Cossiep

Right people please read the following and comment as you see fit;

I booked my daily runner Merc E280 into Bernie's this Monday (30th) having made the appointment the previous Saturday (21st). The box had been making noises and getting lazy on the change for a while so thought I'd better get it seen to.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon it decides to deposit it's oil all over the road as I'm going along the A24

Had the car recovered to Bernie's (as I'd had the booking anyway) in readiness for Monday morning.

Cut a long story short the car was not looked at Monday, Tuesday and finally he tells me what I already know midday today i.e. it's slipping and leaking oil.

I'm self employed and the car is my only transport, at no point upon booking wa it mentioned that he would require the car a day let alone 2/3 +. I have had to hire a car this week as I work 5 miins from his place but live 80 miles away

Anyway, I explained my situation and basically got told that they cannot look at it in the timeframe that I expect therefore please collect my car and take my business elsewhere

I totally understand that he must be a very busy man (aren't we all), however upon asking why I booked over a week in advance the reply was ''we have a queue''....................... am I being unreasonable in assuming that by booking for a particular day the car would be looked at on that day ?

Anyway, the main point is that at no point was I informed that this is the way he runs his business and as a result I've now got to pay £400 for two weeks car hire and £150 to get my car to another garage This isn't the impression of his outfit that I got from feedback from this site

Anyway, live and learn

Ginge !

mate hes lead time on jobs is a joke sometimes, hes NEVER kept to a target on anyone I know that have used him and theres one bloke who took a LONG time getting a quaife diff

BUT he is fucking good at his job,,, he just dont have the staff to keep up with the orders and if he did then he would end up with less work on the go and more bills i guess

its a bitch but its also the way he works due to his good reputation,,, lots of busy tuners get that tbh if there good as they dont have enough time in the day to look at everything so they cherry pick there jobs and go from there i supose

stu used to have a 6month plus waiting and he would regularly be at work real late to get jobs out the way due to new work comming in and hes had to rethink it a little and find a way to get his waiting time down


i once got told the quickest way to get a job done at bernies is to get HIM to do the fitting also ( btw hes labour charges are also very cheep aswell !!)

theres other places about that do work but he seems to know his stuff more and dont bullshit you with crap like some gearbox places

Cossiep

I know what you're saying Ginge, all I would ask is that IF that's his view why is this not pointed out when booking ?

Surely not every car that passes through his place is someone's second/ third car car, if I'd known the sp I'd would have taken my business elsewhere from the off and saved myself the hassle

Ginge !

erm, cant answer for his as i dont even know him

just know someone had a atb fitted to his old car elsewhere and when he got another cossie he went to gearbox man as he was so highly recomended and he was left with his cossie on his drive with the arse in the air for a while as he was waiting for the diff back

belive a garage off here had a similer experience with a customer who was waiting for a box to be done and bernie wont let people jump the que

Chris Honeywell

So when it was booked in m8 what was that for ??

Just so he could check the gearbox existed?

Cossiep

Was booked in to diagnose;

a) a ticking sound from the box when stationary

b) Reason for lazy change

Both of which I would of thought someone of his ability could do a very short space of time, no work was to be carried out, purely a diagnosis

Rick

I have heard lots of bad things about CTS and their service.

abdr500

iTrader: (1)

i also have had bad dealings took them 6 weeks to tell me they blew my diff up taking it apart and wanted to charge me i wount ever ever use them agine

ivorbiggun

Checkout ,- www.boxermotorworks.co.uk

The BEST independant Merc Garage in the South East and they'll give you a runaround.

Good Luck

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Cossiep, I guess he didnt tell you as he probably assumed that like most people you realise that the nature of his business is such that cars often take a while.

He isnt a "normal" garage and certainly isnt a "kwik fit" style operation, so if your main priority is the speed of the work not the standard, you and him as customer and business are probably mismatched.

I dont think its a particuarly bad reflection on bernie, more a case of you reading rave reviews about quality of work and assuming that reflected on speed of work too when it doesnt.

Shings

To diagnose!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Not to fix... isn't that what he has done?

YOU THOUGHT????????

To be honest I dont know of many REPUTABLE gearbox companies who would be able to offer this sort of service anyway.

The guys I have used for the last 6 years are great - they remember me from the first car I had and I am known as "Jake with the RS's".

I normally call em up and a few days later drive the car over- they have a quick check of a few things- tell me whats wrong and then a price and WHEN they can do the work.

In fairness it sounds like you didn't expect it fixed anyway- hence my DIAGNOSE comment. I know I certainly wouldn't- they'd have to order parts in and if you've only booked it for diagnostics why would they be planning to do the work- you might want to pay for an expert to look at it- tell you whats wrong and go else where for the work???

Also- just by booking it in for monday how do you know it wasn't going to be 3 days till you found out in the first place??

