MG4, not a good car.

[Rolfe]

I sent mine pictures of the Australian undertray fix and was still snootily fobbed off.

 

[tsedge]

To be fair to dealer technicians they often receive very limited training and are told to only look at official communications from the manufacturer. Forums also have unfounded rumours, misdiagnoses and false information.

I still lay this at MG UK's / SAIC's door; poor communication and lack of willingness to engage with 3rd party enthusiasts. Imagine how brilliant we would all think (and say to others) MG was if they were constructively present here, providing information and support.

 

[NLMGSAN]

I sent mine pictures of the Australian undertray fix and was still snootily fobbed off.

Your decision to take your business elsewhere is very legitimate....

 

[Rolfe]

I hope to hell Galashiels are better. Their web site is still advertising Trophy LR cars as coming with a black roof. But a lot of places don't update their web sites very enthusiastically.

I note that the Gala garage is advertising all the MG4s at list price. Macklin's in Edinburgh had some eye-popping discounts when I looked around yesterday. Brand new Trophys for £25,450. I didn't see an SE in the showroom though.

To be fair to dealer technicians they often receive very limited training and are told to only look at official communications from the manufacturer. Forums also have unfounded rumours, misdiagnoses and false information.

I still lay this at MG UK's / SAIC's door; poor communication and lack of willingness to engage with 3rd party enthusiasts. Imagine how brilliant we would all think (and say to others) MG was if they were constructively present here, providing information and support.

Honestly, if a professional isn't capable of differentiating between the real deal and "unfounded rumours, misdiagnoses and false information" they're not much good at their job.

As a vet, I learned something from animal owners on a number of occasions when they came in clutching a handful of printouts from the internet. I never belittled them for having "done their own research" and sometimes when I followed up what they'd uncovered it was a genuine recent discovery I hadn't been aware of. I think these car salesmen could take a lesson from that.

 

[tsedge]

Honestly, if a professional isn't capable of differentiating between the real deal and "unfounded rumours, misdiagnoses and false information" they're not much good at their job.

How are they supposed to distinguish if they don't have the knowledge? They don't drive EVs on their low salaries. I think this is an unrealistic expectation given MG's instructions to them.

As a vet, I learned something from animal owners on a number of occasions when they came in clutching a handful of printouts from the internet. I never belittled them for having "done their own research" and sometimes when I followed up what they'd uncovered it was a genuine recent discovery I hadn't been aware of. I think these car salesmen could take a lesson from that.

Yes, you are right about the attitude and the best will show interest rather than push back. But when your bosses are telling you not to use or engage with forums and they are full of misinformation, it takes a fair bit if chutzpah to be one of these people.

 

[NLMGSAN]

To be fair to dealer technicians they often receive very limited training and are told to only look at official communications from the manufacturer. Forums also have unfounded rumours, misdiagnoses and false information.

I still lay this at MG UK's / SAIC's door; poor communication and lack of willingness to engage with 3rd party enthusiasts. Imagine how brilliant we would all think (and say to others) MG was if they were constructively present here, providing information and support.

Agreed. This could work.
On the other hand it is only a work-around for the real problem at the level of the dealer. The dealer isn't just lacking information. He is organizing the customer relationship using a cost model from MG. That model may be a problem if they do what needs to be done to satisfy customers. There is a fat chance any MG representative on a forum will play the same riddle as the dealers do....
My internet provider changed their strategy this way. By taking away difficult questions from the call center and moving them to the 'community forum' they lost a huge number of customers who just wanted a proper service without the need making an account and creating a post...
Same will happen with MG owners. Some will use the forum, but many are left in the dark.

 

[Rolfe]

How are they supposed to distinguish if they don't have the knowledge? They don't drive EVs on their low salaries. I think this is an unrealistic expectation given MG's instructions to them.

Yes, you are right about the attitude and the best will show interest rather than push back. But when your bosses are telling you not to use or engage with forums and they are full of misinformation, it takes a fair bit if chutzpah to be one of these people.

