Will they rip me off?

[Jay]

Great week so far.

My wifes old Vauxhall has burst oil out of somewhere and so I dragged my faithfull Range Rover out of the bushes. The tax ran out and I find that the MOT has gone over too.

I take it to the garage and 1/2 hour later I get the phone call "sorry sir it has failed on Pitted corroded rear brake discs, corrosion on the chassis, indicator falling off, unable to test rear seatbelts and door handle broken."

Our boys go to playgroup and my wife does 3 different jobs, we live out of the main drag so there are no buses - WE NEED THAT MOT.

So even though I doubt the validity of these issues I ask for a quote. £250 labour plus parts.

"eh, blimey seems steep, whys that then" I said
"Welding is all labour, we need to change both rear discs and fit new pads. The indicator can be put back on and it needs a new door handle"
"what about this unable to test the rear seatbelts thing" I ask
"yeah, the back seats are down so we can't test them"
"can you just put em back UP, I only folded em down to carry the fridge to the tip" I said
"uh, not supposed to but ok."
"Right, how long to do it all" I asked
"you can have it back Friday"
"Oh christ, thats us buggered for 2 days then, anything you can do to help" I begged.
"yeah you can have back thursday afternoon"
so I rang them at 4pm today "Is me car done mate"
"Yep, we will drop it off to you"
"super job" I said, "thanks a lot"

Ring Ring Ring "uh we were delivering your car back and it's run out of petrol. you can't have it back cos we gotta strip the fuel filters and carbs down because its picked up crap from the bottom of the tank"

"Cheers for that info, just one thing though" I said "I stopped off at the garage when I dropped the car down to you and put £15 of petrol in"

"oh".

I put the phone down and went down to the garage, to see my car on ramps dry as bone when it's wet outside.

"can you try and start it mate" I asked
"UH NO THE BATTERY IS FLAT"
"Where's the keys" I said
"Gone, the bloke who was delivering it back to you has gone home with em"
"I am having a half day at work tomorrow, the car will be ready before that - WONT IT, WITH THE OLD DISCS IN THE BACK"
"Yep, we'll get straight on it in the morning"

SO WHAT WILL I FIND?

[Zeek]

some soft fleshy items connected to the end of your boot I shouldnt wonder................ :D :D

[Bosun]

the number of the manager......

[krammer]

of course they will rip you off jay, sadly it just seems to be the way nowadays. but i would certainly play tough with them and get em to knock some money off for all the inconvenience you have put up with and i would definately want to know why they have used 15 quids worth of gas.

[TaxiDave]

Make sure you check the welding has been done. It shouldn't be plastered in shutz (underseal), until after the MOT has checked it. Make sure you have the MOT fail sheet as well as the pass so that you can see what really needed doing. Ask them for the address and phone number for the Ministry, and say you are going to have it re-checked. That should put the frighteners on them.

[Freak]

DONT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING
(If) they let it run out of fuel tough on them and make sure you have new discs fitted aswell as old ones in the boot. Fecking garages get away with murder. I they give you any trouble, leave it there and I'll come with ya Saturday to pic it up If need be. :mad: :mad: :mad:

I'm very good at holding coats :D

[Miss Demeanour]

DONT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING
(If) they let it run out of fuel tough on them and make sure you have new discs fitted aswell as old ones in the boot. Fecking garages get away with murder. I they give you any trouble, leave it there and I'll come with ya Saturday to pic it up If need be. :mad: :mad: :mad:

I'm very good at holding coats :D

Ask for all dead parts replaced (I see you already have with the discs), a fully itemised invoice, also get itemised how long each job took, and which portion of the time charged to labour went on each job. (If they'll do it.)

If the sums don't add up, call your local trading standards.

[Friar Tuck]

Great week so far.

My wifes old Vauxhall has burst oil out of somewhere and so I dragged my faithfull Range Rover out of the bushes. The tax ran out and I find that the MOT has gone over too.

I take it to the garage and 1/2 hour later I get the phone call "sorry sir it has failed on Pitted corroded rear brake discs, corrosion on the chassis, indicator falling off, unable to test rear seatbelts and door handle broken."

