Help Required after repair

Fullspizz

My 2003 Jeep Cherokee was towed into the main dealer on the 6th March because it wouldn't start (engine light on the dash and no gauges moving).
Car was just 3 months outside it's manufacturers warranty and had fsh with 33k on the clock.

Dealership said they couldn't even look at it until the 8th as they were too busy. Got a call from them on the 9th March, they said the ECM had gone down and required replacing. Cost of this £639.91. I told them to get on with the work and asked when the car would be ready, they told me I could pick it up the following Wednesday. After numerous attempts at contacting them on the Wednesday failing, I managed to get in touch with them on the Thursday morning. They said that the parts were not coming in until the Friday, I explained that this wasn't good enough and that we were going away Friday morning. Chap said that it would be ready for collection at 9:30am Friday morning, cue telephone call at 9:15 on the Friday explaining that they had replaced the ECM and the problem was still there.
They said they were looking at the connections. Told them we were unhappy as we now couldn't go away due to lack of transport. They said that they could get a courtesy car for us for Saturday, they rang us on the Saturday at 11:30am to state that the courtesy car was ready for collection as they still couldn't find the issue with the Jeep. Asked them what time they closed and they shut at 12 noon, making it impossible for us to pick it up that day.
Picked the car up on the Monday and they showed us our vehicle out the back.

Anyway, they finally rang us last week to say that it had been repaired and that it had taken them 30-40hrs labour + parts, but they would try and get it back from Jeep UK as a goodwill gesture because it was so close to being in warranty. We couldn't pick it up then as we were away visiting relatives.

Called in this morning and they quoted the bill as £6,680:eek: with 33 hrs labour and the rest in parts.
I told them that I wasn't paying that amount and would only pay for the initial quote, as I hadn't been kept informed of the resulting cost of any further work to the vehicle, the service manager said to me "We are a main dealership and have our reputation to uphold, that is why we carried on with the repairs, plus it's not like you could drive it anywhere"
Obviously, they won't let me take the vehicle until the bill is settled, either via the goodwill method or my payment.
I have taken copies of all the paperwork from them, apart from the final bill and breakdown of parts / labour.

I have since spoken to Jeep UK who then explained that their Goodwill policy only covers the cost of the parts if they agree to it. They asked if I had been given any indication of costs and I told them I hadn't. They have now passed the issue onto the head of their own Servicing centre who will be contacting me for further info and to pass on his comments.

My questions are:-
Do I have any Legal Rights regarding this?
As the car is only just outside it's warranty period, could I use the SoG act, the car was £24,500 brand new and I would expect it to last longer than 3-4 years before suffering a major failure like this.

Are their any other avenues I can follow??

Thanks for any advice

Lakeuk

Not got any answers, but it's shocking how they're treated you. Taking of the initial parts cost that workout at any hourly rate of £180 - I assume they've replaced other parts.

I've had service in the past thats not been 100% but one thing I can say I always got was a phone call straight away when an issue arose above what had already been discussed cost and time wise.

What was their hrly rate and what parted were replaced (were they all faulty)?

Fullspizz

Their hourly rate is £100 and the only other things they have replaced are 2 glow plug relays, they didn't even tell me they had replaced them until this morning.

Hintza

Sounds like gross incompetence to me 33 hours labour!!!

If they were that clueless then they should have contacted Jeep and got one of their specialists down.

I wouldn't have a clue on how to deal with this but with that size of bill I would be talking to a lawyer or CAB or tradinig standards or all of them.

Fullspizz

Well, according to Jeep today. The dealer has been in regular contact with them over the issue, but they never requested a technician. This is at odds with what we were told about the 20th March, they told us that they had put a service request in to Jeep for a technician, but they had been told to try different diagnostic equipment in case theirs was faulty.
Now why should I be paying for that??
I'm still awaiting the Head Service Manager to call me back, but if it's anything like the service I have been getting, it could be a long wait.
This is also doing the value of my car no good, I was going to trade it in for another vehicle and the trade in value has gone down already due to the new reg coming out.

mcfisco

I take it the ECU wasn't faulty then?

I'm sure there's something in the supply of good act that says something like "if a price hasn't been pre-agreed, you only need to pay a reasonable amount for the work"
not sure how you'd work out a reasonable rate but if a garage puts themselves up as experts it shouldn't take them that long to get to the bottom of it - I'd be inclined to ask for a full breakdown for every hour billed & what was accomplished each hour.

wolfehouse

what a horror story. I am appalled they could give you a price and then ask for 10 times that without consulting you first. let us know how you get on.

i would give consumer direct a call (or e-mail)
https://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk
08454 04 05 06

they are tied to trading standards and will advise you of any legal rights you have and what courses of action are open to you. (and they seemed very nice when i called them)

Fullspizz

Apparently it was a cable that feeds the ECU that had fried it, why it took them so long to find this is beyond me.
Wolfehouse,
Cheers for the link, I'll give them a call in the morning.

ajsdoc

An outrage. I for one will never buy this make. 30-40 hours labour to replace a cable. It's surely their problem if their diagnostic skills are so lacking. 3 months out of warranty - many decent manufacturers would cover this as goodwill. A really shocking story - I'll stick to Honda.

Fullspizz

Update on this.

Rang the consumer direct helpline today, really helpful.
Called the dealer to get a breakdown of the costs (as told to do so by both Jeep Uk and consumer direct)

Jeep Uk have pressured their head office into honouring the original price, because no other price was given and the work was carried out without our authority, consumer direct told me I have a very strong case via thw "Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982"

Jeep UK have called and apologised for any upset caused and offered us a free service next time around:T Shame I won't have the vehicle then as it will be going to be replaced by an Audi.

It has left a horrible taste in the mouth even though the outcome has worked out in my favour.

Lakeuk

Excellent news