24 Jul 06
Having eulogised long and hard a couple of months ago about Lexus' customer service, my faith has been shaken.
Regular readers of these reports might recall that my right-rear tyre valve snapped after a contretemps with a garage compressor. Lexus Park Lane achieved a makeshift solution using a standard valve, which would keep the tyre inflated, but the electronic systems that monitor the tyre pressures had to be deactivated. For the past couple of months, a 'low tire' warning has been displayed on the dashboard.
The friendly Park Lane staff promised to call when they'd received the replacement valve, but two months later, I'd still heard nothing. I called the service centre to find out what was going on, but their systems were down. They took my number and promised to call back when the IT boffins had worked their magic. They didn't.
If there's one thing in life that winds me up, it's people who don't call back. Last year, seven of London's Smart dealers failed to call me back, despite cast-iron promises. Anyone who's tried to deal with British Telecom's 'service' department will no doubt have experienced similar frustrations. But while I've sadly come to expect it from huge, monolithic corporations like BT, I'd expected more from Lexus. This company's image is built around customer service.
I picked up the phone again and spoke to a service adviser who, to his credit, was courteous and hugely apologetic. The fact that he genuinely seemed to care, wasn't in Delhi and wasn't reading from a script did much to restore my faith. We discussed a solution and he arranged to have the car picked up from my house and returned on the same day, all under warranty. I'll report back next month on the level of success.
