Refund for a car part

Ileeam

I’ll try keep this as short and concise as possible. About a month ago, I noticed the steering in my car was getting stiff. We took it too a well known Autocentre and the next day, they told me it was the power steering pump. £260 later, they replace the pump and tell me there was a small chance the rack might be damaged because of the pump and to monitor it. We pick the car up and the manager offers to look at the old pump. My wife asks if we can keep it and he says he’d ‘just throw it away or tinker with it in his garage at home’. I drive the car home and there’s still the same problem, so we call them up. They’re happy to look at it again, and they say it may be a faulty pump so they were going to replace it.

I received a phone call from the manager saying ‘yep it’s a faulty pump, the rack is absolutely fine and you can pick it up. We’ve tested it too’. So we pick it up and wonderful, the car feels great... for all of 5 minutes. We immediately call them and I said, ‘come for a drive with me, it might be easier to show you’. Anyway, the mechanic sits in the car and says ‘I don’t need to go out in it, I can feel there’s a problem’. He requests the old pump back so he can compare the size of the pully, they ascertain it’s yet another faulty pump and they replace it once again but with one from a different supplier.

This time, the car was fine for a day before there was the same issue. Now, they’re telling me it could be the rack, and will cost a further £630 to replace (despite not guaranteeing it actually is the cause, because ‘nothing in life is guaranteed’). I’ve told him no thank you, I’ll have my old pump put back in and a refund so I can take it elsewhere. They say no. My old pump, as with other parts, was sent back to recover some cost for the new part, so that pump ‘wasn’t mine’. Well that contradicts what they told me the first time doesn’t it? And this wasn’t given to me as an option, or I’d have decided to keep it again, as I did the first time.

So, how does this work? It’s not my fault the old pump has been given away. My issue has not been resolved despite paying for the services and being under the impression that a new pump will solve my problems. If the issue is with the rack all along, then surely the original pump wasn’t faulty and should not have been replaced?

(I’m sorry it wasn’t very short!)

forgotmyname

Yes pumps are reconditioned. They send yours back unless they pay a surcharge.

The old pump may have been faulty, that may have caused the rack to fail. Can you prove it wasn't?

AndyMc.....

That's what you get by going to an auto centre instead of a proper garage. The BS is of course free of charge.

EdGasketTheSecond

We took it too a well known Autocentre :eek:

AdrianC

As has been said, exchange parts are a common concept.

Even if you did still have the old one on your garage shelf, would you be willing to pay the labour to get it put back on?

Ileeam

So it doesn’t matter that they didn’t tell me that, or that I had already kept it once? No I would not, I paid for the service of having the pump replaced as I was told that was the problem, it just turns out it wasn’t.

AdrianC

You have no idea if the pump was faulty or not. The pump _and_ rack may well both have been faulty.


Perhaps the first pump was not exchange, and when that turned out to be duff, they sourced one from another supplier which was.