Drive and Shine Godstone, Brian Donnelly
My purpose is to let others learn from my misfortune in sending my 1993 Porsche 968 Cabriolet to this 'Professional Detailer'.
Drive and Shine, Godstone, Brian Donnelly
Having bought the cabriolet I'd promised myself for many years (my 60th birthday present to me!), it was not perfect so I wanted some remedial work carried out. An online search took me to the website of the above company, and a detailed report of a partial restoration of a 968 coupe he carried out in 2010. The report and photographs showed a lot of the work I wanted done - in particular, the 'before' photos of the leather seats looked exactly like mine, the 'after' photos showed seats that looked like brand new nappa leather! He also shows the removal, cleaning and refitting of the plastic side oversills and front and rear plastic overbumpers (or PUs as they are commonly known) - again, jobs I wanted done as the seals had all shrunk and needed replacing.
I therefore spoke to Brian(Brian Donnelly, Drive and Shine Godstone) for an initial idea of costs involved, then took the car to him to discuss the job and get a price. Final list of work to be done was :
Fit Promax chip (supplied by me) into ECU.
Remove front and rear PU's, clean both plus bodywork behind, refit with new seals.
Remove all 4 side oversill protectors, clean all plus sills, respray oversills to remove "gravel rash", waxoyl sills internally. Refit oversills with new seals and new plastic fittings.
Remove stone guards from both front wings, fit new replacements after cleaning area.
I supplied the new seals and plastic fittings for the above work, which he confirmed by email that he'd received. In total I supplied £170 worth of parts.
Remove door handle shells and respray. Refit with new seals (supplied by me).
Respray passenger door to remove bad scratch, blend new paint into wings.
Fully recondition both front seats, gear knob, handbrake cover and steering wheel to correct cobalt blue colour.
Detail bodywork to remove swirls and light scratches. Bodywork was in quite good condition already as I had gone over it with my DA polisher and Autoglym 02B correction fluid, but would benefit from professional detailing.
Price quoted for this was £900, with the work taking about a week. I therefore delivered the car to him early afternoon of Tuesday 19th July.
Drive and Shine, Godstone, Brian Donnelly
The afternoon of Wednesday 20th July I had a phone call from Brian to say the painter, in masking up, had found the beginning of corrosion around the offside repeater hole, did I want it fixed? I of course said yes - but did not stop to think why the painter would be masking the offside front wing if the sills were to be resprayed off the vehicle!
So, time went on, Brian (actually his wife Sam) phoned to say the car would not be ready for collection after 1 week (painter was not happy with the colour so had to re-do the spraying), eventually I arranged to collect the car on Monday 1st August - the day I had her booked into Project Nine Engineering for mechanical inspection and service - they are very well respected and knowledgable independant Porsche specialists that had previously serviced my 968 coupe, but had not yet seen my new cabriolet.
Collecting the car - in bright sunlight - it was immediately obvious that the seats had striped sides - I was told that the leather treatment was still a bit wet, and that the stripes would dry out. They have not - and in better light I now know that the colour is far too dark compared to the rest of the interior, so the seats will have to be redone at some time. Also he said he had not been able to remove the front PU as the fixings were too rusty and he did not want to shear them. This was later to be proven incorrect, as I did that job myself! He also had not fitted the Promax chip as he said he could not undo the bolts securing the ECU frame - yet Project Nine were able to do this without problem!
I also noticed that the fit of the door cards looked poor, and was told that the fault was with the cards due to their age. There was also a noise inside the passenger door when closing it, as if something was loose inside. I was in a bit of a rush to get to Project Nine, so I did not check the car as thoroughly as I should have done. However, the respray appeared to have been well done. Brian did tell me that the passenger side lock indicator pin had shattered while removing the door card - an 18 year old plastic part, these things are to be expected so I was not concerned. I later found that the replacement part was £20.70+VAT!
Brian does not take cheques ("We've had problems with them in the past so no longer accept them") or credit card, only cash or direct bank transfer, so on his invoice he put his bank details. Despite not having done the front PU work, his invoice was for £1100, the additional £200 over his original quote being for the additional work fixing the rust around the side indicator repeater - according to Brian, he was just passing on what his painter had charged, with no additional mark-up. Foolishly, that evening I arranged a BACS transfer of the full amount. Unlike cheques and credit card charges, you cannot stop a BACS transfer or put an amount into dispute - which may explain why he does not take either!
Leaving Brians premises, I quickly found that the electric adjustment of the drivers door mirror no longer worked properly, but far worse was to come. On arrival at Project Nine I found that the central locking no longer worked, the alarm indicator lights in the lock buttons did not work, and the passenger window would not go fully down. I therefore asked Project Nine to investigate - and what they found was disgraceful.
