To whom it may concern,
Not long back the service light coming on my two year old Fiat 500 1.3 Lounge.
The car was due for its 18,000 mile service and there were a few problems, the lights behind the heater controls had stopped working, the suspension was knocking on the left hand side, the left hand heated mirror stopped working, as did the rear window washer.
I took the car to the Arnold Clark dealership in Oldbury, they were pretty fairly priced and carried out the work quite quickly, during the first visit they carried out the service work, refitted the rear washer pipe and ordered parts for the warranty repair work.
On arriving home I realised the scuttle panel across the bottom of the window wipers was loose and hadn't been refitted properly. I informed them of this during the next visit and they promised to refit it.
Once the work had been carried out all seemed right at a glance, however on closer inspection, the scuttle panel was still loose, the ivory coloured heater controls and plastic trim were all scratched and chipped, most of the controls didn't work (vents wouldn't open). The worst part was I had to point out everyone of these faults to the service manager on another visit and he took some persuading as he thought it was perfectly acceptable to return the car to me in this state.
He told me he would order a new vent and heater controls, which was fair of him and I couldn't really ask for much more.
Once these had come in I took the car again to the dealership and the parts were fitted, I had requested the scuttle panel be fixed properly. Upon completion of the work the dials hadn't been replaced even though the trim had and the scuttle panel hadn't even been looked at.
I took it back again, the final time as of yet, and the new dials were fitted and I was told that was it all done and there were no existing problems. However the scuttle panel has not been fixed and rainwater is still reaching the electrics under the bonnet and the whole heater control panel now comes away from the dashboard. As for the lights behind the heater controls, they still go on and off when the car goes over a speed bump. (see the attached pictures to see the 'completed' work.)
So basically, except for the service work, I have been driving to and from Oldbury for a fortnight and got nowhere. And to top it all off, I took the car to another dealership to see what they would say about the work and their service manager told me it was shoddy and condemned it. He told me that I might not be able to have another replacement trim part because Fiat would demand an explanation as to why I needed two.
This service is unacceptable, I have spent numerous pounds on fuel, wasted countless hours of my own time and my wife has been without a vehicle for near two weeks. No kind of compensation has been offered, no peace offering, not even an apology! This is completely shocking customer service and I request something be said to the service manager. For now I am sending this complaint letter to yourselves and my story has been posted on a well known Fiat based forum. I believe that should be enough to get a response, and more importantly a solution from yourselves and if not further action will be taken.
Regards,
my dad
