Have you been ripped off by a garage and caught them out?

brownie4583

I once owned a Nissan Bluebird 180B when the exhaust emission test was introduced.
My car was in for M.O.T and i was told it had failed on a drive shaft rubber gator & my emissions were 1500+ and they should be around 300 ish.
I took my car to 2 other local garages for emission tests and they were both around the 325-350 mark!I asked both garages to write the results on the back of their business cards!
I had the drive shaft gator renewed but they said my emmisions were still too high,1500+ and they would have to strip the carb down etc etc.
I then produced the 2 cards and showed them to the bloke....he read them,with a rather crimson coloured face,disappeared into the workshop for around 5 mins,then returned and said,"Errrr,we have retested it and it is now on 345,it must have been the apprentice mechanic testing it when the engine was cold!"
His face was a picture,and i told him i would never be taking my car there again!
I wonder how many people got fleeced with that one though?

gord115

Once went for a rear tyre replaced at a local tyre depot,while the wheel was off a very spotty youth told me my rear pads needed replacing.
"thats funny" I said "because they were replaced by me a fortnight ago and there still like new".The older tyre fitters were laughing at him and he went redder than his zits.
I bet they ripped into him when I'd gone.

bob_a_builder

I bet they ripped into him when I'd gone.

although I expect he was just following company guidelines, intended to attempt to maximize profit from each customer

clangnuts

I took my car into a fast fit type place for a service. Some part of the brake system needed replacing apparently. I asked them if the repair would be under warranty, they said yes, as long as you own the car. Great I said, because you replaced that part last year, so this time it'll be a free repair! He looked on his computer, and there it was - the same "repair" had been done the previous year! Last time I ever used such a place for servicing.

Weird_Nev

I got a 4 wheel alignment done, the tester said 'It's £50 cash mate, here's your print out I'll just put it in the till later'.

Thinking nothing more of it, I drove off ,but over the next couple of days a knocking started from the back end. I got under the car to find that he hadnt' re-torqued the nuts that hold the rear trailing arm bracket on, so two of the three had fallen out and the last was half out. :shock:

Had it actually come adrift, I would have lost my back wheel and suspension.

The bloke lost his job for that, partly for doing dangerous work but mostly for pocketing the cash himself rather than putting it through the till.

Billy-no-Money

Many years ago I had a company car, and took it in for a routine service. At the same time I asked them to supply a petrol cap as I'd left the original somewhere.

Picked the car up, went home, and looked at the invoice - bills were paid directly by the lease company.

the cheeky sods had charged a tenner to fit the petrol cap!

onejontwo

One of the best I heard was the experience of the fridge repair man who was waiting to test my fridge after repair. He took his car to Kwik-fit for an exhaust repair and whilst on the ramp was informed that his shock absorbers were worn and needed replacing. He said fine and authorized them to carry on. With a big smile on his face the manager informed the mechanic to continue with the work. After around half an hour, he was offered a cup of tea and a bill of what the extra costs of replacing the shock absorbers would come to. He nodded and said very nice but he wouldn't be paying for it, after looking at him rather confusingly the manager asked him "why not", to this he replied "because you replaced them around 3 months ago and they were covered within the warranty period". At this the manager hastily moved to the vehicle in question and told the mechanic to stop stripping and put the car back together and then sheepishly came back in and told the owner that "they weren't as bad as first thought and didn't need replacing.
Need less to say he never went back to that particular garage.

brownie4583

When my Citroen had only covered around 20,000 miles and 3 years old,after having had a full service at the Citroen dealer 2 weeks before,i took it to the same dealer for it's M.O.T test.
They rang me later in the day saying that both front suspension struts were leaking badly and had failed,the cost to replace them both would be £675!
I took it to a Citroen specalist garage locally and they said the struts were not leaking any more than is normal,and they booked it in at the testing station they use for the following day.It was returned with 12 months test and it has now passed another 4 tests since then with the same struts still on the car!!!!

CrazyRed

My old BMW E34 Touring went into our (then) local "tyre, exhaust and tuning" place (I won't mention the name here, as it'll be impolite to, but they're in Essex) for some new front wishbones (very common failure point on the E34), along with a bit of other work (there was a slight blow on the exhaust that was no more than a need to re-seal it and a couple of other niggles around the locking wheel nuts for which I didn't have a key)

Hour later, phone call from them - your back discs are knackered, so your handbrake won't hold (to be fair, the car had been standing a while before I bought it, so that was no real surprise). Told them to replace the rear discs and pads. Exhaust was condemned by them as unserviceable whereas in fact I knew it was fine - it just needed re-sealing round one of the joints between the cat and back-box - gasket at worst.

Well, apparently, then, it needed a 4-wheel alignment (more money) once the wishbones had been done, and they found a front tyre had been scrubbed out on one edge because of the tracking being out due to the wishbone fault. More money.

All in all, not cheap, as you can imagine. Fast forward a couple of days (in fact, that same weekend) when I had my daughter in the car, just going past her school when I heard an almighty "clunk" from the NSR wheel - the brake caliper had fallen off and was rubbing the inside of the wheel.

Called the company concerned, and expressed my intense displeasure at their workmanship and the fact that my car now had no brakes. They tried initially to fob me off (it was around lunchtime on the Saturday and they were itching to get off home) but I stood my ground and demanded that they sent someone out to at least investigate otherwise I'd have the car towed to them and them billed for it, plus my cotst of a suitable replacement car until mine was fixed as I felt them to be wholly liable.

An hour later and it was found that one of the caliper retaining bolts was missing - not an easy part to find on a Saturday afternoon. Luckily a local motor factor that I knew well was able to get us out of trouble and the guy from the tyre place insisted that I drop the car back to them on the Monday so they could check everything over properly.

Strangely, by Monday night I had a silent car (sealed exhaust), 4 new locking wheel nuts (and an abolsute mess-in-a-bag of the old ones returned to me), the brake fluid had been changed and a printout of all the braking efforts from their MOT machine (to show me all was in order) presented to me, along with an apology from their big Boss (who delivered said apology personally to me).

Haven't been back there since, on principle, but I can't fault their service after I got stroppy with them at lunchtime on the Saturday. I understand the technician responsible (who was described by the Boss as "very senior" and "very experienced with BMW's") was redeployed to lesser duties following that incident.

vax2002

Had a mot once, the guy said oo look the shockers are leaking oil, that's very serious I said, really, he grinned, yes,
Me: they are Gas shockers and the only oil leaking is that tin of duck oil you sprayed on, the one you left out on the bench, lets have a smell shall we, but, but, but.
But this, write the $%%$$ MOT or I will drive straight to the VOSA testing station, its only at the top of my lane.
Result, MOT £29.99

grizzly1911

Two things that erk me are when they charge you for a new washer for the oil sump plug, pennies why not add it into the price if they must/did change it and secondly when they charge you for washer fluid even though I always take it in topped up on purpose.