[Mk2] [Turbo] 3S Service Centre - Shamed

[Spittinflames]

James, it's admirable that you have explained yourself but I think now it's best to just let this lie. I don't think anyone will change the view of the customer. Seems like a disagreement on both sides which was probably best sorted away from this forum.

Suprised the moderators haven't locked this yet.

Dosent need locking.... This is a discussion board.

[Tiamat]

Don't know whats wrong with Mr Clutch to do a clutch, got a Spec stage 2 fitted in 3 hours for £100, its been in for 6000 miles and is A1.

I rang Mr Clutch and they wanted £500.00 to supply and fit a clutch to my Rev 1 Turbo.

3S did it for under £300.00.

Even taking into consideration fuel costs I saved over £150.00.

For me it was a no brainer to take it to 3S rather then Mr Clutch.

[3S Service Centre]

ok gang i for one would like to put this to bed now, if someone else wants to continue its fine but i feel i explained enough, we dont like to dissapoint its not what we are here for, im 100 percent sure we are not alone in the industry of having the occassional problem.

I fully admit we have some inefficiencies at peak periods that we are rectifying with a superp new workshop, our hearts and minds are in exactly the right place and do not go out our way to recieve negative comments.

Again anyone with any issues should come to us first in order rectify any small mistakes.

Signing out James

[slunk]

Well its good to see the vast majority of customers have received nothing but top quality service from 3S.

You're all entitled to your own opinions but for anyone with a little sense and an unbiased perspective, it should be quite clear to see what has happened in my case.

I hope some lessons have been learnt from my shared experience. I will be doing most work on my car myself from now on but should I ever need the help of a garage, I shall remember to bug them night and day to make sure someone else's beast hasn't taken priority over my own. I hope James and his team continue to improve the service they offer at 3S. Moving to the illusive new workshop will certainly make a difference but there are other areas, as James has outlined, that they can improve on too and I wish them the best of luck with that and what the future holds.

I hadn't intended to offend anyone and apologise if I have done so. I've only posted my comments for the good of the community and shan't be making any further comments on this subject.

[bubbles]

Well my tubby is at 3s as we speak for about 2 grands worth
of mods and i have every faith in James and his guys, and when i dropped it off i was going to get a taxi back to work but James kindly
gave me a lift and showed me the new workshop. Looks great and even
closer to me than the one in hook.
Rich

[jeffry-]

Wheres the new workshop now then?

[3S Service Centre]

its on the outskirts of Hook, on the A30 in a little village called Winchfield all will be revealed on monday

[ancient mariner]

to quote an old saying! "you can please some of the people some of the time,you can't please all the people all of the time" good luck in your new premises.paul.

[3S Service Centre]

We work on a average of 10-15 cars a week, 1 might be a gt4 or celica all the others are mr2s, given the quantity of cars we have worked on im sure over the last 2 years the occassional thing has slipped.

Whats changed this year is i have committed all of my time to improving the service, previously my time was split with other commitments, as 3s was never sopposed to be a large business, demand for our services took us by surprise and people often expect something much bigger than we have because of all the great feedback.

So we have new premises, new tools, a name change shortly, i claim my mechanic Shamec (the freindly polish lad) is the 2nd most knowledgable sw20 technician in the uk, i have a new mechanic with 12 years of experience with vw group, and little old me.

So although our complaint rate is less than 1 percent i am still trying to improve things.

In our defence if your business is mainly supported by internet based forums, if a mistake is made everyone gets to hear about it, for a typical garage its not the same. Its good that a small majority of our customer take the time to report back about the good service they recieved.

Since starting we have worked on over a 1000 cars, it would be stupid of me to expect everyone went away without fault, striving to improve the services we offer is the most responsible approach.

James

[EarL]

Well its good to see the vast majority of customers have received nothing but top quality service from 3S.

You're all entitled to your own opinions but for anyone with a little sense and an unbiased perspective, it should be quite clear to see what has happened in my case.

I hope some lessons have been learnt from my shared experience. I will be doing most work on my car myself from now on but should I ever need the help of a garage, I shall remember to bug them night and day to make sure someone else's beast hasn't taken priority over my own. I hope James and his team continue to improve the service they offer at 3S. Moving to the illusive new workshop will certainly make a difference but there are other areas, as James has outlined, that they can improve on too and I wish them the best of luck with that and what the future holds.

I hadn't intended to offend anyone and apologise if I have done so. I've only posted my comments for the good of the community and shan't be making any further comments on this subject.

Very well said.

Now lets all play nice together.

[Harry]

Well my tubby is at 3s as we speak for about 2 grands worth
of mods and i have every faith in James and his guys, and when i dropped it off i was going to get a taxi back to work but James kindly
gave me a lift and showed me the new workshop. Looks great and even
closer to me than the one in hook.
Rich

Well what can i say i have know bubbles here Rich and met up a few times

i know James of 3s service center,his wife,baby and workshop team and

can say with hand on heart they are good decent hard working

people and even shared dinner with them.

