Consumer Rights: MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

Weirdlittleman

JT69 wrote: »

Cannot i not pursue this in a small claims court as I paid £899 only 14 months ago just to be offered £340??

There offer of a partial refund needs to be reasonable.
On this basis it doesnt seem reasonable although I am not sure whether the £220 you received for a repair would influence thinking.

I mean if your expert did the wrong repair the argument is he should be pursued for a refund for neglience.

JT69

Weirdlittleman wrote: »

There offer of a partial refund needs to be reasonable.
On this basis it doesnt seem reasonable although I am not sure whether the £220 you received for a repair would influence thinking.

I mean if your expert did the wrong repair the argument is he should be pursued for a refund for neglience.

Apparently the fault is a separate one - I don't have the tv now, the repairman has it and says currys have said to keep it ntil further notice. So i have NO tv and no way of buying one.
I asked if the repair money had any influence and they said only by £30. If there is a tv same spec as my one for only £150 more than they are offering, surely that is seen as a reasonable amicable request? Afterall i paid £899 and the tv now is £499.

custardy

I would say their offers a bit low
I would push them again for a replacement TV rather than cash
If they have a TV of equal spec for £499 and theres £150 difference then realistically its not going ot cost currys much more in cost price to get you that £499 TV

JT69

custardy wrote: »

I would say their offers a bit low
I would push them again for a replacement TV rather than cash
If they have a TV of equal spec for £499 and theres £150 difference then realistically its not going ot cost currys much more in cost price to get you that £499 TV

Thanks.
Have sent my letter off recorded delivery so now gotta wait, without a tv but still paying for Sky, for a positive result.:(

Art_2

JT69 wrote: »

Thanks.
Have sent my letter off recorded delivery so now gotta wait, without a tv but still paying for Sky, for a positive result.:(

As you have already written to them again you are going to have to wait and see what they have to say.

If you are happy with their reply then your problem is solved. If you are not happy with their reply then I would waste no further time negotiating with them. Simply write to inform them that you are going to the Small Claims Court. You may not get a full refund/replacement but you will certainly get a better offer than you have at present.

Regards,
Art.

JT69

Art wrote: »

As you have already written to them again you are going to have to wait and see what they have to say.

If you are happy with their reply then your problem is solved. If you are not happy with their reply then I would waste no further time negotiating with them. Simply write to inform them that you are going to the Small Claims Court. You may not get a full refund/replacement but you will certainly get a better offer than you have at present.

Regards,
Art.

Thanks, I'm just so worried that as they have offered me money then I cannot do anything else. Thank you and fingers and toes crossed!:)

flapjack_2

I've been following Martin's advice on getting the MOT done at a government MOT centre. The problem is the garage (a famous national chain) who carry out the repairs afterwards seem to use the loosest possible interpretation of what's down on the MOT fail slip to fleece me of my hard-earned cash.
Last year they offered me a free MOT retest after they fixed my brakes "to save you going all the way back to the other MOT centre" (I should have seen the danger signs when they offered me free stuff)
After leaving it with them overnight, they gave me the news that the exhaust mounting bracket which needed attention but wasn't an official fail in the Gov't MOT was a case of sucking teeth: "I can't let you drive it away in that state, it needs an entire new exhaust pipe". So they'd upgraded the problem from one loose bracket to the entire exhaust system as a fail. It cost about £190.
This year I'd almost forgotten how bad it was the previous year and gave them the benefit of the doubt (granted, with hindsight they saw me coming again), and I asked them to fix the brakes which were working below efficiency on the Gov't MOT. I showed them the itemised fail document and they fixed it for £180. I returned to the Gov't MOT centre and the mechanic there asked if they'd even touched my brakes. What transpired is they'd repaced the front ones and not touched the back ones which were the original fail problem.
When I returned to the garage, the one with a name that rhymes with "QuickSplit", and specified exactly what the problem was and demanded they put it right, they made it seem like they were fixing it but the MOT centre came back with exactly the same issues. As I was against the MOT deadline I gave up on the garage chain and took it to a tiny local mechanic who fixed the original problem for £90. It passed on the fourth attempt but I incurred a retest fee.
How should I go about complaining and what are my rights?

