Drift Limits Performance - truly shocking

[jason256]

Short story:
Took 5 hours to do the work (Rouge took 2)
'mechanic' didn't know the that the alignment software was in degrees and minutes - tried aligning -1.5 deg of camber to 1deg 50'
Only tighten the coilover to upright bolts with a spanner to about 100Nm when they should be 255Nm
Very rude and condescending
I had to physically show him how to do the work and even ended up doing it myself in the end because he was so slow
Was charged £210 (Rouge £150) for the privilege of training there staff and wasting my day

Full story:
After refreshing all my suspension I needed to get my wheel alignment done. I had previously had Rouge do my custom alignment and I was more than happy with their work. But I saw that drift limits had this great new wheel alignment tool and I thought it would be good to drop the car off and go and spin some laps in the Ulitma at their sister company while I wait.

I drop my car off at 8 and go to the driving experience, I then get a phone call from the workshop asking how they are supposed to adjust the camber when I have fixed position top mounts, I explain I have cambed camber bolts on the damper to upright and to adjust it that way, they seem fine with this and I get on with the track experience.

I come back to the workshop and about 11 expecting to find my car finished. The manager? Says they are having some issues and could I speak to the “mechanic”, so a go into the workshop to find that they haven't made any progress what so ever. I'm greeted by this rude young lad telling my how is he supposed to adjust the camber when my top mounts are fixed, do I know what top mounts I have? I explain how the camber bolts work and he aggressively tells me that they don't work, after trying to explain about 3 times and having this lad talk down to me in response I decide it would be easier just to show him. His response when he sees that they do work is "but how can I adjust it when I need to take the wheels off?!? I’m quite bemused and explain the process to him that he needs to make an adjustment drop the car onto its wheels, measure, lift car, readjust and repeat until the correct camber is achieved. He looks at me like I’ve offended his entire family by asking him to do something so difficult. He argues with me for a while about how difficult/impossible that would be and he would have to do that to all 4 wheels?!?! (I can’t quite explain how much this guy didn’t want to lift a finger, he had the worst attitude I have ever come across) Luckily a second more enthusiastic mechanic is also there and agrees that that’s just what they are going to have to do, grumpy “mechanic” mutters something under his breath at me and they get on with the work.

We make the first adjustment and I notice they are calling say -1°15’ as -1.15° I say that’s 15 minutes not 0.15 deg they both look at me like WTF are you on about? I have to explain degrees and minutes to them, this is where it clicks that they really don’t know what they are doing. So I stick around to do the work with them. We get the camber done on the rear in about 20 min, grumpy “mechanic” they tightens the upright to damper bolts “properly” which involves him tightening them with a spanner as hard as he can, I have to ask him to use a torque wrench (which he mutters under his breath at me for) and then also give him the torque specs, my guess is he got the bolts to about 100Nm when they should be 255Nm.

We move onto toe and the grumpy “mechanic” try’s to put my total toe setting (0.17°) onto one wheel as 17’ I again have to explain that’s in minutes and they have to convert it which they are both incapable of doing so I have to convert it for them and that’s total toe so they have to half it for each wheel. So I painfully watch them move onto the front knowing they didn’t know what they were doing grumpy “mechanic” couldn’t move any slower without stopping, many fag breaks latter I’m getting fed up waiting so pick up the spanners and get on with it myself and the car’s done at about 1pm, 5 hours later.

I’m then handed a bill for £210, I’m running really late at this point and I just want to leave so I pay. I would be embarrassed handing a customer a bill like that when they had to physically do the work themselves because the staff where so incapable. For reference Rouge took under 2 hours and charged £150 to do the same work, and I didn’t have to help them. God knows what alignment people who have taken their cars there have ended up with and it probably changed as soon as they hit a bump as none of the bolts are tight. I’m raging over the entire thing.

[Driftlimits Performance]

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to review your recent experience with us.

Firstly I would like to apologise that our usual high standards seem to have fallen a short on this occasion. It is a shame that you have not spoken to us directly after this event to let us know about your dissatisfaction and given us opportunity to rectify the issue. The first time we were made aware was via this internet forum. Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us and we strongly feel that this could have been easily resolved for you if we were given the opportunity to do so.

I think that there was misunderstanding on the day which ultimately led to a less than ideal experience for yourself.

We do usually ask customers not to enter the work shop as this can cause frustration and distraction for our mechanics whilst they are trying to complete the work at hand and is of course a safety risk for customers themselves however we always try to be as accommodating as possible and you had asked to have a quick look at how the mechanics were getting on so we did let you look around the workshop.

With regards to doing the work yourself I am aware that you did tighten one wheel but you did not make any adjustments to your suspension set up although your wording does make it appear that you almost did all of the work yourself.

We would always ask that you raise any concerns with us whilst you are here as we will be more equipped to deal with your complaint on site rather than after you have left.

That being said your alignment was completed to your specifications and we would hope you are happy with the work that was carried out.

The mechanic who worked on your vehicle is a junior mechanic at Drift Limits Performance however he is fully qualified in wheel alignment, this was his first custom alignment set up which as you know is much more complicated will take longer than a normal alignment. For this aforementioned reason this alignment did take longer than usual and caused some confusion which is why our senior mechanic did step in to oversee the work.

I can assure you that all bolts on your vehicle will have been tightened correctly and if there are any concerns over this we would welcome you to bring the vehicle back to us, we will happily check the alignment and all bolts for you for peace of mind free of charge.

I have spoken to both mechanics that you dealt with on the day and passed on your concerns and I can only apologise that you did not leave our site with a smile on your face as most customers do.

We have performed countless wheel alignments on MR2's (MK1, MK2 and MK3) as well as other vehicles and we have never had any complaints such as this in the past.


We would like to offer you a refund as a gesture of goodwill and will charge you only for the basic alignment of the vehicle (£75 +VAT) and refund the cost of the custom set up.

Please contact us on 01442 601301 and we would be happy to arrange for you.

Kind regards
Drift Limits Performance

[androo007]

^^^^^^^

That's how you deal with a customer issue - good on you.

[PW@Woodsport]

Agreed, the difference between good traders and bad is how they deal with a problem (which no matter how good a trader is will always arise at some point) and that was perfect.

[jason256]

Hi,

I appreciate the offer to refund the cost of the custom set up, I paid via paypal so could you please send that back to me via paypal. That will resolve the issues in my eyes.

I would like to clear some things up.

I did not ask to have a look at how the mechanics where doing or to enter the workshop. I asked how much longer they would be, Chris then requested I speak to the mechanics as they were having issues. I only stayed because the mechanics where not able to make the adjustments without my input.

I did physically make adjustments to the camber on all 4 wheels and I did torque the upright to strut bolts on one corner and put one wheel on and torqued up 2 wheels. I didn’t do most of the physical work myself but without my input the mechanics would not have been able to achieve the setting I requested.

My main concerns are that both your junior and senior (the foreign guy?) mechanics believed that your alignment machine worked in decimal degrees not degrees and minutes as it did. Both need more training with your machine and perhaps alignment theory in general.

The bolts where tightened correctly but only because I intervened. The upright to strut bolts where only done up with a spanner (this was the final tightening, there was no intention to tighten this later) and you junior mechanic was putting the wheel on before I intervened and asked him to torque it.