is lotus customer service crap?

[garyesprit]

anyone had dealings with lotus directly? heard they are hopeless and unhelpfull with customers.....is this true? cheers

Edited by garyesprit on Wednesday 13th September 01:52

[GKP]

No.

[rob_j]

Absolutely not. Sent a query to them one evening about getting my Elan's interior retrimmed at Hethel, had a response back next morning, giving me all the info I needed, prices, colours, etc.. Seemed pretty good to me. I think others have found the same thing. May just be the trim shop, though.

[John_W]

I've only had experience of the parts department which was very helpful and knowledgeable.

I was connected to somebody who knew the car, the part I was talking about, and gave me the advice I needed. It was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the usual response to a telephone enquiry these days ("press 1 if you want x, 2 if you want y", listen to muzak for 5 mins and then get put through to some stroppy brainless cow who goes through a list of irrelevant questions on a list she has been given).

Mind you, although the HQ experience is good, the dealers do vary.

J

[xxplod]

Lotus HQ do try up to a point but often shoot themselves in the foot by quibbling over things they should be sorting out without question. On my 2002 S2 111S I had an annoying squeak. To cut a long and involved story short, after the car had spent many weeks with the dealer they declared they could go no further and the factory invited me to take the car to them (at my expense). I did this and left the car with them.

They diagnosed a steering rack failure the following day. Questions asked re: why dealer didn't spot this etc... Hethel wanted me to cough up the c£300 for a new rack to be fitted. The fault was first diagnosed when the car was under warranty, but minor and they quibbled and argued when it was clear I'd incurred days on end of trouble, over £100 in taxi/train fares etc...

Eventually they agreed to pay for it "as a goodwill gesture." All in all, piss poor. 2 year old cars with 25K on the clock don't suffer steering rack failure. They should have fixed it FOC, end of argument. Especially when the KNEW it was the 3rd Elise I'd bought from them.

I didn't buy another Elise, although that's not to say I don't miss the Elise like mad, even 18 months after I sold it.

[lotisi]

Yes... I would expand but then I would just get really angry again. However if you choose a good dealer you should never have to speak to Lotus direct. Don't let it put you off buying agreat car.

[Autocross7]

lotisi said:

Yes... I would expand but then I would just get really angry again. However if you choose a good dealer you should never have to speak to Lotus direct. Don't let it put you off buying agreat car.

I have found just the opposite... The dealers I have TRIED to deal with seem lost and unhelpful most of the time. On the other hand, as the noted above, I have gotten next day
e-mail replys from Lotus Direct. This has led me to wonder why they do not "police" (for lack of a better term) the dealers like Ferrari seems to do...

The independent parts guys have also been very helpful at times (S&J and JAE for sure)

Drive topless!!!
Cameron

[lotisi]

Yes Autocross7 that IS the experience I have had with the dealers. I too can get emails back from Lotus but when it comes down to sorting out a problem my experience is that they can't, there so called expert regional service "engineers" have been useless to me.

[Autocross7]

Yep. That I would have to agree with. The local and regional dealers etc... seem quite lost on many levels. My car is an 88' federal car so it has a K Jetronic system. "A What?"... "Hmmmm, I don't THINK we have anything regarding that system. You have an Esprit with that system?"... are at least two of the phone comments I have gotten when trying to learn more about the system for future needs...

But I figure it is about the same all over. Hell, I do my own work because everytime I take my car (s) to have work done it just comes back with missing bits or the work was not sorted out to begin with. Putting on new parts til' any given issue is corrected is just not the way I like to do things...


Drive topless!!!
Cameron

Edited by Autocross7 on Friday 15th September 22:59

[dodgey_rog]

Lotus HQ couldn't have been more helpful. Spoke to them recently about an Esprit and the chap bent over backwards for me, even emailed me directly about the specification.

When the car developed a fault in Europe, they dispatched the parts straight away and said they would be on hand to talk the dealer (Lamborghini) through the work, bloody brilliant in my opinion.

[daveystott]

My first experience of dealing direct with Lotus was quite positive. I'd spoken to a friend of a friend who told me what I needed and to get the bits from Lotus. I think he must have meant Lotus dealership.

I asked the Lotus parts bloke I'd been informed that I could order such and such a part from them.

"That's absolutely incorrect" he said, long pause.....

"Errrrrr" I said

"Where do you live?" he continued

"Near Manchester"

"Try Martin blah de blah at Christopher Neil, he'll help you out"

All in all, helpful, but a little eccentric. By the way, Martin Blah de blah is a total C U Next Tuesday!