Arranging court case against garage... liability question

[Amleto]

I did send him a letter immediately after the incident. This isn't the first he knows of it. They declined to do anything then... and I never got around to filing the small claim.

It sounds like the garage owner is trying his best to keep you as a customer, offering you the MOT/services. I would except and leave it at that. That's very generous of him.

I spent over £1000 with him to fix this issue and he fixed nothing and left the car in a worse state. Offering a ~£300 reduced cost future service is a long way from my definition of generous.

 

[andybird123]

Having experienced small claims court, it isnt worth the hassle. Perversely judges seem to see small claims as being completely frivolous and unless you can prove the other party acted deliberately in bad faith then you probably arent going to get very far.

It will depend entirely on the judges understanding of what a garage should or shouldnt do, which wont neccesarily align with yours.

If you'd paid by credit card you should have made that claim at the time. Small claims court is almost entirely pointless.

I've never not gotten my money back on a cc claim, but despite having what I thought was a very good case, i lost at small claims and to this day I still cant fathom why as the service provider didnt provide the service I'd paid for.

 

[Amleto]

I also have experience in small claims although the result was in my favour so maybe I am biased in that direction. It was completely unrelated field where I took live-in landlord to court for non-returned deposit and rent after he assaulted me.

"If you'd paid by credit card you should have made that claim at the time."
Wife paid by debit. Chargeback was unsuccessful because some work was actually carried out and matched the invoice. Chargeback/CC don't help when it comes to 'right to repeat performance' type of issues (http://www3.hants.gov.uk/tradingsta...services-consumers/tsguide-vehiclerepairs.htm).

"unless you can prove the other party acted deliberately in bad faith then you probably arent going to get very far."
That would be a shame as mens rea is little/nothing at all to do with consumer rights.

 

[v0n]

You would have to prove that the garage/mechanic knew that replacing the element wouldn't cure intermittent problem, but acted in bad faith to extract funds from you. Good luck with that.

It will go like this: diagnostic output from the car itself at the time pointed to a fault in dash console (please prove otherwise).
It is not practical and not reasonable to expect every garage to have diagnostic tools to thoroughly test every electric or electronic part of every module in the car beyond standard CAN or similar output.
If you expected them to send the dashboard to specialised third party for testing, would you expect to pay for removing it, shipping it, testing it, refitting it and would you accept further charges for similar tests to other modules, until the fault was found? If so - how much money would be saved that way vs just replacing the dashboard thingymajiggy?
Your honour, replacing this module, in our professional experience cures 4 out of 5 similar problems, we are sorry this wasn't the case with mr. Amleto's Ford Focus, however, we did offer to perform several hundred pounds worth of further servicing and diagnostics on his car, which he chose to reject.

 

[Amleto]

Yes, but they didn't even give the option. They just said it "must the the console". Then oops, problem still there. "What do you want to pay for next?" Sorry, that is not acceptable. I don't want 'vouchers' for future custom. I want retrospective recompense, which I believe is reasonable and what should occur as according to my statutory rights.

snapdragon has opened my eyes a bit on the hearsay front so I will have to weigh up how strong I think the evidence is.

 

[NigeP]

Whilst I can see where you are coming from, I agree with the earlier posters that 3 years seems like an awfully long time to wait. As it came back still having the problem, why didn`t you follow it up back then ?

Whether that has any bearing on the legal side of the case I don`t know.

 

[Amleto]

Whilst I can see where you are coming from, I agree with the earlier posters that 3 years seems like an awfully long time to wait. As it came back still having the problem, why didn`t you follow it up back then ?

Whether that has any bearing on the legal side of the case I don`t know.

I did.

Anyway this is resolved now. They agreed to £250 cash + £250 credit and I was was asking for £500 to settle. Wife still refusing to give them her car so mine will be going there for next service etc.

 

[Diagro]

I did.

Anyway this is resolved now. They agreed to £250 cash + £250 credit and I was was asking for £500 to settle. Wife still refusing to give them her car so mine will be going there for next service etc.

So you got £300?
(The service will cost them £50..)

 

[KiNgPiN83]

I agree with you but it's equally unreasonable for a garage to go randomly firing parts at a car at the expense of the customer because 'herp derp computer says this' and then expecting them to pay for the brand new replacement parts that the car never needed and didn't fix the problem.

I had this on a Citroen C4. Tested it, the DPF was apparently at fault so they changed it to the tune of £800... A few weeks later the same thing happens. As it then turns out after taking it to another garage it was in fact an injector at fault causing it to smoke like a beast. So rather than looking at why the DPF had got blocked they just changed it.

 

[booyaka]

whilst I see you've had a lot on your plate over the last 3 years - personally, I would have just let it go and got on with my life.

Why carry "baggage" around for 3 years to end up with £250.

 

[Amleto]

So you got £300?
(The service will cost them £50..)

Funny logic. What it costs them is irrelevant as to what my benefit is from it. I'm well aware that they want to compensate by providing work because it costs them less than cash, but that's also the best way to get maximum value from it.

whilst I see you've had a lot on your plate over the last 3 years - personally, I would have just let it go and got on with my life.

Why carry "baggage" around for 3 years to end up with £250.

Practically speaking you're right. "dem principles tho"...