And personally if it was my daily driver and only method of transport I'd at least have a back up plan?????

I have only ever heard good about CTS although there is a long wait- but then isn't that true of most of the best people.. look at NMS for a start.

Dunno what else to say- those are my comments anyway.

Jake

ivorbiggun

He can be the best 'Gearbox' man in the world but if he doesn't manage his customers expectations then he's just like every other supplier
that offers BAD customer service.

What e class have you got?
If it's a w210 or w211 he's probably taken one look at it and shit himself.
Cos I'd be astounded if he 's got access to a 'Star' machine which he will
need to diagnose correctly.
With all the electrickery it could be many things, don't laugh airmass metre,
needs new fluid (its a special type of electrolite in the above box) or
it could be simply shagged.
Don't assume the leaking seals are a cause they are a real weak point on them and they all leak at some stage of their lives.
I'm assuming it is a auto?
You haven't put 'ordinary' atf in it have you cos that will bugger them up fairly quickly as well.

Hooligan

Bernie rocks!

Dropped 3 boxes off on the one day, picked them up 3 day's later.

He's helped me out finding a place to sleep, sorted me out with traveldirections and a proper cuppa so balls to you lot who aren't satisfied

CossieRich

iTrader: (1)

Does he still use this site as i havent seen him on here for ages

Ginge !

he was on here the other day, heard hes also going to a rough patch

chip the art of business is to get work in and done NOT take forever and be relaxed about it

jake booking a job in for diagnosis would also have a idea the same garage woulkd be expected to repair it,,,, if you look at a job and say " its this but you gotta go somewhere else " you will STILL need that garage to diagnose the fault again

why book it in to see a problem if you got no time to fix it UNLESS he mentioned it at the time

btw the back up plan aint always a option jake,,, some garages actually get work done and turned over in a day,,, stayovers actually cost money as theres another car then next day booked in at 8am for that "dead" ramp and then the next one and after that

its like going to the doctors being told you got a cold but they cant write you a persciption as,,,, well there too busy


as for him not being a normal garage,, he tells everyone the time he should get there boxes back and then never meets that agreement

a mate of mine was told cause hes busy a month for a box,,, took him 9 weeks cause he got busy and hes excuse was he tags them and they all get done in order and in a line

hes a top chappy though and PLEASE dont forget that and hes ALWAYS trying to help people,,, which could be the reason why he gets delays

hes ever so camp though has to be said

gym-rst

Feckin Gearbox multi plugs how many of them have i changed

Jim Galbally

i've used CTS twice, and would use them again.

i get the impression that sometimes turnaround times can be somewhat slow with them, but ive never experienced that myself. Bernie and his colleagues have gone out of their way to help me and get me seen to in lightning fast time.

that being said, my requirements on both times were basic rebuilds and required no parts to be ordered in etc.

Ginge !

why did you have 2 gearboxes rebuilt by him ?

thought one of them was the gearlever which is a piss easy job as the rea end of the mt75 box aint contained in the box,, its just ball joints and rods

that could be a reason for one of em

think the lever is 30 quid ish as ive sold a few of em at fords as its a comon fault with them wearing out and popping undone

they aint the same system inside as the T5 box,, the mtx75 is the same thing but different casing ( and fwd )

Jim Galbally

1st box was for my mate's 206GTI... "MR Clutch" told him the box was fucked, and asked for 600quid for a new box.

took it to bernie, the "fault" with the box (movement in input shaft) was 100% normal, and they were trying to con him. bernie fixed another common fault with the box whilst he had it and it cost him about 95p in parts


2nd box was the one for my sierra. had issues with the clutch on that one, but the box itself was good

carfixz

And they have modified them again, now have black seals instead of clear ones.

Ive changed one or two as well

dojj

iTrader: (3)

the way i read it:

bloke books car in for a "wtf is wrong with it" figure out
car goes there with box fucked
takes 3 days for the car to be looked at
end reslut is that the gearbox is fucked
which the owner knew about when he dropped it off there

in bernies defence, you have to appreciate that a fucked box is going to be harder to diagnose than a box thats ticking and whiring, if you forgive the similarities, the bomb that was ticking has blown up so he's got to peice it back together again

in your eyes though he's fucked up ebcause it's taken him ages to do what you wanted him to do, which is diagnose the problem properly

there was no time frame discussed so unles there was you've got nothing to fall back on

on the other hand you still don't have a car because he's told you to bugger off

understandably you are a little peeved with the situation but what was said in the conversation between you and him? thats either going to put the blame on you or on him, the rest is just confusing the issue

but it does seem to me that there was a basic breakdown in what he told you and what you heard or expected to hear

Ginge !

so not ONE OF THEM was a basic rebuild,,, he changed a clutch in rwd car and he changed some small parts where he never had to actuall strip and clean the boxes


if he took longer than a day to do a clutch then,,, well he shouldnt be holding a spanner let alone charging for the job

take a gearbox out and ask him to rebuild it and see if thats a 2 day job

Cossiep

[quote="Chip-3Door"]Cossiep, I guess he didnt tell you as he probably assumed that like most people you realise that the nature of his business is such that cars often take a while.


