Charles Hurst fined £2,000

unkel

Article

drdre

Yeah thats wrong but 2k is nothing for them.They sell never every car.

Stephen

Eh?

Gatster

Not sure what Dre was getting at, but the fine is nonsense.

Seth Brundle

Dre was trying to say that they sell nearly every type of car
from http://www.charleshurstgroup.co.uk/about-us/index.asp

The franchise profile for the Group is extensive: Aston Martin, Bentley, BMW Motorcycles, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Citroen, Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, LDV, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Saab, Seat, Toyota, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Volvo, Yamaha (Motorcycles). The Group also has used car sales outlets in Northern Ireland, trading as Usedirect, which caters for all budgets of used cars & vans.

They are 5 minutes from where my wifey grew up. Its one huge outfit! She got her first car from them.

drdre

Gatster wrote:

Not sure what Dre was getting at, but the fine is nonsense.

I meant 2k is nothing as they sell nearly every brand of car and make millions a year.They sell bentleys, aston martin etc.

PauloMN

£2000 is a fair fine I think. It beats €500 for clocking a car - a far more serious offence, no?

maidhc

drdre wrote:

I meant 2k is nothing as they sell nearly every brand of car and make millions a year.They sell bentleys, aston martin etc.

Seriosuly bad PR. It will cost millions in lost sales etc.

JHMEG

Ironic considering there was a thread recently extolling the virtues of Northern dealers vs Southern dealers and quality of service/price etc.

Just goes to show that cowboys are everywhere.

bazz26

Yes I think the bad publicity brought about by this case will service it's purpose alot more than the monetory value of the fine itself.

I would not be surprised if that dealer looses the franchise too.

Lord Nikon

They might drop their prices if they feel they are going to lose business, good for us.

ciarsd

I for one cannot see them losing much sleep nor business as a result. There is not much choice on this island where you can you walk into a dealership and order an Aston, Ferrari, Maserati.
People buying new cars tend to like the relative 'comfort' of having a garage close by come problem time, service time hence the success of this top marque dealership.

el tel

I for one am not surprised this has happened and am sure it's only the tip of the iceberg. I would like to hope that what happened was down to some sneaky policy by the Charles Hurst Group but rather down to some dumb-assed member of staff - mechanic, or manager perhaps - who failed to do the job and check it thoroughly afterwards. I know some apprentices in Charles Hurst and I must admit that they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer and spend their days texting and generally dicking around. With these kind of guys doing the services mistakes are bound to be rife.

drdre

maidhc wrote:

Seriosuly bad PR. It will cost millions in lost sales etc.

Nah i wouldnt think so.I dont think they will loose much sales.

maidhc

drdre wrote:

Nah i wouldnt think so.I dont think they will loose much sales.

Why not? Would you take your car there to be serviced over another dealer?

After all, servicing is where the money is to be made, not in car sales.

oilsheik

That fine is water off a ducks back... Charles Hurst is actually owned by a quoted UK company called Lookers Plc they are one of the major dealer in the UK in 2006 with 106 dealers across the UK Turnover for '06 was £1.42bn and operating profits was £36.6m. A rep from boards should buy a few shares and raise the issue at the AGM:D

MercMad

To be honest I think the fine was too high and in fact sometimes this type of thing is easily done. they should simply have taken the customer in and explained what happened.

We used to take customers details, draw up a job card and it would automatically charge out the correct parts for each car, saving the mechanics from queuing at the parts hatch all at the same time, as it was far quicker to pluck the parts from the shelves rather than going to the computer to look them up, then charge them out.

The problem was if there was a queue of customers waiting at 5.00 to get their car, and the jobcard wasn't yet returned there was the possibility that the receptionist, under pressure to help, looked up the reg on the computer and spotted parts charged out and simply took the payment and handed out the keys !

I doubt there was anything underhanded and I believe it was a once off that shouldn't have ever happened with proper procedures in place !

unkel

MercMad wrote:

I doubt there was anything underhanded and I believe it was a once off that shouldn't have ever happened with proper procedures in place !

You're probably right. Strange though that they let it come to this. Acknowledging the mistake, apologising and compensating the customer would have prevented the fine, the bad press, etc.

Seth Brundle

@ MercMad - I would accept an excuse like that except that it appears that the car wasn't even serviced. If it was then the filters would have been removed.

franksm

I used to use Savilles Autovillage in Lisburn for work on my Omega - they were always great - good prices, courteous, and always followed up phone calls, etc.

Then they were taken over by Hurst - the last time I used them, I asked for the handbrake shoes on the Omega to be changed out. They charged me for that, and right enough the handbrake was tighter. That lasted about a year - and when I took the brakes apart to see what was going on, lo and behold there were some 10 yr old brake shoes. All they had done was to adjust them, not change them. Needless to say, I haven't been back since.

legs11

I was going to buy a maserati from this lot, think I will take my business elsewhere.......;)