Charged for work not completed.

myhooose

I recently asked a garage to check the tracking when having two new tyres fitted via Black Circles. They quoted £30 to do the tracking. As I was leaving the car with them they offered to check it (implying for free) and phone me if it needed adjustment. Sure enough they phoned me stating the tracking was 4 degrees out and I asked them to adjust it.
Two weeks later I had the car MOTed and serviced at my usual garage. In conversation with the mechanic I mentioned about the tracking. He looked surprised and showed me the track rod ends (with the car on the ramp) and as you’ve guessed it they had not been touched.
What would you do? Go around and demand my money back, talk to trading standards or forget about it as it was only £30. The mechanic who had test driven the car suggested it probably did not need adjustment as the uneven tyre wear was on both tyres.

mikey72

myhooose wrote: »

I recently asked a garage to check the tracking when having two new tyres fitted via Black Circles. They quoted £30 to do the tracking. As I was leaving the car with them they offered to check it (implying for free) and phone me if it needed adjustment. Sure enough they phoned me stating the tracking was 4 degrees out and I asked them to adjust it.
Two weeks later I had the car MOTed and serviced at my usual garage. In conversation with the mechanic I mentioned about the tracking. He looked surprised and showed me the track rod ends (with the car on the ramp) and as you’ve guessed it they had not been touched.
What would you do? Go around and demand my money back, talk to trading standards or forget about it as it was only £30. The mechanic who had test driven the car suggested it probably did not need adjustment as the uneven tyre wear was on both tyres.

I had the track rod end off mine to put a new steering gaiter on. It's back on, and there is no way you could tell.
If the adjustment is correct, they may well have done it.

s_b

The mechanic who had test driven the car suggested it probably did not need adjustment as the uneven tyre wear was on both tyres.

if he seriously said that i would get my car outa there kwick

it is possible the tracking was done where both sides would have gone onto a new part of the steering arms but normally you would see fresh rust (not if i did it though because i always matt black after adjusting so as not to cause rust)

myhooose

The other side looked very similar too

scotsbob

Did you not get before and after printouts? Surely they would show any adjustments made.

s_b

myhooose wrote: »

The other side looked very similar too

thats a banged to rights picture in the timeframe you mention
i would be going back with photos
make sure they didnt adjust on the other side only though which is worse than doing nothing

mikey72

If they had put more toe out on it, they would have adjusted the arms into the track rod ends, so apart from a spanner mark, you wouldn't see it.
It would be hard to prove they hadn't done anything.

Sgt_Pepper_2

myhooose wrote: »

The other side looked very similar too

That ain't been adjusted recently.

Unless Mikey can explain how they've done it right.

mikey72

You turn the lock nut onto the rusty bit, and put a spanner on the arm to the left of the photo, and tighten the arm into the track rod end. All that you touch are the flats on the nuts, and the rust on the thread is untouched.

Tetley_the_Cat

If the tracking was out by 4 degrees you'd have picked up on it a lot earlier. 0.4 perhaps but 4 degrees and you'd have been earing tyres out like every month!

mikey72

I was just thinking the same.

4 degrees is about an inch, or more, so you would have seen that, let alone felt it, and the tyres would have been scrubbed in a few hundred miles.

That's the bit to pick them up on, as they would have to have adjusted both sides by about half an inch or more.