I've been trying to get my head round the reasons for Automotive Leisure being the target of so much bile in the other place.
And I still don't really understand it.
Are some people still so mired in the grittily monochromatic nationalised industry decades when everybody wore a hat and hobnail boots, and it was positively sinful to even think of making a profit?
Can they really, in this day and age, still resent the success of a company which gives all the appearances of going from strength to strength?
They sell the vans at a price the market will bear, and they buy them at prices the vendors are willing to accept.
Seems to be a pretty sound business model to me.
They have chosen to sell an item which by dint of its relative scarcity and considerable desirability has a queue of eager punters who can barely wait to get their hands on one, and are perfectly happy to pay what it costs. So why are people complaining about his prices?
If the shoe was on the other foot, those people would be aiming to sell their products for as close to what the market will bear as possible. That's how it works.
They aren't a charity, and it's the kind of business I wish I was involved in, by jingo.
I realise there are many tales of poor customer service including the apparent inability to answer e-mails and resolve problems, but I've no idea how many of those tales are anecdotal or have their roots in dissatisfaction resulting from AL's inability to conjure the van they so desperately want out of thin air at exactly the time they want it.
They aren't alone in their occasional inefficiencies, either. Everyone finds Jandi extremely helpful - if rather time-consuming - but I get the impression that on occasion they could do with an extra pair of hands to help them clear a seeming backlog of orders. I don't know this for a fact, but I would guess that they can't necessarily afford to employ someone else, and the upshot of that is the occasional logjam. Sometimes this logjam manifests itself in having to chase (and chase and chase) them to get things mailed out.
I'm sure they have busy periods they need to ride out, and if my own experiences in thirty-odd years of working for myself are anything to go by, there are certainly times when they have far more balls in the air than they can comfortably manage, but without the absolute certainty that the busy period will continue for the foreseeable future cannot take the not inconsiderable risk of employing extra staff.
And it's a reasonable assumption that AL are in a similar position at times, so I'm happy to accept that I won't always get the instantaneous attention that some punters seem to think is their absolute right.
It's a matter of balance; of give and take. As in most similar circumstances, getting aerated on the blower achieves nothing. All it does is antagonise the person on the other end of the phone and lessen your chances of getting the desired result by an exponential amount.
I'm reluctant to say this, but I do wonder sometimes if the dissatisfaction with AL is on occasion the direct result of the attitude of the complainant. Who knows.
Anyway, I can only speak as I find. We sold our 230GT to them in the October of 2010. We needed to sell it, and quickly. We'd have got more had we waited, but we couldn't.
We were offered what I considered to be a fair price for it at the time; I accepted it, and the money was in my bank the same day. They took my word for its condition, and I towed it down there on the Friday of the same week.
I was satisfied. Not happy, of course, but in view of the circumstances, pretty satisfied.
They got a two year-old van in extremely good condition which I don't doubt they sold at a handsome profit. I've no idea what they sold it for. It didn't matter.
I got what I wanted out of the deal.
In the summer of 2011 we had an upturn in our circumstances and I made contact with Steve regarding another van. We were very lucky in that a 540GT did materialise out of nowhere at exactly the right time. It was the result of an unexpected part exchange at their end. He let me know; we went down two days later to give it the once over, haggled a bit and got what we wanted at a price we thought to be acceptable.
I accept that good fortune played no small part in it, but I got what I wanted out of the deal.
Had he not replied to me when I made the original enquiry, I don't think I'd have started muttering darkly about it. And if I had, I like to think I'd have kept it to myself.
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I've been replacing a few worn items
and updating, so I contacted them by email
.
that said if I needed insurance work I would use AL as it is closer
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