Not good at their jobs. Might not be their fault, might well be their bosses fault (it usually is, anywhere and everywhere), but the result is the same.

I was a bit shocked when the receptionist girl showing me my courtesy car yesterday said she'd never driven an automatic. What the hell are they thinking of, not taking her out for an hour in an automatic, even in an EV, just so she picks up some basics?

 

[AlexC]

This applies to dealers of other brands as well. I was running Toyotas for more than 30 years. The last time I wanted my noisy AC repaired but I was told it was 'old age' (car was 10 years old). I knew from a forum that is was caused by a loose connection. But the mechanic denied that it could be the cause. So I sent the pictures from the forum to the manager of the dealership. One call later and they fixed it.

Exactly right, it’s ludicrous and embarrassing that dealers are unaware compared to what is discussed on the forum. MG China / UK really need to get on top of this.

 

[tsedge]

Yes as @NLMGSAN says, it is a product of the low-cost business model that needs to change as they transition to becoming a more premium maker.

When the dealer margins are razor-thin, there'll be a lot of penny-pinching, including on salaries, training, etc.... high staff turnover and you won't attract the best people as managers or on the front line.

That said, @Rolfe is right that with a bit of common sense it costs nothing to use some of the slack time to train people on the cars and give them basic working knowledge and make it easier to relate to customer problems.

 

[Caramaddy]

I had an interesting conversation this morning. The receptionist girl started on a script about not having parts if the charging light issue needed them. I said that I thought it was highly unlikely it would need parts, because it was a known issue which could be fixed, at least temporarily, by doing something with a particular fuse, or some people had had it permanently fixed with a software update. An older woman at the next desk started lecturing me about how nothing that was said on a forum was any of their business.

I wish I'd said, if you guys made a habit of reading the forum, just lurking, you'd learn a lot that you ought to know if you cared about customer service - for all of your customers. There are a lot of issues that people on the forum seem to know a hell of a lot more about than most dealers.

This is exactly why I belong to this forum. You gain so much information that can save you time and money. You find out things that are not in the manual. I have been lurking on this forum for some time before purchasing my MG5 SR. Compared to other forums I have been associated with, the contributors are always trying to help other members with nuggets of information from their experience. It is a pleasure to be part of this MGEV community.

Yes as @NLMGSAN says, it is a product of the low-cost business model that needs to change as they transition to becoming a more premium maker.

When the dealer margins are razor-thin, there'll be a lot of penny-pinching, including on salaries, training, etc.... high staff turnover and you won't attract the best people as managers or on the front line.

That said, @Rolfe is right that with a bit of common sense it costs nothing to use some of the slack time to train people on the cars and give them basic working knowledge and make it easier to relate to customer problems.

I agree, but that model is not followed by ALDI, I understand they pay their staff more than other retailers.

 

[Rolfe]

This is exactly why I belong to this forum. You gain so much information that can save you time and money. You find out things that are not in the manual. I have been lurking on this forum for some time before purchasing my MG5 SR. Compared to other forums I have been associated with, the contributors are always trying to help other members with nuggets of information from their experience. It is a pleasure to be part of this MGEV community.

To be fair, it turned out that the car does need a new part for the charging port lights. But that doesn't really negate the basic point.

 

[Anon70]

I was a bit shocked when the receptionist girl showing me my courtesy car yesterday said she'd never driven an automatic. What the hell are they thinking of, not taking her out for an hour in an automatic, even in an EV, just so she picks up some basics?

Invariably when I go on a test drive I am training the sales staff. Test drove a Formentor and when I went to test out the self park function the sales person was so excited to see how it worked, with an "I didn't know it could do that".

Also when I was at the hand over for my Mini Clubman I had to explain to the "handover expert" they were waggling their foot in the wrong direction (side to side not front to back) to activate the hands free rear door opening.

 

[DavecUK]

Costs.

