Britpart .... Name and Shame

[rejo]

As there seems to be some negative comments regarding Britpart recently I thought I would add my own dealings with the general manager Paul Myers.

The story is .... In the summer I purchased a safari snorkel, it came in a safari snorkel box but with britpart stickers and codes on the box.

When I came to fit the snorkel I had to make a few adaptations to get it to fit reasonably well. What I found really annoying was that I had to use rubber strips and cable ties to stop the snorkel rubbing on another pipe.

This product had in my opinion not been designed properly to fit my car ... the interesting thing is that Paul Myers admits this.

I wasn't happy with the way the snorkel fitted so I got in touch with britpart.

Anyway this is how britpart have responded.

Make off it what you want but I think you'll agree there seems to be a general lack of interest in there customer service department ..... if they have any customer service.

I like the line about being "overseas and I'll contact you next week" . I'm also overseas but why should that matter in the 21st centuary, or maybe it was some sea nobody knows about.

Its now the 6th of november so I'm assuming Paul Myers is in some kind of time portal ..... I'm not holding my breath for a reply.

Paul Myers <paul.myers@britpart.co.uk> wrote:Hello Jo

I am very sorry to hear you are not happy with the safari snorkel you have bought from us via Paddock.

The safari snorkel is a product designed and built in Australia and they rightly have an international reputation of being the best quality.

Please can you send me via email your photographs and also the part number off the box and I will contact their technical department and try and establish why it does not fit correctly on your vehicle.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention as we value our reputation very highly for supplying quality parts for Land Rovers.

Best Regards

Paul.

Paul Myers

General Manager

Hello Paul

Thanks for your quick reply regarding the safari snorkel.

I have attached the following photos of the air box/inlet pipe and water hose.

Unfortuniatly I no longer have the box but on the reciept dated 30/07/07 it states :

Part number ..... NSTDA3020

Description ..... Safari Snorkel Disco 300TDI/V8

My discovery is a 300TDi Non ABS model 1997

Thanks again for your quick reply.

Best regards

Jo Matthews

Hello Paul

I was just wondering if you have recieved any news/updates about the safari snorkel.

Cheers

Jo

Paul Myers <paul.myers@britpart.co.uk> wrote: Hi Jo

I am sorry but I have been on vacation.

I received your email but it did not have the photos attached.

Pleases can you resend them.

Many Thanks

Paul

Paul Myers

General Manager

Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply this email should include some photos.

As you can see I've had to cover the water pipe with rubber/cable ties to stop it rubbing on the air inlet.

Cheers

Jo Matthews

Paul Myers <paul.myers@britpart.co.uk> wrote: Thanks for the photos Jo

We will look tonight at a customer’s 300tdi discovery that has been fitted with the same snorkel and see how it differs.

I will be back in touch in the morning.

Regards

Paul

Paul Myers

General Manager

Hi Paul

Have you had chance to look at another discovery yet as I was expecting a reply last week.

Cheers

Jo

Hello Jo

We have checked several 300 tdi discoveries fitted with the safari snorkels like yours and they all have the same contact between the filter pipe and the rubber pipe.

I am contacting the manufacturer in Australia for their comments and will be in touch as soon as I have had a response.

Best regards

Paul

Paul Myers

General Manager

Hello Paul,

I am writing with reference to our recent discussions

relating to my safari snorkel. Have you received any

information from the manufacturer as yet. You said

that you would get back to me regarding this contact

which was a month ago. I am also aware that this whole

process has been going on for three months which I

feel is more than a satisfactory time scale for

getting such matters resolved. Therefore I require

resolution to my problem ASAP.

Regards,

Jo Matthews

Hi Jo

I am currently overseas until Monday, i will respond early next week.

Best Regards

Paul

Hi Jo

I am currently overseas until Monday, i will respond early next week.

Best Regards

Paul

Hello Paul,

You wrote the above on October the 16th. It is now October 30th. I am very disappointed with this never ending delay in resolving my Safari Snorkel issue. Your customer service leaves a lot to be desired and therefore I must ask you to refer my problem to a higher authority. If you cannot find a solution I expect to have my vehicle returned to its original state at your companies expense.

Regards,

Jo Matthews

__________________________________________________

Post edited by Mog to remove personal contact info.

[FridgeFreezer]

I'm quite surprised you got a reply TBH, a lot of companies seem to ignore e-mails altogether.

