Volvo specialist in Worcester area?

[Bearded Swede]

So I tried BMC south of Tewkesbury earlier in the year for a service and a timing belt and was very pleased with the work, staff and price.
So much so I decided to return the car to them recently for my Mot and also a couple of things that were picked up on that service, a small leaking driveshaft seal and a probable mot failure on one of the lower control arms.

Unfortunately my experience of BMC went rather downhill from there on in. I dropped the car to them and received a loan car for the day. Mid-afternoon I received a call from the owner Ben to say the car was back from it's Mot and it had failed on one of the lower control arms and basically he was asking for me to agree for it to be replaced and also if I wanted the other side doing as well, which I agreed to.

Another phone call later in the day to say the car was already for me, great. But when confirming with him that all the work was done (mot pass, control arms fitted and driveshaft bearing changed) he advised he hadn't done the bearing, when I asked why he admitted that he had forgotten to order the part which was very annoying as I could have got the car Mot'ed anywhere, somewhere much closer than an hour's drive away. The main reason I got the mot done there was so the bearing could be replaced at the same time!!

So I went to collect my car and by the time I got there it was dark, Ben informed me on arrival that there had been an problem with one of the track rod ends when he was adjusting the tracking after replacing both lower control arms and it meant he had to adjust the tracking from the other end only. He advised me that this now meant the steering wheel was "off centre" when the wheels were straight. He asked me how I felt about this and advised that a lot of his customers have/bring in their cars with off centre steering wheels and most of them aren't too bothered about it. Well it would irritate the hell out of me I replied. I had a look at the wheel but it was really too dark to see clearly even by the interior light but I could see it was slightly off. I left and drove home.

In the cold light of day the following morning when driving the car I found it to be too much of an annoyance and to add insult to injury when into a parking space there was a grinding sound coming from the right front wheel.

Now starting to lose the plot I immediately rang Ben back and explained the situation and that I was not happy at all. Fortunately he could get me back in the following day, Fortunately I was on an "on call" day so providing I didn't get called out I could go take the car back to him. Unfortunately it meant another two 2 hour journeys there and back plus cost of fuel.

So I returned with the car the following day (no call out, phew) and all was rectified. The grinding was apparently the brake disc shield rubbing which presumably had got disturbed during the control arm change or tracking adjustments. The steering wheel was now where it should be.

So to summarise:
The forgetting to order the part which as stated was the main reason of having the mot done there I could forgive though I should have been told this was an issue earlier in the day (unless he was trying to order one via a different source on the day).
What I can't forgive is the leaving the steering wheel like that and not telling me till I had arrived to collect the car, (If I had have been told over the phone earlier I would have said keep the car till you can get it right) the grinding noise and the real lack of communication of issues throughout the this whole saga.

My own opinion this Ben seems to be a one man band, seems to be overloaded with work. Maybe he's lost staff I don't know, there was a young chap with him when I had my service done but it was just Ben in the two days I was there recently.
It's unreliable to forget to order parts for your customers, it's bad customer service not to keep your customers informed of any problems/issues in a timely matter. It is unforgivable to release cars back to your customers with issues on. A quick road test would have picked up the grinding noise and a another hours work would have solved the seized track rod end but reading between the lines I reckon he just ran out of time and having already allocated the loan car the next day he couldn't have kept my car overnight.

In conclusion: Unfortunately because of the above I will not be returning to BMC in the future. Maybe I caught him on a bad or busy week. Like I stated above my first experience of Ben and BMC was very good. Shame this time it wasn't and which has lead me to take my custom elsewhere. I find it also bizarre that he knows I found his company through this forum and you would think I wouldn't be the customer that gets messed about because what is likely to happen if I get bad service, yes it will end up on the forum.