Thought i would give my feedback on my trip to Powerstation last monday.
What I have always thought was a class leading Subaru specialist.
I went with Ron to have my rear AST's rebuilt by curtis and had this booked in for at least a month.
Greg also came along in his 330s hatch and had some work done to his (i'll let him fill in this bit if he wants!)
I rang them the week before to remind them....told them that I was with greg and we were from SES and suggested doing a write up about them....this was fine.We were the only ones booked in that day.
Anyway, last monday I left home at 5.30am to get there for 9. It was a nightmare of a journey....snowy, car fire on m25 etc etc but we got there at 9.30...not too bad considering.
They had promised we would be away for 2pm.
Once there we were starving so asked if there was a greasy spoon or similar close by. They said no but a bp garage was not far away. So knowing that we passed this about a mile away we walked there in the freezing cold and grabbed what we could before walking back.
Once back at the garage we wondered round in again a freezing premises. Asked if we could look round, they said no go ahead, no offer of a tour?
There appeared to be about 6 employees there all working at pedestrian pace I thought, but both cars were in and being worked on.
I asked if there was a coffee machine or something...they said it broke and they never replaced it and to go and make one in their kitchen to which I did.
Brought it back into their waiting room which had a heater which just about took the temp to zero degrees. This room had the ability to have 4 strip light bulbs but only one was present. The cabinets which should have showed off products were two thirds empty, but there was a used bottle of additive in there which was nice.
The tv and playstation one! were broken and there was nothing to do but wait. To keep warm we walked around the premises trying to find the 'have you tried upstairs' area that was promised from the writing on the door of the waiting room.
To no ones surprise this now didn't exist as they sacked the employee at some time previous.
They then stopped for lunch for an hour and told us they were going out and turned off all the lights in the premises apart from the waiting room (which was nice)
At this point I went to my car and gathered every bit of clothing I had to keep warm, we are talking three layers including gloves! Greg did the same.
I was sooo cold I asked one employee you was still around for another heater so he grabbed the one from the reception office.
Anyway it got to 2pm and by which time we had all had a sense of humor failure. I pressed them to hurry up and eventually mine was done at 2.45. They told us Greg's would be another 2 hours!
I wanted to leave asap just to turn on the cars heater so reluctantly we left Greg (me 500 quid lighter after two shocks rebuilt, two new softer rear springs and a geo done) and they then put the guy that had been working on mine to work on Gregs car.
I understand he got away around 4pm.
Now don't get me wrong in that I was expecting some sort of red carpet treatment..... but bearing in mind the 4 hour journey time and the fact we were from a club and spending good money and they had a chance for some positive press I was amazed at the lack of customer care.
I swear that if this had been RCM we would have been given the keys to the firms van to go and find a cafe or they would have made us a coffee or something that would bring us back?
The overall experience was negative...if it wasnt for the fact I needed the Ast specialist i wouldn't recommend this place. It looks like its dying on its **** and only just surviving.
I wouldn't be surprised that since Litchfield moved away and that association ended they haven't kept up and business has gone down the pan. They do not seem interested in progressing their business.
Oh and get this they had some poor sap cleaning old hub caps which they sell on!
As to the work to mine....yes it feels a bit better due to the shocks not leaking and new springs but not the transformation i was hoping for
and yes....it was BLOODY COLD