[vinyljunkie]

My Dealings

i purchased a snorkel from Paddocks for a 110TD5 and they sent me a left hand drive model with the LHD clearly badley cut off the seriel number on the outer box but left on on the inside - they know they have issues as they admited it after a bit of preasure on the phone they also sent a dodgey one to a mate of mine a few weeks previous to my experience ! go somewhere else, as soon as i got off the phone to Paddocks telling them to send a courier and pick it up i phoned Devon and was told that it would be no problem to order the Safari Snorkel for a TD5 RHD which i had been told by Paddocks didn't even exsist !!!!!!!

Clearly some muppet at Paddocks messed up with Numbers when placing their order from Safari Snorkels and are just trying to palm their issues off on their Customers....

On a brighter note i must admit that my Customer Service experiences with Paddocks was fine...

[reads90]

Aslo have you seen another one fitted to a car . They may all be the same . Put the pics on here and i will look at my Disco 300 Tdi with safari snorkle and see if i have the same

mmm feel a bit sorry for Britpart as they are the middle men and just sell the safri snorkle on. Also who has bought stuff that fits a land rover perfectly

After all how many of us have spent a fortune on side steps and rock sliders that we have had to modifie to fit

[bobtail4x4]

I think the problem could be Paddocks, they are well known for sending the wrong parts out.

[freeagent]

you'l lnever catch me sticking up for Britpart, but it does seem they are caught in the middle of this one..

that said he should have responded to your emails and put this to bed a long time ago...

if you want some advice, don't buy anything manufactured by them... my experiences have been awfull.. I honestly don't know how they have the nerve to sell some of it.

[Les Henson]

supplying quality parts for Land Rovers.

Typing error - the word 'rubbish' should be in there somewhere.

Les.

[reads90]

you'l lnever catch me sticking up for Britpart, but it does seem they are caught in the middle of this one..

that said he should have responded to your emails and put this to bed a long time ago...

if you want some advice, don't buy anything manufactured by them... my experiences have been awfull.. I honestly don't know how they have the nerve to sell some of it.

Normally i would not but as this is a part that you can get from anywhere, then i give them benifit of the doubt on this one.

But as for their Parts

Well all i can say is the old say . You get what you pay for

[rtbarton]

you'l lnever catch me sticking up for Britpart, but it does seem they are caught in the middle of this one..

that said he should have responded to your emails and put this to bed a long time ago...

if you want some advice, don't buy anything manufactured by them... my experiences have been awfull.. I honestly don't know how they have the nerve to sell some of it.

I agree completely.

[TheRecklessEngineer]

I've got a 300TDi safari snorkle fitted to my disco without any issues...want me to post some photos?

[Paul64]

The bottom line is that Jo has had the mess around here. Paul from Britpart should respond when he said he would and keep Jo informed of his progress. Why would you need to send the same photos over and over again. My understanding is that he has received a 3rd request for the same photos! No the customer service is poor on this occasion.

If I were you Jo, I would send all of this info now to both Paddocks and direct to Snorkel. You have waited months for a response and you are no further forward than day one. You have given Britpart a really long time to sort this all out and they just haven't come up with the goods.

Cheers,

Paul

[GBMUD]

Perhaps if Jo were to post his pictures here then he could refer Britpart/Safari to this thread. This would mean we can all see the problem and there would be no problem with pictures getting "lost" in the post.

Anyone else with pictures of a correctly fitting Safari snorkel?

Chris

[Lara]

I have no experience with Britpart or Safari stuff but would have thought that clipping your air pipe out of harms way to stop it chaffing inside an already cluttered engine bay was totally standard practice! sounds to me like you were expecting a little man to jump out of the box and fit it for you, all included in the price

No offence meant but this complaint does sound a little daft considering the work we all get up to on our landies.

Lara,

On behalf of the Devil

[Paul64]

I have no experience with Britpart or Safari stuff but would have thought that clipping your air pipe out of harms way to stop it chaffing inside an already cluttered engine bay was totally standard practice! sounds to me like you were expecting a little man to jump out of the box and fit it for you, all included in the price

No offence meant but this complaint does sound a little daft considering the work we all get up to on our landies.

Lara,

On behalf of the Devil

Bad move, you are addressing this to one of the best mechanics I know. If Jo says it aint right, then it aint right.

[FridgeFreezer]

No offence meant but this complaint does sound a little daft considering the work we all get up to on our landies.

You nasty man I have to agree though, if I'd just hacked a big hole in the side of my car, cable-tying a pipe out of the way would not cause me emotional trauma. That is, of course, if it's not a genuine fault with the kit, which it could be.

Mind you, if I'd just paid over a ton for a glorified drainpipe I'd want it to arrive with a hot cup of tea and a trained monkey to fit it for me.

