leeds Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Had cause to contact two small 4 x 4 companies recently with great results. Ordered some bits from Devon 4 x 4 one weekend. Was busy the following week so was not concerned that it had not arrived. The following Monday I phoned them up and asked what was happening to my order. Their response was give us a little while and we find out what has happened. 15 minutes later they were back on the phone saying we are trying to track your order and will phone you back later today and they were apologetic. A couple of hours later they phoned up and said they were sending another consignment out which arrived the following day. They were very apologetic about the non arrival of the first consignment and dealt with it politely quickly, professionaly with no BS. So a big thumbs up to Devon 4 x 4. Three years ago fitted X springs to the rear of my 110 overland vehicle since then it has done about 50,000 miles abroad including 25,000 miles in an 8 month period in Australia last year. 20,000 miles were on non bitumen roads which included lots of heavily corrugated roads. The corrugations caused both rear brake stone guards to fail, the bracket holding the bonnet stay cracked. the bolts holding the top of radiator frame together rubbed a hole in the top of the rad, a 12 bladed fan become a 5 bladed fan and I lost count over number of self tappers I had to replace. The rear shocks were shot and on stripping down rear suspension found the bottom retaining plates on the X springs had suffered from fatigue. I emailed X-eng informing them of the history of my vehicle and what had happened. I got a quick response saying if I sent a photo in they would send me a replacement pair of retaining brackets. Duely sent a photo and got a replacement pair the following day. Since these brackets were 3 years old X-eng could well just say tough, out of warrenty replacement brackets will be £X etc They didn't which shows the high quality of customer care X-eng has. A mark of a really good company is how they deal with something when things go 'wrong' On this front both Devon 4 x 4 and X-eng are great companies. A big thumbs up to Devon 4 x 4 and X-Eng. Will happily buy from both companies again and recommend both of them Regards Brendan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Thanks Brendan! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 good to read good news for a change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Reading things like this makes you know who to go to for stuff in the future! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeds Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 Just a thought. Companies who look after their customers are more likely to look after their staff and their suppliers. OK the 'caring' companies may not make as much money in the the short term but will make bigger 'profits' long term. Personally I think that the more 'caring' companies are more likely to survive the current economic climate as their customers will probably be loyal to them. Karma etc Regards Brendan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 Just a thought. Companies who look after their customers are more likely to look after their staff and their suppliers. OK the 'caring' companies may not make as much money in the the short term but will make bigger 'profits' long term. Personally I think that the more 'caring' companies are more likely to survive the current economic climate as their customers will probably be loyal to them. Karma etc Regards Brendan Spot on - look after your staff and your staff will look after your customers. I used to work for a reasonably well known holiday activity company - they had precisely this philosophy. 80% returning customers, and very loyal staff. Nuff said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted April 5, 2009 Share Posted April 5, 2009 I think its exactly as you say - when things go wrong you truly find out how good (or as is sadly often the case) how bad companies, their after sales service and their true belief as to being fair and decent really is You have in the above thread highlighted 2, of the sadly too few, good ones. From my own personal expereince I would add Ashcrofts and North Off Road to the above list who fixed probs with huge apologies and fast too, actually making me feel better towards them than if nothing had gone wrong and I would recomend both and will use again over others who may say "Oooo but We are cheaper tho....." Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will_warne Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 I think its exactly as you say - when things go wrong you truly find out how good (or as is sadly often the case) how bad companies, their after sales service and their true belief as to being fair and decent really is You have in the above thread highlighted 2, of the sadly too few, good ones. From my own personal expereince I would add Ashcrofts and North Off Road to the above list who fixed probs with huge apologies and fast too, actually making me feel better towards them than if nothing had gone wrong and I would recomend both and will use again over others who may say "Oooo but We are cheaper tho....." Nige I'd certainly agree about X-Eng and Ashcrofts. The latest experience with Ashcrofts was on Friday when the chap I was co-driving for this weekend had a problem with one of his ARB's (turned out he'd stripped the edges off the locking ring so it would fire itself out under load). Ashcrofts closes at 4pm on Friday - we arrived at 3.45. Dave was quickly on hand to have a look and one of the technicians got to work quickly stripping the diff to discover the problem. As my driver is using the new style LR ARB Dave didn't have any spare pats in stock so we decided on The technician then agreed to wait a little later to finish building up the diff and while he was doing this Dave showed me the prototype Force 9. This is looking seriously good with some excellent feature! Top marks (again) Ashcrofts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 I would like to add Mantec to that list, I know that they are not the cheapest but as above it’s not always about price. My 110 has a roll cage so it’s not a standard fit Snorkel despite what others tell you!! I phoned around several places most of which didn't even bother to call me back or when they did just wanted to sell me the standard one which I could "Adjust to fit" When I called Mantec they couldn't help enough and went through everything I needed part number etc and even sent me a brochure in the post (arrived next day) As they don't sell directly I had to order it through APB although it was directly shipped next day to me from Mantec. When it arrived I found a couple things wrong: • Wrong fitting kit and instructions (Standard not Roll Cage). • Mushroom dented (Bad packing day) I called APB who effectively just contacted Mantec, the guy from Mantec called me and got all of the details, put the new bits in the post and arranged to pick up the old one, job done I thought until the next day when the courier showed up to pick up the old but without the replacement!!!! (courier had sent it to Bristol Depo!!!) I was going away that weekend so wanted the kit and had the air box striped ready to go, I called the guy from Mantec and he got a courier to come down within 4 hours with the replacement parts, now that is customer service!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Just a thought. Companies who look after their customers are more likely to look after their staff and their suppliers. OK the 'caring' companies may not make as much money in the the short term but will make bigger 'profits' long term. Personally I think that the more 'caring' companies are more likely to survive the current economic climate as their customers will probably be loyal to them. Karma etc Regards Brendan I think the recent demise of a certain orange company known for poor customer service highlights this only too well... Oh, and I'd like to add Gigglepin to the list of good guys, they are helpfull, professional and polite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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