Wrong diagnosis of car fault cost us over £300. Do we have any rights?

rosie383

That's a good point Rev. Something to chew over.

mikey72

Get legal advice, if you're with someone like the AA give them a call.
Worse they can say is no.

Zanzibar

Somone (who doesn't know much) said: "How can a garage act negligently with a car diagnosis???"

Because diagnosis is a service. It needs to be carried out with a duty care with regard to the customer.

If a misdiagniosis can be shown to be made you could indeed claim but it could only be for the cost of that diagnosis - consequential loss isnt covered unfortunately.

To get the diagnosis fee back would mean submitting a claim in the small claims court.


As to weather its ok to make a diagnosis mistake as seems acceptable to some here, well it isnt. Think about any service - if you are told "..well, we may do all of what we say or maybe not - who knows - its a tricky game you know!" you wouldn't go near them but people think its ok in the car game.

Do be aware that it is sometimes very hard to diagnose a fault - and you should be told up front they they can't be sure without extensive extra testing, for which you would be charged. If you are told outright that a fault is X, Y or Z then thats that - you are relying on their expertise.

As said you would only get back the diagnosis fee unfortunately.

rosie383

A wee update. My husband went to Trading Standards and asked them where he stood. They basically echoed what has been said here. That because we took the car back from VW and got the work done elsewhere, that they no longer had any responsibility to us.
As Gilbert and Sullivan said above, we are lucky we didn't lose a lot more money. We will have to just write it off as a bad experience. I think it is wrong that people can end up losing money in this way. When I phoned to book the car in for a diagnostic check, I was told that they would check the car and tell us what was wrong, so we could get it fixed. Obviously this was incorrect, but we can't prove negligence, so we lost out.
BTW, still haven't got the blasted thing back on the road!!!!

TiTheRev

Zanzibar wrote: »

Somone (who doesn't know much) said: "How can a garage act negligently with a car diagnosis???"

Because diagnosis is a service. It needs to be carried out with a duty care with regard to the customer.

If a misdiagniosis can be shown to be made you could indeed claim but it could only be for the cost of that diagnosis - consequential loss isnt covered unfortunately.

To get the diagnosis fee back would mean submitting a claim in the small claims court.


As to weather its ok to make a diagnosis mistake as seems acceptable to some here, well it isnt. Think about any service - if you are told "..well, we may do all of what we say or maybe not - who knows - its a tricky game you know!" you wouldn't go near them but people think its ok in the car game.

Do be aware that it is sometimes very hard to diagnose a fault - and you should be told up front they they can't be sure without extensive extra testing, for which you would be charged. If you are told outright that a fault is X, Y or Z then thats that - you are relying on their expertise.

As said you would only get back the diagnosis fee unfortunately.

If only everything in life was as black and white as the world you seem to abide in?!

Around 5years ago, I went to the doctor with a constant headache and dizziness. His diagnosis was a sinus infection and I went out and spent some money on medication. Unfortunately I didnt get better, and eventually went to the hospital to find I had a brain tumour...do I sue the doctor for negligence? NO, it was his diagnosis with the experience and expertise he had to hand. No-one will get it right all the time, and no-one can expect that of anyone else!

You are only speculating that the garage didnt explain that the fault "may be X, Y or Z but our expertise suggests this...", as you were not part of that conversation, so how about we give everyone the benefit of the doubt and not presume guilty until proven innocent!

rosie383

Can I ask your advice Rev, as you seem to be in the know? The 'controller' is apparently the ECU which needs to be replaced. We can get one but even if we get it fitted, it needs to be re-programmed by VW or the car still won't go. Does this sound right to you?
And as the local franchise is refusing to let us bring the car back to them, any idea what we can do? My dh swears he wasn't rude to them, but made them aware that he wasn't happy with the service they had given. As I said before, I wasn't there, and they haven't made any claim that he was out of line. Is it only VW who are able to do the job? I would really appreciate you giving me some guidance here. Thank you.

TiTheRev

Afraid so. Only the dealer will be able to reprogramme the ECU, but are you going to potentially go down the same route again with the diagnosis and supplying the part yourselves? Is there another VW dealer anywhere local you can use instead? If not, maybe you can go in and suggest someone from VW has contacted you about the service you received from the aforementioned dealership and they may be a bit nicer?!

rosie383

We sent them a really polite email asking them if they would give us a quote for supplying and fitting the part, but they just sent a polite email back to say they would do no further work on our car. The problem is the next nearest place would be about 15 miles away, so not as easy to get a tow to. Thank you for your help.

pendo

We are having a similar problem, however we let the garage do the work they diagnosed and the car is not fixed. They say they have proof of the diagnosis, they say we now have another fault causing the exact same problem even though I took the car straight ack to the garage didn't even get home. I am so angry they now want another 1k plus vat on top of the £800 already paid, took it for a second opinion but neither of the 2 garages can diagnose the problem.
Thieves I say.

TiTheRev

Harsh if they say they have proof[/i] of the diagnostic showing the origional fault.

I honestly have lost count of the number of customers that complain about faults that have 'only happened since they were last with us for service etc', but have NOTHING to do with the work we carried out. Door locks that haven't worked since a service, radios that haven't worked since doing the brakes...

If your tap stops working and you get a plumber out, do you then call him back to fix a radiator that 'hasnt worked since he was there', just because it's part of the same system. 2 problems can[/i] happen one after the other!!