MG customer service is TERRIBLE!

[Andytizer]

Hi all I am looking for some help with my issue and how to deal with MG’s terrible customer service.

My MG5 suddenly stopped working: the car would start but I couldn’t select Drive/Neutral/Reverse and all the lights are on the gear selector. This is a video of the issue:


Here is my MG5 customer service timeline:

• April 2021 - I buy the MG5 EV, great car no issues. Get the 1-year service in April 2022.
• 20th July 2022 (Wednesday) MG5 will not go into gear, car cannot be driven. AA attempts disconnecting battery for 10 mins, reattaching, no help.
• 22nd July (Friday) Car is recovered by AA to go to MG Ruislip service centre. No courtesy cars are available until September 2022.
• 27th July (Wednesday) Called MG Eastcote to get update, they state they are sending data to MG and waiting for their response.
• 2nd August (today) No progress with the repair. I call MG Eastcote and MG Ruislip multiple times about courtesy car, they refuse to request/supply one in a reasonable timeframe.

I have called multiple times to MG Eastcote dealership (Amna) who state there are no courtesy cars available, the next ones are available in mid-September 2022.

However when I call MG customer service (Hannah) they state that as soon as my car has been taken in and I am immobile then the MG dealer/service centre should arrange a courtesy car, OR they arrange a hire car from their contract with Enterprise.

So I play phone tag with MG Eastcote (Amna) and MG Ruislip (Ray) again and they say they have never heard of the policy. They say that a courtesy car cannot be requested unless a part has been ordered, and because they don’t know what is wrong or what part to order, they cannot process the courtesy car request.

I have asked MG customer service (Hannah) to escalate the issue. However I do not have much hope that this will produce any result.

What I would like advice on:

Courtesy car:
MG basically refuse to give me a courtesy car within a reasonable time frame (now over a week, no cars until mid-September). What else can I do?
Through my car insurance Admiral, I am entitled to 2 days of hire from Enterprise, however this isn’t enough for me as my car could be out of commission for months - as it’s been over a week they haven’t identified the issue yet.
I’ve signed up to Zipcar in the meantime but don’t fancy paying £100 per day just to drive a car.

Legal warranty:
How many days/weeks/months can MG hold onto my car with no conclusive fix? At what point can I demand legal action, compensation, refund or a new car?

 

[trinenmark]

When you start it

What error message comes up you are to fast to be able to read it

Also I see it’s not coming up ready in the bottom right

 

[Ron61]

Hi all I am looking for some help with my issue and how to deal with MG’s terrible customer service.

My MG5 suddenly stopped working: the car would start but I couldn’t select Drive/Neutral/Reverse and all the lights are on the gear selector. This is a video of the issue:


Here is my MG5 customer service timeline:

• April 2021 - I buy the MG5 EV, great car no issues. Get the 1-year service in April 2022.
• 20th July 2022 (Wednesday) MG5 will not go into gear, car cannot be driven. AA attempts disconnecting battery for 10 mins, reattaching, no help.
• 22nd July (Friday) Car is recovered by AA to go to MG Ruislip service centre. No courtesy cars are available until September 2022.
• 27th July (Wednesday) Called MG Eastcote to get update, they state they are sending data to MG and waiting for their response.
• 2nd August (today) No progress with the repair. I call MG Eastcote and MG Ruislip multiple times about courtesy car, they refuse to request/supply one in a reasonable timeframe.

I have called multiple times to MG Eastcote dealership (Amna) who state there are no courtesy cars available, the next ones are available in mid-September 2022.

However when I call MG customer service (Hannah) they state that as soon as my car has been taken in and I am immobile then the MG dealer/service centre should arrange a courtesy car, OR they arrange a hire car from their contract with Enterprise.

So I play phone tag with MG Eastcote (Amna) and MG Ruislip (Ray) again and they say they have never heard of the policy. They say that a courtesy car cannot be requested unless a part has been ordered, and because they don’t know what is wrong or what part to order, they cannot process the courtesy car request.

I have asked MG customer service (Hannah) to escalate the issue. However I do not have much hope that this will produce any result.

What I would like advice on:

Courtesy car:
MG basically refuse to give me a courtesy car within a reasonable time frame (now over a week, no cars until mid-September). What else can I do?
Through my car insurance Admiral, I am entitled to 2 days of hire from Enterprise, however this isn’t enough for me as my car could be out of commission for months - as it’s been over a week they haven’t identified the issue yet.
I’ve signed up to Zipcar in the meantime but don’t fancy paying £100 per day just to drive a car.

