Email to Beckland Motor Company and Volvo UK

Richard,

Firstly I would like to draw your attention to the time this email is being written. I left my office today at 18:44 and have only just arrived home at 22:10.

Tonight was my girlfriend’s 30th birthday. I had organised a dinner party at a local restaurant, all of her friends and colleagues were there, she didn’t know they were going to be there, as she thought it was just her and I. I planned to leave around 18:30 18:45 to get home in enough time to get quickly changed and take her to the restaurant to begin the party I had been planning for some time.

So, as I said, I left the office at 18:44, got into my car that I had collected from Beckland at 14:00 today, after your workshop had identified and fixed the fault with the ‘Engine System Service Urgent’ message, poor idle and power loss. I turned on the ignition, and low and behold, the same message appeared, same poor idle, no throttle response, and also all the lights, interior, dashboard etc. were dimming, as though there was a problem with providing constant power to them.

I switched off the ignition, and restarted as instructed by the messages on the dashboard, and on a restart, no error messages or warning lights. So I set off on the 60 mile journey home.

I managed to travel five (5) miles. After five miles I lost all power, I had ‘Engine System Service Urgent’, then ‘Stop Safely and Restart’ messages, just enough power to get to the hard shoulder and wait for 35 minutes for the RAC. A patrol arrived, looked at the car, which by now was also telling me I had ‘Emission System Service Required’ and ‘STC Service Required’, as well as the original ‘Engine System Service Urgent’ and the by now familiar ‘Stop Safely and Restart’

Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the vehicle, the RAC patrol could not effect any roadside fix, so I drove on the hard shoulder to junction 4 of the M6, exited the motorway and pulled into a small slip road off Coleshill Heath Road, with the RAC patrol behind me all the way.

The ‘Engine System…...’ error came up twice along that five and a half (5 ½) mile journey, I had to stop again on the hard shoulder before getting safely off the motorway.

When stopped, the patrol radioed for a recovery vehicle, and I asked Volvo Assistance for another one of their lovely hire cars, so I could get home (remember it’s my girlfriends 30th).

After a while the patrol left after he had arranged a truck to collect the car, and I had provisionally arranged for a hire car to be collected at Birmingham International Airport, which, via a small detour, was en route from where I was stranded, back to the garage, for an overnight stay before getting back to Beckland in the morning.

I had neglected to bring my paper counterpart driving license with me, as I was not expecting to hire another car, so I was called by the RAC hire care team, and told there was no way I could have a car tonight to take me home, so the recovery vehicle would need to take me to Banbury to the dealer there.

There is no Volvo dealer in Banbury, so it would either need to be left outside my house, unable to move, or be taken to a dealer in Oxford, who would be closed, etc. and I would need to find a way home.

As it transpired, I was offered a taxi ride home, while my car got a piggy back to Solihull, as an intermediate point on its way back to Beckland for the third (3rd) time in ten (10) days.

In the midst of all this, I had to call a taxi for my girlfriend, tell her I was being held up, and blow the surprise. I said I would be there as soon as possible. By the time I got home this evening, she was already back, and not in a very good mood, as you could probably imagine.

So, to recap the events over the past ten (10) days: -

Sunday 22nd June 2003.

Drove to Swindon from South Newington, approx 40 miles. 10 minutes from destination, ‘Engine System Service Required’. ‘Stop Safely and Restart’ followed by poor idling for about 5 minutes and two restarts. After 3rd restart all seemed OK, but ‘Emission System Service Required’ message came up, loss of power, then ‘Stop Safely and Restart’ with poor idle again. Three restarts, and all seems OK, but Lambda warning light lit on dashboard.

5 minutes from destination, repeat of all of the above.

Continue to destination, called RAC (who were with car within 10 minutes of the end of the phone call). Lambda light still on dash, ‘Emission System’ error still on screen. By the time car was next to patrol VAN, no error messages or warning lights were visible.

After consulting with ‘Call Centre’, patrol diagnosed the fault as a faulty coolant sensor, explaining the sensor would tell the ECU the engine was not warm enough, the ECU would then provide more fuel, overfueling the car, causing the ‘Emission System’ message and poor idle, as too much fuel was getting into the engine so the idle was erratic.

