Conned by garage, can I do anything?

akira181

Sorry for the long post but I feel completely robbed by this garage and I think I need to go into detail so I can get advice on what I can do next or if I'm just overreacting.

My front driver side caliper was sticking and my MOT was coming up in 3 weeks so I decided to book it in early. I found a deal on Groupon for a MOT and full valet for £20, and since my car was in dire need of a clean, I went against my gut instinct and bought it.

I sent the garage a few messages on Facebook to book it in and said the front driver side caliper is sticking. He called me later in the day to say MOT failed due to driver side track rod end, brake pipes, and all 4 calipers are in bad condition and quoted me £380.

The car is only worth £700 at best but since the brake pipes were a previous advisory, steering was getting loose, and the brakes were a little noisy, I decided to go ahead with it. Got the call today, work complete, MOT passed, picked it up, paid cash cause the card machine was broken, drove it and before I got to the traffic lights at the end of the block, I could hear the front driver side brake rubbing harder than before so I took it straight back to the garage.

The boss called a mechanic over he drove it a meter and said the car is undriveable like this and went to put it back on the ramps. As he was driving to enter the garage, he stopped on a hill and the car didn't roll backwards. He even stuck his feet out with the handbrake off and bounced bounced in the driver seat prove it was barely moving to the boss. So the garage actually made my brakes worse but it passed the MOT.

The boss said he cleaned all 3 calipers and replaced the rear passenger side one as that was completely seized. He claimed the front driver side caliper piston pushed right back in when he cleaned it and it passed the MOT no bother.

Back on the ramp and the front driver side brake is completely seized. Even a metal bar was bending as he tried to rotate the hub. After a little troubleshooting, he said a new caliper is needed. Boss started talking and a caliper started off at £55 to £60 pound. By the time he was finished, it was £73 for the caliper and he'll give me half price labour to a total of £110.

By this point I was completely fuming as if I had been quoted £500 at the start, I'd have refused and sold the car for £200 and bought another one. For example, same car as mine on Autotrader 6 miles away, one year newer, half the miles, £1000 list price.

But since I just paid for the MOT and I need a car to work this weekend, I bit the bullet and stupidly agreed without thinking it through.

The caliper arrived and the mechanic fitted it (delivery van had the website on the decal so I looked up a cost of a caliper, £45 +VAT, insult to injury that was). As I was chatting to the mechanic, he himself told me he wouldn't come back here cause the other mechanics are family of the boss and not very good.

We had a look at the passenger front brake as the other mechanics didn't do a good job of that, bled the brakes and, I drove off. Brake pedal is very spongy but least it's kinda driveable now. I'm going to give the brakes another bleed and check the master cylinder after I've cooled off a bit.

Also had to get the valet guys to redo it. Streaks of dirt down the side of the car (boss saw it and said it was rust and didn't bother to do anything about it), missed bits inside, cigarette ash on the carpet and I don't even smoke. Also my sunglasses and a couple microfibre cloths I had in the car have gone missing.

This guy is clearly using an attractive Groupon deal to rip people off and not even do a good job of what work they do do. I'm assuming I have no chance of getting the money back but can I report him to stop him or something from doing this to other people?

parking_question_chap

Its a difficult one to assess from the outside.

I dont mean to be harsh, but you were asking for trouble by selecting a garage based on a website offer. Of course they are going to try and make their money back elsewhere.

Always try and find a garage with at least one good reference from somebody you trust, and book the appointment face to face if they are new to you, if it doesnt feel right just walk away.

How old is the car? pretty old by the sounds of it.

Might not have been trying to rip you off directly, could well be several issues were found with the car or later developed, and they were just not very good mechanics.

Oh and the old card machine not working, yeah, if you say so lads.

Strider590

Just to clear something up, binding brakes is not an MOT failure, the only requirement for MOT is that they stop the car effectively with even braking force across each axle.

A garage tried to fail my kit car for binding front calipers, but they were wrong. I needed the car on it's MOT so that I could replace the calipers and test the work for myself.

akira181

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Its a difficult one to assess from the outside.

