The product versus the service 3 - the crunch

Ok, I'll own up - its a Porsche 911 2S that I've had since July 05 and now has 38k miles on it.

So did the service experience with my beloved car live up to the expectations set by the product and brand? Or did it dent the love of a petrolhead? Read on.....

Well, I'm left with complex emotions..... so let me look at it in terms of dissatisfiers ("dissat") and the big satisfiers or "vsat".



The vsat moments:

• Being called ahead of the service booking to be offered a test drive in a 4S, including some time on an airfield. This changed my expectations from "will they screw up the car?" to "wow, I'm looking forward to that!"
• Nothing was too much trouble for the dealership. From me being on conference calls to lifts to a client site, leaving bags, free coffee and kit kats etc. Everyone very smiley and helpful.
• "Any chance I could test drive the 911 Turbo this afternoon when I come back to pick my car up" - no problem
• And of course getting chance to see just how fast a 4 wheel drive 911 will go round a 90 degree corner in safety (very fast indeed) and what happens when the car starts to slide (beautiful....folllowed by very helpful electronics !)

So at this point it's looking like a good day....

And of course this works a treat for them. The perfect sales opportunity. Done very well indeed. At the perfect time when I have to go in anyway - bear in mind this is in Swindon and I live in Kent.

The dissatisfiers:

• After going to all that trouble, why wouldn't someone have worked out in advance what my car is worth. OK it needs checking on the day but..... How else would you close the deal having created all that emotional desire? I got a call later with a "lowest price, but we may be able to do better", but then there's little chance for a serious close. But by then there are 2 other reasons for not buying to consider:
• The lowest price offered is somewhat insulting. Compared to what anyone expects, that is always going to be a tricky problem. But compared to what cars are being sold at, there's evidently more to it. "We're not buying cars now til January" - yet their ad to buy cars is in the Sunday Times today. What they really mean is we're not buying cars with your mileage - that's pretty clear when you look on the website.
• The service guys have found a rear main oil seal that has perished and a worn rack end on my steering. Strange that - the car feels great and there's no oil leaks on the drive or need to top up. Now my daughters 7 year old Clio doesn't have these kind of "wear" problems and I certainly don't expect it from some ultra expensive German engineering.
• And of course, this is where you find out that it's only a 2 year warranty, not 3 as on most other cars. No one tried to sell on a warranty extension at the 2 year point. They want me to pay for faults in the car. Hmmmmm, this isn't looking so good. At this point I find it a bit of a joke but I can feel a rumbling inside if they don't cough up and fix these problems. A call is expected next week after they talk to the maufacturer.

But these faults reminded me why I set this blog going last week - why I felt trepidacious at the thought of the service visit.

My 21 year old Porsche has done 130k miles. At 63k miles the Porsche dealer in Kent said it wouldn't do another 1000 miles on the clutch. It's done rather more, thank you, and is still going strong.

A Boxster I owned had it engine seals done 3 times by the Kent dealer , all under warranty. There were some very red faces when I retold them the story they'd told me about redesigned parts and "impossible to happen again" after the second replacement. They obviously hadn't remembered how many times they did it already.

And the final straw had been when the brake discs needed replacing at under 3 years - "worn out". I challenged this and got Porsche GB to check the discs. "20% worn - no problem". Then the Kent dealer insisted I should still pay for the new disks, eventually offering to charge only at cost. You can imagine where that conversation went.

So I sold the car and vowed not to touch Porsche again. Still fuming some months later, a Porsche mailer came through and I emailed the marketing director's name on the bottom of it to say stop mailing me, as it reminded me how I 'd been treated. To my complete surprise 15 minutes later my phone rang and it was the marketing director. He apologised for what had happened and said the mailings would stop. Wow, someone cared! It didnt make me rush out and buy another then but it meant Porsche weren't on my "never again" list like Audi are (but that's another story). That made me happy - when you've a brand loyalty you dont want it trashed by unscrupulous people.

So now what do I think is happening?

• The oil seal is suspiciously like the previous rip off to my mind.
• A worn steering rack is certainly not something you expect, let alone expect to pay for.
• Given attitudes so far, I completely expect the dealer to sort both out either way whatever the warranty says. So I am discounting these things in my mind and thinking I will buy another. Of course that can switch easily
• I'm left waiting to see what offer they come up with on my car and find out if I own a pup or a great investment.....

Interestingly, raising the emotional bar, by making me want a better still car, may backfire if my own car. The product I loved to bits one week ago could turn from a supercar to a depreciating lemon in the space of one visit.

So product versus the service? It started 1-0, now its 1-1. The service experience was great, helped by the sales experience. But doubts about the product have been planted. How the service experience finishes will be interesting as will the sales experience. But will it end product nil, experience nil or will it be 2-2 ?

Watch this space to see what happens next....