smart of Lakeside

[claptnei]

smart of Lakeside

My recent visit for an A service and MOT was a complete load of ****.
1. Serviced ok, took 2 1/2 hours.
2. Didn't do the MOT, then called me a liar, saying I hadnt't booked it. Showed them the e-mail they sent me proving I had! Was then next in line for MOT.
3. Asked them if the emmissions would fail with a Sidewinder exhaust fitted. Said they would ask the technician.
4. 2 hours later told that it had passed, then shown the certificate of failure for emmissions and faulty headlight that should have been tested in the service!
5. Said they wouldn't charge for the MOT. Then gave me a bill for £175 addressed to "Mr A Chav" on their headed paper!
6. Asked to see the manager, then told that I would have to pay for the MOT?
7. Blew my gasket and shouted "GET ME THE F*** MANAGER NOW!"
8. Manager calmed me and offered me a free retest a few days later after I had changed the exhaust. He would also sack the person who put "Mr A Chav" on the bill if he could prove who it was.
9. On leaving, 5 hours later, found they hadn't reset the engine warning light that was showing on my dash.
10. Returned a few days later with standard exhaust and new bulb fitted, PASSED!

I am never ever going there again!

[Calliope-Muse]

Re: smart of Lakeside

My Smartie is in Lakeside today, under it's warranty, with a lot of faulty units (i suspect)

Anyway, I managed to get a lift back from there this morning, but to collect my car I need to book a taxi. Without sounding a cheapskate will Smart pay for my taxi, given that the car is under its guarrantee (sp?) and shouldnt :wag: have gone wrong in the first place? (its only 6 months old, 4000 miles)

Does anyone know the answer to this?

:thanx:

[Puddlejumper]

Re: smart of Lakeside

....and get this....£8 labour for changing the battery on the key fob.:censor:

Dickie D

Thts shocking, bloody shocking !!!!:censor:

[Calliope-Muse]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Complaints about the servicing @ Lakeside...

Today i took my Smart 4-4 in to be looked at. At 6 months old, and 4000 miles on the clock its problems included

1) Alarm going off at 1am consistently
2) Dodgy reverse gear
3) Sudden losses of power
4) Threatening to stall even when foot was on the clutch (its a manual)
5) Refusing to pull away in first gear, so i had to switch the engine off then on again
6) Staying in low low revs, though the engine sounded incredibly noisy
7) Lacking power and being totally unresponsive

My mum has the same car as I do, and is insured on mine. She drove it for a bit, and agreed with me something was very wrong. Smart had it for the day, and I just collected it (thankfully its under warranty)

Wht did they say?
1) Alarm fixed
2) The rest of the problems dont exist. Your mum has the BRABUS ("er....no...she has the 1.1 the same as I do") which is why your car feels different to her. She isnt used to the lack of power. And you just dont understand how unresponsive a 1.1 can be.

I was so annoyed! :censor: Have had the car 6 months, I've driven 4000 miles in it, I know what it feels like. Trying to stall even with my foot flat on the floor of the clutch is not a good sign! :censor:

Anyway, they bled the clutch (or something?) and I'll be seeing another SMART repair centre if things continue to go wrong. The receptionists and people there were so rude it was incredible. I really like Nick and Charlie (the sales guys) but some of the people there are beyond belief, and the guy i was dealing with made it clear he didnt believe what I was saying about my car.

Its running ok for the moment, but it has been doing that - being ok, then getting worse, etc. so we'll see...

Nina

[Landy]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Picked mine up today.

Can't say i'm filled with confidence. I went in and said I had come to collect my car, I was asked my name, and car registration, lady came back with the key and said "there ya go". That was it, no explanation of work done, and no checking of ID or anything to prove that I was who I said I was. At the end of the day if the leak is fixed I will be happy, but for a prestige company I think that kind of customer service is on the poor side.

[Evilution]

Re: smart of Lakeside

I went there yesterday as I was passing in the off chance that they could adjust my clutch on the star machine (10 minute max job).
Nick was on holiday, other sales guy seemed ok and passed me onto some blonde bird.
She passed me on to a small creepy guy. I explained I wanted the clutch adjusted on the star machine and he said "let's go and have a look at your car".
WHY? you don't need to see it, anyway. Stood there and looked at it for a minute and went back in to "see what he could do".
5 minutes later came out and said they didn't have time plus they would need time to get the remap code from Germany.
WTF are you on you pr**k I just want you to plug your star machine into my car, click a button and wait while it adjusts itself, not bloody rocket science.

"we don't have time",

Don't have time! I have been here long enough to have done the job 3 times over.

"we'll have to book you in"

Er No!, I don't think so.

[V134EFB]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Had my belowed 4-2 collected by Smart of Lakeside on Tuesday 29th - it was stalling and not restarting, and so they came to pick it up. Bad idea. Not only did they drive it away (I'm in Southend) but it took them all day to get round to looking at it, and they never called me back, even when I'd called them two or three times.

At 5.40pm on Tues they answered my call and said they were just about to ring - could they keep it overnight as they suspected the MEG unit but at £700 + VAT + labour they wanted to be sure. Fair enough, I said.

Wed. morning and they now decide its the crankshaft sensor - but have to order one in. Won't be in til Thurs. lunchtime.