I dont mean to be harsh, but you were asking for trouble by selecting a garage based on a website offer. Of course they are going to try and make their money back elsewhere.

Always try and find a garage with at least one good reference from somebody you trust, and book the appointment face to face if they are new to you, if it doesnt feel right just walk away.

How old is the car? pretty old by the sounds of it.

Might not have been trying to rip you off directly, could well be several issues were found with the car or later developed, and they were just not very good mechanics.

Oh and the old card machine not working, yeah, if you say so lads.

I read reviews on groupon and they were generally positive apart from stuff going missing from inside the car. I made sure everything expensive was taken out before I handed over the keys. The guy even said he doesn't want to rip people off just to reclaim the voucher but wants repeat business instead. That had the opposite effect and made me more suspicious.

The car is 13 years old but regularly serviced and never let me down before.

I'm just annoyed that I specifically put in writing the front driver caliper was seized and they replaced the rear passenger one, passed the MOT and when I come to get it less than 24 hours later; the brakes were worse than before, required 2 hours of work, a new caliper that I originally said was broken, and it still doesn't work right. I finished bleeding the brakes and the pedal is still softer than jelly.

Strider590 wrote: »

Just to clear something up, binding brakes is not an MOT failure, the only requirement for MOT is that they stop the car effectively with even braking force across each axle.

A garage tried to fail my kit car for binding front calipers, but they were wrong. I needed the car on it's MOT so that I could replace the calipers and test the work for myself.

Yeah, it was listed as uneven braking force. I just feel conned as I told him brakes were needing done, he didn't do it properly the first time and then billed me again for labour to fix his mistake. If I was quoted £500 for repair, I wouldn't have bothered.

khcomp

It's just a lesson learnt - crap garage, crap service.... take your business & cash elsewhere next time. I would suggest that you have a valid claim against them as they failed to fix a specific issue, then charged you again for the same work. I'd certainly have it checked over elsewhere - it may be worth having an independent MOT done elsewhere, such as a council testing station.
Always use a garage that someone you know, and trust, can personally recommend. A decent, local, independent mechanic is worth serious money.

arcon5

Strider590 wrote: »

Just to clear something up, binding brakes is not an MOT failure, the only requirement for MOT is that they stop the car effectively with even braking force across each axle.

A garage tried to fail my kit car for binding front calipers, but they were wrong. I needed the car on it's MOT so that I could replace the calipers and test the work for myself.

Which is wrong because binding brakes can be a failure

1. A significant braking effort recorded on a road wheel, even though the brake is not applied, indicating that a brake is binding.

prowla

The OP said that the garage told them that one of the brakes had seized - that would definitely give an uneven braking force across the axle!

parking_question_chap

Ok your 13 year old car might not have let you down before, but surely at some point a car of that age will start to go wrong. Dont you think?

Strider590

arcon5 wrote: »

Which is wrong because binding brakes can be a failure

Define significant......

A mildly binding brake, once hot will become a nearly seized brake, but at the MOT the brakes are going to be cold.

I'd bet that "significant" varies depending on whether the tester is MOTing a car that his employer is about to sell or his colleagues have just worked on, versus a car by a customer he thinks he can make a bit of money from.

mrmot

Strider590 wrote: »

Define significant......

A mildly binding brake, once hot will become a nearly seized brake, but at the MOT the brakes are going to be cold.

I'd bet that "significant" varies depending on whether the tester is MOTing a car that his employer is about to sell or his colleagues have just worked on, versus a car by a customer he thinks he can make a bit of money from.

I define 'significant' by the amount of effort that the brakes record on the roller brake tester when they're not being operated, usually around 20 kg for me.

arcon5

Strider590 wrote: »

Define significant......

A mildly binding brake, once hot will become a nearly seized brake, but at the MOT the brakes are going to be cold.

I'd bet that "significant" varies depending on whether the tester is MOTing a car that his employer is about to sell or his colleagues have just worked on, versus a car by a customer he thinks he can make a bit of money from.

Of course what results in a failure is ambiguous, doesn't change the fact brakes binding can result in an MOT fail.. contrary to what you're telling op

"binding brakes is not an MOT failure"

Which is categorically incorrect