Our boys go to playgroup and my wife does 3 different jobs, we live out of the main drag so there are no buses - WE NEED THAT MOT.

So even though I doubt the validity of these issues I ask for a quote. £250 labour plus parts.

"eh, blimey seems steep, whys that then" I said
"Welding is all labour, we need to change both rear discs and fit new pads. The indicator can be put back on and it needs a new door handle"
"what about this unable to test the rear seatbelts thing" I ask
"yeah, the back seats are down so we can't test them"
"can you just put em back UP, I only folded em down to carry the fridge to the tip" I said
"uh, not supposed to but ok."
"Right, how long to do it all" I asked
"you can have it back Friday"
"Oh christ, thats us buggered for 2 days then, anything you can do to help" I begged.
"yeah you can have back thursday afternoon"
so I rang them at 4pm today "Is me car done mate"
"Yep, we will drop it off to you"
"super job" I said, "thanks a lot"

Ring Ring Ring "uh we were delivering your car back and it's run out of petrol. you can't have it back cos we gotta strip the fuel filters and carbs down because its picked up crap from the bottom of the tank"

"Cheers for that info, just one thing though" I said "I stopped off at the garage when I dropped the car down to you and put £15 of petrol in"

"oh".

I put the phone down and went down to the garage, to see my car on ramps dry as bone when it's wet outside.

"can you try and start it mate" I asked
"UH NO THE BATTERY IS FLAT"
"Where's the keys" I said
"Gone, the bloke who was delivering it back to you has gone home with em"
"I am having a half day at work tomorrow, the car will be ready before that - WONT IT, WITH THE OLD DISCS IN THE BACK"
"Yep, we'll get straight on it in the morning"

SO WHAT WILL I FIND?
Of course they will rip you off! They're a garage! It's their job to rip you off! now be a ggod boy and pay up" They Belong to the Ewokandtuck vehicle Recovery and Garage Services div.!!

[dracken1]

i'm struggling to say this this but.... i agree with taxidave on this one (there i've done it).
yes make sure everything is itemised, thats the reason job cards are used, so there is a record of everything to transfer to the invoice.
not all garages are a rip off, smaller ones with a waiting list are usually better than large ones who can get you in quickly.
welding will cost you. not only is it labour involved, preperation etc. its a big hike in the garage's insurance, due to the risk of fire . and that cost is of course passed on to the customer.

and why oh why do some people believe that you can pay a garage later.
yet they would never dream of asking that same thing at a supermarket checkout.
some garages will allow this. then if they don't get paid the loss is passed on to other customers. (wrong i know but it's done).

i my case a bikes prob is diagnosed, the customer is contacted, told whats wrong, whats needed and the total cost. they say yes or no. if no then they pay for labour for diagnosing it. if yes then the jobs done they pay they have thier bike back. :)

[Doro]

dracken I find if you don't pay the garage you don't get yer car back

anyway I also agree with Taxi Dave :eek: but I would actually report said garage to the ministry cos they shouldn't be allowed to do MOTs *grumble grumble*

extremely bad service from start to finish


am sorry to hear it Mr Jay :( and hopes you get it sorted soon



meanwhile, where's the oil in the vaux coming from


(hmmm dare I say it serves you right for buying cr@p cars? errrrrmmmmm nope better not in case he throws a heavy spanner at me for being cheeky :eek: )

[Jay]

Thanks for your advice guys......

THINGS GOT BETTER!!!!

I just phoned them up to see if they had started to strip the carbs down yet?

The girl on the desk said she would check and then said "Yes they have got straight on it".

I asked for a chat with the owner "yes" he said
"your gonna have some trouble getting to the carbs" I said
"Whys that" he spurned
"It's fuel Injected"
"Oh, well we will spot that that when we get to 'em, Jason is just jacking it up now"
"Jacking it up for what" I asked
"Hang on I'll call you back in a minute when I find out whats happening"

I wait with baited breath now and I gotta say I am starting to feel a bit upset!!

[Jay]

Well Well Well what do you know.

Only 10 minutes later and I have got me car back, despite them saying they couldnt start it earlier.

