Pentagon Seat Nottingham - 0/10

[JWLeeson]

Time to share my story - and its not a good one! + long story coming. I didn't want to be rational with moaning my head off straight away so this was from last year. Not the complete detailed story as ill be here all day!

So my Seat Cupra went in for a routine service (Major £200+) This is my local dealer, apart from Bristol Street Motors Derby but this was full up with my only weekend free.

The car went in with only 1 real instruction... Don't wash it! (Cant be dealing with fixing swirls after I've just mopped it)

Car went in Friday 1ish, I then wandered about for a couple of hours until they rang me to say it was complete. I returned, in a rush as I was going somewhere that night and wanted to beat the 5pm Friday traffic.

Got the car back, friendly staff, paid the invoice and then jumped in and got home. The next morning I decided to do a check on the car and touch on some of the minor points to make sure it had all been done.

So... the things that were broken/damaged/missing
- Air box not attached, I mean they pushed it back on without screwing the 2 parts back together!
- Intake pipe damaged, were the hose clipped was pushed back and creased the pipe
- Missing jack cover from the side skirts
- Drivers side skirt was pulled away from the car (looked like it had been jacked up on the skirts from a 2 post and the clearance was wrong)
- 5 wheel nut covers missing
- Pollen filter was fitted wrong (this is a pokayoke - meaning idiot proofed so you can't fit it incorrectly)

I was at this point fuming how my car could be this badly damaged from a simple service and i started to doubt what else had been done incorrectly, wrong oil? cross-thread spark plugs?

ollowing the re-visit the car was taken back into the garage, another 40 mile round trip at my expense to complete the work. During this time waiting for the vehicle, I received a phone call stating the jack cover had been sprayed the wrong colour after I asked whether they wanted the paint code and the paint colour. But were adamant they got the correct one of the system.

I then went back to the garage to collect the car and did a once over check, as I did previously at home. The side skirt that was damaged was re-stuck on with 'sticky pads' this was no removed off the vehicle before hand, just pulled and sticky pads applied underneath, not the correct process of fitting a side skirt!! The air box they said must have just come loose while driving 40 miles... because all bolts do that don't they? Remember the last time your wheels fell off while popping to the shop... yeah me too. The service manager was sure the bumper to bumper check was complete but failed to identify the problem with the internal fans (i kept this quiet to make sure they did what they said - which they didn't) which after no attempt was made to resolve this problem. No apology was made from anyone during the time at the garage, just excuses and statements saying they have no complaints with their service plans - world class companies always have some sort of quality problems - NO ONE IS 100%!

And after all that, they only go and wash it... which I stated DO NOT DO! Car looked like a hologram when they were finished!

So after all this i was properly annoyed and I contacted the Manager. I don't want to name and shame but (David White) he just kept repeating that they never have complaints and I'm wrong about what I've found and they initial service was done to the correct standards - even though all the things they had to correct the second time around.

I exchanged various emails to him which he then responded with "Again I am sure this will not be the response you are looking for but I can confirm this is my final response and I shall only now reply to confirm receipt of any further correspondence from yourself." and then pushed it onto his PA...

I gave up with pentagon at this point, fixed the car myself and got it checked over from another garage which I know the owners and technicians... should of took it here first but I still want to keep the 100% seat service history.

I then complained to Seat UK who could not do anything as Pentagon were the trading company. I persavered with it and it was escalated again, god knows to what level! I exchanged multiple emails and they contacted David White (again with lots of helpful success).

In the end I managed to get my service refunded but no apology from Pentagon. Ive made a promise to myself that i will never set foot onto a pentagon forecourt or service centre again. My car goes in for another routine service with Bristol Street Motors Derby next week, I'm begging this doesn't happen again because I'll lose faith with Seat completely!

I bet people have had good experiences with Pentagon, but for me... yeah you know the ending to this sentence.

 

[ollie87]

I have to say I'm not surprised. I've had LOADS of problems with these cowboys over the past year, it's why I didn't buy the car from them originally.

 

[Dr.Dash]

Not dissimilar to my experience of Pentagon in Burton. Whilst not directly related to being a SEAT dealer, my insurer used them for accident repairs, I've heard not one positive comment regarding Pentagon from anyone whose used them in any capacity.

My experience:
- They too jacked the car up on the sills resulting in a 16mm panel gap on the repair which was covered with a piece of tape to hide it! Tried to blame it on me saying it was pre-existing damage.
-Large stone chip on the window when the car was returned.

The manager was very understanding, I got the impression that he deals with "problems" related to the quality of work regularly.
Screen repaired, sill likewise (sort of), they added a couple of scratches to the newly fitted panel in the process, refitted the door incorrectly, and left something rattling around inside it too.


I received an e-mail customer survey regarding the repair from Pentagon (Judge Service). Unsurprisingly it never appeared on their website, which only seems to feature 4/5 star reviews...

Lessons learnt:
1. Avoid Pentagon at all costs.
2. When buying insurance check that you have some control over which repair centres are used rather than just going for the absolute cheapest quote.
3. Take detailed photos of your car before you let anyone lose on it. I've done this for a number of years, with decent mob phone cameras it only takes a few minutes, and was what gave me the ability to prove that what the Pentagon "mechanic" said was a flat lie...

 

[CraigFrTsi]

Have to admit pentagon are crap, wish it was still a dedicated seat dealership which was way better. I used to know the manager personally and used to take real care of all my families seats and even got us on experience days down donnington for a blast round the track in an Ibiza F2 rally car and huge amounts of fun on the skid pan.