Colin Ferns Richmond

[Howard]

Hood ... We are talking about a soft top , yes ?

Not a bonnet catch.

 

[flango]

Hood ... We are talking about a soft top , yes ?

Not a bonnet catch.

Ah good point I had assumed bonnet catch

 

[tworivers]

my bad. just counted the holes and theres seven not eight holes.so thats four holes that have gone missing..

 

[WG M-B]

Tell you what !
I'm gonna start doing a/c regasses for members at 35 quid a pop!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tworivers]

if spanner = Cf, then it just goes to show the attitude as far as I can see. Lets remember the order of events. car taken in. polite enquiry and request over telephone and email and then in person on dropping off the car. Then polite phone call and confirmation that what had been requested to be done was done. Then collection of the car. payment wihtout any complaint. drove away. noticed that aircon was not blowing cold. phoned from layby. asked to return car. was 5 mins away. got back. nobody there as they had gone to lunch. one mechanic left on watch. he fiddled under bonnet assuring me the aircon had passed all the tests and definitely had no leak. i noticed the seat belt extenders had stopped working. he fiddled with the fuses and eventually they worked again (they never failed to work previously). i then went away and waited fro the guys to get back from lunch. was then told there was a leak in the condenser, a new one would cost upwards of 300 quid, but mercedes had discontinued them. allowed them to make three phone calls to secure part, they couldnt. decided then at that point not to continue with them. so when asked if i wanted them to continue looking for the part, i said, no thinks, ill sort it out myself. drove off. got home and noticed the convertible top rear hood latch trim was no longer on the car. investigated and found a broken tooth of the catch in the well where the hood is stowed. clearly must have broken off in the reomval or refitting of the trim to adjust the hood. phoned colin ferns to find out if the part was in the garage somewhere. they said it was SECURELY on the car when it left them and were not interested in taking any repsonsibility. i asked them if thats really how they wanted to leave the situation and they replied YES. so , having given them the chance, felt let down and posted. at no point was i miserable until after the event. so the statement that miserable people get miserable service is both childish and logically incorrect in this case. a truer statement would be miserable service leads to miserable people.

 

[neilrr]

tworivers,

The way you ignore pertinent questions reminds me of this thread from a well known nutter who comes on MB forums to trash MB related businesses - http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/bodywork/144137-car-painting.html


I've asked you these 2 questions before on this thread.

Will you please answer them?

2rivers,

Where do you live? Couldn't you find anyone competent that was closer?

I'm curious as to why you felt it necessary to pick a place that required a 160 mile round trip for something that sounds like very basic work.

Also, why you didn't take it back to the first place, the one that had recharged the AC when it had a leak? Surely that was the place to start with the AC fix since you'd already paid them for the gas which leaked out 'cos they didn't spot the leak.

 

[tworivers]

sorry, didnt realise that the questions were not rhetorical.
answers.
i had just purchased the car. i wanted to take it to a specialist that had good feedback on the forum. i recently moved house and didnt know of any in my area. i purchased the car from a location 300 miles away, so taking it back to the place that gassed it before i purchased it was not an option.
i didnt commission the first re-gas, so have no knowledge of where it was done, or even if it was done properly, hence taking it to Colin Fern, to get it dont properly and to get the system checked as it was clear that something was not right. if it lost gas over a few days, then there most likely was a leak (this was explained to colin ferns place over the telephone)
I did not come on this forum to trash a business. I posted my experience so that the glowing reports of the place were balanced with my experience.
I have no idea why the service i received was initially just not thorough (not finding the leak as it was not a small leak and not hard to find given they found it in minutes on return)
I would not have posted if their response to my enquiry about the missing trim part (which is £5 from mercedes) had been anything other than indifference.
I am cautious not to besmirch a company as i realise that these comments stay around, but in this case, i felt let down and poorly treated.
I appreciate that many people might "try it on"with suppiers and companies and claim things were broken when in fact they were not, but this is not the case here.
I have no commented on my impressions of the establishment (as that is really a subjective view), but .. I choose not to return as I want the car to have the best possible service I can find (they are complex machines as you know and I do not claim to know much about them, my only experience of mercedes is with the 1960's coupes and convertibles, ahving resotred a 280se 3.5 coupe and a 300 se cabriolet - pictures on request for those interested). so the later more complex mercedes are outside my experience)
I trust I have answered your questions , but if not, please let me know.
As to why somebody would drive 160 mile round trip, well, its summer, it was sunny and i like driving.

 

[tworivers]

i dealt with the guy in reception, cant remember his name, might have been dave. i spoke with colin befroe taking the car away the first time and he was charming. i got the impression that he is very much supervising, but he must then rely on what his technicians tell him they have done. i suspect that this is where the issue lay. i have no issue with colin himself, just to clarify, when i say Colin Ferns, i refer to the company itself , not the man.

 

[wshopman]

Hi, I’m Dave, workshop manager at Colin Ferns Ltd. This will be my one and only post on the subject.

Many thanks to the many people who have called today to advise us of this post, we appreciate it. The car concerned is a 124 220 cabriolet that the customer has just bought with 175k on the clock.

Re Colin Ferns

I took my w124 cabriolet to them after reading glowing reviews on this website. Worst mistake ever. They did not do what was requested. they failed to pick up a clear leak in the aircon condenser (when i t had been booked in because the aircon was not blowing cold, and they had been informed it had recently been re-gassed).

The customer gave no indication that the A/C had recently been gassed. If it was then whoever did it should have put tell-tale dye in it. If we had been informed that a previous and recent re-gas had failed then we would have looked for signs of leakage by means of that tell-tale dye.

