics as Honda then you also have to view the dealer staff as Honda.

What answers are you waiting for?

PaulF

Does this mean that HUK don't recognise a customer who has spent upwards of £20K on one of their products, which has (or is in the process of) suffered a catastrophic failure within a couple of months of ownership?

I accept that HUK employ agents (dealers) to conduct their business at the retail end of the chain, and as such it is the agents responsibility to discharge the customer care (although if this is the case, why then bother to employ a Customer Service Team?), but surely a simple call to Trish and Scott to say sorry and ensure that all is well with the aftercare service, and in Scott's case to explain why it'll take five weeks to get an engine to the UK isn't too much to expect?

It would certainly help calm the troubled waters, give the customers a warm amd fuzzy feeling about Honda.

unclefester

Yes - Bristol Honda mechanics are Honda UK mechanics so therefore by default, Honda UK have seen the car and the engine, the same goes for Crown Honda.

Is the training network run by dealerships or Honda UK, the last time I checked it was run by Honda UK as a central operation. I've already had the ludicrous situation where a mechanic at one Dealership was given priority decision over a Dealership where the car was inspected by a Master Technician. I informed HondaUK of this and they weren't remotely interested. Speaks volumes but I digress.

Whilst we all agree the dealerships are franchised, what we seem to differ in opinion on is just how much involvement Honda UK have or should have in the proceedings.

What we definitely disagree on is how much use they'll be if they were involved - IME you have more chance with your Dealer than you do by getting Honda UK involved via Customer Services and how much success you have overall is completely arbitrary and down to how good your Dealer is - in this case, Bokkie is extremely lucky she's got a decent Dealer and Gaspode is even more fortunate to have been taken under their franchised wing.

This I think is the point that everyone is making about Honda UK failing to step up to the plate.

Bristol Honda - massive thumbs up.
Honda UK - massive thumbs down.

Lurking Lawyer

Are we talking "legally" or "morally" here?

Because unless Bristol Honda is one of the (as I understand it) very few dealers actually owned and operated by Honda UK, Bristol Honda's mechanics will be employed by XYZ Ltd trading as Bristol Honda, not by Honda UK.

Unless and until people grasp that, there's going to be confusion as to why Honda UK isn't doing anything. And the answer is, quite simply, it's not (presently) their problem. The extent of their involvement is, I would imagine, to give the OK to the warranty parts and repairs requested by Bristol Honda.


[QUOTE=unclefester,Oct 1 2009, 09:37 AM]

unclefester

The problem is perception and it's still a very common ( largely due to marketing ) perception that you're buying the car from a Honda Franchised, sorry ... Approved Dealer ( at no point is Franchise mentioned ) which therefore somehow makes you closer to Honda.

Same as their used car Warranty, advertised as 'not a third party warranty and is just like a new car warranty from Honda' except it's not, it's provided by a third party and is nothing like their new car warranty.

The point of the discussion is that whilst Honda UK have made no effort to get involved, at no point on any marketing campaign have they said they aren't involved and that's the problem.

Why is that? Because if people thought they were just buying from a glorified middle person who buys in bulk from Honda UK, we'd all go to car supermarkets instead of franchised dealers. Honda don't want that so they keep alive this facade that you're actually dealing with Honda UK when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

My problem with them is that in my specific case, there was and still is a world of difference between how they advertised an Approved Used Honda and what the reality was despite it being in black and white on their own website. Customer Care ( Honda UKs own customer care ) agreed that it was a blatant lie but it's still there in black and white on the website.



All this has proven is that the quality of ownership you experience in the thankfully rare appearance of a fault is solely down to your supplying Dealer and their ability to investigate, present and ultimately find a solution for your problem via the warranty system.

I agree there is a problem between 'have' and 'should have' but until a manufacturer clearly states their position in such matters it's left to perception of marketing, marketing that is deliberately written to imply that you somehow get something which in the cold light of day you are simply not entitled to and that in my opinion is wrong.

Out of interest, I don't see any signs above any of the Dealers i've been into telling me that they aren't owned and operated by Honda UK and nor is there any information on the Honda website that tells me where those Dealers are. The only time I saw that information from Marshall Honda was on the receipt they gave me after they'd taken my money