Garage carried out work without permission

angrycrow

I am in full agreement with OP here. He dropped the car off for an MOT, that is not an instruction to repair any faults. I do most of my own repairs so if my car fails I take it away fix the faults and return for a partial retest. I have only ever had one MOT fail when I ended up paying the garage to do any work on the car to pass it. If a garage did unauthorised work on one of my cars the best offer they would get is the costs I would have paid for the parts from my usual supplier and not a penny more.

The even bigger issue in my view is that they left the car unlocked on the forecourt with the keys in the ignition for anyone to drive off in. Had the car been stolen and the keys were found to be in the ignition the garages insurance would refuse to pay. This suggests the garage have a complete lack of regard for their customers vehicles.

paddedjohn

You have already admitted that if they had told you it needed springs you would have asked for a price so why not relax a bit and go see how much they are charging for the job before you kick off. If not happy with the price then you can tell them to replace the old ones and I'd like to bet they will come to some sort of deal that will suit you.

Richard53

The OP hasn't said why they replaced the springs - perhaps they didn't tell him, or just said it 'needed' them. Were they broken (both at once, coincidentally)? Just rusty and looked in poor condition? Pain flaking off and therefore oo-er *dangerous, Sir*? A genuine cause of failure or just a bit of make-work when they thought the owner was a mug and wouldn't complain? Are the old springs available for inspection? If not, why not?


It all sounds dodgy to me.


If you have an agreement with a garage that work up to £xxx can be done without prior agreement, then fine. I have an arrangement like that with my local place. Without that agreement, the garage should only do when they have been requested to and nothing more.

NessieGB

Taking all the feedback from this thread, I'm going to go in calmly and ask to inspect the old springs and what the price will be. If I think they're taking the mick then I'll be requesting my old one go back in. Regardless of what happens they will be getting told off for carrying out unauthorised repairs.

On the subject of why they changed the springs, the only reason I got was "they were broken". It didn't feel like the springs were broken, the car was level at all 4 corners and it didn't make any weird noises going over bumps. But I know cars can be weird at the best of times, so will wait till I see the springs to pass judgement.

agrinnall

A question for the forum: what should the OP do if the garage has already disposed of the old springs? Can they reasonably insist that the replacements are left in place but not pay for them?

Herzlos

I think you'd probably have to pay for the springs themselves, or source another pair. It's unlikely they'd be off-site by the next day though.

Mercdriver wrote: »

I'm a bit surprised you would be happy for a garage to go ahead with work without first getting your approval and not doing what you had actually instruct them to do.

I dunno, lots of garages do small bits of work for an MOT, though this is borderline. Mine calls me if it's going to be a lot of work, but I assume most people just want the car to pass.

So should the garage have phoned? Yes, and it's worth a brief moan to the garage manager.
Now that they haven't, would you rather they put the old springs on, failed it and let you sort it yourselves, or would you rather that they just fixed it? What if you then had to wait a couple of days for another MOT slot?

caprikid1

What car is it ?? I own a MK4 golf and reckon with a ramp and the right high speed spring compressors I could do the job in tops 15 minutes with a spring cost of £25.




I agree that it was wrong to go and do it but cars seem to go through springs these days and it could be genuine wanting to get a car to pass. Wrong to do it without asking though.

takman

AdrianC wrote: »

So, basically, they started to look at it - realised the springs would fail, ordered a pair, waited for them to be delivered, changed them... and ran out of time... A pair of rear springs is probably only an hour or so's labour.

99% of people would rather that than have a fail, and have to book it back in.

Did you tell them not to do ANY work if it failed? Did you actually look the car over before taking it in?

I disagree with this i definitely don't think the garage should do any work that hasn't been authorised by the customer. If they have a policy of doing work if it is less than £x amount automatically then the they should tell the customer before.

Personally i take my car to an MOT centre that don't do repairs (except very minor stuff like replace bulbs and wiper blades). This means they have no incentive to fail the car to get more work.

I can also source genuine parts for my car cheaper than local garages can get pattern parts for. So it would be very annoying to have to pay extra for pattern parts just because they didn't ask me before they carried out the work.

Kim_13

There are some unscrupulous garages around. It's possible that the change was not required for an MOT pass.

Similar happened to Dad. They changed the brake pads, which hadn't long been done. When Dad asked them to show him the originals, they wouldn't produce them.

At a minimum the OP should have been kept informed. He took the car in for an MOT, it was perfectly reasonable to expect that he would have the car back the same day. It would not take a garage long to call and ask if the OP wants the springs changing or would like the car MOT'd as is either. Even if the car had failed in the latter case, the OP would probably go back. Now he/she won't be.

m0bov

Very odd the garage would knowingly carry out work without permission, this is very basic stuff. I suspect a mix up, if they have not MOTed it, why do the springs. If the MOT has failed on the springs, find out the cost and if you can get it cheaper elsewhere, tell them to put the old springs back on. You might be able to get the price down as you have them by short and curlies.