James has spent a lot of his own free time after hours helping explaining

and being most helpful like the 'TRUE ENTHUSIAST' that he is,reference

mr2 related issues.

Personally i find the title of this topic at the least disturbing and over the
top

Most of us are fairly poor and knowing that we are able to have work done

at a fair rate surely does bring some relief and also piece of mind and

knowing that the mechanic is experienced with mr2's is the bonus.

So would like to take this opportunity to wish James and 3s service center

all the very best in their new 'updated' workshop.

From experience in life i feel we all need to be more tolerant-patient-

understanding-helpful-kind-friendly-thoughtful as this is the ethos of

humanity.

Time now for the hundreds of happy customers to step forward and

mention their good experiences at 3s service center

Edit-James@ 3s service center has done a lot of work for myself in the

past to the very high standards and expectations that i demand.

[Hellboy]

Ive had a turbo fitted there - got the car back with a blowing exhaust manafold "chirp"

Had a LSD gearbox fitted (supplied by them) NONE LSD shaft fitted - causing all the gearbox oil to p1$$ out - good thing I know what im looking doing with my car..... To be fair they did give me the right shaft after me making a fuss - fitted it myself and £25 new box oil... have mechnics that dont speak english is a right pain when trying to talk about a problem.

[jeffry-]

have mechnics that dont speak english is a right pain when trying to talk about a problem.

They dont ?

[Harry]

have mechnics that dont speak english is a right pain when trying to talk about a problem.

They dont ?

It is unusual for customers to have carte blanche with the mechanics
this is the job of the manager to inter-act with the customers communicate
their needs and requirements and translate this to the workshop/job list/mechanic?

[Hellboy]

no when they are polish/russian/easten block - and it nice to be able to talk to the grease monkey about what you want done and not through sign language and shouting in english slowly!

[3S Service Centre]

what a lovely guy

[Owen @ Kent Car Craft]

Hellboy,that comment is not constructive.Its fair to have disagreement but it must be constructive or its not valid.
Although i have always had my own point of veiw (throughout life in general LOL!) and have commented already in this thread,i can be counted-out partially as i have opened a garage myself and this has always been my plan.Inadvertantly, i will end up doing all my work myself regardless as previously mentioned not in spite,but purely because i now have the experiance and training since.
Hope this made some sense peeps.
BTW i'm not a$$ing James, but 1% is pretty inpressive.
Owen

[3S Service Centre]

cheers Owen, the 1 percent is based on what we know and have heard about.

What you will learn with your new business is that humans are the oddest of breads whats common sense very rarely occurs when dealing with people.

As you know sometimes errors dont immediately show themselves, so even a test drive cant help, so what you would expect from a customer is to report back with any issues that might occur so something can be done, well people are quirky and get some perverted pleasure saying nothing, backstabbing, and talking bad of others, when often all thats needed is a phone call.

Whats really worrying is, the good work thats done, the great price, the transportation to and from train station etc etc is all forgotten.


People are odd, everyone is different,most believe they are perfect, patience, politeness, good nature, and undertsanding is no longer part of our perfect world. odd eh




clicky
http://3sservicecentre.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=14

[dawolf]

That's true James.

I do agree with your comments about the issues of being an internet-based business, it's inevitable that the odd unhappy customer will feel the need to post up and everyone obviously gets to see that. With most 'everyday' garages customers will tend not have as much contact with other customers. I've had several bad experiences with various garages and I find it hard to trust any of them now. I'd say Rogue have been pretty good with their work and advice although even they were a bit stumped by a mechanical problem I had, however it did finally get sorted. I know that cars are complex and it's not always easy fault finding, especially on a Japanese mid-engined car.

[Howling_Mad]

I have only had dealings with 3S on one occasion, but then they were 150 miles from home.

Was down in Basingstoke and after talking with James he agreed to do a service and oil change whilst on a lunch break down there. The two lads quickly laughed at my automatic (as most do) but got me all sorted in under an hour, fixed two minor leccy problems, changed all the oil and checked the brakes ready for my upcoming track-day. 1 Hour - job done, whilst i had a nosey around the lot

Although i never met you James it's obvoius you're a hard working and dedicated bloke, especially checking on the phone twice whilst i was there in the hour!

The prior comments about the foreign workers are simply foolish, belittling and do nothing to compliment either the user or this forum.

TBH, i work in wolverhampton and struggle to understand my work mates!

I'd recommend 3S and James to anyone

PS

For what it's worth i've had the old B in for a suspension re-haul. chassis strengthening and paint job and didn't see her for 13 months so count yourself lucky!!!

HM