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Heading towards Easter and the
time of happy bunnies, there is one DaC driver who
isn’t one! "Yes, in fact I’m a very unhappy bunny and I’m still livid about the whole sorry saga," John Dear (L20) told Call Sign! What John refers to as his ‘whole sorry saga’ revolved around the first year overhaul of John’s TX4 carried out at the Brewery Road dealership of the London Taxi Company, aka M&O. "I left my TX4 with them at 8.40 on the Monday morning and by 9.10 a Camden parking camera was busy taking footage of my cab in Kentish Town Road with the video clearly showing two mechanics in overalls getting in and out of the taxi! One was getting out of the carriage, which presumably did not have any protective cover on the rear seat and swapping places with the driver who is seen leaving the cab and crossing the road (out of camera) and returning to the cab several minutes later! They are seen smoking in my cab and flicking cigarette ash out of the driver’s window, so you can understand why I am less than impressed," John spluttered, his voice still quivering with anger. "Furthermore, I was given to understand that the first year overhaul was free, yet the invoice for front brake discs, brake pads, steering bushes and an air-con service amounted to £433.75," he sighed. "I accept that brake pads |
Not a happy bunny! |
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 could be wear and that the air-con service is not part of the overhaul procedure, but brake discs and steering bushes after less than 21,000 miles?" He looked quizzically at Call Sign’s journo, anticipating an answer that was not forthcoming. "I have driven numerousclassic cars such as the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, vintage Bentleys and Jaguar E-types to name a few, so I am used to treating cars with care and respect. I do 50 miles into and home from work, much of it on the A1M dual-carriageway, so I need hardly touch the brakes at all then," he added. "But I was absolutely astonished when that PCN came in the post. I could hardly believe it was my cab, thinking it must be some kind of mistake. Alas, it was not. The cab was late being returned to me after I was told it was ready for collection but it had to be thoroughly re-valeted because I observed it was dirtier than when I took it in. I followed up my verbal complaints by putting my gripes in writing regarding the poor |
customer service and they replied with a goodwill offer that I found unacceptable, although they did pay the PCN of course!" Calming down from the reminder of his experience, John ended by telling us: "The TX4 itself is just brilliant and I’m tickled pink with it, it’s just a shame LTC let me down." Call Sign then spoke to Mark Brown, General Manager at the London Taxi Company. He returned our call within 3 minutes and said that the company had been unaware of the two technicians actions while on a road test and that they had acted entirely unilaterally, something he considered to be completely unacceptable and that they had been internally disciplined in the severest manner, including having to pay the PCN. He agreed that the incident was an unfortunate lapse of the high standards they set themselves, and apologised again for the less than satisfactory level of customer service in this instance that he would normally expect of his team. He added that as a gesture of goodwill, he had made an offer that he hoped John would find acceptable when the cab was due for service in the future. Hopefully John will become a happier bunny! © Call Sign Magazine MMX1 |
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