My coat? Why thank you!

[Lara]

Bad move, you are addressing this to one of the best mechanics I know. If Jo says it aint right, then it aint right.

Well that makes it even sillier then Paul,

Come on! "one of the best mechanics" must be able to clip up a poxy pipe without even a second glance and would probably expect to do the job a little better than the average DIYer like you and I, wouldn't you think?

May be expecting too much "IS" the problem like I suggest.

Lara.

[D9OSV]

Is this the 'For vehicles with ABS' model or the 'vehicles without ABS' model snorkel we are talking about ?

As these are different, Which are are you fitting and to which vehicle?

I have fitted a great many Safari snorkels and i have say rate them as one of the best produced after market products available for fitting to 4x4 type vehicles. I would have NO problem recommending them to anyone.

I agree with Lara on this one i am afarid

Jim

[simonr]

One of the 'features' of Land Rovers is they are all different. Even same model, same year, same spec - LR just seem to decide out of the blue to change something apparently minor - to the extent that the new & old parts have the same part number. For LR, they probably are minor changes, but when you come to fit an after market part which relies on perhaps the location of a bolt hole - it can make a huge difference.

This type of issue plagues designers & manufacturers of parts, but happily, most users accept that you may need a bit of tinkering sometimes to make it fit.

The other thing is that Paul Myers is senior within the company. I'm amazed he had the time to respond to you directly himself at all. I think you have to give him some credit for that and perhaps not expect him to respond immediatly, particularly while he's on holiday!

Si

[vinyljunkie]

senior in the company lol who pays for this blokes holidays in the first place and if he is going to bother replying why take so long about it, if a senior member of the company takes that long how long will it take to get a response from your telesales person !!

A customer is a customer in my opinion doesn't matter if they spen £20 or £200,000 unless of course they want to fall into the bracket of another well known supplier who couldn't give a flying monkeys about it's customers !

Their be painting all their own gear bright orange next !

[rtbarton]

If a senior member of a company cannot answer correspondence because he's on holiday that's fair enough. However the next person down or at least a secretary should acknowledge the letter and indicate when a reply would be forthcoming.

[rejo]

The latest from britpart.

Funny all of a sudden .... I wonder why

I am surprised that you feel it necessary to post our communications on an internet forum, what do you think it will achieve?

The reason I sent you a mail saying I would respond next week whilst I was overseas is that at the time I had no news from safari, I was getting my emails on my mobile phone and I though that a quick response to acknowledge your mail was better than waiting a week to reply on my return to the office.

I have not received a reply yet from Safari snorkels regarding your technical question, and seeing as they designed and manufacture the product I have to rely on them answering your question.

What I can say is that we have sold many hundreds of these snorkels for the 300tdi discovery and you are the first person to complain about them. We have checked several vehicles that have them and they all fit in the same way, but as yet no one has experienced a hose busting or any other problem that I am aware of.

With this in mind I can say that the product we have is supplied, via our customer, is to the correct specification so it will not be possible to refund your money nor return you vehicle to its original specification at our expense.

I will to continue to talk to Safari regarding this, and I will keep you informed.

You will not be happy with this reply, and you will probably decide to post this on the forum and feel that you have achieved something by doing that, but I think most people that read it will understand that Britpart cannot answer you question, our supplier is looking into your comments, but until we get a response from them I cannot do any more.

As one of the response to your post says, most large companies don’t answer individual enquires, and I can understand why this is.

Paul

Paul Myers

Director

[Happyoldgit]

Threads merged.

No point in starting a new thread when it concerns the same matter.

[Coastcard]

Big Brother is watching you.......

Doubt he found the other posts about his company as it is normally spelt differently

[rejo]

As you see britpart replied ..... very strange.

Of course I'm going to put his reply on here or is that some kind of "call my bluff type thing"

In my opinion if I pay top money for a product I expect it to fit. Using the excuse that its a landrover and is therefore ok is utter carp.

For example if I buy a sony radio for my mercedes, I'm working on the assumption that its going to fit in that standard size dashboard hole. I don't expect to have to modify it to fit.

Don't get me wrong I'm not opposed to rubber or cable ties and I can adapt most things to fit but I'm assuming when I buy something its going to fit. I also understand that car manufacturers will have certain tolerances that they have to work too, but definiatly not tolerances of a few centimetres.

I'll put some photos up so everybody knows what were talking about.

[Mo Murphy]

Rejo,

Do you have any photos of the problems that you are having, so that we can see for ourselves. They do say that a picture paints a 1000 words and I'm curious after reading the above to see what the problem is.

Cheers

Mo