Meridien Modena Lyndhurst - My experience

[Phil the Brit]

So I am on holiday on a short break down in Bournmouth and I start the Quattroporte on the first morning here to find a message on screen "ECU malfunction, go to dealer". The car is not in limp mode but thought I should go to dealer to get it checked as I have quite a few miles to do this week.
Went to the service department of Meridien Modena (not the same site as their car sales) and met Jeff Cook one of the service advisors. He made me and wife most welcome, gave us coffee and sat us down in the waiting room while he immediately got a technician to check it over. After a while ne said he would need to have the car for several hours yet and would we like to be driven into Lyndhurst where we could go shopping/have some lunch.
3pm came and he rung to say they had error codes keep coming up but he would send the driver to pick us up and take us back the the service department by which time hopefully the car would be ready.
When we got back he explained that the error lights on the dasboard were now all gone and these probably came up as a result of a flat battery that I had had on the car a couple of weeks earlier. He was not totally confident that the problem was fixed so he would not take any payment at all. Flat out refused to take any money despite having worked on the car for a good three hours diagnosing the problem.
People are often quick to knock dealers when things go wrong and not write positive things when something good happens.
The service I received from Meridien Modena this week was out of this world and so if posting this experience on here gives someone else the confidence to trust this dealer then I feel I have done a little to repay then for what they did for me. To "drop everything" to help someone who arrives at the front door unannounced was indeed great service.
Many thanks Meridien Modena.
Phil

 

[highlander]

Always glad to hear a good service story, and yes, you are correct, we are generally quick to stereotype main dealers negatively.

 

[BJL]

In my experience Meridien Modena are the best company I have ever used in both service and sales. Glad you had such a good experience.

 

[zagatoes30]

Excellent all too often we talk of poor service and rarely does good service get shared.

 

[LDM 3200]

Have never used Meridien but visited them (show room) on a number of occasions when we were in the New Forest and I was still dreaming about buying a Maserati. They were always very friendly in there approach to people coming through the door whether they looked like potential customers or just people on holiday browsing the lovely cars.

My intention was always to get my car looked after by them although for various reasons this has not happened.

 

[EnzoMC]

I think dealers can be very good, prices can be more expensive but you do get some benefits like this....

been to them before to look at a F355 (before the prices rocket) and they were very friendly, even when I turned up in an Audi with my young 8yr nephew. so wish I got it, could have sold it for double the price now...

Used Colchester who were good but didn't service the car inline with the Mas schedule
McGarth - always helpful but feel they are more about the older models
Autoshield - very very helpful but far away
Emblem - again very helpful and won't accept anything as just OK - again some distance

would use the above again but for basic service jobs I'm looking for some one closer to home and heard good reviews about Maranello (Egham) but abit of a nightmare to get to - M25 (car park), M40 and M4 all blocked in the morning. suggestion best way to get to them, would be coming from MK or Oxford area

 

[npaskin]

would be coming from MK or Oxford area

I can recommend Migliore Cars, Bromsgrove - experienced guys and good prices for Ferrari and Maserati. They look after my QP: about an hour from Oxford but M40 northbound traffic usually OK. There is also a new Maserati main dealer in Oxford, but have not tried them other than a walk in showroom visit. I'd prefer the experience that Vic and Kevin at Migliore have.

 

[Pibbow]

All the team at Meridien are first class, you get what you pay for.

 

[Andyk]

meridien as know their stuff..After all back in the Bi Turbo days they were the only Maserati dealer and were the importers for the UK.....Love visiting them and never heard a bad story about them.

 

[GeoffCapes]

Whenever I'm down there (father in law lives in Lyndhurst) I always go in there.

Always very nice, friendly and totally unprentious.

 

[c4sman]

Bought my car from meridian and had some warranty work done there afterwards and no complaints, other than long waits for maserati supplying some parts. I would probably continue to use them but now the car is on an independent warranty it is unlikely purely because of 170 mile round trip. They do pick up and deliver but usually via a driver so they end up driving my car more than I do. You can pay for a transporter but that would add £120 to any bill so I think I will switch to Joe Macari for official maserati servicing moving forward who is 6 miles down the road, and or Autofficina 3 miles away for specialist indie work if required.

It is interesting comparing Porsche and maserati main dealer customer service. Both have been good having recently bought from and used Porsche Guildford and Porsche West Sussex. Porsche are much more sophisticated than Maserati at obtaining and reacting to customer feedback. Every visit to Porsche results in a customer online survey shortly afterwards followed by the centre manager calling after you complete the survey to either thank you for positive feedback or attempting to address your concerns if negative. Never heard a peep from Meridian.

 

[bigbob]

FWIW I always get an e-mail survey after my car has been in with Graypaul. In fact my other cars all get the same as well.

 

[c4sman]

FWIW I always get an e-mail survey after my car has been in with Graypaul. In fact my other cars all get the same as well.

Seems dealer specific then

 

[Ewan]

I hate this constant bombardment for feedback. The last thing I want is people bothering me. Even the mini dealer called me to check up after our mini was serviced. What's hard about changing oil - what did he expect me to say! I want my car serviced, and for no more contact until I call them. If I need a garage, I'll contact a garage. In the meantime, I want them to leave me alone. (This applies to all businesses, not just garages). Rant over.

 

[CatmanV2]

I hate this constant bombardment for feedback. The last thing I want is people bothering me. Even the mini dealer called me to check up after our mini was serviced. What's hard about changing oil - what did he expect me to say! I want my car serviced, and for no more contact until I call them. If I need a garage, I'll contact a garage. In the meantime, I want them to leave me alone. (This applies to all businesses, not just garages). Rant over.

I have to agree. Our bloody awful service desk do this *every time* you have a ticket closed.

Yes, yes, you created a distribution list. Well done!

C

 

[bigbob]

I hate this constant bombardment for feedback. The last thing I want is people bothering me. Even the mini dealer called me to check up after our mini was serviced. What's hard about changing oil - what did he expect me to say! I want my car serviced, and for no more contact until I call them. If I need a garage, I'll contact a garage. In the meantime, I want them to leave me alone. (This applies to all businesses, not just garages). Rant over.

Have you had an accident the wasn't your fault in the last 500 years?

 

[Andyk]

Just ignore the emails if you don't want to feed back I suppose....Not wasting your time then.......

 

[dickygrace]

I hate this constant bombardment for feedback. The last thing I want is people bothering me. Even the mini dealer called me to check up after our mini was serviced. What's hard about changing oil - what did he expect me to say! I want my car serviced, and for no more contact until I call them. If I need a garage, I'll contact a garage. In the meantime, I want them to leave me alone. (This applies to all businesses, not just garages). Rant over.

That's how I feel about it, if I want them, I'll contact them. This is why I don't send out marketing texts, emails etc. If one of my customers wants me, they'll contact me, and then I'll do all I can for them. If they don't contact me, they don't want to hear from me.

 

[sjc]

Nice to hear of good service.
So come one, how many of us thought " battery related" when we read the first paragraph!
Can I call myself a technician now?

 

[bigbob]

That's how I feel about it, if I want them, I'll contact them. This is why I don't send out marketing texts, emails etc. If one of my customers wants me, they'll contact me, and then I'll do all I can for them. If they don't contact me, they don't want to hear from me.

That's the difference between personal service and a large business trying to see how it's employees are doing.