The costs would be insignificant

 

[NLMGSAN]

That said, @Rolfe is right that with a bit of common sense it costs nothing to use some of the slack time to train people on the cars and give them basic working knowledge and make it easier to relate to customer problems.

I was under the same impression that this would be a golden opportunity. However, here the dealers are understaffed already and it only gets worse here. Not sure how it is in the UK, but I've heard the time until the next service can be more than a month..so there may be very little slack time there.
On top of that, I hear dealers leave the brand in the UK. Or they are dumped by MG. With small margins ahead and having to pay for trainings, there is little incentive for them I guess. If EV sales drop in the UK as they do in Europe, risks at the dealer level only increase more.

Anyway, yes it would pay off on the long term. But the question than is if they are still there with MG.....

 

[tsedge]

I was under the same impression that this would be a golden opportunity. However, here the dealers are understaffed already and it only gets worse here. Not sure how it is in the UK, but I've heard the time until the next service can be more than a month..so there may be very little slack time there.
On top of that, I hear dealers leave the brand in the UK. Or they are dumped by MG. With small margins ahead and having to pay for trainings, there is little incentive for them I guess. If EV sales drop in the UK as they do in Europe, risks at the dealer level only increase more.

Anyway, yes it would pay off on the long term. But the question than is if they are still there with MG.....

MG UK have been pushing to get rid of the smaller dealerships and to have fewer larger dealers where a bigger range of cars can be featured. There's a general shift in favour of larger dealer networks.

Many of the smaller MG dealers in the UK were family run single garages with a loyal following, these are disappearing.

It is also part of the push upmarket to become a more premium maker.

 

[SueH]

I was a bit shocked when the receptionist girl showing me my courtesy car yesterday said she'd never driven an automatic. What the hell are they thinking of, not taking her out for an hour in an automatic, even in an EV, just so she picks up some basics?

My best friend (she's on my MG4 insurance..) made sure her office staff went out on site for the day on customer visits and alarm installations and maintenance. It's all part of understanding the business and doing a better job.

I think the mechanic at my local dealers knows his stuff but the issue is the sheer volume of EVs they've sold. Getting a slot is a real issue and it does appear that the whole place is under resourced - see my comments on the dealership thread.

 

[Caramaddy]

Sales staff seem to move on a regular basis - dealerships seem to want to employ young people so they can mould them into their way of doing things - and of course they will be cheap. Sales people I have spoken to have swapped dealerships on quite a few occasions.

The job is very antisocial hours to be fair.

 

[AlexC]

To be fair to dealer technicians they often receive very limited training and are told to only look at official communications from the manufacturer. Forums also have unfounded rumours, misdiagnoses and false information.

I still lay this at MG UK's / SAIC's door; poor communication and lack of willingness to engage with 3rd party enthusiasts. Imagine how brilliant we would all think (and say to others) MG was if they were constructively present here, providing information and support.

Yeah, why the hell are MG UK, and maybe in other countries behaving like this? They have great products, awards and yet this attitude screws it all up. Ages to build reputation and moments to ruin it. I bet in China it’s very different, given huge competition.

 

[Ian Key]

Sales staff seem to move on a regular basis - dealerships seem to want to employ young people so they can mould them into their way of doing things - and of course they will be cheap. Sales people I have spoken to have swapped dealerships on quite a few occasions.

The job is very antisocial hours to be fair.

One reason they move on is that they get set a sales target with a good bonus for meeting it. It's easy to start with as they sell cars to their friends and acquaintances. The dealership keeps increasing the sales target based on previous sales but then the sales person runs out of people they can make an easy sale to so the bonuses stop. At which point they move to a new dealer and start again.

 

[AlexC]

One reason they move on is that they get set a sales target with a good bonus for meeting it. It's easy to start with as they sell cars to their friends and acquaintances. The dealership keeps increasing the sales target based on previous sales but then the sales person runs out of people they can make an easy sale to so the bonuses stop. At which point they move to a new dealer and start again.

How is it antisocial? They don’t work evenings.