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OPC West London

BingB

Well-known member
Joined
14 May 2013
Messages
172
Folks has anyone used these guys recently, I'm thinking of dropping the car there for a minor service as they are conveniently located for me.

Opinions appreciated
 
Having had a dreadfull and very costly experience of having a 111 Pt check done there
I'd venture out to Porsche Reading and ask for Tim Sweet the service advisor who has recently moved to Reading from OPC Exeter he looked after me for 8 years at OPC Exeter so you will be in very good hands
 
I used them when i had a boxster earlier this year. very condescending staff and awful, unprofessional service. Initially, they refused to honour the warranty and only did so after the dealer i had bought the car from intervened.
my car went in for an ecu malfunction, which took weeks to sort out, and came back with with the wheel alignment ruined. throughout the process, the communication was pathetic and they acted as if they were doing me a favour. mid-way, they changed the person handling my issue and there was no end to the confusion resulting from that. at the end, the lady handling my account was shameless enough to say that i'd receive a request for a review and that she "expected" a 9 or 10/10.
I wouldn't use them if i had a choice.

here's the letter i wrote to the head of the dealership and head of service:
Dear David & Franc,
I had my car (xxx) in for repairs with your dealership. Initially, there was a problem with the ECU, but when I took the car back there was a problem in the wheel alignment. So I had to return it.
On the first occasion, XXX was handling my account. On the second, it was YYY, though there seemed to be an awful lot of confusion about who was responsible.
I received a very mediocre level of service throughout the 5-6 weeks that you had my car. While taking delivery for the second time, YYY mentioned that I'd receive a feedback form. I was hoping to air my views through that, but it hasn't arrived yet. So I'm writing to you.

1) The reason I brought the car in for the first time was that the roof drains had failed and as a result the compartment containing the ECU was flooded. After he received a report from your service centre, XXX informed me that the bill would be around £1,600. When I let him know that the car was under warranty, he said he'd check with Porsche but later mentioned that they were unwilling to allow that repair under warranty.
As a result, I had to get the dealer I bought the car from (Dick Lovett, Swindon) involved. They were more than happy to help out and within a few days, they had managed to obtain the approval. And throughout the process, they regularly kept me informed about how the process was going (which was very different from the standards at your dealership, as I'll mention in a subsequent point).
It was clear that your dealership couldn't be really bothered to work on my behalf and were only interested in taking my money.
2) By far the most frustrating aspect of dealing with you guys that most of the time your people couldn't be bothered to return my calls. More often than not, if I left a message requesting them to call back when they had a few minutes, I had to call back several hours later. They NEVER apologised for not calling back. Either your reception wasn't passing messages or your service staff is a bit too precious.
3) When I took the car back on the first occasion, I checked with YYY whether the tyres had been inflated (because the car hadn't been driven for over a month). She confidently replied that they were. In fact, the car felt very sluggish the minute I started driving it and when I turned in to the first petrol station I found, I discovered that the tyres were hopelessly deflated.
Even after inflating the tyres, it was obvious that the car was pulling to one side and the engine felt sluggish. It turned out that the wheel alignment was off. I'm amazed that you guys thought it was ok to return the car in that state.
4) I was promised my car would be looked at in 2-3 days (on the second occasion). However, it wasn't examined for around 2 weeks after that. At no point did YYY get in touch with me to let me know that there was a delay, let alone apologising for it. I had to keep checking every couple of days and I would just get a matter of fact response that there was a long queue. In fact this lack of communication was a theme with XXX too. I was the one who had to keep following up.
5) Towards the end of the process, I was so cheesed off that I asked YYY to send me the contact details of the senior-most person in the dealership, in order to complain. Needless to say, I didn't get those details. I only managed to get your email ids by calling the reception.
Of course, that didn't stop YYY from letting me know that while I was free to rate her as I chose, she was 'expecting a 9 or 10" on the feedback form that I would be receiving. I was too jaded to laugh by then.
I intend to be a Porsche owner for some time to come as I love the cars. But I'm dreading the thought of interacting with you guys again as you're my nearest dealership.
Best
(Porscheophile).
 
A cautionary tale.
Just bought an 1997 993 carrera 4 37000nmiles, full service history, invoice file showing £22000 spent on it at OPC CHiswick in the last 5 years,, some of the bills amzing , i.e. £5000 to respray the front end, fit new seat belts and alloy pedals, £6500 to fit new carpets and door cards.

BUT no sign of a discs or the wishbones replaced in the last 4 years.
so i offered the owner a price, he wanted £2000 more
so
i suggested a 111 point check at OPC exeter as he had a holiday home in dorset.
he suggested an OPC in london as he lived in SW11.
so a week later , car booked in for 111 point check and me to meet him there to conclude the deal.

On the friday i was driving out of london, so popped into the OPC introduced myself and explained how i operate and suggested that in order not to have any 'problems afterwards' that i find on 993's the weaknesses are my usual lists of
Corrosion to inner faces of brake discs
Caliper slider plates lifting
Wishbone Bushes
Oil leaks to timing chain covers
Rear Pu support Bars
Exhaust and catalyst heat shields etc.
so would they pay special attention to these items


Service advisor told me that they were Porsche Gb and exeter are just a dealership, a 111 Point check is extremely thorough and one could sense an 'attitude'

So monday afterooon i meet the owner who said the car had passed, the comments being

front bump stop split the only failure on the insopection sheet
some corrosion to inner faces
small leak from timing chain covers
non genuine battery
front pads 30% worn
rear pads 20% worn


they told the owner it was the best they have seen, underneath it was like a 2 year old car and he he'd be mad to sell it as he'd never find one like this again, and they werent impressed by my visit to the dealership the previous day. as they were Porsche Gb not a dealership

so the owner drives me back to Sw11 and we have a chat for 2 hours and then he says hes decided to think about it, pays me my train fare and back i go to cornwall.

