43 replies to this topic

[Juju]

OoooooOOOoooooh this is an interesting thread!

*watches & waits*

[Bungle]

all i have posted about is what happened to me and my my wife on our special day and nothing is untrue, everyone can make their own mind up

you only get 1 chance for a day like this so make sure you make the right choice

[1995 MK2 IOM]

A friend of his no actually, I doubt Bungle even knows who I am. I'm just vouching for the fact that I have never seen him make up absolute nonsense.

And I do think the reasons are a little bit coincidental, i was expecting to hear something about alien abduction aswell, i have heard about bad days happening but that is a little bit unreal.

I have never met Bungle... but from what I hear and see about him on here... he is a trustworthy guy...

I agree that the above story is completely ridiculous! I mean seriously?!!! might as well say that fairies took the car to Neverland the evening before the wedding... seems very odd...

...as for the refund... Bungle should have got compensation for doing that to them on their wedding day! bit out of order if you ask me... (not that you did! ha)

J

[carts60]

A good reputation takes a lifetime to build and an instant to destroy so I kind of feel a bit sorry for old Derek and his limo.

Saying that however, put in his shoes, i'd have been phoning everyone I knew trying to get them to get to the workshop so I could let them know what had happened, especially seeing it was Bungle's wedding!!!!
Genuinely appalling service there.

And before you say im Bungle's mate - never met him. He's never met me. Wouldn't know him if i walked right past him in the street.

Edited by carts60, 18 May 2011 - 04:24 PM.

[maggies_minder]

whys everyone suddenly jumped against this derek chap?

i mean if its his business and hes driving the car, who exactly is he going to phone, himself??

i know Bungle is a popular member (hes everywhere, see my pic <----) but people seem to be forming a "clique" here and teaming up with the popular chap, whos bound to be a tad upset bearing in mind it happened on his big day.

but even so thats his side of events and bandwagon everyones jumping on.

like carts60 said a reputation is easily destroyed, unfortunately. But lets face it if Derek has been doing this 20+years, theres going to be some hiccups, it comes with the terratory.

i no for a fact when something goeswrong with my mini everything and i mean EVERYTHING else gets dropped until its sorted (ask my misses), id imagine if my roof got blown off id be a little concerned (considering its the original steel jobby).

so come on guys, be fair if you arent involved dont slate what could be honest chap and ruin his business. especially if the circumstances surrounding the reason he couldnt make it to Cape Bungle, are true.

[Burnard]

Im sorry, but this doesnt add up...

the limo has in this time only required a respray to freshen it up and the interior refurbed due to wear and tear

now for the folding pram roof , as i said earlier this car has been a workhorse for approx 20yrs and the roof was proffesionall custom made at that time,
and i think i read somewhere that a company british leyland / rover used this type of roof construction quite sucessfully

derek was in fact 1/2 way to you with the rain lashing down and gale force winds when the roof was ripped from the limo and the roof and all his paperwork was blown away across the open fields along side of the motorway and was unable to recover it, and as so was unable to contact you as they contained your contact number.

So...

Theres nothing wrong with the roof, but it blew off.

And the cars only every had a respray... But the roof blew off... so it must have had a new roof aswell...

You need to get your story right mate, it does not add up, and since you seem to be vouching for this bloke, you not doing a very good job of explaining the issues bungle had, and defending the car at the same time...

[the.stroker]

OK,closed while we review the thread

[the.stroker]

Re-opened,play nice and keep it factual!

[GTIAlex06]

This thread is so stupid...

The OP is currently building a mini limo at 'paul higgs mini's' to use for weddings, i know this because i live right round the corner.


Bit of slander against the opposition maybe? perhaps?

[wile e coyote]

FFS! - know neither party in this - yep Bungle was let down - that's poor, Derek has a limo that for whatever reason didn't make it ...

