worst customer service in the world...ever!

[craig7l]

i avoid naming and shaming but hopefully by just saying its a land rover dealer in the algarve, this will be ok. - (my range rover vogue is here in portugal over xmas)

After a telephone call to the said dealer, i explained that oil service had appeared on the dash. She took all details and booked me in for the next day (today). before the call ended i asked for an approx price. she declined and said the manager was out.

The next day i went over the same details provided but got a bking as apparantly its legal to carry V5 logbook in your car in portugal (never knew this), and just my luck an off juty police officer got involved... after debating my displeasure of this idea we went back to the problem in hand.

I explained to the service guy that the last full service was less than 12months ago and approx 5000miles only. I enquired the price to complete the oil service as per dash error message and was told €150/€160.
I then waited in a completely customer empty mazda/Ford/range rover/jaguar showroom with very little in the service shop.
After 2 1/2 hours (looking at my car mostly constantly just sitting there) finally my keys were given to the service manager.. the time delay is all part of the portuguese experience shall we say..... he then took me to the cashier who presented me with a bill for get this.

10L oil @ 32.20 per litre
M10 plug €20
oleo elemento (filter) €12.99
iva 23%
Total €437.50 - for a basic oil and filter change

as you can imagine after a verbal indication of €150 is was pretty much a suprise and underhanded as the guy now denies it.
After a good 1/2hour of "debate" with the service manager with such quotes as "i know portugal are in the st but i cant be expected to pay back the national debt on my own" to "if you would have told me that at the start i wouldnt have bothered and done it back in UK when home" there quotes varied from "your not in UK now" to "its special oilo sur" to "we did na reylise it need 10litras" to "pleyse no say fook fook fook i know what that meeens"

so it calms down and i get back in my car and start the ignition and guess what "oil service -769miles" so i go back in and the mechanic says "oh no i forgeyts to clear computer"
after another 40mins the mechanic gives the key back to the service guy.

the guy turns to me and says sorry sir we cant clear computer as it needs a full service......

as you can imagine (or not) then i did use the fook fook words....

If this wasnt true (and costly) it would be funny..... i sit here now with a factura of 437euros and still a car with an oil service error message....UNBUfkINLEAVABLE

on a serious note these garages are supposed to be brand representative of range rover - for the first time in a very long time im writing a complaint letter....

and to you guys - heads up on taking a car to these parts....

[Slarti]

Stories liked that make me really angry!!thanks for sharing,
I hope you get some joy with JLR in blighty.

[Mattt]

Land Rover Australia dealers are just as bad, great cars - poor dealers.

[ant leigh]

craig7l said:

10L oil @ 32.20 per litre
M10 plug €20
oleo elemento (filter) €12.99
iva 23%
Total €437.50 - for a basic oil and filter change

I guess it seems easier to take a foreigner for a ride. Especially if you have a RR
Just had some building work done at the house. Had 4 quotes, the two when the RR was in front where +40% than the two when it wasn't

Just out of curiosity though, 10L of oil seems about right, not sure on the basic fuel tax in Portugal but can't imagine its going to be less than €15 a litre if you brought the oil and the tax is... tax.
So it was never going to be less than €200 anyway just for the oil. Guess RR oil changes are going to be expensive no matter where you are.

[cayman-black]

What fking idiots! Plus what a load of bks about not being able to clear the service indicator. They plug the car in and it takes about 15 mins to do . aholes.
Oh forgot to add the first quote does seem stupidly low to be honest.

[mat13]

Personally I would be writing to the md of landrover UK and seeing if they can offer any advice as to how to go about making a formal complaint about the dealer.

[cayman-black]

Also surprised it takes 10ltrs of oil ?
As a comparision i had my first service done oil change and filter in Italy 240 euros. I think mine took about 5ltrs of oil.Was not LRO dealer though.

[eliot]

5k miles since last service? Wouldn't of bothered getting it serviced until you were back home.
When 'service' simply means changing the oil and filter.

[Pamocasa]

We have just had our Range Rover Sport serviced and were not told the price by this one and only garage in the Algarve. We were told that the car would be one day and we messed around in Faro bored to tears. We returned to the garage to be told that the car was not complete and that the break hoses needed replacing which is ridiculous for a car only 4 years old and which has been kept in a closed garage and not on English salty roads.
After spending nearly €900 on the service, they are now telling me that the car is being recalled not for the break hoses, although I was told this by one of the staff, but to update the computer.
You are totally correct, it is the worst service in the world!!!

[Zoon]

ste cars, ste service.

[Flatteraxe372]

I drive my aging 08 RRS to the algarve each year, I spend 6 months there at a time. Luckily I don't have to bother with the main dealer as my car is so old. I am going to get a new one when I get back though, maybe even an SVR, I'm dreading anything happening to it whilst I'm there.

I had already heard that the man dealer was bad but I won't even go there now.