The happy ending to the Land Rover Discovery saga that Adrian Melrose had been hoping for just hasn’t happened.
The latest news from Land Rover’s most patient, loyal and suffering customer is that he has finally reached the end of the road:
[…] So I throw up my hands in the air and tell Land Rover that they have a problem – failure of 4 different Vehicles – yet they tell me this fault is somehow connected to me personally. Trying to blame my blackberry device claiming interference!
So they took the car back and refunded my money in full and I am no longer a Land Rover ower – but I continue to get a few hundred hits a day on this site and I am going to make sure that prospective owners are fully aware of the terrible QA problems this car suffers from.
Adrian’s now riding in a brand new Audi A6 Avant while he waits for delivery of his new Audi Q7 SUV next year.
I’ve been following Adrian’s story with keen interest since I first heard about it in July. It certainly looks to me that Land Rover has blown it enormously, from the flaky foundation (poor manufacturing quality) through to customer service and into public relations.
What’s next? From another post by Adrian yesterday:
[…] Land Rover – you’ve just enjoyed the calm before the storm – please don’t think you’ve seen the back of me – there is too much meat on this bone and consumers deserve to hear it straight!
The ball’s in your court, Land Rover (and owner Ford). I wonder how they’ll play it. To adapt an old saying: "Hell hath no fury like a customer scorned."
When I lived in LA, I remember passing a broken down Range Rover in front of the dealership, with the man holding up a yellow sign that read “Range Rovers are Lemons.”
So, the history of crappy cars goes back for me for a few years.
Neville, thanks for tracking this story, you are right: its the end of the road for Land Rover and I – regrettably so.
In answer to your question about what Land Rover/Ford will do next – my guess is that they will simply bury their heads further in the sand. The truth is that this is no longer a communications’ challenge – its a QA/Production issue and no matter how the Communications Gurus choose to handle this – they won’t make the real issue go away. Before the power of the public blogging platform, Land Rover may have been able to conceal the truth by papering over the cracks with a traditonal communications strategy – now they can’t hide from it. I really would love to know how many potential customers have steered away from buying a Discovery 3 as a result of reading my story… I know of three people thus far who have told me so… but I am sure there are far more out there.
Alas, Ford head office will do nothing either. I wrote to the CEO of Ford in the USA. My letter was acknowledged and forwarded to the Customer Service Manager in Australia, about whom I had complained along with the CEO.
Needless to say neither the CEO in Australia nor the Customer Service Manager responded to the letter forwarded from Ford.
Regrettably the hopes for better quality under Ford management are probably in vain as corporate arrogance continues in the face of a customer backlash.
Richard Jones, Australia