Mechanic carried out work which he had already previously done!

larry53

Hello, i recently took my car for its service to a mechanic who is a family 'friend'. he advised me that i needed my cambelt changing as the car had done 104,00 miles. he asked me if i had had the cambelt replaced before, i said i wasnt sure and that if so he would probably have done it. he checked the engine and said that he hadn't changed it as it was standard proceedure at his garage to place a sticker with date and milage on engine once replaced. he carried out the work and i paid him £350. later that week i came accross an old recipt, from the same garage, and he had carried out the same work 2 yrs (20,000 miles) earlier. i have complained that he should have had records of previous work, but he says it is my fault as i should have known about the previous work. he stated that he doesnt have a computer and all records from that year will be with his accountant. Do i have any rights to a refund? should the mechanic have kept records of the previous work carried out on my car?

please help

thanks

jwruk

larry53 wrote: »

<SNIPPED> should the mechanic have kept records of the previous work carried out on my car?

No, he's got no obligation to do so. You've got as much (or maybe more) responsibility to know what work has been performed on your car.

I suggest you go and see the mechanic, show them their old receipt and see if they'll give a 'gesture of goodwill'.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Sounds like a one man and his dog business, and no doubt charges accordingly.

Think you have to take some of the blame here knowing the type of place the mechanic runs.

He'll be busy most of the time with the mucky work, and not likely to have any records on computer for work completed.
That's the domain of the main dealer, who have teams of admin staff to input data and make sure all things go on record.
Unfortunately they all need to be paid for, hence MD labour charges or £100+ an hour where i imagine your indy charges around £45 an hour.

You take you pick.

I use a very good specialist indy for reasons of quality skilled mechanical knowledge, his admin is non existant and his office a tip, but thats not why i go there....if i want pretty receptionists, carpets and free machine coffee (yuk) then i'll pay accordingly.

I keep the records of my car's servicing and other work.

davidjwest

Ultimately it's your word against his, if he's a good mechanic and you want to keep using him then probably best putting it down to experience. How much did you pay?

bigdave196

It's your car, it's your responsibility to know what has and hasn't been done to it

jaydeeuk1

And no doubt if you noticed the cambelt had been done previously, and then on the way home the thing snapped, you'd be straight back at that garage demanding him to fix FOC wouldn't you?

Silk

larry53 wrote: »

i have complained that he should have had records of previous work, but he says it is my fault as i should have known about the previous work. he stated that he doesnt have a computer and all records from that year will be with his accountant. Do i have any rights to a refund? should the mechanic have kept records of the previous work carried out on my car?

To be fair here it seems to be 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

We used to keep records of all regular customers on cards with any major parts fitted such as cam belts,water pumps clutches etc
It made life easier if any problems for tracing guarantees or service history etc
We would also put in the service book when a belt was changed ....the system the garage is using for putting stickers on obviously doesn't work as it's either come off or wasn't there in the first place so to rely on whether a sticker is there is folly.

The other thing that might have been an indication would be if the old belt was not a factory fitted one and a make that the garage uses ....did you get given the old belt or see it ...we used to offer them to the customer so they knew it had been replaced.

On saying all that all my receipts for my own cars are kept in a folder with MOT's insurance etc so they can easily be referred to.
As you didn't have them to hand you were unable to check.

As far as legal obligation goes you don't have a leg to stand on as you instructed them to change the belt when they asked you and so no rights to a refund.

However as you have both made mistakes I would point this out to them and see if you could reach an agreement to meet half way

Biketrials08

You should have remmembered a job like that, well at least you got a bit of use out of the old one and now you have a nice new one. Not the end of the world, you just haven't realised as much value out of the old one as you could have but you did get some.

pendulum

You complained that he should have records of previous work. What about your shoddy record keeping? He gave you a receipt for your records but it took you a week to find it? If it took you a week to find your records how long would it take him considering he deals with hundreds or even thousands of cars and you only deal with one or two?

After 20k / 2 years, the belt wouldn't look brand new so it's not obvious it was changed recently. The sticker may have come off or been removed by someone else. In fact when I did my cambelt kit in 2008 I placed the sticker (which came with the kit) on the timing belt cover. In 3 years that sticker became completely unreadable, so they're a waste of time anyway.

loracan1

As a car owner, if I'd paid a bill for £350 to have the cambelt changed - I'd remember it 2 years later! A mechanic, who might well change dozens a year isn't going to remember each one is he?

For the record I had mine done at 70,000 and 130,000.

slyracoon

You agreed for the work to be done because you couldn't remember if it had been done previously.

He correctly pointed out to you that at over 100,000 miles the cambelt service was due if it had not been done previously. It is not a mechanics responsibility to keep accurate service records for your car.