Good Garage Scheme - Beware

atrixblue.-MFR-.

many garages around my way have opted out of the GGS purely because theyre a pressure selling company with a gimmick of having a website for positive reviews.


their reps pressure the garages to push addatives and products and schemes onto customers, the garage is given an monthly target to hit in sales for the products they push, if they fail that the reps get nasty and threatening telling them that their going to pull their garage from the scheme and charge them for the addatives they provide to them at retail costs as they wont take them back when they end their subscription to the scheme.


this then creates a pressure to the garages, they don't want to be lumbered with £1000 worth of product, they don't want the perception they have been booted from the GGS, so they book in more than they can cope with in services, they then rack your bill with addatives and flushes that were used during your service, due to the volume they take in to meet their targets and get the rep off their backside, they start get onto shaky ground with their customers with lack of service and customer care and understanding, using products that didn't ask for mistakes due to rushing to get onto the next due to time restraints on ramps.


I drove to dorset not long ago, I don't ever recall seeing the GGS banner outside a garage on the way down or back.

money08

GGS is a blatant scam even the garages say so. The ONLY requirement is to sell fort products, good workmanship doesnt even come into it. google "Goodgaragescheme.co.uk: how do you respond to this?" by sam deeks its a horrendous insight into The Good Garage Scheme Scam and just goes to show we should be wary about any review sites or recommendations without cross checking they are valid first.

Arnold1999

Hi All,
Just a bit about myself I am a time served mechanic with over 31 years experience I have worked at two main dealerships and several independent garages before opening my own workshop.
First let me start with engine and fuel additives these have been around for a very long time way before the good garage scheme started. Lots of companies make these additives not just Forte wynns etc they are a very useful to have in the workshop as I can testify that many cars Have passed the MOT with the use of these additives which otherwise would probably cost to customer hundreds of pounds in replacement parts. So when you look at the cost in general a £12 treatment is not that expensive. I can also testify that I worked for a Ford main dealer for seven years and we always used to use an engine flush before a oil change and this was recommended By ford I admit it is 10 years ago now when I worked for ford but a lot of independents and main dealers still use engine treatment and flushes you just don't always know about it. To say these treatments don't work is rubbish to understand how they work you would need to have a degree in chemistry and engineering which none of you have on this forum so you can't really comment about these things.
Forte it's one of the leaders in additives they invest a lot of money on research to get you the best possible product most of the cheaper products just copy their ingredients and use cheaper quality ingredients to keep the price down. Also car manufacturers do not recommend these treatments as They just want to sell you new parts like e.g.r valves, lambda sensors etc because it is more money for them which equals more profit They don't really care afterthe car is three years old or more or at the second owner.
Now on to the Goodgarage scheme it is not a scam it is legitimate Enterprise there is no advertising on their website you can check that out for yourself they do not advertise products.
The scheme has been running for nearly 10 years now and some of its members I've been in there as long as that and they are very happy most garages who slate the good garage scheme only do so because they are not a member They wouldn't say it's a good scheme if they're not in there because that would be going against the grain you would say to them as a customer if it's so good why are you not in it? Admittedly there has to be some element of trust with joining.
The scheme is not perfect obviously there are some rogue garages out there that want to get onto the scheme because it looks good for them and some do slip through but they do try and filter out the bad ones but it's not always an instant thing also people are very fickle and not always easily pleased so no matter what you do you're always going to get some unhappy customers.
A government run garage scheme will be a fantastic idea but there i isn't one so at the moment so this is probably the best you can get, its impossible for a scheme like this to check on garages week in week out it would cost so much money and it would be so expensive to join so no garage would probably join in any way.
Just for the record and independent motor magazine did a quality and price test of garages all over the country including main dealers and independents and independent garages won every time on quality of service and price.:

BeenThroughItAll

Arnold1999 wrote: »

you would need to have a degree in chemistry and engineering which none of you have on this forum so you can't really comment about these things.

I know for a fact at least one poster on this forum who I know in a personal capacity offline has a Masters in chemical engineering, I'm afraid.

rich13348

Arnold1999 was absolutely necessary to raise a 3 year old post with its last comment almost a year ago just to tell us about your long and varied career in the motor industry?

Horizon81

Thanks for the input Arnold, however the point isn't about the value of additives and flushes etc. The point is that people see the 'Good Garage Scheme' logo and think it is the mark of a good garage but it simply isn't. It's like 'checkatrade' and other groups that companies pay to join and then only post positive reviews online. In this case it's also a channel for Forte to sell their products.

And rich13348, it's a 5 year old post!

Strider590

Arnold1999 wrote: »

I can also testify that I worked for a Ford main dealer for seven years and we always used to use an engine flush before a oil change and this was recommended By ford


etc etc etc etc


Also car manufacturers do not recommend these treatments as They just want to sell you new parts like e.g.r valves, lambda sensors etc because it is more money for them which equals more profit They don't really care afterthe car is three years old or more or at the second owner.

There's now an elephant in the room.............


Now you did say it was 10 years ago and that could at a stretch be correct, but 95% of modern engine oils are fully synthetic or at least semo-synthetic, these oils don't require an engine oil flush at all.

Older mineral oils used to require this if they'd had a hard life or if they'd gone a long way past their service schedule and that is because mineral oils, once loaded with contaminants (fuel, hydrocarbons, etc), can start to form lumpy deposits in the oil galleries.

On a modern fuel injected car it shouldn't be needed at all and if it was needed then it's only to mask a very serious problem.



The effects of fuel additives is a cumulative one, anything that works within a few minutes (ie to pass an MOT test) is just snake oil, because anything THAT aggressive would cause damage to the fuel system and removing accumulated "gunk" at the same time would almost certainly block the fuel injectors.

In an older car, the lacquer formed from fuel deposits may be the only thing stopping the ethanol in modern fuel from eating through the fuel lines, pump, tank, etc.

If a car marginally fails an MOT, a good old fashioned "Italian tune up" would be of much greater benefit..... Especially as most gullible people these days are scared of wasting fuel and never drive the car hard enough to burn off carbon deposits.


It's correct that manufacturers want you to come back for parts, they design parts to last a specific length of time.
In fact there's a legendary tail that Henry Ford once sent his engineers out to car scrap yards, he asked them to bring back every Ford part that was still in "new" condition and then then told them to find ways to make that part cheaper.

The story caries depending on where you hear it, but the message is simple, it's not profitable to make cars that last forever.

rich13348

Horizon81 wrote: »

Thanks for the input Arnold, however the point isn't about the value of additives and flushes etc. The point is that people see the 'Good Garage Scheme' logo and think it is the mark of a good garage but it simply isn't. It's like 'checkatrade' and other groups that companies pay to join and then only post positive reviews online. In this case it's also a channel for Forte to sell their products.

And rich13348, it's a 5 year old post!

Sorry I didn't notice the first date. So this is it's 3rd revival in 5 years this zombie is going start to stink soon.

hedge2004

I have submitted a truly horrible experience I had at a garage, and it's not visible. The funny thing now I've looked in more detail I can see any negative review which makes me thin there are no true feedback on the website. I used this garage due to all the positive reviews on this website - what a mistake!

scaredofdebt

So it should really be the "Good Garage Scam" - thanks for the warning!