Mahon Point Retail Park Speed Bumps

Owen

Anyone driven over the new speed bumps on the way into the Halford/B&Q Mahon Point Retail Park? Jesus H Christ! They cracked the windscreen on one of my cars, and the dashboard is rattling like hell in the other car. eMailed and phoned MP about it, and they couldn't give a damn.

deRanged

PaintDoctor wrote: »

They cracked the windscreen on one of my cars

fecking hell!
solicitors letter time.

Owen

Well, to be fair it was chipped already, and everyone knows a chip will turn into a crack on a pothole-speedbump so it was inevitably going to happen, but still ... they're the most f*cked up speedbumps I've ever driven over. It's those tiny painted yellow lines, but because there's so many, and they're so close, even at 5mph your whole car vibrates.

*Lees*

I know the ones!! I can feel my brain shaking around in my head when driving over them, they're a pain!!
Not the worst speed bumps I have come across though!! Blackpool - the garage next to Dinos have to have the worst speed bumps ever!! They've been like that for years and I don't know why they haven't bothered to fix them!

dahamsta

I'm not going to any of the shops in there until they're removed, they shake the crap out of my van. Letting them know by email.

bandqcustomerservices@b-and-q.co.uk
customer.services@halfords.co.uk
info@argos.co.uk

I sent the following:

The estate in which the store in the subject line is located has recently installed speed bumps, which seem to have been created by a troll with a cement mixer. I'm just emailing to let you know that I won't be able to visit this store until they're removed, as I'm concerned they may damage my vehicle.

adam

Gauge

Supposedly they're there to deter those eejit boy racers that used to congregate there and race up and down the park- not sure why they couldn't just use normal ones though, I feel like I'm driving over spikes!

mik_da_man

Interesting..
I'm heading to halfords soon, will check them out.
I know when I was in college they installed speed ramps that were so severe that they damaged a few cars.
A couple of students put in claims and got them paid and the college had to remove the ramps.

Owen

Just off the phone from Mahon Point customer services who pretty much passed the buck. Dermot Bolger is the operations manager for Mahon Point, and is the person who complaints should be directed to.

Owen

dahamsta wrote: »

I'm not going to any of the shops in there until they're removed, they shake the crap out of my van. Letting them know by email.

bandqcustomerservices@b-and-q.co.uk
customer.services@halfords.co.uk
info@argos.co.uk

Just done the same.

Abelloid

The yellow 'ramps' off the roundabout?

They've only recently been smoothed over, they were worse before.

Munster Gal

They're unreal!!! They'd rattle your fillings out!!!

dahamsta

What other vendors are in there I wonder, we could collect addresses if O'Callaghan's lackeys are passing the buck. There's a Comet and a PC World, and Hickey's Home Store or something?

miss_shadow

Anyway i like mike.

A few years ago the council put speed bumps on a road near my house. The shaggin things were so steep and high they had to come back and build ramps onto the speed bumps a week later. Ridiculous.

invincibleirish

Yes those bumps shook the shite out of my car as well, they are unlike any other speed bumps/ramps i've experienced.

Abelloid

They're really not that bad. Are you all running low profile tyres?

dahamsta

They don't look bad, but they're the worst I've ever driven over. My van is on 45s, but it's just as bad in the wife's and the mother's cars.

bladebrew

yes! they should be removed,it wont stop boy racers going in there either,there not high enough to scrape bodykits! once they get into the carpark they can fly around the place! the only other speed bumps i have seen like this were in limerick coming up to a roundabout,but these are ridiculous!!

tommmy1979

I'm on 65s and i thought my dashboard was going to fall off... they're the worst i've ever come across.

DJ Hafez

I went into the other lane to avoid them the other day. Wasn't having the dash go crazy again!

rotinaj

I belive the centre manager is a fella called Justin Young. Maybe a few letters to him and he might deal with the ramps.

craichoe

I find the faster you drive over them the less traumatic it is

mik_da_man

Yep, defo go fast over them and you wont feel them!
My car has 225/40/18's on it and stiff sports suspension.
I found that the ones on the way in are worse than the ones on the way out.
But I did a few tests and if you zip across them they aren't too bad at all

Bill-e

Well if the rattling does break bits off your car you are very near to halfords and can get them to fix it.
They can install your mp3 in your car while you wait
I hate when they say that, mp3 is a file format not and actual yoke! ffs:mad:

dahamsta

B&Q replied:

Dear Mr Beecher,

Thank you for your email dated 13th June 2009.

