Free MOTs for 'Life' - That would make me dead then! :)

andyca

I purchased a car from the Caffyns group (many garages in Sussex), 7 years ago. with the car I got a free MOTs for life voucher, as I was planning on keeping the car for a while this was a good selling point plus I’m a bit handy with a spanner so I perform a full service and do a mini MOT before every test and it almost always sails through.

A few years ago the garage I bought my car from closed down, but luckily the Caffyns group were still alive and well and had another garage one town over, so I started taking my car there instead.

This year they said that my free MOTs for life card was no longer valid, as the garage I purchased the car from has closed down. This seems like a poor excuse to me especially as the offer was group wide. If I had bought my car one town over, I would have no problem right now.

Any advice?

forgotmyname

My parents had the same issue, Its a scam.

VW garage changed names and the free MOT was no longer valid, Same garage, same staff everything.

Just the name over the door.

marlot

The 'free' MOT is essentially a discount to tempt you to keep bringing your car to them for servicing after the manufacturers warranty expires. As they're not getting any income from you, I'm not surprised they're using any excuse to re-interpret the rules.

UncleZen

Book your car in for the MOT when it passes hand over the voucher, if they dont accept it create a fuss in front of all their customers and threaten to call the local paper.

esuhl

So which company issued the voucher? Was it the garage, trading independently or under franchise from Caffyns Group, or was it actually a Caffyns Group owned/run garage? If the latter your voucher should still be valid.

Personally, I'd book the car in for it's MoT test, try to use the voucher, then either pay under protest and sue to recover the charge, or refuse to pay and disrupt their business (complaining loudly, following them around, issuing warnings to nearby customers not to use the garage, etc.) until they realise that it would be far easier to honour their contractual obligations.

andyca

Thanks all,

MOT due in Feb so I will let you know how it goes. Unfortunatly with the economy the way it is I don't hold out much hope of there being many customers in the garage!