From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Customer complaints regarding rattling gear levers, carburettor flooding, and irregular slow running.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 130\1\ scan0178 | |
| Date | 12th November 1934 | |
| -2- HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}18/KW.12.11.34. (2) Rattling Gear Levers. With regard to this item, you have altered the context of my remarks. If you will read my memo, again you will see that I say - "Bentley customers with whom we have come into contact have without exception complained of the gear lever vibration". However, we know that you agree with us on this point. As things stand, if we find a solution experimentally and go to the designer and ask for a scheme, he is perfectly justified in looking at the Quarterly Complaints and saying that this is an insignificant trouble and therefore he has not time to deal with it. If this did happen it would reverse the object of the Complaints List. Referring to other minor items, EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} complains of carburetters flooding in customers' hands. We have had little experience of this on our own cars, this being so, when we look at the quarterly Complaint list we assume that the trouble does not exist. With regard to the irregular slow running, our point is, it was not until we were enquiring about slow running that you mentioned you had a lot of sparking plugs from Kingsbury, whereas if it had been recorded on the Quarterly Sheet instead of the word "tuning" it would have been automatically brought to our notice. Briefly, therefore, we should like to be able to look at the Quarterly Complaints and from them select the three items which most require experimental attention from the point of view of giving the customer a better car. At present we cannot honestly say that they materially help us to do this. HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||