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

Flyboy152

gord115 wrote: »

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.

More like they put him up to it.

Stonk

I took a Corsa into a Vauxhall dealership for a service.

Cometh the call: "Rear wiper blade needs replacing".

Goodness knows what they were going to charge to do that; probably three times a reasonable price for the part plus at least a tenner for labour, so I said leave it alone and I'll fix it myself.

It looked OK to me and worked fine, so I didn't change it.

A year later, and another service at the same dealer.

Cometh the call: "Front wiper blades need replacing". Interesting, I thought; that rear blade has fixed itself.

Again, I told them to leave the blades alone.

They also looked OK to me and worked fine, so I didn't change them.

Another year passes, and guess what, I'm servicing again at the same dealer.

No calls this time; wiper blades all fine.

Wig

I had a MOT test, before going down I phoned and said
How much?
Can you do it today?
Have you got all the bits and pieces say bulbs and wipers incase it fails on that? You see I was thinking if it fails on something minor, I would let them change it, but I didn't tell them if it fails on something major either I or my trusted (cheap) mechanic would do the work.

So I turn up, and the manager calls the tester over for a quiet chat before he went to do the test, I couldn't hear what was said but the tester walks away with a sly grin on his face. I wait for the results. Failed on both front brake hoses worn.... :eek:
I say "Right I will be back for a retest soon" he says looking really dissappointed, "oh you do your own work?"
So I take it away and look under the car. Both front hoses had a two very clean (new) razor sharp cuts in them, on both hoses the same distance between the cuts like 3mm and both on the same portion and side of the brake hose (not very deep to cause a leak but could have been very dangerous) which IMHO could only have been done with a stanley knife. Of course I was furious but could prove nothing, so I bought new hoses £60, fitted them myself, had it retested, and never went back there again.

I should also say, it was a very rare car Mitsu Colt 2000, and I reckon he had the bits in storage and wanted to use them up, he gave me a price for the work and said he could do it straight away.

Weird_Nev

^that's !!!!ing outrageous!

SingleSue

My first car and in fact, the first MOT I put it through.....it failed as expected but one or two of the items didn't quite add up. They said it needed two new complete headlight units at £50 each (we are talking 1990 here) plus some welding to the sills, approx cost £400.

I smiled sweetly at them (they assumed I didn't know anything about cars or the prices of things) and told them we would sort out the repairs, cue a few disappointed faces.

Well, the car didn't need new headlight units, it just needed the headlight aim altered (a friend in the trade did it for nothing) and for the welding, we took it to a garage in Colchester who did not only the sills but a few other spots for £50!

Oh, and the original garage broke the drivers side window doing the retest...and tried to charge for it!

Mrs_Imp

I took my little car (2cv) to a 'specialist' for an MOT and repairs (he did the repairs, his friend had an MOT place). Repairs were needed, as is always the way. I was billed for 'welding to the chassis, new kingpin, and 'to pass MOT'' I was duely issued with a shiny new MOT certificate and I drive off. 'Funny' thinks I 'the steering is awfully heavy. I'll check it out when I'm back from working in France'

While I was away, my brother took a peek and was horrified to see that both of my chassis arms were broken and my car was held together by the body shell. :eek: My mum took my car to the nearest VOSA testing centre and they had a good look and stamped a big red 'THIS CAR IS DANGEROUS TO DRIVE' on the fail sheet. Chassis was knackered, seatbelt mount was knackered, king pin was knackered, brake pipes were knackered. Oh, and he hadn't refitted my handbrake properly, so the pin fell out and it stopped working.


I obviously complained, and he offered me a couple of hundred quid and he'd 'take the car off my hands'. Ummmmm....nope. Eventually I went through the small claims court and got all my money back, with interest. It was posted to me in £20 notes in a brown envelope . The bloke who issued the MOT lost his job and the MOT garage was investigated.

My little car is now back on the road.

marywooyeah

I'm not sure if I've been ripped off - only had my licence 2 months! I was driving and the brake felt resistant, struggling to push it down and then the revs went right up and it was whining something chronic. Managed to get it into a garage who checked it over and told me the brake pipe had come off, it needed the coolant changing (which would be £45) and two front tyres need replacing at £96 each.

ok, so how much for the brake pipe I say. Well sign up for one of our loyalty cards - £20 a year - and that'll cover the brake pipe he says. A few days later the whining starts again so I took it back. they tightened the exhaust but didnt charge me, but "reminded" me to come back for my new tyres as "they're near the legal limit", suddenly they're only £86 now!

the tyres all look the same to me so don't see how the front ones could need changing, and £45 sounds like a lot for coolant - isn't that something I could do myself?

TagEHeuer

My car had a petrol leak, I took it to our local garage, came back a few days later and he said he had found the problem and it was all sorted. He replaced a few things, and it cost me round £100!

A few days later, the leak came back...... So I took it to another garage, and it was the fuel tank itself that was leaking (rust)... so I went back to the garage the next day, and said that it was still leaking.... he was looking and looking, when I finally told him it was the fuel tank! He was extremely embarrassed... naturally he refunded me also.

bungle4by4

my missus took a metro (yep it was that long ago) to kwik fit, and they gave it the big one about the front brake discs being so dangerous she couldn't drive it! it only went in for tyres.

so i got in touch with the area manager and demanded either he met me there, or i would be getting the press there. and lo and behold he turned up! the brake disc's had been replaced 7 days before and were obviously in perfect condition. I went mad at the manager and he replaced all the tyres on my Cossie to say sorry... obviously my last ever trip to kwik fit.

TrickyWicky

Wig wrote: »

I should also say, it was a very rare car Mitsu Colt 2000, and I reckon he had the bits in storage and wanted to use them up, he gave me a price for the work and said he could do it straight away.

Yes I've learnt over the years that garages don't like people with rare cars. They'll either try to cause trouble or rip you off.