The Truth about the Land Rover Discovery 3

They are replacing my Discovery

Great news, Land Rover/ Stratstone have come back to me and have presented a fair deal. I regret having to resort to terrorising them with this blog but it was the only way to get any service... hopefully a lesson to Land Rover and Stratstone. Let's hope the second build car is better - but judging by the traffic on this site I think not..... I have decided to keep this site up and use it as a community site to help people have their say - please post comments to this site - its the best way of getting Land Rover to take notice.

Thanks to Land Rover and Stratstone who eventually sorted the situation out - and apologies to any individuals who were scalded in the process.

Why am I terrorising Land Rover?

Today my campaign starts in ernest - I have returned from 2 weeks vacation and am energised to get an adequate admission of guilt out of Land Rover.

I thought I would remind you why I am waging this campaign:

I have spent £45k on the highest spec Land Rover Discovery 3 and Land Rover and Stratstone of Mayfair ( the dealer) have failed to keep me happy as a result of 3 main areas:

1) The car's electronics system failed rendering the car useless for three weeks while Land Rover tinkered around haphazardly replacing all sorts of bits and pieces.

2) The car was marketed with certain standard options - one was a bluetooth phone kit and the other was a tow bar - both of which weren't included when delivered - Land Rover won't retro-fit the phone-kit on the first build cars and the Tow Bar cost me a lot of money to fit after delivery.

3) Both Stratstone of Mayfair (the dealership) and Land Rover are totally apathetic when it comes to sorting out my problems. The dealership always blames Land Rover for poor delivery and I am the poor customer stuck in the middle. They don't return phone calls or emails and the only way I get a response is to make a personal visit and kick up a stink in front of customers.

My Demand and the resolution I seek: I want Land Rover to admit publically that my car was a first build F*** Up - I want them to replace it with a new one and (at this stage) I am still prepared to pay in some money for the mileage I have done to date - but they still need to compensate me for the humiliating breakdown; the terrible experience with Land Rover Assist and the overall shoddy, complacent and ineffectual post sales service I have encountered thus far.

So far I have written to the dealership without any response, Land Rover's PR company and the Head of Communication of Land Rover - also without any response - Today I spent £500 on Google Ad Words and Search Engine Optimisation services and hopefully this Blog will start creeping up in the Land Rover Discovery Searches - it already is being referred by Yahoo and Google and is getting 175 hits per day!

Please email this url to as many people as you know who may be owners or potential owners of the Discovery 3 - the truth is it's a great car - it really is - but Land Rover needs to keep their customers happy - I am most unhappy - it's sad that I have to go to these lengths to get some response out of Land Rover.

I am going to post daily on this blog giving you a full account of my struggle so keep returning.

Does Land Rover's PR Company know what a blog is?

I recently wrote some material on the power of blogs and why Brand Managers and their PR companies should take notice. Refer to Beware of the Blog and Brand Terrorism: PR Companies – take note!

What better way to put this speculation to the test than use a genuine case study?

I have a string of unanswered emails and voice messages from the Land Rover dealership as I feel that they need to replace my Discovery (which only has 4,500 miles on the clock) with a second build car - hopefully most of the teething problems to which I have fallen prey will be ironed out. I am not expecting them replace it free  - I offered to pay a few grand. They agreed that my points were valid - I intend posting some of the emails as soon as I get back from France - but in the meantime I felt I should give Land Rover two weeks to come up with a plan for rescuing the situation.

First step involved: find out who Land Rover UK PR company is. Well that was an assignment for Google Answers - a day later I knew it was Harrison Cowley - the $20 fee not only returned the firms name but the Execs name too - a chap by the name of Stuart Humphreys. I was also given the name of the Land Rover PR manager - James Andrew - together with everyone's email address. What great value Google - you rock! Actually I have Bobby1 to thank!

So  I emailed these gentlemen to find that they both had out of office messages on their emails. So I forwarded the email to the Chief Exec of Harrison Cowley, Paul Kelly - and guess what ? .... he also had an out of office message! So I emailed someone referred to in James Andrew's out of office message - and she was also out of the office!!!!  So my conclusion was that they were all away together at some Jolly! - One would have assumed that the Chief Exec of Land Rover's PR company or the PR Manager of Land Rover UK would have had asssistants checking their email or maybe even Blackberries - so I have to assume that a) they don't know what a blog is;  or b) they are not phased by the whole thing or, better still c) didn't get the email which is amazing considering they are PR professionals and need to keep their fingers on the pulse of communications.

I am researching every possible way of getting my website traffic up - yahoo's search engine is referring quite a few links to this blog already and I havent started playing with any strategies for increasing the traffic. Keep you eyes peeled Land Rover - I havent given them the URL but wonder if they will pick it up?!

Anyway, I will post when I get back from France on the 20th June - hopefully they have come back to me.... I look forward to the response and explanation to every single little posting I have made.

(so guys - in the interests of transparency - why not leave comments for the world to see - you just have to click the little comment hyperlink under each posting.)

Another brilliant piece of Electronic Wizardry

This is classic! I left my car key at the office. No sweat, I just took the spare key out of the bottom drawer at home. Of course the battery on the key was flat which meant I couldn't open the car automatically. You can't change the battery because its so smart that it charges itself in the ignition of the car... good thinking Land Rover.... except .... had you thought of this...? I now remove the plate off the passenger door so I can manually open the car. This I do, car opens but the alarm goes off! I then think - ok if I put the key in the ignition I will get enough power to press the disarm button on the key... no... it doesn't work! So I try to start the car .... impossible ... alarm an immobiliser are now active- so i sit in the car with the alarm breaking the peace of a Saturday afternoon.... waiting for the stupid key to charge up - 20 minutes later - still nothing- neighbours starting to revolt now.... so I walk out to find a taxi to go back to the office to fetch my keys. An hour later, £40 later in taxi fare, some very angry neighbours.... I am left wondering if I am was so smart buying this electronic beast!

I am off to France for 2 weeks holiday - we have decided we can't trust our 4 month old Land Rover Discovery - wy wife is 7 months pregnant so we have decided to leave the Disco in the driveway (maybe I should disconnect the battery to prevent another meltdown!) and we are going to take our trusty old P Reg Mercedes E230 Estate with 100,000 miles on the clock and never given me a days trouble. 

Happy Holidays!

Electronic Melt Down

I will blog in detail about this when I have some time soon but our New Discovery broke down out of London - Park Brake Failure - all electronic - had to be towed away and the engineers took 3 weeks to sort it out after replacing several key pieces of electonic circuitry - Again - Landrover doesn't hold the stock so everything takes days to order in - I had a horrible experience with Land Rover Assist who tried to give me a Toyota Yaris to transport my 2 dogs, pregnant wife and mother in law back from Suffolk to London! A lot of shouting and screaming achieved some results but believe me I would think twice about buying the Discovery at least until the third build comes out later in the year.

What's even more worrying is that it appears that the Dealerships have a hard time from Land Rover - as they don't give them enough support. Having said that, Stratstone of Mayfair wasnt that hot at looking after me- I had to storm into the dealership to get decent service which was very disappointing.

Email me at landrover@haveyoursay.com for further details.

Interesting Autoblog rekons that the HSE is over priced - I am starting to agree after my checkered experience.