Pre MOT car service in Carrick / Newtownabbey area

brian77

Not a frequent poster here but an avid reader, I must say I'm shocked at this thread as myself and my family have used Abbey Car Care in Mallusk many times and have never had any problems, as a matter of fact quite the contrary, we have always been very pleased with the work, payed a fair price and where treated with respect, in fact the wee guy who runs it (I forget his name) is one of the friendliest guys I have met, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

Cheers Brian

darwin-rover

ooo000ooo wrote: »

I usually just check the obvious stuff like lights and tyres etc then stick it in for the mot and fix what it fails on and pay for a retest?

Sound advice

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

gmm30 wrote: »

Absolutely, get the car its annual service, but take it for an MoT first. That way, if it fails, you just take it to the garage for the service with your fail sheet. "Please give my car a 40,000 mile service, plus fix these faults". Book it in for MoT a couple of weeks before its expiry date - if it passes, you get the extra time (up to a max of 28 days) on your new certificate, and if it fails, you've got a while to get it fixed before running out of time :-)

I thought this only worked for the 1st MOT? After that, once it's failed it has to be taken off the road?

SarEl

weepaul wrote: »

snowmen wrote: »

hi i would like you to know that as you can see this comment made by joanne d has been removed.these were false statements made and legal proceedings are being issued.please could you remove this quote many thanks.

Oh how strange - the owner of said garage turns up to claim that false statements have been made and that legal proceedings have started. Such a claim could only be made by somebody that has absolutely and utterly no knowledge of the law. So please do not make me laugh - you are simply making more of a fool of yourself, and in public too.

In the first instance, threatening people with legal action and actually being able to take it are two very different things. Defamation claims can only be heard in the High Court, and it requires a deposit of £10,000 simply to make a claim - and that is on top of your legal costs to actually get there. If you loose, you will pay all the costs, and loosing is a very high probability.

Second, you have to prove who said this. You may think that you know, but in case you haven't noticed, this is a public forum and people could pretend to be anybody at all. So you do not know who this poster is - you only think that you know, which is not sufficient in law to make a legitimate claim against an identified individual. And I can tell you for a fact that MSE will refuse to release the personal details of any posters unless required to do so under RIPA or other relevant legislation (which only applies to certain criminal cases - not to civil cases), because any website that released their posters details in this way when they do not have to would quickly be a bankrupt website.

Third, you have to prove a quantifiable loss or quantifiable damage to your reputation as a result of the alleged comments by the alleged perpetrator. How can you evidence that you have lost anything? Have your existing customers all pulled their custom on the basis of a few posts by an unknown person on a public website? No? I thought not. Perhaps you have had lots of letters from people who have never been your customers telling you that they won't be your customers because they read these comments? Again, no? I thought not. So what damages are you claiming? - what on earth damage can there be over an opinion made by an anonymous poster on a public forum about a poxy little garage in the middle of nowhere? (Sorry, people of Carrick / Newtownabbey - I am sure it's a lovely place )

And that brings us neatly onto fourthly. Fourthly, it is a legitimate defence to any claim of defamation that comments are legitimate opinion and/or substantially true. "I would advise you to avoid Abbey Car Care" is an opinion, and since the OP would advise this then it is also substantially true - he or she would advise it.

It is pathetic that you are so concerned that your reputation has been impugned that you would need to resort to empty threats on a public website. It makes me wonder why any legitimate or successful business person would feel the need to defend their "reputation" by drawing further attention to themselves, and lying about legal proceedings simply makes you even more pathetic. Perhaps this is why the OP whoever he or she is doesn't rate your service - you lie to people?

And just in case you or anyone else is interested, unlike "Brian", who is probably one of your employees (or you with another user name?), I know nothing at all about your business, I have never been to Northern Ireland, and I have no particular interest in whether or not your services are rubbish. But I am a barrister of 30+ years standing, and I do not like bullies who attempt to use the law to threaten, intimidate, and curtail the right of the individual to express an opinion.

caz2703

Uh oh, SarEl has had to pop over from the Employment forum to answer this.

I only have one comment SarEl - who were you quoting exactly .... Snowmen or weepaul? I ask because some of the posts have been removed and I just want to be sure that your post has quoted the correct people in the correct order.

SarEl

I think I was quoting WeePaul (the quotey thing seems to have been getting confused!) - but I may be incorrect as he appears to have disappeared without a trace since I responded to the post that so annoyed me ! Ah well - I have that effect on employers too!

snowmen

snowmen here -

don't worry about me caz2703 - I think the quotes have been mixed up earlier on in the thread!

and for the record -
I still go to EJ Motors and am very happy with them!

SarEl

snowmen wrote: »

snowmen here -

don't worry about me caz2703 - I think the quotes have been mixed up earlier on in the thread!

and for the record -
I still go to EJ Motors and am very happy with them!

And I like my garage too - although it would be a long commute! But I really must come and visit Northern Ireland - I keep threatening too and keep getting diverted by sunnier climes!

gmm30

Wee_Bargain_Hunter wrote: »

I thought this only worked for the 1st MOT? After that, once it's failed it has to be taken off the road?

No, if you have a valid MoT in force you're legal to drive. Obviously if you fail for something shockingly dangerous it would be advisable to take the car off the road, but they can't void your existing certificate.

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

SarEl wrote: »

And I like my garage too - although it would be a long commute! But I really must come and visit Northern Ireland - I keep threatening too and keep getting diverted by sunnier climes!

Just bring your wellies & you'll be fine! Seriously though, it's a great place to visit.

gmm30 wrote: »

No, if you have a valid MoT in force you're legal to drive. Obviously if you fail for something shockingly dangerous it would be advisable to take the car off the road, but they can't void your existing certificate.

Thanks for clarifying that as it takes away a lot of the worry. Will make sure we get an early appointment next time.