MOT and Service scams

London05

I always have my MOT done at a garage that only does Mots so there can be no conflict of interest.

scubaangel

I have two local garages I trust with my car, one will get it for a service a couple of weeks before the MOT is due the other I go to for the MOT and if anything needs doing at it between MOT's I get both to do me a quote. As far as Im concerned it means everything is double checked and I get the best deal I can on work which needs doing, which given the age of my car and the amount of use its getting these days I feel I need.

sonyaroberts

I thought some lessons which I just learned from a very recent experience might be worth sharing.

Basically, I was ill last week (severe dizziness due to inner ear infection). My MOT was due on Monday, so because I couldn't drive my car, I cancelled my appointment at the local council MOT centre (which I had arranged following Martin's advice on this site), and asked my next door neighbour, who has a garage 100 yards away and who I thought I could trust, if he would take the car and have the MOT done for me.

Monday evening he called at the house and said it had failed on emissions and needed some welding work, and would cost approx. £300 to get it through. We eventually agreed work to be done which, in the end, he said would come to a total of £230.

To cut a long story short, I paid him to do the work and I got my car back, and MOT certificate last Thursday. However, MOT certificate showed that it had passed on Monday afternoon - ie. before he came to tell me it had failed. Gas emissions test was fine! Smelt a big rat!

I asked him to let me have the 'Fail' certificate and he said he couldn't find it and must have left it at the MOT centre.

I could drive again by then, so I took it to another MOT centre and had them check the underside - no welding work had been done, nor was any needed.

Checked the VSOA website, where you can download a test history for your vehicle, which shows all past failures (with details of why the vehicle failed) and passes. No fail was registered for my car.

Needless to say I went and confronted him with all the info and evidence I had been able to gather. He then said the MOT centre had done him a favour by passing the car on Monday, with the promise that the repairs would be done, but they had obviously ripped him off because he had contracted out the welding work to them, and he had paid them for the work.

I went home, and checked with the MOT centre concerned - and was informed they don't do welding work.
Went back, confronted him again, and this time he had nowhere else to go and had to admit he had lied and ripped me off. I got £170 back from him. He is now asking me to return his original invoice.

This guy has also told me three times in the last week that my car only has 12 months life left in it. The guy who did the independent verification, without any prompting from me, commented that my car seemed in very good shape.

I am now a bit concerned that this guy might also have done something to my car so it will break down in the near future, but don't know what I can do about that. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Lessons learned:
I trusted this guy, but should have asked for the 'fail' certificate straight away.

The VOSA online test history can confirm anything a garage tells you regarding your MOT.

If you have doubts go to a different garage/MOT centre and have the work verified. It cost me £20 to have this done - and it was worth every penny.

RAC legal team advised me what refunds I could legally insist on as a result of the breach of contract, deception and fraud.

Having looked at several websites about dishonest garages, in future, when I have to have work done on my car, apart from seeking someone who is known to be reliable and honest, I will always give them specific, clear written instructions for what I want done. These will also include the written instruction that if they consider any other work necessary, they must contact me before doing it; when payment will be made, etc.

When we ask a garage to work on our car we are entering into a contract with them, so best to be very clear about what that contract is and what the terms are.

Unless we are clear about the terms of the contract, should things go wrong, it will come down to what a reasonable interpretation of the verbal contract might be - ie. more likely that they will get away with a rip-off.

I hope this info might be helpful to someone.

Cheers

sonyaroberts

I thought some lessons which I just learned from a very recent experience might be worth sharing.

Basically, I was ill last week (severe dizziness due to inner ear infection). My MOT was due on Monday, so because I couldn't drive my car, I cancelled my appointment at the local council MOT centre (which I had arranged following Martin's advice on this site), and asked my next door neighbour, who has a garage 100 yards away and who I thought I could trust, if he would take the car and have the MOT done for me.

Monday evening he called at the house and said it had failed on emissions and needed some welding work, and would cost approx. £300 to get it through. We eventually agreed work to be done which, in the end, he said would come to a total of £230.

To cut a long story short, I paid him to do the work and I got my car back, and MOT certificate last Thursday. However, MOT certificate showed that it had passed on Monday afternoon - ie. before he came to tell me it had failed. Gas emissions test was fine! Smelt a big rat!

I asked him to let me have the 'Fail' certificate and he said he couldn't find it and must have left it at the MOT centre.

I could drive again by then, so I took it to another MOT centre and had them check the underside - no welding work had been done, nor was any needed.

Checked the VSOA website, where you can download a test history for your vehicle, which shows all past failures (with details of why the vehicle failed) and passes. No fail was registered for my car.

Needless to say I went and confronted him with all the info and evidence I had been able to gather. He then said the MOT centre had done him a favour by passing the car on Monday, with the promise that the repairs would be done, but they had obviously ripped him off because he had contracted out the welding work to them, and he had paid them for the work.

I went home, and checked with the MOT centre concerned - and was informed they don't do welding work.
Went back, confronted him again, and this time he had nowhere else to go and had to admit he had lied and ripped me off. I got £170 back from him. He is now asking me to return his original invoice.

This guy has also told me three times in the last week that my car only has 12 months life left in it. The guy who did the independent verification, without any prompting from me, commented that my car seemed in very good shape.

I am now a bit concerned that this guy might also have done something to my car so it will break down in the near future, but don't know what I can do about that. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Lessons learned:
I trusted this guy, but should have asked for the 'fail' certificate straight away.

The VOSA online test history can confirm anything a garage tells you regarding your MOT.

If you have doubts go to a different garage/MOT centre and have the work verified. It cost me £20 to have this done - and it was worth every penny.

RAC legal team advised me what refunds I could legally insist on as a result of the breach of contract, deception and fraud.

Having looked at several websites about dishonest garages, in future, when I have to have work done on my car, apart from seeking someone who is known to be reliable and honest, I will always give them specific, clear written instructions for what I want done. These will also include the written instruction that if they consider any other work necessary, they must contact me before doing it; when payment will be made, etc.

When we ask a garage to work on our car we are entering into a contract with them, so best to be very clear about what that contract is and what the terms are.

Unless we are clear about the terms of the contract, should things go wrong, it will come down to what a reasonable interpretation of the verbal contract might be - ie. more likely that they will get away with a rip-off.

I hope this info might be helpful to someone.

Cheers

anewman

The thing is some garages get around the regulations by not putting the fail onto the system or issuing the fail certificate as they should do - saying when the work is done they will issue the passed certificate.

Very surprised a neighbour who was a mechanic would rip someone off as surely it's not too difficult to know where they live. Although I suppose neighbours can be peculiar things speaking from experience.