I write with regards to my unsatisfactory experience with Proton's Platinum Centre at Mutiara Damansara in Kuala Lumpur. I have owned five Protons in the past two years and they have all been marred by dismal build quality. However, what makes the whole Proton experience even more embarrassing is the awful customer-satisfaction standards they keep.

Since the new CEO of Proton took the helm, he has been trumpeting a sea of change that he claims has improved Proton's quality of its products as well as after-sales service. End-to-end improvements, as he said. All I can say is that he has a long way to go before that is achieved.

To illustrate my point, My Gen2 was involved in a rear-end accident and required a rear bumper replacement and of course, a re-spray. At the same time, I wanted to have a small dent on the front bonnet looked at as well.

As the repairs were done under an insurance claim, my insurance company was billed RM1,375.81 for the repairs, which I thought was a bit exorbitant especially after an independent workshop I consulted with (before sending my car to Proton) quoted me half that price for the same repairs.

Undeterred, and thinking that this would probably mean good quality repairs, I booked my car in on Nov 22 and the repairs took three days. I was shocked when I received the car. The quality of the repairs were awful, to say the least, and in no way justified the RM1,375.81 that was charged to my insurance company.

Amongst the defects were:

a colour mismatch between the re-sprayed rear bumper and the car body (bumper is noticeably lighter in tone than the car body's)

scratches and a deep cut on the new rear bumper (makes me wonder if a new bumper was fitted or did the dealer merely use a second-hand unit)

rough paint surface on the rear bumper, noticeably at the sides (I suspect the unpainted bumper was simply sprayed over and no one bothered to use a primer to prepare the surface for painting)

dirt trapped underneath the paint, causing visible 'lumps' beneath the paint surface

scratches on the newly painted bonnet and

an 'orange peel' finish to the paintwork on the bonnet (looks like the surface was not properly prepared for painting and dirt was painted over).

Unhappy with the repairs, I had made this known to the person in charge and he arranged to take tha car in again on Nov 28. He claimed it was just a matter of 'polishing' the paint. The car was returned to me the same day and of course it was no surprise that even after keeping my car from 10am to 4pm (forcing me to take a day off work), the car was returned to me in exactly the same state - all the defects were still there!

I am extremely unhappy that the repairs were not done properly the first time. You would expect such expensive repairs to be well done at the very least, but looking at the work done to my car, it shows that Proton's contractors and the staff who supervise them are not bothered at all in ensuring that the work is done correctly and properly the first time round. A customer should not have to come back two to three times just to rectify matters that could have been done right the first time. Perhaps the new CEO should make this his primary focus: to get things done right the first time, every time.

I have been forced to take four days off from work to sort out my car and it looks like I'll have to take plenty more to get shoddy repair work done to proper standards. Looking at Proton these days is like looking at the concept of Malaysia Inc (as trumpeted by our ex-PM) working in a micro environment - all talk and hardly any proactive action to make sure things are done right.