Pitstop

Having lived in the area some years ago I was often told to avoid this place like the plague. Now I know why...

I was at a push to get some rolling-road tuning done to my car and this was the nearest outifit with a rolling-road.
Alarm bells rang when I first spoke to them - someone called Ralph who turns out to be the 'boss-man' and had a rather arrogant attitude about how he'd been doing this job for years and could do it all with his eyes shut.
Looking past that phone conversation and their historic track-record, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and elected to give them a chance to tune my car and iron out a pinking problem with it.

On dropping the car off, the first thing I got, was earache from Ralph for fitting 'the wrong brand' of electronic ignition.
After that things went downhill...

After almost a week of no word from them I called to see how things were going, only to find they hadn't done anything due to other more important work.
The following week I spoke to the proprieter and he told me that the rolling road had broken down and they needed more time, He also wanted more information on the technical history of the car. I couldnt tell him any more than I had told him already, so some more days passed.
Finally I got a call saying that although they had been unable to do the tuning properly due to a fault with the rolling road they had fixed the pinking problem and the car was running really sweetly although it hadn't been a proper tune-up.

On picking up the car I was hugely dismayed to find considerable damage to the paintwork on the top of a front wing which appeared to have been mechanically polished to the point they had polished all the way through the paint!
They tried to deny they had done it but eventually capitulated and although not admitting fully to causing the damage said they would pay for it to be fixed but not for the whole wing to be sprayed (which would have to happen for it to be fixed!)

Other damage I found was that the bumper had been either sat-on; knelt on or had hit something as it was now bent. Luckily I was able to straighten that myself.
Ralph told me that there would be no charge for the work done as it wasn't as he put it "Up to their usual standard", and indeed there was no charge, however they hadn't fixed any of the pinking problems which resurfaced on the drive back home just as badly as ever.
If they had test-driven this car they hadn't done a very good job of it either they were not thorough or failed to allow the car to get up to full running tempreature or they would have known that problem wasnt fixed.

I have since found out they have a friend of mine's Triumph engine that they are supposed to be rebuilding - they've had it months and hes still not got it back; it might be the same one I saw in a million pieces thrown into metal trays on a stand at the back of their workshop. - If its the one, I'm not surprised hes not yet got it back!

I have not taken up their paltry offer for fixing the damage done to my car's paintwork. I'm so angry about it; I just dont want anything to do with them any more and might as well get the job done properly myself.

In conclusion; I took my car to Pitstop, was without if for several weeks, got it back having seemingly had no work done to it, and got it damaged in the process.
There was no charge - but there was no change in performance either, but they had damaged which they only partly admitted to.
I might as well have kept the car with me for the duration of that time and not had it damaged!

As a result I cannot recommend anyone takes their car to Pitstop.
It seems the poor reputation they had years ago is still very relevant now.
I'm tempted to describe them as well-meaning cowboys.