Beacon Automotive (Stay Well Clear!)
Roy February 8th, 2010
I don’t normally use this site to highlight problems that I’ve had personally with suppliers of services and goods but in my opinion Beacon Automotive in the Sandyford industrial estate deserve a special mention for poor customer relations.
There were some horrible noises coming from the clutch area of my Hyundai Sonata and I was having trouble getting into first and second gears, I wasn’t too concerned as the car is still under guarantee and I’d been very pleased with the warranty service given to me by EP mooney in Tallaght when the ABS light came on a few months ago.
Sadly EP Mooney has closed down so I went instead to Beacon Automotive, another authorised service agent for Hyundai armed with my service history from Advance Pitstop who had kindly printed it out for me, proving all the necessary procedures had been carried out at the appropriate intervals.
I was handed over to the service manager to explain my problems and his first question when I finished was where I’d had my car serviced, I explained I used Advance because they don’t have long waiting periods for appointments and most of the time do the work as you wait, there and then.
He grimaced and told me that as I hadn’t used an authorised agent that Hyundai would not honour the warranty (from his experience dealing with them) I countered that EP mooney had accepted the Advance record and that the car manual said the services could be done by any qualified mechanic, he said he didn’t know who EP mooney was, nor for that matter who Advance were and that he was going by his experience, that he would request the warranty from Hyundai on my behalf after the repair was carried out and if they accepted that would be fine (which he doubted) if not I’d have to pay €95 an hour for labour plus the cost of parts…my gamble, ……….I don’t gamble so I left.
Back in the car I dug out the paragraph in the manual where it states that although they recommend using authorised Hyundai service agents you can use any qualified mechanic, so I went back in and showed this to the service manager, he once again said I could leave it in if I liked but he would only be able to tell me if it would be covered under warranty after the repair was carried out and in his experience Hyundai did not accept non autorised service agents and if they didn’t, I would have to pay……once again I left.
The next day I drove to the other side of the city from where I live, to Fairview Motors where the Service manager Dave and the counter manager Margaret looked after me, accepting the service history from Advance, guaranteeing the work would be carried out under warranty and true to their word it was…..the car is once again running smoothly after the fitting of a new flywheel completely free of charge. They could teach Beacon Automotive a lesson or two in customer care.
- Personal
- Comments(24)
Try going into Dennis Mahony with any problem with an imported Toyota.
Thry nearly chased me from the garage.
“Go back to Japan if you want any parts for that car.”
Well Murphy and Gunne welcomed me with open arms.
“You see regardless of where you bought it, if we give you good service we might be the people to sell you the NEXT new car”
There will be a lot more garages going out of business fOR sure.
NORTHSIDE FOREVER
Sorry to see Roy Having Bother with the Flywheel,on the Hyundai, it seem some Cars Have a Problem in that Part My VW Shuttle. Had 2 Flywheels Replaced Under Warranty When New,2006 There was a Bad Batch They Told Me(Rubber Compound) Dual Mass Syst,No more Replacements Since then/ . Mooneys are Back in Business on the Long Mile Road Again.Hyundai Dealership. Some garages would want to get their Act Together Especially when it Comes to Aftersales Service.If They Want to generate Business,More people holding on to the Cars. After 2009 Being seen as a Bad year For Closures of Main Dealerships etc, Sales Well down. Lot of Imported Used cars Came in recently. Watch For Clocking etc, Watch Suspension on Toyota Avensis 2003>2009 set lower than Irish Market Cars,VWs,Audis TDIs Clocking, Crashed,& Mercedes 2000Yr > Paintwork+ Rust Problems.Watch Out.+ @John . Was your Toyota a JAPANESE Or UK Import.
Bought on the net from http://www.ibcjapan.co.jp
He wouldn’t sell me a key for a British import either.
“Not on the computer, I will have to re key it for e2,000″
Needless to say I got it sorted.
“
British imports are still a problem here!Very few Irish dealerships will stand over defects to imported cars.Funny thing but Fairview Motors wanted to sell my wife a crashed and poorly resprayed Black 06 Honda Civic two years ago!So what lesson am I learning here?.Horses for courses?
I have an Hyundai and been to beacon once .
rip off merchants ! I use sweeneys on bridgefoot st or fairview motors for hyundai specific stuff . Fairview are 100% reliable
Seems to me the car dealers have lost their stripes but not much else.
Do they really have to be told another hard lesson ?
Showrooms for rent, all over the place.
When will they learn that there is only one way to stay in business:
Give your customer a reason to come back to your garage !
I myself get my work done by a Polish mechanic.
He is cheap.
He is reliable.
His motto: “No problem, I fix”.
And he does !
To my entire satisfaction.
Roy, Take it up with SIMI. Beacon Automotive is a member of SIMI. Claim for embarrasment, waste of time, poor customer relations, etc. Bring your paperwork, manual, etc to SIMI. Who knows, you might get an apology from Beacon Automotive with a free service thrown in.
Roy, the clue is in the name “BE A CON” automotive!!
Think before you brand,and they obviously have no marketing skills.
Coming to a dole office near you soon.
I Shudda copped that Silver!