On route from Swindon to South Newington, 5 minutes from destination, no errors or warning lights until putting car into second (Geartronic) to overtake a slow moving vehicle, lost all power and ‘No Oil Pressure’ message appeared on dashboard.

Limped car home, all downhill. Stopped on drive, then ‘Engine System’ message came up, poor idle, followed by ‘Stop Safely and Restart’ and ‘STC service Required’ with the STC warning light on.

Monday 23rd June 2003.

Called RAC to recover car from station car park the following morning, after some negotiating this was agreed.

Called Beckland to explain the problems, told to arrange for the car to get to garage.

Explained to Beckland the diagnoses given by the RAC patrol

Tuesday 24th June 2003.

Car recovered from Banbury station car park approx 08:00 taken to Beckland.

Calle late in the afternoon for an update, told the car was still being worked on, and would be required overnight.

Wednesday 25th June 2003.

Still no car, or update as to fault.

Thursday 26th June 2003.

Car returned to my office car park off Swallow st.

Explanation given over the telephone by ‘Mike’ in servicing – problem was with the throttle butterfly being stuck open with dirt/carbon deposits.

Cleaned this and rest of throttle assembly, road tested, no faults shown on VADIS, all OK and therefore delivered to my office.

Got into car at the end of the day, switched on ignition, ‘Engine System Service Urgent’ message, poor idle, ‘Stop Safely and Restart’.

Beckland were closed by then, so after a restart all the messages were gone and car drove home without fault.

Friday 27th June 2003.

Drove car to Banbury station, 6 miles no problems.

Collected car from station at approx 19:30, drove 1.5 miles, no problem, stopped to collect food, drove 4 miles, lost all power, ‘Engine System..etc’, ‘Stop Safely..etc’ poor idle………

Sat/Sun

Tried the car a couple of times, sometimes got ‘Engine System’ warning on starting, sometimes not. Didn’t drive the car at all.

Monday 30th June 2003.

Called RAC to recover car to Beckland following conversation with ‘Mike’ in servicing.

Patrol wanted to see fault, so a short trip down the road displayed power loss and all above messages, including STC Service Required, accompanied by STC light on dash.

Tuesday 1st July 2003.

Ash called from Beckland to tell me the car was ready to collect. The throttle body had been changed.

Wednesday 2nd July 2003.

First opportunity to collect car from Beckland. Advised Ash that last time I was told this was fixed, the first time I started the car, all the problems started again. Ash took the car quickly to the workshop and connected to VADIS to check error codes. Same message appeared, fault code was cleared, car quickly road tested and handed over. Ash told me the code may be down to the throttle body ‘bedding in’.

Took car to office car park with no problems or messages/warning lights.

4 ½ hours later, started car to see ‘Engine System..’ and ‘Stop Safely…’ messages, poor idle and lights dimming etc.

Restarted car, drove towards home (see above).

Whilst waiting for the recovery truck on Coleshill Road, I turned on the engine, ignoring all ‘Engine System’, ‘Emission System’, STC etc warnings, and while idling, in park at the side of the road without a/c, STC switched off, stereo off etc, the car idled badly, then recovered, then repeated this for about 2 minutes, then cut out completely.

I could not restart the engine for more than a minute afterwards.

To say I am unhappy with this is a drastic understatement. This is the third Volvo I have owned, and the only one that has needed me to call a recovery service, let alone be ‘stretchered off’ three times in ten days. I am furious, barley able to keep my anger in check at the way this has been allowed to continue for so long, and that I have been repeated given a car back that is unsafe to drive, that has had my family in it too.

This has impacted my work, as I have been late or needed to work around various pick ups of cars etc., and using trains and taxis to get to and from work, it has seriously affected my relationship with my girlfriend after this evening “Why don’t you just take it back, and get them to replace it, it is obviously a dud”

If on inspection the fault lies with one of the things I highlighted in my previous email to your, or from my previous correspondence, relaying the diagnoses given by the RAC patrol, then I will be seeking legal advice on my position with Beckland Motor company and Volvo UK.

I do not want this car returned to me unless both aforementioned parties can give me assurance that this fault, or any other related fault will not reoccur.

