Looking at the number of votes members have cast for their dealers, Skoda UK needs to be concerned about the lack of votes in favour of their dealers, albeit offset by the lack of thumbs down.

C'mon chaps and chapesses - you've been looking at the results for your dealers without bothering to vote. Unless you do vote, there won't be anything to see, will there?

Time to walk the dog........

DGW

I voted thumbs up to my dealer , Tweedmouth service station as they have always been great with me. As I only have 'evidence' for this dealer , having used no others , its the only one I could vote on!!!

Denis,

I know you've put in alot of work but give it some time. Trying not to deviate too much from the 'one member, one vote' idea I would recommend Gordon Lambs at Chesterfield purely on their enthusiasm and friendliness. My car is too new to have had any work done on it. This could be the situation for quite a few members.:cheers:

Rich,

I too would agree with the enthusiasm & service at Chesterfield from Mick, Steve & Craig in the sales team.

However the aftersales team (in my experience) are totally the opposite, no phone calls when promised, half done jobs, some jobs not even attempted. Dirty oil footmarks on a light grey carpet, etc etc. (Don't even start me on attitude!)

There is now a standing joke with the sales guys that they are going to give me my own desk.

Rich, Send me PM if you want to be forewarned !!

Graham

I voted for "my" dealer (Langstone Motor Co.) because I found them so much more friendly and helpful than the other local dealer (White Dove) - which wasn't a Skoda dealer when I bought my car. The shortlist was down to the Octavia and a Mitsubishi Galant (White Dove were, and still are, Mitsubishi dealers).

The salesman at Langstone just gave me the keys to the demo car, said something to the effect of "take your time, try it out properly, no hurry to get it back" and left us to it.

The salesman at White Dove explained that they are ISO9660 certified (yeah, right... your procedures can be crap as long as they are well-documented crap) and insisted on taking us on the "standard" test-drive route. He wouldn't even let my wife sit in the front passenger seat; but did (reluctantly, it seemed to me...) drive the route again (my wife doesn't drive) with me sitting in the back and my wife in the front.

To be fair, the Octavia was well on top of the shortlist even before this, but it didn't endear me to White Dove at all...

Lest there is any confusion, whilst members can only vote once per dealer, you can vote for as many dealers as you have experience of - be it for servicing, sales or whatever.

Graham's (bandit1) post hopefully reflects the exception - a dealer who is a bit like the curates egg, where it would need a Yes and a No vote to paint the right picture.

Life is never easy.

Time to walk the dog.......

I've just been having a bit of a think about this poll; probably not a good idea after half a bottle of Tesco's Sicilian Red :boozer:

Current entries (I assume one per UK dealer):- 166. Each one has a separate yes/no vote.

Current Briskoda.net membership:- 283; some of whom are not in the UK - so say... 280 members who have experiences of UK dealers.

Members who have had an "average" experience (whatever that may be...) with their dealers aren't likely to vote at all. Let's assume that 50% of the members feel strongly enough to vote - say 140.

If there aren't any "no" votes, I don't think the Skoda dealer network has much to worry about yet...

I'm pleased with my local dealer (All Electric, Kings Heath)

I got a great deal on my Fabia when i bought it and the service is good.

I had a problem with the alarm when the car was new, but they gave me a free first sevice to compensate.

Any parts that i have ordered have arrived promptly.

The showroom isnt flash. Its more of a "what you see is what you get" dealership.

Great work on compiling the list of dealerships Denis!

Mike

You are right that we have a long way to go to produce a meaningful poll across the dealer network, but hopefully it won't take long for the stronger dealers to emerge, and the weaker ones too. And the more content and added value this site has, the more members we should get, which means more votes etc.

I bought my Skoda from my nearest dealer - family run - and have it serviced there. That dealer gets a big thumbs up from me. I bought my Octavia from a different dealer - recently graduated from downmarket premises to a large shiny ones in the new corporate image - and use that dealer for service too. Another thumbs up. There are 3 other dealers within 20 miles I could also use and, if I do have occasion to, I could vote for them. I know one is well-thought of but it has no votes as yet. If my car has coil pack trouble away from home and I have to use yet another dealer, there could be a vote there too if the experience is good or bad. So there is plenty of scope for members to cast more than one vote if they wish - but not for the same dealer to keep things fair. And from previous posts there should be at least one No vote out there.

A reasonably coherent reply considering I have had a glass or 2 of Californian soft fruity red wine this evening?

PS Don't take the thread title too seriously - it was just an attention getter. I could have used 'Pictures of Samantha Fox posing across the bonnet of the new Superb' instead - and might have drummed up more votes in the process........

Time to walk the dog............

Denis,

Well done for leaving MARLBOROUGH SKODA off the poll list.

I cant SLAG them off enough.

Steve

I think the dealer poll is a great idea and it's thanks to Denis's endeavours posting the dealer details on the site. I'm sure as time goes by and more people join Briskoda.net there will be further contributions to the poll, this will continue to add value. Make a diary note to look back at it in 6 and then 12 months time, there should be some interesting trends to see.

