Garage wrongly failed my MOT - justice needed!

Anihilator

almahadeus wrote: »

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.

Okay

Say £50 for the MOT; £100 for the service and the cost is down to £450. Say another £30-50 for both plates and fitting and they wanted £400 for the brakes.

Now yes people will claim this could be done cheaper but everytime it involves a trip to a scrappy and doing it yourself or a back street pal - that a lot of people dont have.

£400 for the brakes does seem a lot but if your talking complete new front and back its not obscene and just because mechanic b told you what you want to hear doesnt make them right.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

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?

How do you know which garage is telling the truth?

goldspanners

almahadeus wrote: »

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.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

How do you know which garage is telling the truth?

it certainly wouldnt be the first garage, no offer of a retest,no refund,no apology no discount for other work required.

goldspanners

Anihilator wrote: »

Say another £30-50 for both plates and fitting and they wanted £400 for the brakes.

Now yes people will claim this could be done cheaper but everytime it involves a trip to a scrappy and doing it yourself or a back street pal - that a lot of people dont have.

£400 for the brakes does seem a lot but if your talking complete new front and back its not obscene and just because mechanic b told you what you want to hear doesnt make them right.

i dont know what kind of plates you fit to your car but the legal standard plates on mine cost £6 each and 10 minutes to fit them.
£400 for brakes that have only done 5000 miles and a year old is steep. cheap pads and discs can be got for buttons,good pads and discs can be got for little more and a few hours labour to fit.

tech2_2

If in doubt you should have appealed directly to VOSA and let them take this up, as the brake test is an exact reading and calculated with in there guidelines! the best test stations are those with the latest equipment as these will print the results which can not be falseified!

Contact VOSA and see what they tell you.

hewhoisnotintheknow

goldspanners wrote: »

i dont know what kind of plates you fit to your car but the legal standard plates on mine cost £6 each and 10 minutes to fit them.
£400 for brakes that have only done 5000 miles and a year old is steep. cheap pads and discs can be got for buttons,good pads and discs can be got for little more and a few hours labour to fit.

where can i get them for £6 online anywhere?

cyclonebri1

The last time the OP posted this there was a massive discrepancy in what we were told the garage charged and what the OP paid, about £400 if I recall.
OP, maybe if you post more detail of what you paid and for what it would become clearer. I don't recall you answered last time??

sandiep

It's simple. You go to the local council MOT station. Not the garages. They have no vested interests, vendettas, and can't profit from failures.

Anihilator

goldspanners wrote: »

i dont know what kind of plates you fit to your car but the legal standard plates on mine cost £6 each and 10 minutes to fit them.
£400 for brakes that have only done 5000 miles and a year old is steep. cheap pads and discs can be got for buttons,good pads and discs can be got for little more and a few hours labour to fit.

Yes you fit them yourself

When will people get just because they get parts cheap, or can do it themselves or have a friend that does doesnt mean joe public can and thus they have to ask mechanics who charge at a good profit margin.

roddydogs

goldspanners wrote: »

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.

So if a car passes the roller test, but has, say fluid dripping out of the front caliper, and totally corroded pipes, its a Pass?