SFR Stockport,Manchester

[eburacum]

Have booked my 55 plate Sag in for its 2 year service at SFR,anyone any knowledge on this company?

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Please Post good experiences and mail The OP through his profile of any Bad as to keep to the "No Naming and Shaming" rules.

Thanks

BB

Edited by Ballistic Banana on Wednesday 19th September 23:33

[lazyitus]

Shane is ex factory - knows his stuff and has worked on my Griffith a couple of times.

Should be in good hands there.

[burriana]

... although there a two sides to every story.

I believe there are better

[johnbear]

There are two sides to every story and mine was one of SFR learning on the job and very high charges even more than Power. I was charged £700 to change a starter motor as it required the gearbox out! Two years later I changed the starter motor myself in 1.5 hours!

[RetroWheels]

SFR prep the Tuscan Challenge car with us, we achieve 100% reliability , we get the results on circuit , and our faith in his work has been rewarded with a good, strong race car.

Shane does all the serious work on the Chim 500 ,which has endured over 5 years of track days - which is no mean feat - especiallly with a div like me at the wheel .

Many's the time over, the past few years , where i have come up with an "idea" to upgrade one of the cars , and Shane has subtely ventured his opinion that it might not work.....

Usuallly along the lines of " You what ! . dont talk like a Ct ! " , we then come up with a more sensible idea.

He could have gone along with some of my more ludicrous ideas and taken my cash, he does'nt do that .....

Maybe if he did he'd be more popular on PistonHeads.

If you want someone with Factory development and race expertise to look after your Tiv , contact SFR .
www.sfrengineering.co.uk

No doubt someone will come along now, and say he's a complete arse - i can only speak from experience .

Edited by RetroWheels on Monday 17th September 22:25

[burriana]

RetroWheels said:

SFR prep the Tuscan Challenge car with us

and

RetroWheels said:

Shane does all the serious work on the Chim 500 ,which has endured over 5 years of track days -

Maybe that's it. He is excited by race work and enjoys doing it.

I got bored standing in his reception as a paying customer while he spent 20 mins arranging his weekend race activity.


Horses for courses I guess.

Edited by Ballistic Banana on Wednesday 19th September 23:35

[nubbin.]

The impression I have formed over the years by reading comments on here is best represented by the previous two posts - if you want race-prep, special work, modifications for track days etc., most people seem very happy and satisfied with SFR's work. Routine maintenance? Never had work done, so I can't comment.

[heightswitch]

nubbin. said:

The impression I have formed over the years by reading comments on here is best represented by the previous two posts - if you want race-prep, special work, modifications for track days etc., most people seem very happy and satisfied with SFR's work. Routine maintenance? Never had work done, so I can't comment.

I think it is a potentially bad thing to do to personally recommend / not recommend people in case the inevitable happens.

Regards SFR though:

I would NOT recommend to anyone.

Neil.

[burriana]

There is someone else in the south Manchester area that I also wouldn't go anywhere near from personal experience, yet some people praise him to the rafters.

One place I have no hesitation in recommending, due to the fact that I know one of the guys and his cars personally, and someone I know who's judgement on cars I trust implicitly rates them highly ... and everybody who has used them seems to have nothing but praise .. the place?

Track v Road near Clitheroe.

[shane at sfr]

I find it quite a joke that people like to come on here and make out they have taken there car to a company and been charged a certain ammount of money for very little work; they tell you the overall price of the invoice and make out it was for one certain job; when the truth is they had a lot of other work carried out on the same invoice. I am all for people letting other people know of there experenice with a certain company but if they are not going to tell the truth then maybe they should say nothing at all.

[burriana]

shane at sfr said:

I find it quite a joke that people like to come on here and make out they have taken there car to a company and been charged a certain ammount of money for very little work; they tell you the overall price of the invoice and make out it was for one certain job; when the truth is they had a lot of other work carried out on the same invoice. I am all for people letting other people know of there experenice with a certain company but if they are not going to tell the truth then maybe they should say nothing at all.

Fair play coming on to answer your critics Shane and you do have a point if the post in question is not strictly true.

I'll say again, my only niggle was with the customer service side. The price I was charged and the work, which included a new set of AVO's (if i remember rightly), seemed fine.

My mate with the Cerb, again, no complaints about the work as such, just fed up with waiting for his cam followers, which we all know are not the easiest to get hold of.

A bit like Jools ... he finds the race prep and handling/tuning far more fulfiling than standard servicing, hence he stopped doing servicing.

[Ballistic Banana]

Sorry I have accidently removed some of the posts while trying to prune the ones That contravene the naming and shaming Policy.

