Date: October 18, 2022

So today I got up early because one of our customers had massive water damage to a hybrid car and no specialist could sort it. The Porsche dealer has no collection service so our customer paid for our collection and delivery service to take the car to the, newly refitted, Porsche dealer. We only charged £90 for this, despite the fact that the car had to be towed and collected at 0715, because we wanted to look after our customer.

I got to the shiny Porsche dealer and happily handed over the keys. I want told by the very polite lady that she could not take keys and I would have to wait. She offered me a coffee but I said “no thanks” because I assumed that I would be there for minutes.

I sat with a small group of Porsche owners who were waiting to be served. It was 8am so I wondered how early they had got up to be there. Apparently there is a shortage of service advisors…

After some time I needed the coffee, which was a latte and very nice.

Slowly the customers were attended to and off they went. One had a courtesy car and had to do a load of paperwork. Others had to get taxis to the station to work their way back to wherever. I think others had lifts.

I was also attended to but, apparently, they could not accept keys from the MD of a Porsche specialist until they had the permission of the customer. They couldn’t get hold of him so they, reluctantly, made me sign. I didn’t care – I was just trying to look after our customer.

If you are being critical of us, you would say that we should not have had to send this car to a dealer and I accept that – working on it….

But after all of the hassle and hits of the last 4 years it re-energised me. Our labour rate is well less than half of that dealer. We do most work in your drive, where you work or, frankly, anywhere else convenient which isn’t a road and, if we can’t do it there, we collect the car, do the work and deliver it back.

We aren’t as shiny and, if I am honest, the Latte was better that Nescafe. But we offer good old fashioned family company service and represent the future of this industry – if your Porsche is poorly we take the hassle and you don’t need to do anything. Why on earth should you have to get up before its light, take your car somewhere and get a taxi back?