ITS A MIRACLE

However, I still have some gripes:

1. they have smashed a big hole in the front valence but have offered to repair it
2. they could only supply me with one disc as they had to BREAK THE OTHER TO GET IT OFF?
3. there is no way the disc I do have, needed replacing
4. they have strewn all my bike mags over the floor
5. someone has been pissing about with my machete

I don't like feeling I have been taken for a ride!

[cxdemon]

Just make sure you take em for one as well then, report em to trading standards, they will keep trying it on with customers if they get away with it. :mad:

[Jay]

I am gonna do something......thats for sure but before I launch into a big strop, can you tell me what this means, it's written on the fail sheet


'CORROSION WITHIN 12" OF NEARSIDE REAR BODY TO CHASSIS MOUNT'


is that simply a hole in the chassis?

[dracken1]

corrosion does not have to mean a hole.
it is their considered opinion that it's quite likely that the metal is either to weak or will have a hole in it within 3 months of use.
the fact that this problem is within 300mm of a structural point makes it a failure.

corrosion is a grey area and is left to the discretion of the individual tester.
it is also a point that is hard to argue.
as no tester is allowed to hit the metal with anything but the prescribed tool which is a small hammer with domed heads, which in theory will not break through the underseal when tapped.

[Jay]

Cheers Dracken

I'm not a wanker trying to score some money off the cost of putting my car through an MOT.

I have sent all our company vehicles to these guys since I started working here 3 years ago and most of my personal vehicles too.

I run a business and understand that money has to be made, but having made one quick call - have found a brand new replacement door handle for £20 plus VAT, they have charged me £56 + vat for one from the local breakers who deliver to them.

Your method of repairs sounds honest, don't do MOT's by chance do you!

[Jay]

dracken I find if you don't pay the garage you don't get yer car back

anyway I also agree with Taxi Dave :eek: but I would actually report said garage to the ministry cos they shouldn't be allowed to do MOTs *grumble grumble*

extremely bad service from start to finish


am sorry to hear it Mr Jay :( and hopes you get it sorted soon



meanwhile, where's the oil in the vaux coming from


(hmmm dare I say it serves you right for buying cr@p cars? errrrrmmmmm nope better not in case he throws a heavy spanner at me for being cheeky :eek: )

The Omega is pumping oil out of the back of the block somewhere, can't see exactly.

Gotta say, it's a superb car to drive and I would have another one without hesitation.

Guess you prefer your Bentley Turbo to an old Vauxhall then?

[dracken1]

sorry jay
don't do mot's to much hassle and the set up costs are huge.
don't repair cars anymore either. and when i did it was only mainly yank ones. where you can at least get to the bit you wanted to and not have to dismantle half the car to get to it. :D

[Jay]

sorry jay
don't do mot's to much hassle and the set up costs are huge.
don't repair cars anymore either. and when i did it was only mainly yank ones. where you can at least get to the bit you wanted to and not have to dismantle half the car to get to it. :D


Well at least you could get away with claiming that £15 of fuel was used up just starting one of them there yeehaa's up ....... :D

[Sir Ewok]

The Omega is pumping oil out of the back of the block somewhere, can't see exactly.

I was given a Fiesta which was smoking like a Rasta in a Ganja field. I could see the oil was running down the back of the block and dripping onto the exhaust pipe and burning off quite nicely. I found that when somebody had done an oil and filter change they had smacked the oil pressure switch and cracked it, allowing oil to piss out. About £5 for a new switch allowed me to use the car for a further two years and my lad had it for just over a year before it died....
Not sure about Omega set-up, but worth a look.

[Jay]

I was given a Fiesta which was smoking like a Rasta in a Ganja field. I could see the oil was running down the back of the block and dripping onto the exhaust pipe and burning off quite nicely. I found that when somebody had done an oil and filter change they had smacked the oil pressure switch and cracked it, allowing oil to piss out. About £5 for a new switch allowed me to use the car for a further two years and my lad had it for just over a year before it died....
Not sure about Omega set-up, but worth a look.

I did the last Oil Change............This seems like a perfectly possible thing for me to have done, cheers for the pointer.

Now if I could just find that bloody bonnet catch!