10 days later he rings me says hes decided to sell it, so i collect the car, drop it off to OPC exeter for them to 111 point check the car, service it as the last service at OPC Chiswick was al ow mileage annual service, which we all know is something that isnt listed in the service book, i.e. a service but no oil or filter change.

Just had the report from Porsche exeter
front bump stops need replacing and electronic wheel alignment
non genuine battery
NSF caliper plates lifting
front discs severly rusted, disc 0.5 mm above wear limit, discs might skim, but 111 point check limits state that discs must be 1mm above wear limit to pass
rear discs in need of replacement, definetly wont skim and again 0.5 mm above minimum wear limit
2 rear PU support bars corroded away
cut in 1 tyre down to the canvas.
I obviously authorised them to do the work at a cost of over £3000

so i ring the OPC that inspected the vehicle who tell me

The car was within guidelines and exeter dont know what they're talking about, who inspected it, i replied the senior technician service / manager.
eventually the service advisor agreed to get the service manager to look into it, i suggested he ring exeter , but he replied he couldn't see the point


all in all an absolute disgrace
 
Looks like a trip to Reading may be in order!!!!

Thanks guys.
 
Looks like it lol.

Mark that's terrible.

I have never used them but....

When I bought my 993 nearly 4 years ago it had 32k miles on the clock.
The car came with a large stack of Chiswick invoices £16-17k? spent within two years of ownership by the previous owner.

This year had a call reminding me the service was due.
Asked for a price and was quoted £550 for a major service by the receptionist. Sounded reasonable but when I called back to arrange a day, I thought I'd best confirm the price, and was told "approx" £1,100.

I kindly declined.
 
Bill Gates has three children/.
2 girls and a boy.
One Christmas he asks all three of them, what they would like Santa to bring the,.
The first girl say, I'd like a hairdressing set.
So Bill goes out and buys up laboratoire Garnier, and all its subsiduaries.

The second girl says shed like a wendy house.
So the old man goes out and buys Metropole group of Hotels.

The little boys says he wants a cowboy outfit.


Fill in the rest yourself.......................................
 
stuttgartmetal said:
Bill Gates has three children/.
2 girls and a boy.
One Christmas he asks all three of them, what they would like Santa to bring the,.
The first girl say, I'd like a hairdressing set.
So Bill goes out and buys up laboratoire Garnier, and all its subsiduaries.

The second girl says shed like a wendy house.
So the old man goes out and buys Metropole group of Hotels.

The little boys says he wants a cowboy outfit.


Fill in the rest yourself.......................................

LOL i too have heard nothing but bad things about OPC west London.
 
BingB said:
Folks has anyone used these guys recently, I'm thinking of dropping the car there for a minor service as they are conveniently located for me.

Opinions appreciated

Well that's a pretty balanced view. You should be able to make a decision now. Let us know what you decide.
 
I have to add to this:

I took my Boxster there years ago for a service

Reception looked at me like I was a piece of SH.. until I asked about servicing the car sitting out side.


Then they wanted me to spend £4k on it for various non essential things on top of a £1500 service.

So my 997 come along and the fuel cap locking had jammed, I took it to them as I am a mile away from them and to see if there had been any improvement.

They fixed the problem under warranty and then wanted to charge me £??? to change the wiper blades, FFS are they some backstreet MOT garage.

Steer well clear

IMHO
 
They are a bunch of cnuts.Very poor attitude on every thing.

Wanted to charge me £120.00 to code on heated seats & headlight wash !

I would go to a garage who knows about 997's.I stopped using OPC & well know indies a long time ago.

If you find a back street guy who knows 997's you can save a fortune & also have a great service.
 
With all respect to those who've voiced complaints previously, I do believe, having read the reports above, that there's been quite a 'shake-up' there in the past year or so - because I've used OPC West London twice over the summer months - both times for warranty repairs, and I have to admit that the team could not have been more polite to me. Given what I've read here previously, I was truly very surprised at the most pleasant, polite, respectful and professional way that the team there treated me.

All I can say is that Porsche must have listened to the previous complaints, voiced by others in the past, as my recent experiences were nothing but positive. The only possible niggle I had there was that one of the members of staff took my number and promised to have someone ring me back shortly, but I ended up having to call them again. Nonetheless, apart from that tiny, tiny issue, it was altogether, an absolutely first class experience for me at OPC West London.
 
2hot2trot said:
The only possible niggle I had there was that one of the members of staff took my number and promised to have someone ring me back shortly, but I ended up having to call them again.

That is outrageous.

If my mechanic does not call me back I get my boys to go round & give him a slap.
 
To be fair
I did complain to Porsche gb that the service manager told me
As far as I'm concerned you're in the trade and you get f**k all from me
No longer works there

Still not sure I'd want to go back though
 

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