custardy

flapjack wrote: »

I've been following Martin's advice on getting the MOT done at a government MOT centre. The problem is the garage (a famous national chain) who carry out the repairs afterwards seem to use the loosest possible interpretation of what's down on the MOT fail slip to fleece me of my hard-earned cash.
Last year they offered me a free MOT retest after they fixed my brakes "to save you going all the way back to the other MOT centre" (I should have seen the danger signs when they offered me free stuff)
After leaving it with them overnight, they gave me the news that the exhaust mounting bracket which needed attention but wasn't an official fail in the Gov't MOT was a case of sucking teeth: "I can't let you drive it away in that state, it needs an entire new exhaust pipe"(never ever fall for this tosh,unless they issue and official MOT fail that vehicle is unsafe to drive then they cant stop you leaving.) So they'd upgraded the problem from one loose bracket to the entire exhaust system as a fail. It cost about £260.
This year I'd almost forgotten how bad it was the previous year and gave them the benefit of the doubt (granted, with hindsight they saw me coming again), and I asked them to fix the brakes which were working below efficiency on the Gov't MOT. I showed them the itemised fail document and they fixed it for £180. I returned to the Gov't MOT centre and the mechanic there asked if they'd even touched my brakes. What transpired is they'd repaced the front ones and not touched the back ones which were the original fail problem.
When I returned to the garage, the one with a name that rhymes with "QuickSplit", and specified exactly what the problem was and demanded they put it right, they made it seem like they were fixing it but the MOT centre came back with exactly the same issues. As I was against the MOT deadline I gave up on the garage chain and took it to a tiny local mechanic who fixed the original problem for £90. It passed on the fourth attempt but I incurred a retest fee.
How should I go about complaining and what are my rights?

as for your recent issue
you need to put it in writing and send it via recorded delivery
include copies of the receipts (not originals) about the unnecessary work they did on the car.
the wasted time
and the retest fee

then ask them what they are going to do about this,giving them a 7 day period to respond to you

did you give them the fail slip?

flapjack_2

@ Custardy - Thanks for the speedy reply.
Re the exhaust pipe: having been suckered in by the garage to trusting them to do an 'impartial' MOT retest, they decided to fail me on the loose bracket on the exhaust pipe. Therefore it was their opinion backed up by the MOT certificate I couldn't drive any further even though the gov't MOT centre didn't consider it an outright fail.
As far as this year's MOT goes, on both occasions I left the failure slip at the garage with the relevent readouts on my brakes, and on the second occasion I even pointed out that I was told the back brakes were the issue and they still fluffed the repairs. It's as if they didn't even look at the paperwork properly.
I still have the original MOT failure certificates.
The garage also tried to save face by claiming the gov't centre had the wrong weight reading down for my car. Somehow I can't see a government MOT centre making an error like that.

custardy

flapjack wrote: »

@ Custardy - Thanks for the speedy reply.
Re the exhaust pipe: having been suckered in by the garage to trusting them to do an 'impartial' MOT retest, they decided to fail me on the loose bracket on the exhaust pipe. Therefore it was their opinion backed up by the MOT certificate I couldn't drive any further even though the gov't MOT centre didn't consider it an outright fail.
As far as this year's MOT goes, on both occasions I left the failure slip at the garage with the relevent readouts on my breaks, and on the second occasion I even pointed out that I was told the back breaks were the issue and they still fluffed the repairs. It's as if they didn't even look at the paperwork properly.
I still have the original MOT failure certificates.
The garage also tried to save face by claiming the gov't centre had the wrong weight reading down for my car. Somehow I can't see a government MOT centre making an error like that.

even if a car fails,it can be driven away
theres a specific section on the MOT certificate for cars which the MOT station consider unfit to be on the roads
unless thats filled in(and it wouldnt be for that fault) then you can drive off

dont confuse the offer of a free retest with a retest
the garage cant do a retest,only the original testing station
they have just done a full MOT.the only reason for them to do it is to try and skim some money out of you
MOT stations can make errors and some of the MOT is down to the testers judgement on what is or isnt a fail
however for me they were just out to make money