Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

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wurlycorner
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Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by wurlycorner »

Yesterday I went into my local Peugeot dealer to collect some parts I'd ordered for the Mrs C2.
When I was in earlier in the week to order them, I noticed the usual parts guy wasn't there and his name was no longer on the counter. Assumed he was just in leave. When I collected yesterday, he wasn't there either, just the service lady. I'd decided I wanted to pick up a couple of extra bits for the brakes, just in case (caliper screws and shims) so asked if I could check if they had any in the shelf... "sorry, we're not a parts department any more".
Pardon?
"we don't hold any stock here now, it all gets sent down from slough"
What, everything?
"yes. Apparently it's the way of the future. We book a car in, they send down the parts ready"
So what if while you have a car in for work, you find something you weren't expecting?
"the car has to stay with us while we order in the extra bits"
Thats a but crap isn't it? I think if that was my car that was in, I'd be pretty annoyed about it staying in longer for something I'd expect you to be able to sort on the spot?
"yes apparently it's progress "
So is this a PSA group decision, or dealer chain decision?
"I don't know"

Now, I've worked in modern manufacturing and/or maintenance of trains all my life, so I'm well versed in supply chain management and the efficiencies of JIT etc in those environments, but... This is not manufacturing. Car maintenance is NOT a wholly planned activity - they WILL throw up things you weren't expecting (come in with bits mangled/missing/corroded/seiezed) so you then come down to a choice - hold some buffer stock so you can fix it there and then, or... Give s**t customer service by inconveniencing them and holding onto their car for longer.
And if you go for the latter, that also relies on you having excellent ability for next day delivery... How many tales have we read on here about cars that, while still in current production run at Citroen, have 3+ working day lead time for the replacement part?! (c5 steering racks and pumps etc)

This is just s**t IMO and I'm not sure how much it saves the local dealer? They can make the parts manager redundant (I assume that's what they have done)... Possibly £40k saving (incl employers costs) and then they have less sat on their balance sheet because they have no stock in hand - that's a one off saving, unless they utilise the previous stock holding space to generate additional income through sales? (which is unlikely?!) and worse... You could end up with a car stuck immobilosed on a ramp, meaning you have to cancel booked jobs for the following day (inconveniencing yet another customer!)

Even Japanese car dealers don't work like that! (and I'm my experience, they have FAR FAR better ability to supply from central stock and quickly, than PSA ever have!)

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:


Anyone know if this is just this dealer chain, or if it's something PSA are rolling out everywhere?
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by Stickyfinger »

My recent story.....

The leak back collars on the XM (used to refurbish ACTIVA rams) are reportedly soon to go NFP as the manufacturer has ceased supply to Citroen so I and a number of people on ACTIVA Club France/Dutch have ordered them for shelf stock. I did the same and ordered 2x units via Avalon Citroen in Glastonbury and these arrived via France/Slough (they can track the shipment) in three days.

One of the guys in France tried via his local dealer who says NFP, sorry.
He tried 3 more dealers, Non, NFP sorry.
He tried via Citroen France HQ, Non, NFP, sorry
I ordered 3x units from Avalon on top of the two I just received, they arrived via France/Slough on Friday, again three days .....now I have to ship these back to France for him :)
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by CitroJim »

That is truly shocking :evil:
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by Stickyfinger »

Maybe they were trying to make him buy a Cactus, you know, the one with more comfortable suspension :)
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by Homer »

wurlycorner wrote: 26 Nov 2017, 10:55
And if you go for the latter, that also relies on you having excellent ability for next day delivery...


It wouldn't need to be next day though would it. They could have them there in a couple of hours at most.

My local independent doesn't keep a supply of parts for every make and model he might have to deal with, he just calls up his supplier and in most cases has stuff there within the hour.

I work in IT and it's not unusual for us to have server spares arrive same day we have raised a fault, with an air freight label attached.
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by wurlycorner »

Yeah, but that absolutely will not happen from Citroen oem parts supplied from one central store in slough (or abroad) - Next day would be the absolute best they could manage. And the point is... They clearly can't do that, even for cars that are still in production!
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by wurlycorner »

Just to update on this;
Found the news article from the chain of dealers in question...

https://www.robinsandday.co.uk/service- ... parts-hubs

So basically this dealer chain has set up their own parts distribution network.
That's what PSA are meant to have, to supply to dealers in the first place!

So we now have a secondary dealer own parts distribution network, running off the manufacturers parts distribution network...
WTF is this nonsense?! That's just duplicating everything, making the service to the end user more crap and adding cost into the dealer chain?

(Or is this because the PSA network is so crap, the dealers have now decided they need to add a second layer in order to manage it better :lol: )
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by wurlycorner »

Just rung to order. You now get transferred to the local hub (West London) and have to pay when you order and they deliver to the local dealer.

Gone are the days of ringing up a dealer/going in to see them, them getting the parts in and you paying when you collect...

Makes the whole point of using a local dealer... Pointless!
The sooner Citroen get the ability for customers to order parts direct from service.citroen and have them delivered to a home address (as service.citroen has been promising for a good long time now!) the better, IMO

(Either that, or this lot need to really shape up and do what a Honda dealer (Lings) have been doing for years - running their own online front end to the Honda parts system and letting you order online via them, for postal delivery).
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by Gibbo2286 »

That looks like a good business but I bet you won't get discounted prices, also I wish these websites didn't use 'as the crow flies' distances, my nearest is 19 miles on their site but by road it's actually 38ish miles and the Severn Bridge crossing in between.
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by wurlycorner »

:rofl2:

My local Citroen dealer (the one I stopped using because they are actually a Vauxhall dealer with no knowledge of hydraulic citroens) now don't even have anything about parts;

https://www.questmotorgroup.co.uk/citro ... ing-parts/

:rofl2:

:drink:

Oh dear oh dear...
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by bobins »

There may be a good reason that Robins and Day run their own parts network......
From Wikipedia:
"In the United Kingdom, Peugeot Motor Company PLC is a wholly owned United Kingdom subsidiary of PSA Peugeot Citroën that operates the Peugeot UK and Citroën UK brands. Peugeot UK's retail arm is Robins & Day which was part of Rootes Group before becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Peugeot Motor Company PLC in 1970."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_PSA#United_Kingdom
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wurlycorner
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Re: Another rant about Psa parts supply / attitude to customer service

Post by wurlycorner »

Well that's certainly interesting and unexpected, but... Their parts supply seems to be a new thing and can't for the life of me work out why a dealer should need to supplant the manufacturers job?!
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