Have the garage played fair?

paulpud

A few days ago my wife's car was booked into a local garage for some work, having been recommended by several posters on a motoring forum as specialists in this particular model. I asked them to MOT the car and carry out a major service to include changing cambelts and water pump. The total cost was to be around £600.

A couple of hours after dropping the car to them they rang to say the car was going to need a lot of work to get it through the MOT, and we'd be facing a total bill of over £1400.00. She asked them not to carry out any further work whilst she decided what to do. As the car itself was probably worth around only £1800.00 she decided not to have the work done and would sell the car as it was to recoup as much as possible to put towards another vehicle. She rang the garage back to explain that she wanted to pick the car up and pay out as little as possible for the work that had already been done but she was told they were halfway through the major service and this would now need to be completed at a cost of over £500.00, regardless of any further work necessary. They also gave her the option of selling the car to them for £500 if she didn't want all the work for the MOT carrying out. Faced with the possibility of needing to sell the car without an MOT for over £1100 to be in a better financial position she very reluctantly accepted their offer.

The dust has now settled and she has got over the upset that this caused her, but the outcome has left us feeling a bit ripped off. I would have thought that a garage would have held back on such major and expensive servicing when a pre-MOT inspection had revealed that a vehicle might be considered beyond economical repair.

We've no doubt been a bit naive here and I'm not doubting the garage's word that a fair bit of work was necessary but we feel that we were put in something of a no-win situation.

I'd welcome the thoughts of others.

dacouch

Alfa Romeo ?

paulpud

No, an MG.

Ironically I own an Alfa and use a local Alfa specialist who I'm very happy with and I know for sure they wouldn't have done this.

bigjl

Standard tactic used by some garages to get a car for nothing.

Sometimes it is better to just let the car fail, by getting it tested at an MOT station that doesn't do repairs, so no chance they are trying to make a job out of it, then get a firm quote on the work with the failure sheet in hand.

Sadly in these days of the financial slowdown then some garagesare trying all the tricks they know to get money in.

Unfortunately I think the garage has pulled a fast one, after all if a car worth £1400 to £1800 nedded £1400 of work why would the garage pay £500 for it, they would be making a loss, they probably seen somebody that wasn't confident around cars and seen an easy profit, I would chalk it down to experience, and not go back to that garage.

Another tactic by some garages, an old boss in particular was if he had any inkling into the punter not wanting the work done he would get 3 mechanics on it and strip the whole front end of it as soon as he spoke to the punter, normally the car hasn't been touched when the phone call is made, but the work is done to stop the punter coming round to have a look.

the_big_fact_hunt

when i worked in a garage and a customer wanted a service and MOT, the MOT was always done first to assess the condition of the vehicle, if expensive repairs were required and the customer did not want to proceed they only had the MOT to pay for

Strider590

Can't trust garage's at all.....

Radsteral

Strider590 wrote: »

Can't trust garage's at all.....

tell me about it.

our mini went to bmw.. and to 4 independent garages, non of them could find the problem with it and all the above estimated 1500-2000 for whatever their clever heads thought of was the problem.

a old fella with atatty garage nearby my house found the problem in 30 minutes a fuel pipe had a hole !!!! meaning the fuel system had air inside and therfore car sort of like breathless and almost switching off.
cost = 30 pounds bill plus 20 pounds i gave him from my heart ,!

Crabman

Strider590 wrote: »

Can't trust garage's at all.....

If you know which ones to trust, it isn't a problem. The independent garage I use is a father and son business and I've been very happy with their service. I have no qualms about their integrity.

There is a perception that most garages are cowboys but if you ask around for recommendations you'll soon find one that you're comfortable with and that you can trust.

Volcano

recommended by several posters on a motoring forum as specialists

Not really necessary given the value of the car. 'Specialists' will likely charge more; a service, even an extensive one, shouldn't be beyond the capabilities of most reputable, cheaper garages.

You will repost this question on the forum you got your advice from won't you? In the interests of anyone else being similarly treated you understand....

vaio

the_big_fact_hunt wrote: »

when i worked in a garage and a customer wanted a service and MOT, the MOT was always done first to assess the condition of the vehicle, if expensive repairs were required and the customer did not want to proceed they only had the MOT to pay for

It's the obvious way to do it, anything else and you can be sure there is something funny going on

Strider590

Crabman wrote: »

There is a perception that most garages are cowboys but if you ask around for recommendations you'll soon find one that you're comfortable with and that you can trust.

No, you just find one that managed to !!!!!!!! your friend into thinking they were getting a good deal.

"go to crap fit, they gave me a great deal on a new tyre and found all this stuff dangerously wrong with my car after that dodgy garage under the arches obviously passed it on the MOT without doing any work or even checking anything! They didn't even notice the brakes were about to fail!"