Garage wrongly failed my MOT - justice needed!

almahadeus

I posted a thread entitled 'Is £600 too much?' 10 days ago on this forum. My car had failed MOT mainly due to brakes (see other thread for exact details as I can't remember precisely now). I had taken my car to a mechanic who himself took the car to a different MOT test station and then the first mechanic quoted me £600 to fit new brakes, MOT and service. I thought this was steep and didn't believe there was anything wrong with the brakes as I had them fitted one yr ago and only did 5000 miles with them. The car only being worth about £1000 anyway, I wasn't sure what to do. 10 days later (today) I took it to a major well known garage for a brake test which showed absolutely no problem with the brakes at all. I was called up by this garage who said they had spoken to original MOT tester to inform them there might be a problem with their testing equipment. I was then told by new garage that original MOT tester wanted to contact me but didn't have my number so I phoned them myself and while at it I asked for a refund. Was told this not possible and that I should have taken my car to them for retesting. What a cheek! I spoke to manager at length and to cut long story short they are refusing to give my money back and no apology whatsoever. They say they are not at fault, their machine was calibrated a month ago and that this well known garage which checked the brakes today are wrong.

I'm absolutely livid and can't believe I nearly lost £600. This other garage are going to do my MOT and full yearly service for £227. I really believe they tried to con me and it wasn't just a testing mistake.

Looking into the options as I want to take this further. I can appeal but this would cost me a further £53 for not much gain and I would have to wait when the current garage can do it tomorrow. I have given info to the intelligence officers at VOSA - but they haven't asked for much details other than details of the original MOT testing station so can they do anything with that limited info? I want justice to be served and at the moment this original garage are getting away with this. They deny all blame and that is what I'm angry about. If they apologised I would let it go but they're not. So what, if anything, can I do?

Anihilator

almahadeus wrote: »

I posted a thread entitled 'Is £600 too much?' 10 days ago on this forum. My car had failed MOT mainly due to brakes (see other thread for exact details as I can't remember precisely now). I had taken my car to a mechanic who himself took the car to a different MOT test station and then the first mechanic quoted me £600 to fit new brakes, MOT and service. I thought this was steep and didn't believe there was anything wrong with the brakes as I had them fitted one yr ago and only did 5000 miles with them. The car only being worth about £1000 anyway, I wasn't sure what to do. 10 days later (today) I took it to a major well known garage for a brake test which showed absolutely no problem with the brakes at all. I was called up by this garage who said they had spoken to original MOT tester to inform them there might be a problem with their testing equipment. I was then told by new garage that original MOT tester wanted to contact me but didn't have my number so I phoned them myself and while at it I asked for a refund. Was told this not possible and that I should have taken my car to them for retesting. What a cheek! I spoke to manager at length and to cut long story short they are refusing to give my money back and no apology whatsoever. They say they are not at fault, their machine was calibrated a month ago and that this well known garage which checked the brakes today are wrong.

I'm absolutely livid and can't believe I nearly lost £600. This other garage are going to do my MOT and full yearly service for £227. I really believe they tried to con me and it wasn't just a testing mistake.

Looking into the options as I want to take this further. I can appeal but this would cost me a further £53 for not much gain and I would have to wait when the current garage can do it tomorrow. I have given info to the intelligence officers at VOSA - but they haven't asked for much details other than details of the original MOT testing station so can they do anything with that limited info? I want justice to be served and at the moment this original garage are getting away with this. They deny all blame and that is what I'm angry about. If they apologised I would let it go but they're not. So what, if anything, can I do?

Brake condition for MOT can often be an opinion.

Also the original garage is quite right. The other garage could be wrong. Just because its what you want to hear doesnt make it right.

goldspanners

Anihilator wrote: »

Brake condition for MOT can often be an opinion.

its not. brakes are tested on the rollers, they give out a reading and there is a clear pass or fail, no grey area where the brake test is concerned.

goldspanners

almahadeus wrote: »

I posted a thread entitled 'Is £600 too much?' 10 days ago on this forum. My car had failed MOT mainly due to brakes (see other thread for exact details as I can't remember precisely now). I had taken my car to a mechanic who himself took the car to a different MOT test station and then the first mechanic quoted me £600 to fit new brakes, MOT and service. I thought this was steep and didn't believe there was anything wrong with the brakes as I had them fitted one yr ago and only did 5000 miles with them. The car only being worth about £1000 anyway, I wasn't sure what to do. 10 days later (today) I took it to a major well known garage for a brake test which showed absolutely no problem with the brakes at all. I was called up by this garage who said they had spoken to original MOT tester to inform them there might be a problem with their testing equipment. I was then told by new garage that original MOT tester wanted to contact me but didn't have my number so I phoned them myself and while at it I asked for a refund. Was told this not possible and that I should have taken my car to them for retesting. What a cheek! I spoke to manager at length and to cut long story short they are refusing to give my money back and no apology whatsoever. They say they are not at fault, their machine was calibrated a month ago and that this well known garage which checked the brakes today are wrong.