Firstly, in removing the door pockets and arm rests, they found that only 1 in 3 of the numerous securing screws were in place, the others were missing. Each pocket and arm rest was held by only 1 screw.
Secondly, many of the plastic fixings that secure the door card were broken or missing. Admittedly these are fragile and the car is 18 years old, so breakage is not uncommon, but I was not told about this.
Once
the cards were off, the full extent of the mess was revealed. All the
internal electrics - microswitches, relays and most importantly
the "brain" for the central locking - were hanging free
on their wires instead of being properly secured to their mounting points.
This explained the noise when closing the passenger door and why that
window would not go fully down - it was hitting the "brain"!
Drive and Shine, Godstone, Brian Donnelly
I immediately emailed Brian about this, and to my surprise received, within 10 minutes, a phone call from his wife to say, amongst other things, that Brian would pay for the repairs to the doors - which I thought was first class of him. I therefore called Project Nine to instruct them to separate these costs from the service and inspection costs - in fact, Cliff did a separate invoice, which came to £122.40.
On Friday 6th August I scanned this invoice and emailed it to Brian, along with my bank details, but there was no response. 10 days later I again emailed, again there was no response.Both of these emails were polite and factual.
Over the following week I decided to remove the front PU myself. I only had problems with 2 fixings, and these were to do with the nearside wheel arch liner - which it is not strictly necessary to remove as there is an access "hatch" in the liner for access to the PU securing screws! I also removed the nearside short oversill and found the front fixing had not been replaced, the seal had been cut too short, and the seal was held by electricians tape. I had left a detailed printed write-up (with photos) about oversill removal and seal replacement with Brian, as well as providing a complete new set of plastic fittings, so I was really annoyed that he had not followed these instructions and had used only some of the supplied fittings. I also checked the oversill fixing screws and found that none had been copperslipped on reassembly - a basic precaution especially where fixings are prone to water and salt! I will at some time soon have to remove all the oversills and re-fit them as none of the seals are properly fitted, plus all seals will have to be replaced as all have been cut short. I was fortunate to win a full new set on eBay for £25, £15 less than I'd paid for the first set from Porschshop.
On 23rd August I again emailed Brian to ask for the unused parts to be sent to me, also saying that his lack of response was unacceptable and that, should an amicable agreement not be reached, then I would use the 5 forums I frequent (2 x Porsche, 2 x Mercedes Benz and Detailingworld) to let other know about the "service" I had received from him. Within 10 minutes (!!) I had a reply from his wife saying that she had previously replied to my first email as they received it without the attached scan of the invoice.
I fail to see how an email with attachment can be received without the attachment, but I certainly did not get her "reply". They were on holiday, but would take care of all matters on their return to work Tuesday 30th August. I resent the email and attachement so it was waiting for them when they returned from holiday.
The morning of Wednesday 1st September (email timed at 9.11am) I received an email from Sam saying she had instructed her bank to transfer the money to my account, I should have it in 4-5 days.
After close of business on 7th September I emailed to say my bank had not received funds, and that I also had not had any response to my other concerns. I received a reply from Sam the following lunchtime to say that she would investigate with her bank, that Bryan had previously emailed about my other concerns (which obviously I had not received) so she would get him to resend his email.
By the morning of 12th September my patience was wearing pretty thin - I had spoken to my bank, no funds had arrived, and there had been no communication from Bryan or Sam. I therefore emailed my concerns, also saying the "if I do not receive a satisfactory response by the end of the week, then I will publish my experience of your services" (I had previously advised them that I frequent 2 Porsche, 2 MB and Detailingworld forums).
On the morning of 16th September I received an email from Sam to say she had been talking to her bank all week, they had finally discovered that they had got the last 2 digits of my bank account number wrong, that the error had been corrected and I should shortly receive the funds.
After close of business on 21st September I checked with my bank, nothing had been received. Based on the most recent email from Sam, my bank would have expected the funds by 20th September, and said they should certainly have seen them by now. I emailed to advise them of this fact, and received a reply from Sam saying that the instruction to her bank was to transfer £350 to cover my costs, but after close of business 23rd September I still had not received anything so again emailed - without reply.
So, (27th September) the situation remains the same - no refund, just me stuck with the additional work and cost of the front PU (which I have done), the oversill seals (which I hope to do in the next week or so) and fixings (which I will have to re-order from Porsche Tonbridge), and the refurbishment of the 2 seats.
The above is a completely factual account of my experience(of Drive and Shine, Godstone, Brian Donnelly), I know how I feel - they will never again see a car of mine, I feel I have been cheated out of hundreds of pounds, and considering how many good restorers and detailers there are in the South East, I would suggest anyone thinking of taking a car there should think again.
CH
27-09-2011