Still a trick bit of car building - fair play to the man - the car's lenghtend and open topped - the body flex despite all the necessary strengthening must be a sod so no real surprise that after years of use, stresses & strains the panel fit is off and it may be suffering wear & tear.........

It may sound a little far fetched as to why the car didn't make it - but we all own minis so should be used to the bizarre & unexplained on occasion!!!!!

[liam_italian]

Gone are they days you can express an opinion without the other party biting back!

[carts60]

Gone are they days you can express an opinion without the other party biting back!

Im not sure that day ever existed lol It's called an argument and they've existed since time began

[tomgale]

wait, if you were driving to a wedding, and lost the phone number of the person who's wedding it is, how does this stop you getting to the wedding? where you just driving round aimlesslely until you called bungle and asked where the wedding was? surely you knew before hand where you were going?

[AVV IT]

I've only ever had one dealing with Derek's Minis and that was when I purchased a set of wheel arch liners from them. A fantastic product that I quite regularly rave about here on TMF

BUT........ I purchased them through Ebay whilst my mini was being restored and so they sat on a shelf in the garage for a while and therefore I didn't leave Ebay feedback immediately when they arrived. A few days passed and then came the Ebay messages from Derek's minis demanding that I leave feedback and demanding to know why I hadn't left feedback so far, each ruder and more demanding than the last!! Sick of being harassed by Derek's minis I finally explained that I had not left feedback as I wasn't in a position to rate the product at that point, simply because feedback for that sort of product would always center around ease of fitting and effectiveness once installed and as yet I had neither fitted it or used it. In response I received nothing, no acknowledgment, no apology for the relentless hounding for feedback, nothing!! In short a fantastic product but ruined by a poor customer care... a real shame!!

As for a limo service, yes hiccups and even unforeseen disasters can occur in any business, but in the wedding industry you are dealing with the single most important day in a couples life and therefore there is little room for error. If you get it wrong and you don't have robust contingencies in place, it will soon get very ugly and your reputation will quite rightly be destroyed in an instant. Sincere apologies and a full refund afterwards, will be of little comfort to a bride that is in tears and the father of the bride that is now ready to commit murder! That is why wedding premiums are applied to reputable wedding services, to ensure that sufficent arrangements are put in place in the event that something does go wrong. If you can't plan for such eventualities, then you really shouldn't be operating in the wedding industry. My uncle used to own an old jag and one of the guys in the local pub used to run a "one man band" limo service. Quite regularly on a Saturday morning my uncle could be seen running down the garden path towards his jag, pulling on his morning suit as he ran, because the limo had broken down again and he was on standby to save the day!

So....A professional limo service that provides transport to a couple on the single most important day of their lives, but has no available back up vehicle and chooses to store their clients only available contact details on a single piece of paper that could blow away in the wind?? I'm sorry but the phrase "Hi Ho Silver" really does spring to mind

Edited by AVV IT, 19 May 2011 - 05:01 PM.

[ibrooks]

My thoughts exactly and I don't think I could have put it better either.

Slightly different I know but on a short trip to France the coach we were in expired on the motorway (or equivalent). Bits of engine all over the carriageway and a huge oil-slick.

The coach company was a one-man band and obviously based in the North-West of England so we could have been stuck there for some time. We were actually stood at the side of the road for 45 minutes before a replacement coach arrived. They had a reciprocal agreement with another company near to the channel crossing so as soon as they had established that the coach was going no further they called it in and the replacement set off. We carried on and the coach got home about a week later.

I know a mate who runs a Jag specialist who has a regular agreement with a coupe of local limo and executive "taxi" services who does similar things with his cars. Sometimes the other outfits just need to borrow a car and sometimes they need him to drive it for them. Either way they can turn a disaster into a short delay with a phonecall.

I'd also add - this thread seemed to have run it's course and dropped off the radar before pwhitehouse brought it back to the top. If you're really looking to help Dereks Minis then maybe it would have been better to keep schtum.

Iain