Legal warranty:
How many days/weeks/months can MG hold onto my car with no conclusive fix? At what point can I demand legal action, compensation, refund or a new car?

HI,

What a terrible situation to be in. I've found this link (below) that may help you. My first thought though it's the dealer that's at fault and MG should be able to help you there. If the policy Hannah referred to is real they should be able to enforce it.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 for used and new cars | AutoTrader

The Consumer Rights Act provides second-hand and new car buyers with a wider range of rights covering the sale of goods and services. Here we explained which consumer rights could cover you when buying a car, or when you require a refund, car repairs or the replacement of faulty goods.

www.autotrader.co.uk

Good luck.

 

[BugEyed]

This surely is covered by the 7 year guarantee? I'd give up on the dealers and go direct to MG head office.

 

[Les burrows]

Hi andytizer, sorry to here of your dilemma, but a couple of things strike me in your short video they might be totally irrelevant but I can see at 0.02 seconds into the video and before you even press about the start button at around 0.06 seconds into it, the the lights on the drive mode selector are on, all three of them in fact, they shouldn’t be before you have switched the car on by pressing the start button.

The next point I have picked up on is when you do switch the car on the the battery meter is showing 12.1 volts. On my MG 5 SR ( question is yours on SR or LR ) ?when I turn mine on it is quite normal for it to show 13.3volts or more.

So I see you said the AA did the 12 volt disconnect trick and it did not work, but reconnecting a dead battery currant wise, won’t improve the issue it might read 12 volts on the meter but the battery could still be defective, I would get back to your dealer and ask them to replace the 12v battery with a known good one, or recharge your 12 volt battery and to check it for current as well as voltage.

As I said Andy It might be totally irrelevant but I’m just trying to help.
Good luck and please inform us the forum when it’s sorted and if possible what went wrong.
Les.

 

[Andytizer]

When you start it

What error message comes up you are to fast to be able to read it

Also I see it’s not coming up ready in the bottom right

The error message says 'Authold Fail'.

Hi andytizer, sorry to here of your dilemma, but a couple of things strike me in your short video they might be totally irrelevant but I can see at 0.02 seconds into the video and before you even press about the start button at around 0.06 seconds into it, the the lights on the drive mode selector are on, all three of them in fact, they shouldn’t be before you have switched the car on by pressing the start button.

The next point I have picked up on is when you do switch the car on the the battery meter is showing 12.1 volts. On my MG 5 SR ( question is yours on SR or LR ) ?when I turn mine on it is quite normal for it to show 13.3volts or more.

So I see you said the AA did the 12 volt disconnect trick and it did not work, but reconnecting a dead battery currant wise, won’t improve the issue it might read 12 volts on the meter but the battery could still be defective, I would get back to your dealer and ask them to replace the 12v battery with a known good one, or recharge your 12 volt battery and to check it for current as well as voltage.

As I said Andy It might be totally irrelevant but I’m just trying to help.
Good luck and please inform us the forum when it’s sorted and if possible what went wrong.
Les.

Yes all 3 drive selectors are on even though the car is 'off'.
Possibly there is an issue with the battery. However the MG5 has been in MG Ruislip for 10 days I assume they tried a different 12v battery already - something else has gone wrong! Thanks for taking a look.

This surely is covered by the 7 year guarantee? I'd give up on the dealers and go direct to MG head office.

Yes the problem is that MG head office have no phone number, it's based in Birmingham but no customer service contact. There is a number (01217 564864) which connects to a customer service centre which is based in Newcastle which is not officially MG, it is a subcontracted call centre - they simply forward calls to MG central office which take up to 72 hours to respond.

Yesterday evening (August 2nd) I called MG's main customer service line again (01217 564864) and Hannah promised to send a complaint report to MG's head office with my issues.

However I called today and found out that Hannah is not working today, and so I spoke to Liam, who stated that there are zero notes or email about my case on their system, and no such report has been sent. After some back and forth I asked Liam to recreate my report.

I have now resorted to sending a message to Gary Smart on LinkedIn to try and get some proper progress made on this.

I am tempted to go to Birmingham MG office myself to see what the hell is happening - there is no phone number, no office nothing, no one else to talk to!