Thurs around 3pm they called to say it was the sensor, its all fixed, and costs £145 all in. Brilliant!! Smartie fixed, & I'm not bankrupt. They delivered it home, & I took it out after work.

OH DEAR...... they've wiped my remap. :censor: :censor: :censor:
Not a happy bunny. and they won't do anything about it

So it's actually cost me £145 plus new remap when I can get round to it.... L2B probably.

Don't got there!!!!!

[Landy]

Re: smart of Lakeside

I just had my first service, an A service. Being my local dealer I phoned them, the service lady was most unhelpfull, I stated that I needed a courtesy car and they said earliest they could do is the 15th, I'm not in the country and teh car needed the servcie sooner rather than later, rather than offer suggestions it was a like it or lump it attitude, so I booked in with Smart Canary Wharf. They've done the service and looked at a wind noise issue that cropped up after Smart Lakeside fitted new Wing Mirrors to resolve a leak (see above). Canary Wharf can't do anything about the Wind Noise because the claim has gone in from Smart Lakeside and so I need to take it back to them.

So all in all thumbs down for Smart Lakeside servicing - Sales guy Nick is still the diamond sitting on top of a cow pat at that place.

[Evilution]

Re: smart of Lakeside

OH DEAR...... they've wiped my remap. :censor: :censor: :censor:

All remappers I know of will put it back on for nothing. Ask them.

[Messerschmitt Owner]

Re: smart of Lakeside

All remappers I know of will put it back on for nothing. Ask them.

I agree

also, let's face it, they've obviously put some new software on your car that has wiped the map! That frankly isn't their fault! You had some unauthorised software loaded and they accidentally removed it and replaced it with the correct factory software!

Speak to your remapper - a good one will flash the map back on for free or charge £25 only! Hardly the end of the world! Although you could go get a new map from a different provider!

My local smart indie is upgrading my map free next time my car is in for a service - as it is getting new intercooler pipes and the mod will be benefitted from a new map!

Campbell

[Calliope-Muse]

Re: smart of Lakeside

I'm about to take my sick forfour in to Smart again next week, having had a little word with the manager of the Service Dept. after how bad they were last time I was in there. :censor:

Really hope they actually find the problem rather than fob me off with "No? We've never heard of difficulties with reverse gear/doors that dont shut" etc

Here's hoping, anyway... :silvertri

[Calliope-Muse]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Well, I'm sorry to say it, but Charlie has :censor: ducked me off BIG TIME

Where do I start? Not returning phone calls is a good one - called him on Thursday, and he said he'd call back.

........Its Tuesday today, so we gave him another call, given that he still hadnt bothered to phone back. Oh, also called yesterday and he promised to call back :wag: :wag: :wag: :censor:

They are being very slow with the car, and have finally agreed to take it in to have a grade 2 smart mechanic look at the damn thing. Meanwhile, the 2 of us are surviving on 1 car, and my transport bills are astronomical without mine

Smart of Lakeside is being seriously appalling in dealing with us - have the Managing Dirctor of it involved now as well, and their customer services people, etc.

I will never ever buy another Smart from them - I will be buying another Smart, but anywhere else! They truly are awful at customer services, incompetent at phoning back, and rude and aggressive to deal with (Charlie included)

The only thing they do say is "Oh, I appreciate your difficulties". Oh really??!! Then they'd give us a car that WORKED.

:censor: :censor:

*apologies for the ranting*

[besty]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Smart of Lakeside Head Office number is 01908 245000 why don't you go above Lakeside and report them? I must admit I've never had any problems with the sales there and they've always been helpful to me but the after care is no doubt :censor: :censor: :censor: :censor: AWFUL!!!!! (from my girlfriends experience) I went to Smartarse in Watford today for my C service and they were GREAT ......Go there if you can.
They even checked and adjusted my clutch and neva even charged me for it

[cham128]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Yeah i'm about to take my roadster to smartarse because even though it's closer for me to get to lakeside i haven't heard many good things about the aftersales

[iansumuk]

Re: smart of Lakeside

Smart of Lakeside made me drive all the way from Hastings to test drive a Brabus on a Sunday (about 4 weeks ago) and despite having an appointment they couldn't be bothered to see me. They kept me waiting in reception for 25 minutes, another customer had been hanging around the showroom for 1.5 hours and hadn't seen anyone. The receptionist told me the chap was busy. I left telling them that they need to tell the saleman not to make appointments if he has no intention of keeping them.

Then I went to Maidstone, very helpful but they put me off by quoting me more for the same car than Coventry! Conventry may be miles away but they knew their stuff, Maidstone insisted it wasn't possible to fit cruise control to the Roadster Brabus as it could only be fitted from new - Conventry said it could be done and indeed did it. Works fine. Finding a dealer in the Southeast seemed impossible, they all seemed to have their faults! Smart of Brighton were initially helpful but didn't really do anything to find me a car.

I think servicing it might be a case of taking it to Strood where there is a specialist. I don't know for sure yet, I need to get more info on them.

What makes Coventry so good for sales is "Robin Smart" knows everything about the cars - being an owner/enthusiast himself helps. And they're only 175 miles from me! Who cares about driving 175 miles! I might even take it to them for servicing!