Ever been ripped off by a garage?

Only problems I've ever had is getting cars/ vans fixed under warranty, a lot of garages dont seem to understand that when you offer a warranty on something, you are "warranting" that the vehicle will be fault free for a period of time.
They seem to be under the impression that they dont have any obligation at all, to fix anything, regardless of their contractual obligations under the warranty.

The amount of times I have had to ring Isuzu UK, Ford UK, Subaru UK, to remind their dealers of their obligations is beyond measure.
 
i've had a couple of issues - first was Diahatsu totally mis diagnosing a problem, charging me £700 to "look into it" and then after about 4 weeks told me they'd have to start taking the engine out.

My little local village garage at the time diagnosed and fixed the leaking turbo gasket in an hour for £70

Also a Mazda garage charged me £200 to "fix" an issue where i was getting what sounded like rubbing on near full lock. Didn't manage to fix it in the slightest but i did when i randomly checked and topped up the PS fluid - something they'd failed to do 2 weeks earlyer during the £300 service

Now i only use little local garages who tend to know what a spanner is - my local one now is one of the UK's oldest garages and is bloody fantastic - really nice guys running it :)
 
atpbx said:
Only problems I've ever had is getting cars/ vans fixed under warranty, a lot of garages dont seem to understand that when you offer a warranty on something, you are "warranting" that the vehicle will be fault free for a period of time.
They seem to be under the impression that they dont have any obligation at all, to fix anything, regardless of their contractual obligations under the warranty.

The amount of times I have had to ring Isuzu UK, Ford UK, Subaru UK, to remind their dealers of their obligations is beyond measure.
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Why would a dealer want to turn warranty work away? The cost of warranty repairs doesn't fall at the dealer's door, in fact they make money from it so I don't see why they would.

The warranty is with the manufacturer not the dealer.
 
I remember an assertion a while back (from someone on here) that dealers get all the work that they want and that some only want the more profitable work as a result. The problem being that some warranty work was low margin stuff for them.
 
local garage jipped me when fitting a new steering rack...they gave me one price...but when i came to pick it up the price of the rack had gone up by about 50%, and it wasnt cheap to begin with. i only live about 3 mins walk away, left my phone number etc...no dice...

other garage was one in Bolton, ford specialist...fitted my exhaust manifold to my Primera GT and forgot to tighten one of the bungs in the downpipe (that filled a hole where in a different application a c02 would go) on the way home, the thing blew out on the motoeway, sounding like my car had just been shot through the floorpan, and like the header had cracked and split...

luckily a random exhaust shop got it up, looked at it, screwed spare bung in and sent me on my way without charging me. they said they could hear me coming from half a mile away.
 
Matt82 said:
thats because most people buying cars are utter morons, hence the total blind faith they put in low mileage. theyd pick a low mile dog over a higher mileage minter just because one had lower mileage. safety by numbers, because they have no clue about cars.
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Dogbreath said:
Which is why anyone with a scrap of sense won't be wooed by low mileage numbers, and will save money buy buying a car in as good or better condition with more mileage on it.
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I'm not sure where I mentioned mileage..

I know several garages who will take care of my car, torque everything up properly and do a proper job. The tricky part is finding a decent place.

Not everyone has the capability or time to do big jobs themselves.

As I said, my local Nationwide is pretty good despite the brand having a bad name. When I needed a new clutch and flywheel, they did it in for a good price at short notice. They kept me informed of what was going on, the manager stayed behind half an hour after closing so I could collect the car as I was running late and even took the time to show me the old flywheel.

They're not all cowboys, but if you act like you think they are then they're gonig to rip you off - a bit of mutual respect is all thats necessary
 
the mileage thing is an example of how know-nothings will put total faith in completely the wrong thing.

low mileage = good. maintained by professionals at a garage = good

definately not always the case
 
Wicksta said:
Why would a dealer want to turn warranty work away? The cost of warranty repairs doesn't fall at the dealer's door, in fact they make money from it so I don't see why they would.

The warranty is with the manufacturer not the dealer.
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Because it never happened and my experiences from being a fleet manager for 5 years was all made up.

Jesus.

They turn it away because its effort, it requires paperwork, because they only get a fixed price for it and it has to be done to a standard.

When you've sat on the end of a phone with some clown telling you catastrophic engine failure on a £26,000 6 month old fully maintained vehicle is not their problem, then you can tell me what dealers do and dont do.

Boston Ford were not interested in fixing a Gearbox problem with a 2 month old focus.
Boston Peugeot have NEVER been interested in anything that goes wrong with a commercial vehicle, despite them being a commercial retailer "we dont deal with commercial vehicles"
So it goes on, and on, and on.