I will forward this on to the store as they are already aware of the
issues with these speed ramps.

Thank you for contacting B&Q in regards to this matter.


Kind Regards
[DELETED]
Correspondence Team
B&Q Customer Services

dahamsta

Hey, PaintDoctor is actually Ned78, what's that about? Am I detecting a new chapter in ned's life?

It seems B&Q head office lobbed it to the Mahon store, who fobbed it off to the park operators. Fair dues to Dermot for replying by email, but he doesn't seem to be changing his mind.

Dermot Bolger wrote:

I am writing to you in relation to your recent complaint to B & Q regarding the rumble strips in the Retail Park. We appreciate that these are not to the convenience of any road user but in our situation, are a very necessary traffic control measure that we had to install. After numerous complaints of "near misses", we had to act accordingly to slow down the traffic for the sake of all users. The depth of the rumble strips are within the accepted guidelines and we have also marked the road with a caution notice to warn traffic to slow down.

dahamsta wrote:

While I appreciate that traffic needs to be slowed down, the rumble strips your facilty has installed are non-standard and almost certainly damaging to vehicles at any speed. Until they are removed or replaced, I will not be able to visit any of the stores in the retail park, and I will continue to complain about the ramps to the stores I would like to visit there. I hope you will take my complaint and the others you have received into account before something is actually shaken off someone's car.

I reckon the bumps were installed by one of those "driveway technicians" you see on the consumer horror shows, on his day off.

Owen

dahamsta wrote: »

Hey, PaintDoctor is actually Ned78, what's that about? Am I detecting a new chapter in ned's life?

Wayhey. Perhaps

dahamsta wrote: »

It seems B&Q head office lobbed it to the Mahon store, who fobbed it off to the park operators. Fair dues to Dermot for replying by email, but he doesn't seem to be changing his mind.

Likewise on my part, I got this mail back from Dermot :

I am writing to you in relation to your recent complaint to B & Q regarding the rumble strips in the Retail Park. We appreciate that these are not to the convenience of any road user but in our situation, are a very necessary traffic control measure that we had to install. After numerous complaints of "near misses", we had to act accordingly to slow down the traffic for the sake of all users. The depth of the rumble strips are within the accepted guidelines and we have also marked the road with a caution notice.

And in reply I sent this :

Thank you for your prompt eMail response. While I can understand that from a technical perspective that your speed ramps meet the guidelines, I would ask that from a common sense perspective that you drive across these ramps yourself in a car with low profile tires (Which 50% of vehicles on the road today have), or better yet, I would be happy to have you drive across the bumps in my car. They are violent, and on one of my cars have managed to shake the dashboard loose, and on the other car, have turned a chip on my windscreen into a crack. It's not the height of these bumps that is the issue, it is their closeness to one another, and the frequency thay cause a car to vibrate at.

If you think I am alone in my complaints, there is already a thread in an online forum where numerous individuals are also complaining about the severity of the bumps installed. In my 15 years of driving, these are the only speed bumps which I have driven over which cause an entire car to vibrate.

I would plead with you to remove them, for our sakes, and yours, as while I am not the type of person to pursue you for a windscreen, or for the labour to retighten my dashboard on my other car, others most certainly will.

dahamsta

Excellent response.

Have other people actually complained or are ye just oirish web-based whingers?

mik_da_man

I didn't complain as I don't think they are too bad, But you need to go quite quick on the ones on the way in to negate the vibration effect.

dahamsta

mik_da_man wrote: »

I didn't complain as I don't think they are too bad, But you need to go quite quick on the ones on the way in to negate the vibration effect.

Several people have said that. Kinda defeats the purpose!

mik_da_man

Yep, maybe I should e-mail them to let them know

Bill-e

Hit them side on at about a 45 degree angle. That should negate the effects of tire to ground ramp oscillationand reverberation.