BB

[shane at sfr]

thank god someone has some commom sense; I would like to invite anyone who is intersted to come and visit us here at the workshop to have a look round; and a chat so you can form your own opinion of what me and this company are all about; Its seems very sad that there are a small number of people on hear who seem to make there job to try to put me out of business i am positive that they themselfs would not welcome it in there business.Any customers who wish to know anything about us feel free to visit; have a pot of tea then its up to you weather you visit again. SHANE @ SFR ENGINEERING

[johnbear]

shane at sfr said:

thank god someone has some commom sense; I would like to invite anyone who is intersted to come and visit us here at the workshop to have a look round; and a chat so you can form your own opinion of what me and this company are all about; Its seems very sad that there are a small number of people on hear who seem to make there job to try to put me out of business i am positive that they themselfs would not welcome it in there business.Any customers who wish to know anything about us feel free to visit; have a pot of tea then its up to you weather you visit again. SHANE @ SFR ENGINEERING

Shane it's not that anyone wishes to put you out of business. You are quite a ‘character’ at the end of the end and it all adds to the fabric of the TVR story.

However, when everything is going fine, customer are willing to forgive elements of the 'character' that comprises SFR, but when issues come to light as they will at any garage, the way in which they are handled is of up most importance. Due to the nature of the 'character' they feel they will get a short answer so don't even raise issues with you.

This is a shame because there is a great need for brilliant TVR mechanics and I am sure you could fill that void. From my own experiences of SFR I would recommend you make some changes. The 'character' attitude whilst amusing at first wear thin very fast.

The customer is king and they need to be treated in a very professional manner (this alone would enable you to pick up a large volume of business from that other TVR service centre in Cheshire). When they are at your premises deal with them first not your leisure pursuits. Don’t slag off TVR’s, it’s your business. Racing other makes doesn’t show confidence in TVR. TVR customers come before racing.

The rates you charge are not an issue if the service and the care for the car are second to none. Your premises are spotless so channel that attention to detail towards exceeding customer expectations. Adjust doors, wiper, lights etc to ensure the car leaves in the best condition – every one raves about a northern garage that does that and doesn’t charge them!

Swallow some of that pride and ask others how to tackle jobs that you don’t know about. Be honest with the customer about this but don’t charge when you have to understand the best way to tackle a job. If it takes a few hours, explain it to the customer that you did it for free and they’ll recommend you to everyone.

And lastly, if we in our business had access to a forum where customers could discuss our business and products, we would be over the moon. It’s a fantastic marketing tool. You could spend half an hour a day on here answering technical questions and publish a regular technical article on do it yourself jobs in Sprint. You’d save a fortune on marketing. Take the opportunity whilst you’re top of the TVR general thread to offer customers the chance to get a 6K service and the 12K at a same price as a 6K so they can sample the new magic of SFR.

I wish you the best Shane but the comments on there don’t come out of fresh so please change.

If you wish to ask PH to remove my post please do so but it's not posted to harm you or your business as you are responsible in that respect.

[burriana]

Good and fair post John.

johnbear said:

The customer is king and they need to be treated in a very professional manner (this alone would enable you to pick up a large volume of business from that other TVR service centre in Cheshire).

Yep that was my only gripe. Professionalism and treating the customer with respect.

I went to pick my car up at an agreed time from the "other" place and it was still up on the ramps. They wasted over 2 hours of my time while I had to delay a £500 an hour edit suite.

However, unlike Shane ... they also fecked my car up fine style.

[shane at sfr]

All your comments are very welcome believe me but there are a few things you have noted which have nothing to do with tvr or sfr; you raise the point of me slaging off tvr ???; we all know tvr have some design faults in many areas thats what makes them tvr so in me bringing them to customers attention is hardly slaging them off i have done more in my time working for & with tvrs to keep the marque alive & strong and much more than alot of people. on the note of me racing another marque in my own pastime i feel has nothing to do with any single cutomer; its not that i dont care about what they think its just i am sure most customers dont give a damm about what make of car in which i choose to race in my own time and in fact most customers find my racing car a very intersting thing to have a look at when they vist. And as for having a forum like this in your trade on which you would welcome as to show new products & chats about lots of things between each other is fine if it is in fact used that way; if was being used in the way this forum has in this topic then i am positive that you would not welcome it if was aimed at yourself like it has at me and sfr engineering. i am all for customer service and to the best of my ability keeping every customer happy; but such is life that;that will never happen; wether my thinking is right or wrong my take on this is most customer do not care wether they like me or not as long as there car is done the way they wanted and are happy with & at a price they are happy with.

[johnbear]

Thanks for taking the time to reply and I wish you the best for the future.

Cheers

John