Chip - What do they say about ASSUMPTIONS being the mother of all fu*kups

He assumption has cost me, like I said if I knew beforehand how he ran his ship and expected customers to react, I wouldn't be in this predicament.

James

what age merc is it?

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Wasnt just his assumption, it was yours too.

If I dropped a car off to Bernie, I wouldnt make the assumption I was getting it back the same day without asking him if that was the case.

Cossiep

Correct Chip............... it was my assumption also.

However, I fail to accept that it was an unreasonable one

Just to clarify Shings point, when I say diagnose I was referring to the Monday, once I knew the score I would of proceeded with letting him do the work (price dependant) at a later date.

Cossiep

James - 1998 W210 Chassis

With regards to all those whose view is ''he isn't a normal garage'' type operation, can I take a moment to draw you're attention to his own website and in particular the ''products and services'' page (link attached)http://www.gearboxman.co.uk/products.html
where at the bottom left he advertises a ''fast turnaround service'' for road transmissions.

He must expect to generate business through this media, hence its existence, if he cannot or has no intention of honouring the claims made then please don't make them in the first place

Sounds like false advertising at the highest level to me

Cossiebros

I had dealings with him twice:
first a quaiffe ATB diff I bought from him, what turned out to be faulty. He sorted it, without even wanting the diff back for a check, with a part refund for a rebuild local to me (as I live in Holland).
second was a heavy duty T5, that had a turnaround of less than a week (including shipping to Holland!!)

So i would use him again anytime.

Maybe it's just he's in a little over his head?

Chip

iTrader: (3)

You assumed that his concept of "fast" was the same of yours.

If he said "sameday turnaround" and then didnt, it would be false advertising, as it is, its not.

HTH

Cossiep

Chip - Regardless of my assumptions of his thoughts, I do not believe that 3 days to even look at a vehicle can be part of a ''fast'' turnaround service, especially having booked a week in advance. He must simply take on too much work for his capacity and unfortunately the customer ends up suffering

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

IMO

If the car was BOOKED IN esp that far in advance I would expect it to be LOOKED at on the day it went in. Simple as.

I know a few people that have had dealings with them only due to their good rep on this site and have been messed around badly...

Ginge !

but only cause its a diagnosis, i wouldnt get away with that at work !

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

Yes Ginge I would expect a diagnosis on that day (unless told otherwise while booking on the phone originally), and then obviously when you got a call or went down there at the end of that day, you'd start talking costs etc and talking about the actual fault(s)

Cossiep

My thoughts entirely

Bearing in mind the car was recovered on Sunday evening, so Monday morning after sorting existing work commitments, I was expecting a call to inform me of the problem. Having not received this call by 4:00pm I then had to source a hire car as I have work committments I simply cannot break.

As said it is a communication issue and perhaps some degree of niaevety (sp) on my part but I'm light in pocket £500 as a result, that's what really gets me

And there's no way (other than Bernie offering me a good will gesture) that I'll get a bean back

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Easy to see why you are annoyed, but to those of us used to dealing with specialists, it just seems normal mate, lol

Often is cause of their dedication to finnish another job thats turned out more complicated than they first though or something.

so for every "my car wasnt looked at straight away" post there is likely a "this guy went beyond the call of duty working on my car for 5 days solid" post too.

Ive never dealt with bernie personally, so am purely playing devils advotwat

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

I know someone who bought a g/box from CTS, fitted it, then a week or so later it started leaking and they said "send it back". To be fair they fixed it spot on after that and stopped the leak. But he still, like you, didn't re-coup any of his time/effort taking the box out another time (or in some people's cases it would be MONEY if they got a garage to do it)

But maybe you just have to look at that, as everyone makes mistakes and these things happen. I'm not sure.

Cossiep

VERY fair comment Chip, however running a business myself, what you describe above IMO would be the actions/attitude of somebody operating a ''paying hobby'' I thought he is running a transmission ''business'' .

Judging by the comments on this thread I don't think the ratio for ''not looked at quick enough'' vs ''over and above'' is anywhere near 1:1

So stop playing the advocate you devil

Jim Galbally

ginge, both involved a full rebuild of the box, so yes BOTH of them were basic rebuids

Jim Galbally

oh, and bernie does not do the fitting etc. it's sub-contracted out.

CTS themselves merely do the gearboxes whilst theyre on a bench.