who is the contract with?

Amleto

Amleto

Amleto

Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2003
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Need to take garage to small claims, but don't want to get screwed by a technicality...

I went in with wife's care (haha, I mean car), explained the problem. They said "it must be the widgeridoo". I asked them to fix it.

When it was 'fixed', my wife went in and paid for it (joint account if that matters).

Actually the widgeridoo was not faulty at all and the problem was still there. Anyway, who needs to register as the individual at money claim online? Is it me or my wife?

:confused:
 
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If your wife has a problem with her widgeridoo, she should probably see a doctor.

If you now also have a problem with your widgeridoo, you could take her to court or something. Maybe get a new wife.

EDIT: while I'm taking a comical poke at your post, why is 'my wife' in italics? Was it not actually your wife? Maybe your pasty on the side?


It's Friday :D
 
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I went in with wife's care, explained the problem. They said "it must be the widgeridoo". I asked them to fix it.
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i assume you mean car. :D
This is a tough one, you could go to them and tell them that the problem is not fixed and that you have paid for basically nothing and see if they will fix it for a discount, trying to take them to court is probably a bad idea, it will take far too long
 
Won't it just end up their word vs yours? I mean they can just say "We told him it might be this, and we can replace it to see if it fixes the problem."
 
In my experience unless you specifically paid for a diagnosis then they will argue that you should have done and that they only did work you asked for.

If they said "well its probably the monkey flange" and you said "ok replace the monkey flange" they will just say that they did the work you asked them to... you should have said "diagnose what is wrong" and then paid them for that... then paid for the fix. If they diagnose incorrectly then you have some comeback.
 
[FnG]magnolia;25440878 said:
You need to very thoroughly read the terms which I'm sure are on their website.
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I think what he's asking is who was in contract, him and the garage or his wife and the garage.
 
Amleto said:
who needs to register as the individual at money claim online? Is it me or my wife?

:confused:
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As your the one who presented the car & dealt with the garage in the first instance, the contract is between you & the garage i wouldve thought?.
 
I would have thought unless you can prove the widgeridoo was in fact working, and did not need fixing/replacing, then the garage can not be at fault for diagnosing and fixing a problem you gave them permission to do so. The fact it was not the issue you wanted fixing is neither here or there.

I have come to expect this everytime we take a car to the garage. I have never considered taking them to court however..
 
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guys, I've already got to the end of line in terms of trying to get them to fix it. They just made it worse and gave the car back. It's been fixed by someone else and I want to get some spondoolicks back.

I made a thread a while ago in motors about the whole situation (http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18513284&highlight=username_Amleto). I'm not after motoring advice hence I didn't post there.

At the end of the day, they were just guessing at solutions and making me pay for the guesses. Crucially they were presenting their guesses as results of diagnosis and 'must-be' solutions.

nle;nm (not long enough, need more):

The part (dash cluster) they replaced as 'definitely faulty' they didnt test in isolation or even give me the option. They just said it's faulty, put a new one in, and oops! problem is still here. I have discussed with other garages and they could easily have tested the cluster in isolation for £30-£50.

After that, and the rest that's in the thread I linked to I gave them last chance - fix it. They said it would need new loom and take 12 hours labour. They offered 50% discount on labour.

I checked this out with two garages and they said the work should only take 6 hours in the first place!!

I presented my findings to the garage in question and they just gave the car back - not working AT ALL!

So I had it towed (out of the county to a trusted garage) and fixed, the actual problem was not even the loom so they were wrong AGAIN.

So yes, I've talked to them. I'm done talking with them.

end rant
 
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[FnG]magnolia;25444436 said:
You need a solicitor then or at least far better and more personal advice than you can hope for here.
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Totally agree with this tbh. I think if you do fill in an online form (what does that cost now, about £60 or something), you could just be throwing more money away.

In all seriousness the garage will just turn around and say that they put the car on a diagnostic machine and advised you that it could be this fault or that. At the end of the day it is going to be your word against theirs. Court might believe you, might believe them. With cars these days because they are so computer controlled the fault isn't always easy to diagnose.

How much money are we talking about here, if you don't mind me asking?

But, to your original question, I would say that it is you that needs to be the name on the form should you decide to go that way. You were the person that took the car in and gave them authorisation to proceed with the work, so the contract is with you - irrespective of who owns the car.
 
yes, the fault might not be easy to diagnose, but it is very easy to test components. They could have tested the cluster before replacing it. I would have paid for it to be tested elsewhere at a nominal cost of ~£30 if they had advised that the cluster might not be faulty and that testing was available.

They accept no responsibility for replacing a perfectly fine cluster even though they were just working off of error codes, and the new cluster did exactly the same thing.

In total I paid them ~£1150. The cost of the cluster + synching up mileage was about £650.

I will try to claim the 650 plus the extra that I had to fork out for another garage to do the repair, plus the tow fee, so over a grand.
 
Do you have an invoice that states "diagnose" anywhere on it?

If you do then this is the ballbuster for you, as it shows they did not do what was asked.

If you dont then they can argue you never paid for a diagnosis.... just a suggestion of the error for which they are not liable if it was wrong.

When ever my car goes odd i always make it clear i paying for a diagnosis, and that they are liable if the diagnosis is wrong... so far it has worked well. They either accept this or refuse in which case i goto another garage.
 
No, "diagnose" isn't there anywhere, but that's a good tip for the future.

I think my claim will be based around the 'reasonable cost' clauses. Is it reasonable to fit a new cluster for £650 when they are guessing from fault codes and could test the cluster and be sure for ~£30-50? I'm hoping a judge will agree with me and say this is not reasonable.
 
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