If I can't get this resolved soon I may need to start legal proceedings. However the MG Warranty doesn't actually state what a reasonable turnaround time for repair would be, is it mentioned here at all?

 

[Les burrows]

The error message says 'Authold Fail'.


Yes all 3 drive selectors are on even though the car is 'off'.
Possibly there is an issue with the battery. However the MG5 has been in MG Ruislip for 10 days I assume they tried a different 12v battery already - something else has gone wrong! Thanks for taking a look.

I wouldn’t assume anything in your shoes there has been to many reports on here of dealers waiting for a fix from MG same with your next reply no record on there system don’t assume ask the question
Les

 

[Kithmo]

Are you keeping you foot on the brake until the car finishes booting up ?
Are all the doors and boot shut properly ?
Are the three selectors lit up because the lights are switched on ?

 

[Andytizer]

Are you keeping you foot on the brake until the car finishes booting up ?
Are all the doors and boot shut properly ?
Are the three selectors lit up because the lights are switched on ?

Yes keeping foot on brake until car finishes booting up.
Yes all doors and boot shut properly.
Lights are off and the x3 selector lights were still on.

AA recovery guy tried everything too, none of the simple steps helped.

 

[smokie]

I am tempted to go to Birmingham MG office myself to see what the hell is happening - there is no phone number, no office nothing, no one else to talk to!

I'd hold back on that one if I were you, I'd hate you to discover they are all working from home.

 

[weedavemac]

I wouldn’t assume anything in your shoes there has been to many reports on here of dealers waiting for a fix from MG same with your next reply no record on there system don’t assume ask the question
Les

That's my first thought... Don't think you should assume they have done the simple things. They may well have plugged in a code reader, not got anywhere, and then shrugged their shoulders....

 

[Andytizer]

That's my first thought... Don't think you should assume they have done the simple things. They may well have plugged in a code reader, not got anywhere, and then shrugged their shoulders....

I wouldn’t assume anything in your shoes there has been to many reports on here of dealers waiting for a fix from MG same with your next reply no record on there system don’t assume ask the question
Les

Thanks I've asked them to check the 12v battery again, they say they will charge it and try it again.

I'm not sure it's a battery issue to be honest, it looks like a control/gear selector issue.

 

[weedavemac]

Thanks I've asked them to check the 12v battery again, they say they will charge it and try it again.

I'm not sure it's a battery issue to be honest, it looks like a control/gear selector issue.

Worth a go. Can't do any harm, and they don't seem to have done much of anything else since getting your car.

 

[rjb1970]

I would agree it's the 12v battery - despite its name, it should be showing closer to 14v. Mine shows that or above when I start up, and usually drops to about 13.8 when the lights are on. Might be something simple like something trickle draining it.

 

[Alb]

14V(ish) is the DC-DC Convertor output, not the battery terminal voltage.
It has to be higher than the battery voltage for current to flow in the right direction!

 

[aread2]

Also, if the starter battery is heavily discharged, it will hold the voltage down at the terminals until it has charged up a bit because it's consuming the charger's max current. You'd only see 14v+ as the battery state of charge rises and the charge current falls.

 

[Les burrows]

Hi andytizer can I ask have you got the problem with your car sort out yet I sure hope so, can you tell us what the outcome was here’s another MG5 with a problem and a reading of Authold fail.
No idea what this means but sounds like something to do with brakes maybe.
Les.

 

[Ron61]

Never had a problem (MG5 SR) but cracking video thanks very much.

 

[Les burrows]

Never had a problem (MG5 SR) but cracking video thanks very much.

Hi Ron61, I’m the same with my 5SR never anything like this but will be interest to find out what’s gone wrong, I have ask the member who kick this thread off to post us and to state which is car was SR or LR but he hasn’t plus some information as to what was found on his car but no response as yet, but I hope he will plus the guy in the video says he will do a further video when he gets his car back so we will see soon I hope.
Les.

 

[Andytizer]

Hi andytizer can I ask have you got the problem with your car sort out yet I sure hope so, can you tell us what the outcome was here’s another MG5 with a problem and a reading of Authold fail.
No idea what this means but sounds like something to do with brakes maybe.
Les.

Thanks my error is slightly different to yours. Picked up the car finally on Monday, it turned out to be a control unit error, they replaced the entire part (the gear selector bit).

I'm still very unhappy with how this was handled and how I was immobile for over 2 weeks after buying a brand new car only 16 months. I will make a video documenting this entire saga soon.