I think that KLB makes a valid point in suggesting that satisfied (ish) customers are less likely to voice an opinion, it will always be the folks with more extreme views that are driven to make their opinions known, and then remember that bad news travels faster than good! Or perhaps the dealers should remember that!

It is possible that there are Skoda owners and supporters of Briskoda.net, who have no experience of Skoda dealers; as is the case for me. I did not buy my car from a Skoda dealer, so cannot comment in the poll.

Now to go just slightly......:offtopic:

Taking my own experience as an example I would suggest that as time goes by some of the characteristics of site supporters might change. As the Octavia and Fabia become

I Voted a big thumbs up for mine.

How many dealers do you know that employ 4 staff in total. When I had my coil problem last week, on the second visit the salesman was doing all the servicing cause the normal guy was on holiday. At least you get to know the people that work on your car, and they get to know you. Very friendly place.

Would tend to agree with Rich on Gordon Lambs in Chesterfield... Mick, Steve and Craig have always been sound (I think I posted thier first recommendation a few months ago as a general post). Our car has now done nearly 50k in two years so it's been back for services etc. and I've not had any problems but obviously others have.

Cheers

Haven't voted as I bought mine privately and haven't been in to see any dealer yet.

Wish this had been going for a bit longer as im not sure which dealer to go to as im halfway between Caffyns (Ashford) or Express Garage (Herne Bay) and not sure which to plum for - anyone had any experience of these :confused:

Originally posted by steve

Denis,

Well done for leaving MARLBOROUGH SKODA off the poll list.

I cant SLAG them off enough.

Steve

Marlborough Skoda is on the list, Steve, so please vote.

Time to walk the dog........

A couple of observations:

1. Others have stated this but it's worthy of repetition. The poll is too black and white. I want to give a qualified recommendation to my dealer, Fish Bros of Swindon. They are very friendly and helpful but all the same their workshop, while they seem to do a good job, take a long time and go down many wrong routes to diagnose problems. This has happened to me twice now, totalling about 15 days off the road. I have been provided with courtesy cars in the meantime and I know they're working hard to find my problem but each time when they do find it, the solution was fairly obvious from the start (one of the problems was a coil pack).

2. The poll for some obscure reason has the dealers listed in REVERSE alphabetical order. It took me a minute or two to twig this and search through 70% of the list to find the letter "F" :-D

Just my 2p worth.

Have to agree - it would be good to be able to post proper

opinions so that others could find out why you've rated them

as you have. For example, I wouldn't recommend Claybank

as they wouldn't let me test drive an RS, but at the same time

their servicing may be excellent and if you looked like a serious

buyer they might take you seriously. I don't think to vote

them as a "no" would be an accurate reflection.

Of course, it does open the hornet's nest of publishing and

slander, which Colin may wish to avoid...

I'm guessing the reason for the reverse order is because they

are sorted by age, and Denis must've worked through the

list alphabetically...

:think:

Rob.

We opted for a poll over allowing reviews as it may cause legal issues...and since it's my name on the form I erred on the side of caution. However it is fair point to have your "say" on a dealer over a stark yes/no.

I'll have a muse over the weekend and hopefully catch Denis on messenger and have a chat (It was his idea..pat on the back).

We'll get back to you...more ideas and feedback, if possible.

And re order, yes default forum is date, but you can change by the little drop down at the bottom of each page .

:cheers:

Some very good discussion points above and plenty to think about. Allowing members to sound off at length about their experiences with dealers could open up the proverbial can of worms - with possible legal implications for 'management.' And do we all want to read at length about members experiences with their dealers? (Another poll needed?) Introducing more options into the poll - eg separate Yes/No votes for servicing and sales - would be possible, but the idea at the outset was to keep it simple. We could always have a third category - Yes and No, or Yes but with reservations - to cater for the curates egg....... And I have just trialed another option - Yes for servicing/repairs, Yes for sales, No for servicing/repairs, and No for sales. But if the poll cannot be edited independently of the main entry for each garage, either of these changes would mean re-entering details for all 166 dealers (plus new ones not yet on Skoda UK's site)! But the bottom line (as the poll stands) is that if you have reservations, don't cast a vote.

PS I sort the thread alphabetically and in ascending order each time I view it.

Time to walk the dog........

Yes - as the poll stands I can't cast a vote. But - my post was in reply to the original poster in this thread berating us readers for not voting!!! I just wanted to explain why I, for one, wasn't voting.

Denis, I found THEM and have voted. :dung: :dung:

Steve

i voted thumbs up for Brundles of tottenhill despite needing a new drivers door lock on my 6 month old 4x4 & finding they,ed sent a replacement for a left hand drive door. its been back twice now & both times they supplied me with a near new Fabia courtesy car. as for servicing time will tell:cool:

regds ect:cheers:

I've been thinking again... Rosemount Cabernet Sauvignon this time - will I ever learn? :boozer:

Can we have some sort of league table, or dealers grouped by location?

It would make the poll more useful (e.g. find the "best" dealer in the UK, or compare your local dealers without searching the whole list).

Rosemount. You can't go wrong. Pains me to go over my

I find a couple of shots of Millers Dieselclean gets me thinking...

Out of interest I wonder how many dealers supply a free courtesy car?