Garage done work that was not required - Do i have any comeback ?

wrightk

Austinhead wrote: »

I could not get the car to the garage, it wouldn't start !!

Ill repeat what i said earlier;
You chose to have the RAC man diagnose and fix the car, rather than giving the garage a chance to rectify the fault. You even had the opportunity to get that second opinion from the RAC and approach the garage armed with that information.

Austinhead wrote: »

I have no idea how long it would have taken to replace, but a quick look on Halfords (not the cheapest i'm sure) is a cost of £140 for the part, so they added £200 for the service costs

Starting to sound more and more like your chasing compo now. You were happy to pay this in the first place why is this an issue now?

I wouldnt be suprised if the garage was at fault. But you have gone about this completely the wrong way

fred246 wrote: »

If you don't get satisfaction you have to decide if you want to pay £30 to £50 court fees to take it to the small claims court. The judge will have no idea about cars and will make a random decision.

:rotfl: Great advice there..... The judge is more likely to want to know when the repair was made, how long its taken for the claimant to have problems after and whether the claimant had made all reasonable attempts to try to settle the matter directly with the garage before taking legal action

Austinhead

Wrightk - Lets' be clear, i'm not interested in getting "compo" I just don't want to be taken for a ride. I genuinely feel (along some others on this thread) that the garage were incompetent. They missed a very obvious issue, and it's cost me what I consider to be a lot of money.

I didn't have an issue with the price, but someone suggested I was overcharged so I looked it up.

My post on here was to ask for advice before I discuss this with the garage, I don't intend on taking them to small claims court, I realise that people can make mistakes, but I also don't want to be fobbed off by the garage and so wanted to be prepared beforehand.

welfayre

Tbh it sounds as if you've made your mind up with regards to the garage. Anything they tell you now I doubt you'll believe.

Move on and don't use them again.

Incidentally virtually all cars over a couple of years old will have some corrosion around exposed connectors, it doesn't mean they aren't working as they should.

bigjl

Austinhead wrote: »

Wrightk - Lets' be clear, i'm not interested in getting "compo" I just don't want to be taken for a ride. I genuinely feel (along some others on this thread) that the garage were incompetent. They missed a very obvious issue, and it's cost me what I consider to be a lot of money.

I didn't have an issue with the price, but someone suggested I was overcharged so I looked it up.

My post on here was to ask for advice before I discuss this with the garage, I don't intend on taking them to small claims court, I realise that people can make mistakes, but I also don't want to be fobbed off by the garage and so wanted to be prepared beforehand.

So why is the title of the thread "do I have any comeback"??

So your actual question was relation to the price of the starter motor then?

I assume you told the garage you had ruled out the battery?

Did you tell them to diagnose the problem properly? Or just replace the starter motor?

fred246

The OP did everything correctly. She had a problem with her car. She took it to the garage. They misdiagnosed a problem and fitted a part which was high unlikely to need changing. They charged a lot of money for something which did not need to be done. The only mistake which she seems to be making is to expect a garage to have to operate to a certain standard. She doesn't seem to realise that there is no requirement for a mechanic to have any skill, knowledge or qualifications. Unless their actions actually kill or seriously injure someone there is unlikely to be any requirement for the mechanic to be accountable for what he does. He can charge anything he wants for doing anything whether it needs to be done or not. The only legal recourse is to go to the small claims court but this would not stop the rogue mechanic from ripping off customers with incompetent work day after day after day.

Austinhead

I think i'll pop into the garage next week and have a chat with the manager about it and see what they say. Hopefully i'll get some acknowledgement that they could have made a mistake and missed something obvious, although it's impossible to know if that was the original problem.

I am really hoping for a positive outcome from this, and that doesn't mean a full refund. An apology and some labour costs back would be nice, but it's more about me trusting that garage. I have been using them for a few years now and thought I had found a garage I could trust - they seem to be few and far between.

Thank you to those you have commented constructively on this issue. The reason I put the post on was to get some advice.

wrightk

fred246 wrote: »

The OP did everything correctly. She had a problem with her car. She took it to the garage. They misdiagnosed a problem and fitted a part which was high unlikely to need changing. They charged a lot of money for something which did not need to be done. The only mistake which she seems to be making is to expect a garage to have to operate to a certain standard. She doesn't seem to realise that there is no requirement for a mechanic to have any skill, knowledge or qualifications. Unless their actions actually kill or seriously injure someone there is unlikely to be any requirement for the mechanic to be accountable for what he does. He can charge anything he wants for doing anything whether it needs to be done or not. The only legal recourse is to go to the small claims court but this would not stop the rogue mechanic from ripping off customers with incompetent work day after day after day.

Most of this post is to do with cost of the parts.
It is down to the customer to satisfy themselves regarding the cost +labour of the part. If the OP did indeed ask for a diagnosis first then it would be up to them to shop around after having the diagnosis. As the OP said 'the car was working fine when it was taken in'. All it would have taken was a few calls around to local garages to ask the all in price for a starter motor.

But its starting to sound more like the OP asked the garage to replace it regardless and now regrets the cost which is their fault as they should have made enquiries first.

I've recently had my front brake pads replaced. A few calls around and the difference in the all in price was £110 the most expensive (local indy) and the lowest £55 (local indy). Same pads.

Austinhead

The car started to take it to the garage. After I got there and parked it, it wouldn't start again.
I didn't offer any kind of diagnosis to the garage. I didn't rule out the battery. I didn't tell them to change the starter motor.
I went to work, they phoned me later and told me the starter motor was the problem and it needed replacing.

Yes I could have phoned round, but the car wouldn't start, at least not reliably in order to take it somewhere else.