Farnham Carriage Company – A Response

I received this from Glenbourne Motor Company, who share the premises with Farnham Carriage Company (it isn’t at all obvious that there are several companies on one plot, but I guess that allows a share of success and failures – and makes for a bigger showroom to attract custom).

Anyway, they go on to respond to a previous blog (Cars…. and why Farnham Carriage Company suck(ed) the big one) where I give my opinion of my dealings with Farnham Carriage Company. The response highlights that my purchase was through Glenbourne Motor Company, and not FCC directly – although Farnham Carriage Company and Glenbourne Motor Company have seen there have been problems with sales and maintenance, and have acted on these issues.

There is a question of my payment, but I think they have some crossed wires going on in their finance department, as I paid a deposit, then paid for the car on the day I picked it up. There was no delay from my end – so I can only imagine that the payment didn’t show due to an error their end. I was unaware of this – so no wonder I hadn’t mentioned it!

This blog has just been brought to my attention and i am responding because some of what has been written is inaccurate.

I am the owner of the business that sold the original 10 year old ford fiesta for £995 mentioned above – the original car purchased was from GLENBOURNE MOTOR COMPANY not farnham carriage company. (we share premises)

The second piece of vital information is the repairs – they were completed by an independant company from ourselves. As you all must be aware unfortunately as with anything second hand there can be problems but it is how we deal with those problems that is important. If problems do occur (which will happen from time to time) we INSTRUCT someone to fix them.

We are a small company and therefore we are not fortunate enough to be able to employ mechanics ourselves so we have to rely on independant companies and their workmanship. Mr ……… had issues with the car shortly after purchasing it so we said we would fix them as we do with any problem that occurs (within the warranty). I am not a mechanic myself so cannot comment but unfotunately Mr …….. said the work carried out was not satisfactory which i will accept, however it is not because i am a ‘cowboy’ but due to the company i instructed had not completed the work to a satisfactory standard.

The salesman just said that I was just being picky over a new engine noise that had come on since they had carried out the head gasket change. As clear as anything I remember him saying that the engine (after repair) was very good for the age of the car. He did not accept my argument that although the engine was good for the age of the car, it was not as good as it had been a few days previously when I had tested and purchased the car. I felt belittled at the attitude presented to me.

I accept a portion of the blame because i instructed them and that is why we now use MOTEST a local Toyota Servicing Franchise and Mot Test Centre for most our work to eliminate such problems occuring again.

One other piece of information that Mr …….. has decided to exclude is that he (due to an admin error on our part) did not pay for his car for 6 weeks until our book keeper noticed the mistake – i appreciate that this was our mistake.

It was excluded because I knew nothing of it!

From my side of the deal I had paid both the deposit up front, then the final sum on the collection of the car. At no point did I take 6 weeks to pay money.  Bringing that up only highlights an internal problem with the company, and not the customer. I do appreciate that they accept fault here, but don’t know why they brought it up as I had no idea of any of this!

I run my business properly and try to satisfy every customer but unfortunatly as you all must appreciate it is very hard to please everyone.

In any business mistakes happen and faults occur but it is as a business how you respond and rectify those problems and i pride myself on trying to offer that service. If at any time you feel like you haven’t recieved that service then i would like to take this opportunity to apologise on behalf of Glenbourne Motor Company.

With regards to max emmerson fish, Farnham Carriage Company have now some months ago removed him from the premises because of poor trading standards and personal reasons, unfortunatley they/we were not aware of the extent of his troubles until he left – we would therefore like to apologise to anyone who has been let down by Max.

I thank Glenbourne Motor Company for their response, and if the changes have taken place as they have said (I have no reason to doubt otherwise), then hopefully they will gain a good reputation as they satisfy customers with good service.