I'm absolutely livid and can't believe I nearly lost £600. This other garage are going to do my MOT and full yearly service for £227. I really believe they tried to con me and it wasn't just a testing mistake.

Looking into the options as I want to take this further. I can appeal but this would cost me a further £53 for not much gain and I would have to wait when the current garage can do it tomorrow. I have given info to the intelligence officers at VOSA - but they haven't asked for much details other than details of the original MOT testing station so can they do anything with that limited info? I want justice to be served and at the moment this original garage are getting away with this. They deny all blame and that is what I'm angry about. If they apologised I would let it go but they're not. So what, if anything, can I do?

i wouldnt waste your time trying to get any kind of justice, you wont get it.
take it as a lesson learned and spread the word regarding the first garage.

i very much doubt thier testing machine for testing brake effort had failed, if it had then every car they have MOT'd since last month would all be failing on brakes,surely someone would notice this.
i would agree with you that its simply an excuse to get you off thier back.

Anihilator

goldspanners wrote: »

its not. brakes are tested on the rollers, they give out a reading and there is a clear pass or fail, no grey area where the brake test is concerned.

Correct me If I'm wrong but there is also a visual inspection.

The OP doesnt state it was failed on the roller test. It states it was failed on brakes then the other garage said it was fine on the rollers thus the original garage was wrong.

Is it not possible it passed the roller test at original garage but was still deemed a failure due to the visual check.

goldspanners

Anihilator wrote: »

Correct me If I'm wrong but there is also a visual inspection.

The OP doesnt state it was failed on the roller test. It states it was failed on brakes then the other garage said it was fine on the rollers thus the original garage was wrong.

Is it not possible it passed the roller test at original garage but was still deemed a failure due to the visual check.

can you see through brake drums and discs to give a full proper brake test? i cant and i doubt any MOT tester can either. the brakes are tested for balance and efficiency on the rollers. it either passes or fails.
now if the car had failed for having brake calipers hanging off then thats a different story,but would probably still show up as an imbalance.

Anihilator

goldspanners wrote: »

can you see through brake drums and discs to give a full proper brake test? i cant and i doubt any MOT tester can either. the brakes are tested for balance and efficiency on the rollers. it either passes or fails.
now if the car had failed for having brake calipers hanging off then thats a different story,but would probably still show up as an imbalance.

You are now making assumptions though. Maybe the MOT tesster saw something that concerned them and had the wheels off etc.

I very much doubt a £600 was repaired visually.

The OP also said "among other things"

A question for the OP. Full details of the failure and faults and the costs for each of these

hewhoisnotintheknow

goldspanners wrote: »

can you see through brake drums and discs to give a full proper brake test? i cant and i doubt any MOT tester can either. the brakes are tested for balance and efficiency on the rollers. it either passes or fails.
now if the car had failed for having brake calipers hanging off then thats a different story,but would probably still show up as an imbalance.

brake pipes and the flexi pipe from the end of the line are visual items, the flexy pipe on my 08 golf has perished, i spotted this!

goldspanners

Anihilator wrote: »

You are now making assumptions though. Maybe the MOT tesster saw something that concerned them and had the wheels off etc.

I very much doubt a £600 was repaired visually.

The OP also said "among other things"

A question for the OP. Full details of the failure and faults and the costs for each of these

if it was an MOT it failed, the wheels do not come off during an MOT. nothing comes off for an MOT. so it can only fail needing new brakes if it fails the brake test machine.
they can give out advisories for work they think might need doing soon but not complete fail. as i posted on the other thread the work was over priced anyway so regardless of MOT status they were still trying to over charge you.

jeannieblue

We failed a vehicle recently on brake pipes front to rear both sides badly corroded ..... to get them replaced (cost of brake pipe not alot) but the petrol tank had to be removed, exhaust taken off and the prop down too. Labour wise it was a big job.

almahadeus

Just to clarify as much as I can, the car failed on the following (copied exactly as written on failure certificate):
front and back reg plates delaminated, offside front brake recording little/no effort, rear brake application uneven, offside rear parking brake recording little/no effort, parking brake efficiency below requirements, front brakes imbalanced.

No mention of brake pipes. They wanted £600 to put the above problems right and do a basic service.

Thanks for all your replies. As said above if it was a problem with the machine being wrongly calibrated then surely other cars would fail on brakes and problem would be noted? In my line of work, if I do something as immoral as this I would be suspended or struck off. Seems there's so many trades out there that have free reign to rip people off with the knowledge there is no come-back.