Roy
have not posted since my little spat with ratcatcher. but all i see on the forum is people trying to score points and discredit lads that are trying to help full time taxi drivers. a politician once said taxi drivers are idiots why because they know we will never unite that is why psv is now 250 suitability is coming nine year rule is coming because while we debate they laugh ACTD-ITC- ABC- EDFH- IGJL- etc etc CORK -DUBLIN- waterford etc time has come and actually gone but maybe we can save something if every full time taxi driver now decides eneough is eneough . I believe Roy in ITC because I think it is my last chance. to save my marraige and keep my house I will not ask any man to join but all i will ask is not to listen to spoofers on the forum these people are not worried where next weeks grocieries and mortgage is goin to come from and have their own agenda
Regards
Roy
Tim
Cork
You believe in ITC
ACTD members believe in ACTD
ITDF members believe in ITDF
NTDU members believe in NTDU
SIPTU members believe in SIPTU
NPHTA members believe in NPHTA
LTDA members believe in LTDA
CTA members believe in CTA
I haven’t seen a worthwhile set of policies from any of them but I do support their efforts, if only on the basis that they are trying….very trying in some cases.
You attribute your absence to a “little spat”. Before that you undertook not to post cos you upset IWU, before that it was someting else……
@Tim, The “spoofers” on the forum are Taxi drivers too, their opinions are valid too, and they have far less of an “agenda” than any union/representative body, their agenda/ opinion is their own, from their own point of view and situation, and a big part of the problem is that the rep bodies write them off as you just did
Tim were you on o’connell st? if you were you lost 2 days pay spent your money on fuel to get there for nothing and for all that was sold a pile of sh1t. if you were there thats the nuts and bolts of it. if you weren’t your opinion matters not.
Lisa,
Unlike your good self Tim is a full time taxi driver. He does not have all the benefits of an executive salary and lifestyle.
This is a taxi blog/forum.
His opinion is as welcome as the next man’s.
good man stephen. carry on
Lisa, you’ve got things back to front. It’s your opinion that matters not!
boys ans girls
Yes O’Connell may not have been a winner but i do not see any of the big 4 unions doing anything to save our industry and its so easy to blame the I.T.C on their first outing and after hearing the commants on last Sat newstalk, i for one could not care if the public do not like the next action any group take, aftre all we sit in our Taxi for two to three hours and burn the fare, to keep warm at the Back of the rank,why not sit in O’Connell st with the taxi turned off, in a week long pretest and show what we are made off.
Get the gloves off and stop the inner fighting
John boy
tiomani. its very simple. you believe what you believe. i know the truth. ask the right people and you will also get the truth.
ask the JTC members about the letter that Frank Byrne received from 35, fitzwilliam sq on 02nd october. you might get some interesting answers about phone calls they received that day. was this why mr. byrne and co were left waiting so long at the palace prior to their return to o’connell st for mr. byrne to make his victory speech? if you look for the real story you will be told it.
and your right my opinion matters not as it is an opinion, but the truth, that is a horse of a very differant colour. lies upon lies upon lies over the years has to stop. i think we could possibly all agree on that.
Lisa, Your starting to sound like a nut job. If you have something to say then spit it out.
Tiomanai. Just the usual Lisa bullshit, “I know this but can’t tell you mere mortals”, “don’t make plans for such and such a date”, etc, etc. Shame she doesn’t realise that noone gives a flying fcuk.
tiomani you are probobly right.
John boy, what are you hoping sitting on O’Connell Street for a week will achieve? What will your demands be?
Let me guess,
No brothers.
No culchies coming up and robbing our work.
No renters, unless they have a special licence with renter wrote on it.
Higher standards for rental cars, but not for me.
A new big daisies for the window that says DUBLIN, encase I forget where I’m from.
A really hard test that will weed out all the bad drivers, as long as the good drivers don’t have to sit it.
No Double jobbers, because there the scum of the earth, except for FDS.
Recognition of our new Union and its 10 members.
Tacos in all cars, because I’m making so much money it’s only fair that I be limited to 40 hours a week.
Don’t bother demanding a cap on licences though because of the big scary court case that I know nothing about. Anyway, some intellectual type fella in a suit said it MIGHT be unconstitutional. I wonder what that fella thinks about the cap on other state issued licences? Mmm, never mind,
The thing about it is Tiomanai any protest group or union or association need to be popular, hence the concentration on the inconsequential nonsense you identify.
Most groups are DAP based so cannot highlight the quantitative regulatory operated by DAA, Turkeys and Christmas.
Most groups also have direct, or indirect, interests in the rental market so can’t seek any real reforms in that sector.
I have read many of the posts about Beacon Automotive and other garages and I would like to make these remarks in defence of garages I have visited.
I did not buy my car from any of them…it was bought ( in mid 2009) from a Skoda Dealer in NI. Like all cars – and I have driven many models in my time – they give trouble.
My Skoda developed some engine management problems and I was referred to Beacon service by MD Motors., as I did not fancy a trip back up north. Unlike the experience recounted above, mine was the direct opposite.
I did not disclose where the car was purchased, but it was quickly identified that it was an import by the service receptionist (female, can’t remember her name) and she outlined that while this was the case, I had no need to worry because of the Pan European Skoda cover. I aked if I could wait for a diagnosis, she said it would be about an hour as there were a few jobs ahead of me ( i came at noon) , so I went off for a walk and a coffee in the nearby shopping complex.
When I returned, I was given the bad news and the good news…………no cost involved… but they would need the car for approx three hours. Could I leave it or bring it back in the moring at 8am – they had erased the fault codes to allow me to drive for that time. No choice ,so I returned at 8am the next day.Two and a half hours later, washed and hoovered -even an air freshner to kill my cigar smoke smell – I was on my way. All in all ,a pleasant experience. Sure everyone has their good and bad experience, but from twenty years of this business, you meet all sorts. I will be back to Beacon..