Who can I complain to?

skyemanmac

The right rear brake of my car siezed on last week so I took it to National Tyres. After an examination they said I required a new caliper to be fitted along with brake pads and discs and quoted £405 for the job.

I thought this excessive so I went elsewhere for a second opinion.

I told the new garage what National Tyres said I needed and they quoted me £185 without even looking at my car.

I put my car into this garage today and got it back a few hours later. It turns out that all that was required was for the caliper to be taken off, stripped down, cleaned, put back together and then back onto the car. This cost a total of £45.60 including VAT.

I find the behaviour of National Tyres absolutly disgusting and emailed them telling them how I feel. I'm still too furious to go and see the 2 guys who spoke to me and tried to rip me off, but I will at some point.

I'm wondering if any of you guys know of anywhere official I can make a complaint to and try to help others avoid being ripped off by cowboys like these.

I never actually got any work done by them so I don't know if there can be any recourse taken? Can they be taken to task for offering work that wasnt even needed aswell as quoting a sky high price?

Thanks for your time.

motorguy

You want to complain to people who know their prices are too high that their prices are too high?

marywooyeah

there's nothing you can really do other than inform them of your experience and warn others, just like you have in your post. I'm sure there's plenty of motoring forums you could reiterate your findings on.

on the plus side - at least your repair was really cheap!

gilbert_and_sullivan

Fitter A is of the opinion that X needs doing.

Fitter B is of the opinion that Y needs doing.

Whos right?

If i don't know i prefer a mechanic to look and tell me what really needs doing and then let him do it.

Find a competent honest indy, use him and pay him well and only recommend him to those who pay their bills.

gozaimasu

If you think he was trying to rip you off, report them to Trading Standards.

s_b

i see the other side and ive said it before, National Tyres are a fast fit place and would not strip and adjust a caliper thats a job for an indy to take on
i also repeat that if they did unseize and adjust then theres a good chance it will seize again in a few weeks (focus comes to mind) and you the OP would be here saying National Tyres fixed my brakes and they are no better and took my money whewre do i stand

National Tyres for tyres
indy for more involved repairs at less cost than main dealer and remember indy can source oe spec parts for less than manufacturers boxed parts

upstairs for thinking
downstairs for dancing
is my moto of the week:)

pendulum

Exactly the same happened to me a good few years ago at National Tyres & Autocare, before I used to pick up the spanners and do work myself.
My car failed the MoT on a few simple bits (like insufficient washer fluid to the windscreen and an exterior mirror which couldn't be adjusted, which I fixed myself) but one job I didn't fancy was doing the anti-roll bar droplink.

I took the fail sheet in to National and asked for a quote to fix that one failure item. I knew the job wasn't too difficult and shouldn't cost much.

He quoted me something ridiculous like £260, he handed me the printed quote (which I kept and still have somewhere - saw it about a year ago!) and he'd done me up for a replacement wishbone amongst other things. He hadn't even viewed the car of course, and the failure sheet made no mention of wishbones.

Looking back, I basically see it as attempted theft. I didn't know much back then but knew enough to know he was trying to screw me over. My memory is of walking out and feeling sorry for the people who were waiting there after booking theirs cars in with the cowboys.

In reply to who you can complain to, well they've been getting away with it so long that I would have thought if anyone could stop them, they would have been stopped by now. I won't even use them for tyres.

attila_

skyemanmac wrote: »

I put my car into this garage today and got it back a few hours later. It turns out that all that was required was for the caliper to be taken off, stripped down, cleaned, put back together and then back onto the car. This cost a total of £45.60 including VAT.
.

I'm surprised any garage still offers this to be honest! What are they on £20/hr?! These days its very common to replace the caliper (indy or not) due to the hourly charge of garages vs cost of caliper, nothing to do with specialism or skill.

k12479

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Fitter A is of the opinion that X needs doing.

Fitter B is of the opinion that Y needs doing.

Whos right?

They both are:
Fitter A offered to replace
Fitter B offered to repair

Option B worked out cheaper, but as s b alludes to, option A may work out cheaper in the long run.

Joe_Horner

attila_ wrote: »

I'm surprised any garage still offers this to be honest! What are they on £20/hr?! These days its very common to replace the caliper (indy or not) due to the hourly charge of garages vs cost of caliper, nothing to do with specialism or skill.

The removal and refitting of the caliper is the same in either case. Strip, clean and reassemble with new seals once it's off will take all of about 20 minutes if the caliper is basically sound. All it takes is to pop the pistons from the "dead" one to see, and that takes seconds.

Sadly, too many owners are willing to accept that "replacement is the only proper / safe repair", especially when it comes to brakes and steering.

Don't use the big chains, and spread the word, that way the indies who're actually willing to do proper repairs get to survive. Extra kudos to the place you had it done - you'd already accepted the more expensive job so they took a little extra time and did themselves out of profit (their mark-up on the parts would have been at least what they charged for the time repairing) in order to give you good service!

Strider590

They're (National) too incompetent to do such a complex job as stripping down a brake calliper.... You have to

Which is why they would have quoted for a replacement, the additional bits are where they're taking the p!ss.