Important Information concerning access to PSA parts data

[momag46]

Just made a donation but looking at my PayPal account it looks like it’s gone to the BX forum. Is this what should happen or have I done something silly.
I went back into the system but I can’t see how to change where the payment goes.

Maurice

Edit, received notification so assume everything is okay

[myglaren]

It was set up in a way to go to the BX forum by default and is impractical to change.
As you can see you are shown as a donor 2020 (green username) so it went through OK.

There could be problems with members who use different email addresses for PayPal and here. If possible give your username when donating.

[momag46]

Thanks Steve

[PC2CV]

How about a more coordinated effort to get in touch with PSA as a group, and to get as many of the other french owners clubs to complain about this?

While the forum is great, servicebox has been very useful over the years, if i had to start up a forum thread every time i wanted to browse servicebox id have had a lot less work done.
Luckily i bought manuals off emanuals online which have a full offline version of servicebox included for each respective brand. At the same time when out in the shed it was handy to look at a part diagram on the phone while working on a car.

It has been invaluable for cross referencing peugeot/citroen part numbers to see what parts can be used on what, answering them silly questions like will a 206 back axle fit a berlingo and so on. Being able to spend hours of an afternoon sifting through diagrams to find that elusive part number.

So is there any way we can get in touch with the relevant authority at PSA to complain? I see no good reason for parts diagrams to have a price wall up against them, it saves the dealers time dealing with enquires and it helps us enthusiasts get parts for older models.

Most of us are off for a while so it would not be inconceivable for the different groups both forums and facebook owners pages combined their effort to complain about this, it might get PSA to return it to being free as it has been for years.

[GiveMeABreak]

It's a business decision pure and simple and there's nothing we can do about it - I think you'll find the same is true of many other manufacturers who do not offer a free parts lookup / diagram service to the public. I have already made a few enquiries and as expected, there has been no response to date. I suspect one of their reasons will be the number of 'client access licences' they need to purchase to meet the increasing demand. These are not cheap - but they can reduce costs considerably if they knock free access on the head.

The other issue you'll have is that whilst it may serve your immediate needs, the data you have on an offline version will be years out of date, so will not reflect replacement parts or modifications....

[Gibbo2286]

There might be a problem getting in touch at the moment if this news piece is to be believed.

Vauxhall owner Groupe PSA said on Monday it was shutting its European car plants, including two in the UK, due to coronavirus fears, in a retrenchment that echoes similar plans by rivals such as Fiat-Chrysler and Renault. PSA said operations across Europe, including the Ellesmere and Luton plants, which employ 2,560 staff between them, would be suspended until 27 March. Employees would be paid during that period.

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The French carmaker blamed disruption to supply chains and tumbling demand for cars amid the global outbreak, as well as an “acceleration observed in recent days of serious Covid-19 cases close to certain production sites”.
But the company also said it was keen to help improve the UK’s readiness for an increase in the number of people falling ill and requiring treatment.
“We have been in contact with the UK government and are keen to assist at Vauxhall Motors’ Ellesmere Port plant,” said Stephen Norman, the managing director. “Once we have more details on the requirements, we will be able to analyse what we can do.”

[slackgarry]

Thanks Just Joined and Donated as such a worthy cause.
I thought they would have been a membership for this wealth of information.

[white exec]

Hi Garry, welcome, and thanks indeed for the donation.
Lots of info here, which has been known (on rare occasions) to stretch as far a go-karts (well, Sinclair C5's, anyway...)

[slackgarry]

Chris, Thanks for the warm welcome.

[Gibbo2286]

Would it be too cheeky to ask how much it costs the forum to get the information from PSA?

[xantia_v6]

Would it be too cheeky to ask how much it costs the forum to get the information from PSA?

PSA have introduced a charging system with multiple subscription options, but as an example, a 12 month subscription for both Citroen and Peugeot parts data access currently costs about £270.

[Steve Walsh]

The fee doesn't cover the time of those involved retrieving the info for us all, What about charging an annual membership, I would gladly sign up. The Info and knowledge that comes from this forum is excellent.

[white exec]

We discussed a (maybe annual) membership fee, when finding a way of meeting the now considerable cost of having access to PSA's parts and technical database.

Feeling was that nothing puts off potential new members of the forum more than having to stump up a payment before being able to make a post.

We opted for a donation-based scheme (which also allows members to make smaller or larger donations), funded by those members who actually need Parts or Service data, and not necessarily payable until they actually need it. This allows members to read, post and get fully involved with the forum from the outset.

[Gibbo2286]

Donation made, that should help for a while.

[xantia_v6]

The fee doesn't cover the time of those involved retrieving the info for us all, What about charging an annual membership, I would gladly sign up. The Info and knowledge that comes from this forum is excellent.

Steve, Thank you for your vote of support.

Chris has already replied, but from my point of view:

This forum has been running for nearly 20 years, and has been run by several different admins over the years. For most of the forum's existence there has been a strict policy of avoiding commercialising the forum. We only solicit donations to cover the running costs of the forum. The curent administrators would be uncomfortable with an arrangement that restricted access to paying members. Our current policy of requesting donations before using our paid access to the PSA servers is as far as we want to go at this time.

While it would be nice to be paid for the time spent administering and improving the forum, I don't think that it would be possible to do that without significantly changing its character.