As it transpired the customer chose to return during lunch hour. That’s unfortunate but we start at 7.30 and finish at 5.30 and take lunch between 1 and 2. Colin is insistent that all members of staff take 1 hours lunch at the same time so that they can each enjoy some peace and respite from a very busy workshop.

There are other issues. The trim that covers the hood lock on the rear valance was fine and in place when the car was dropped off with them. they were asked to adjust or align the hood as it didnt quite close wihtout being helped. they fixed this, but i suspect broke the plastic catch on the trim as one day later, its missing from the car.

The customer SUSPECTS (assumes) that we broke it. If we broke it (and we didn’t) then we would have said so. When the customer returned at lunch time the offending part was present. We know this because the roof was down when he returned and the part was clearly present.

They are not interested in taking any responsibility and i will avoid as i found them to be no different from any other back street london garage. what reputation they had must be based on past service levels.

The customer took it upon himself to wander into the workshop without first bothering to ask permission and the presumed to communicate directly with our technician, whose first language is not English and who is unaccustomed to speaking with customers. This is the technician WHO HAD SACRIFICED HIS VALUABLE LUNCH BREAK to attend to this presumptuous customer’s demands.

When they called to tell me the car was ready, i asked them if the aircond was fixed and was assured it was, all checked and tested, no leaks etc.

We carry out a vacuum integrity test with every re-gas and will only re-gas if this test is passed. Unfortunately, the test is not conclusive and it is often the case that a system that has passed the test actually has a leak, hence the tell-tale dye to assist with locating any leaks.

I live 80 miles away from them and they knew this. I travelled up to pick up the car. i drove it away, within two miles noticed the aricon was blowing warm air. thought it might need some time to get cold. two more miles later, still warm. phones them immediately from the car. they said, bring it straight back (i was only 4 miles from them, 6 minutes drive). drove straight back to them to find they had all gone for lunch. didn't tell me they would not be there when i got back. useless.

The customer lives a long way away, we had no idea how close or far he was or exactly when he was going to bring it back.

Leak in aircon system found within minutes of it going back up on the ramp.

Because we put dye in the system when we gassed and it showed that the condenser was leaking.

clearly they didn't check it properly

Clearly we did everything that could be expected of us. When we told the customer about the failed condenser we asked him if he’d like us to source him a new one. He abrubptly declared “No, I’ll get it myself”. We tried to explain to him that they are very difficult to get hold of and neither Mercedes or any of the usual suppliers were able to supply one. He ignored us and insisted that he knew best.

The customer had originally complained about a lack of kick-down. We thoroughly checked the kickdown system (cable adjustment, switch and vacuum) and could find no fault.

Colin actually took it upon himself, despite being extremely busy, to take this car for a test drive himself, as a means of giving a new customer good service with some additional input from himself. Colin reported directly to the customer that the kickdown was working fine but that the engine was holding back and that it was symptomatic of air mass failure. Colin also reported to the customer that the engine mountings were perished and that there was some play in either the rear sub-frame bushes or diff mountings and that the exhaust was noisy. The customer looked at Colin as if he were something nasty stuck to his shoe. (Colin didn’t announce himself, he doesn’t like to be seen as “the star of the show”).

and for that reason, the slipshod way they operate and the lack of responsibility for breaking a component (the only logical explanation for the hood latch trim going missing after they had it off and on again)

There are other possibilities but the customer refuses to entertain them.

I will avoid in the future. I only put this comment up so that it balances what might otherwise be misleading glowing reports. They had every chance to offer to solve the hood latch trim situation, but chose to wash their hands of it.

We chose to wash our hands of AN UNREASONABLE CUSTOMER AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO FOR OTHERS LIKE HIM.

When i picked the car up, the seat belt butlers were not working either. they worked fine before, then i noticed they didnt work when i picked it up. when i pointed this out, the mechanic started fiddling around in the fuse box. he didnt know what he was doing, but eventually they started working again and are still working. when i asked what he did to make them work, he said "i dont know"

It is unlikely that anyone having to pay someone else to repair their car is qualified to make the judgement, “he didnt know what he was doing”. It is a well known occurrence on 124s that the aged fuses corrode and cause poor contact. The technician (yes, the one that should have been on his lunch break) simply rotated the fuse to restore connectivity and the seat belt butler worked again. A successful outcome and no charge!

As I said, I won’t be making any further comment. We are quite satisfied with our professionalism and behaviour. In fact, Colin has employed me because he would deal with customers like this in a very different way!

 

[WG M-B]

It's a shame when a reputable London specialist ( and Colin ferns definitely are) have to come on a public forum to defend themselves. It's true that vehicles do pass a vac test but unfortunately can still have a leak.

 

[markmifsud]

It's a shame when a reputable London specialist ( and Colin ferns definitely are) have to come on a public forum to defend themselves. It's true that vehicles do pass a vac test but unfortunately can still have a leak.

When I last had my AC serviced, I was told it only had to hold the vacuum for 10mins to pass the test. As long as it passes that test, the system is then refilled with oil and then refrigerant.

 

[Sp!ke]

Good post WShopman!

Thank you for taking the time to reply and provide a balanced perspective to this thread.

 

[Alia]

Stay away!

Having spent a fortune with these guys I can certainly say I would NEVER go back. Things never got fixed, still paid through the nose and they are rude and terrible.

 

[WG M-B]

Having spent a fortune with these guys I can certainly say I would NEVER go back. Things never got fixed, still paid through the nose and they are rude and terrible.

That's pretty unreasonable as a first post on this forum!

You could introduce yourself in the correct section

 

[BlackC55]

That's pretty unreasonable as a first post on this forum! You could introduce yourself in the correct section

I agree. Spineless imo.