Isuzu sent us 4 vans, none of which had been put together properly (they arrived in crates in kit form and were put toghether by DAF if I remember rightly) the run around I had with those, well you wouldn't believe.
 
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iaind said:
As I said, my local Nationwide is pretty good despite the brand having a bad name. When I needed a new clutch and flywheel, they did it in for a good price at short notice. They kept me informed of what was going on, the manager stayed behind half an hour after closing so I could collect the car as I was running late and even took the time to show me the old flywheel.

They're not all cowboys, but if you act like you think they are then they're gonig to rip you off - a bit of mutual respect is all thats necessary
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Unless you have worked in a typical garage (and most especially any kind of quick fit place), then you may be a little naive as to what actually goes on. What they care about most is not looking after your P&J, but getting it in and out as quickly as possible so they can start the next job. If that means shortcuts, then shortcuts will be made. I would also say the majority of garages (including dealers) do not employ staff with sufficient experience to diagnose faults accurately, hence a huge amount of unnecessary work is done. There are certainly some excellent garages around, but IME they are the exception.
 
Nissan TRIED to rip me off.

Zed went in for it's big service and fitment of uprated discs/pads all round. The car came back with a clicking transmission (common problem with earlier zeds). They tried to blame it on my new pads, saying it was normal for Redstuff pads to make this noise. If you were at the southern meet, you would have heard the clicking when I pulled away or accelerated.

I said that they caused the rear axle to become clicky and finally their service manager accepted fault and I had it sorted for free (rather than £500+ that they wanted). It took 3 diagnosis and a GT-R specialist who said that it was my rear CV joints and it was MY fault, despite the car not having the problem when I took it to them!!!

Car is now mechanically sound and I am happy, but not entirely with the service from a GT-R specialist dealer.
 
Booner! said:
Nissan TRIED to rip me off.

Zed went in for it's big service and fitment of uprated discs/pads all round. The car came back with a clicking transmission (common problem with earlier zeds). They tried to blame it on my new pads, saying it was normal for Redstuff pads to make this noise. If you were at the southern meet, you would have heard the clicking when I pulled away or accelerated.

I said that they caused the rear axle to become clicky and finally their service manager accepted fault and I had it sorted for free (rather than £500+ that they wanted). It took 3 diagnosis and a GT-R specialist who said that it was my rear CV joints and it was MY fault, despite the car not having the problem when I took it to them!!!

Car is now mechanically sound and I am happy, but not entirely with the service from a GT-R specialist dealer.
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But WHY WOULD A DEALER BE LIKE THIS I CANT UNDERSTAND !!11ONE

They surely wouldnt not accept that there was a fault with something, and just fix it straight away?

Surely not.
 
atpbx said:
But WHY WOULD A DEALER BE LIKE THIS I CANT UNDERSTAND !!11ONE

They surely wouldnt not accept that there was a fault with something, and just fix it straight away?

Surely not.
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No, at first they said "AH we know exactly what it is.....it's your rear CV joints have become dry and the transmission is now clicking where it is not lubricated on both rear axles" This will cost in excess of £500.

I then researched it and it is a common problem, which wasn't there when I gave them the car....they checked the transmission and rear axles as part of my service and said they were healthy. This means that they didn't check it as clearly there was a problem and I had the car overnight and I doubt driving 3 miles would some how delubricate both joints from "healthy" in the service check to a problem.

Then I took it back and said this can't be right, sort it out or look at it again please. They then said it was my brakes making the noise.

I sent an email to the service manager and asked to see her. After much discussion, they agreed that the fault was indeed the clicking transmission and applied to Nissan GB for a free of charge repair due to the hassle and that the component not being up to scratch in the first place. It was confirmed as free of charge and they carried out the work.

If I didn't fight my corner and not researched it, potentially I could have had £500 rear axle work carried out and potentially pads and discs re assembled due to incompetence and passing the buck.

I can post the receipt for the work carried out to show that Nissan GB paid for the repair through "good will" if you want :D

:)
 
Oh yes.

Radiator went in the 530 the month after the warranty expired. So went to a radiator specialist who said no worries, easily replace that, great. So they did.

And it was still leaking. Went back, sorry about that, we'll fit another. So they did.

And it was still leaking. Went back, sorry about that, we'll fit another. So they did. And broke the cowling around the fan.

Still leaking. Took it somewhere else who said this isnt a new radiator at all, this is an original BMW one somebody has bodged a repair on.

Sigh.
 
Am I the only person that thinks garages are utterly useless at fault finding? Why does it take them the replacement of 5 or 6 different parts before they figure out what's wrong?
 
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