Either Volvo UK or Beckland Motor company will provide me with a replacement vehicle for the duration of any and all diagnostic and rectification work, entirely at their expense, including insurance, and this will be delivered to my home address on Thursday 3rd July 2003. If the car is still not deemed satisfactory by way of an independent test, then I will pursue legal action to have the car replaced in it’s entirety at the expense of either Volvo UK or Beckland Motor company.

I am normally very patient, but this has pushed my good nature to the absolute limit, and may stop me from any future Volvo purchases and recommendations.

I will also document all of this in the relevant forums of The Volvo Owners Club, of which I am a member, and to all motoring press to highlight the poor standards of service given to customers of a company who are trying hard to raise the overall prestige of their marque.

I look forward to your response, and a timely and satisfactory conclusion to this debacle.

[GorgeousGeorge]

andrew

what a nightmare....

the level of service you describe is awful, and from a garage you recommended not that long ago.

well, give them hell mate and keep us updated

scott

Hi,
If you are really that upset I suggest you post this on http://www.volvospy.com/ under the S80 forum. I must admit if it was my car I would have gone ballistic especially at the price you pay for a service. Unfortunately I don't beat about the bush when I am complaining and I make sure that every one in the vicinity can hear especially when people are either bringing thier cars in or collecting them. Phone calls every ten minutes drives them up the wall and just to get you out of their hair they normally fix ot proper which at that stage I politely thank them for a wonderful job and leave. The next time it is magic service and car is alwys ready on time.
Cheers,
Ian

The email was posted on vvspy.com, and had a few similar comments.
My girlfriend is a lawyer by training, and she normally manages to get people to see things from a customer point of view, i.e., the people who pay their salaries, and also work in all kinds of arenas, with friends who work in the press.
My father is a freelance journalist, among other talents, and has put me in touch with TopGear magazine, AutoCar, and some other motoring press to put the edited highlights of my email into their publications, as well as all of you reading about it on here.
Today, I have recieved 2 phone calls from Volvo UK, 4 from Beckland and 6 from the RAC - who cares more????
Beckland have been really good until now, which is why I am giving them a little chance to put this right, once and for all, but if I get the car back and the fault still exists, I will be driving it through the windows of their showroom, to make a subtle point (not really, but that would be very cool).
I have taken independant legal advice, and have a company ready to perform an independant inspection of the car on it's release from Beckland, whenever that will be.
I'm not the normal Brit who complains into his tweeds, but rather more direct, and they did receive 6 calls from me between 8:30 and 9:30 this morning, and they quickly got the message that I was far from happy.
So, I'll keep you all posted as to the outcome, and thanks all for your support and help over this and previous issues.

Please see attached letter from Richard Carroll that accompanied an extensive and very helpful phone call - like myself and others have said, this man saves Beckland and Volvo for that matter!

Hi,
Having a bit of a problem opening your attachment. Can you attach it as a word document or similar?
Cheers,
Ian

Sorry - I don't have an option of uploading it as work, so I saved as html, and uploaded it that way - if this still doesn't work, i'll copy it into a reply here.

They mention that it requires an indepth diagnosis and testing. Obviously this was not done very well if the fault re-appeared within a short time frame. It appears that they are saying that their diagnosis tester has some short comings. Maybe they should then re-write the program or perhaps with some smilies to help the technicians over come the problem.
As a matter of interest a two friends of mine are a qualified mechanics and they had to do at least 3 years as an apprentice and then another 2 years as a trainee mechanic before they fully qualified as a mechanics. One of them is a young lady who qualified as a mechanic via Opel(Vauxhall) and scored the highest marks ever all around in South Africa. Now you can do an evening class and become fully qualified within two years. Makes you think about standards past and present and taking into consideration cars are more complicated now than 10 or 15 years ago!
Cheers,
Ian

[GorgeousGeorge]

andrew

so richard saves their bacon again !

so are you all sorted now ???

scott

Iknow what you mean there. My dad is a mechanic and did a long apprentaship (excuse my poor spelling - bob how about an online spell checker :P) to get his qualifications (5 years I think), and some of the mechanics I have spoken recently seem to know how to undo screws and replace units rather than investigate and fix....

Stu