2 day job turned into 3 weeks.... and then it gets worse!

discardthismob

This is a long story! I'm sorry in advance! I'll try keep it to what I think are the important bits. The whole thing start to finish is just beyond belief!
I'm self employed and my work van failed it's MOT on christmas eve. There was a fairly long list of things that needed sorting. I got in contact with my local garage just after Christmas and they said drop it off early as possible Friday the 8th and I'd have it back by Saturday 9th. I had sent the owner the MOT failure list through whatsapp and he said 2 days to fix it and £600, I replied okay, and I quote from the whatsapp message "do what you have to but avoid what you can. Just need to get it though the MOT for now and I'll be back for the rest in a few weeks". I dropped it off Thursday 7th evening just to make sure they could get started first thing Friday. Saturday afternoon I call to see what's happening and he says some parts haven't come so it'll be Monday. So I gave them all of Monday and then Tuesday morning I tried to call the landline... no answer all morning. I realised I had the owners mobile. Tried to call him. No answer. Late that afternoon I got a text from him saying the garage is closed due to covid. They'll be shut for 10 days. I'm nothing but understanding of the situation but I do, very politely, say to him I'm going to lose a lot of work because of this if you can consider that on the bill I'd appreciate it.. he went off in a frenzy telling me he's not going to complete the work and come get my van as soon as they're open again. Not wanting to miss out on more work I pretty much begged him to just get it finished when they're back and I'll pay the full £600. I just need my van back asap to get back to work. 10 days passes then he says it'll be ready for Saturday 23rd. Saturday comes and he say's "All my guys are too scared of corona to come back to work so I have no staff. I've got a friend though and I'll have him on it first thing Monday morning".... considering the complete lack of social distancing and not a mask in sight when I dropped the van off I have BIG doubts about this story. Anyway, Monday comes, "it just needs a sensor, it'll be going for the retest in the morning". Tuesday comes, "it needs all new brake calipers so the bill is now £1000+". I didn't realise at that point but, as far as I'm aware, he had no reason at all to be replacing brake calipers because there was nothing on the MOT that said they were needed! One front brake pad needed changing.... they put on new discs and pads all 4 corners and changed the back two calipers and charged me £400+ for the pleasure! 27th he took it for the MOT and it failed. EVERY SINGLE THING it failed on was on the original MOT failure sheet that I gave him! They'd done half the work needed, some bits that didn't need doing and then took it to fail another MOT?? He then told me next day, next day next day until finally today, the 30th, it went for it's MOT and passed! I'd spoke to citizens advice on Friday to see where I stand with my loss of earnings and they said as long as I have proof he said two days, which I do, then the work should, by law, be completed reasonably soon after that and because it's my work van it was a "business to business contract" covered by Supplied goods and services act 1982 and not the usual consumer rights. As we stood this morning I'd had 3 weeks off work, lost £2600 worth of work I had booked in for these 3 weeks and, for me at least, 3 weeks is not a reasonable time frame for a 2 day job. So, as per citizens advices advice, I message to say I'm not happy paying for the work seeing as this has cost me £2600+ of income, if you waive the bill we'll leave it at that. As I expected he didn't want to do that. So, again as per advice, I paid him "under protest" just desperate to get my van back and get back to work planning on chasing my lost earnings through small claims court.

This is where it gets better... worse! So I went to pick the van up. MOT in the front seat. Happy days I can get back to work on Monday. The brakes feel a bit rubbish but I've had new discs and pads before and they can take a bit of wearing in before they feel really good, just take it steady.... I drive down a fairly large steep hill on the way home and the brakes don't work!! Luckily there are 3 lanes at the bottom of the hill and only two had traffic in them so I managed to get it down the empty lane but MY GOD I was terrified! I got pulled up safe and composed myself enough to have a look at what was what. I don't know much about cars/vans but I had a look underneath and there's brake fluid everywhere. Obviously I've taken photos. The brake pedal feels fairly normal to start with but I've now realised that it first has pressure under foot but on prolonged braking, down the hill, the pedal keeps travelling slowly down until it hits the floor!

So my real questions... Sorry it took a while to get here!
Am I right in assuming I can take this elsewhere to get it fixed and add it to what he owes me? After the initial negligence of taking it for an MOT with barely half the work done, then the unbelievable time this all took and then the fact he gave me it back with brakes, that if I wasn't so lucky with an empty lane would have caused an awful accident, I really really don't want to give him it back.
When I went to pick up the van this morning I had plans to go to small claims court for my wages.... now I'm considering getting a solicitor and trying for bigger compensation because this whole thing from start to finish has been so stressful, it's cost me so much money in lost work and today was beyond terrifying! The problem with that is I am skint beyond belief. After so much time off work and my van STILL isn't back on the road and need more money spending on it I'm struggling like hell... but I really don't want to let him get away lightly with this, pardon the phrase, absolute car crash of a transaction.

Your opinions on the situation are greatly appreciated.

discardthismob

Just to add... my point at the end is I'll struggle to afford a solicitor at the moment but from what I#ve read at small claims court you have to give the amount you're claiming. I wouldn't know where to start with "quoting" for my absolute horror of faulty brakes!

Grumpy_chap

There is a horrendous amount in the OP's post for any reader to try to get through and a woeful lack of punctuation making it very difficult to read.
With regard to this part:

discardthismob said:

I'm self employed and my work van failed it's MOT on christmas eve. There was a fairly long list of things that needed sorting.
I got in contact with my local garage just after Christmas and they said drop it off early as possible Friday the 8th and I'd have it back by Saturday 9th. I had sent the owner the MOT failure list through whatsapp and he said 2 days to fix it and £600,
Tuesday morning I tried to call the landline... no answer all morning. I realised I had the owners mobile. Tried to call him. No answer. Late that afternoon I got a text from him saying the garage is closed due to covid. They'll be shut for 10 days. I'm nothing but understanding of the situation but I do, very politely, say to him I'm going to lose a lot of work because of this if you can consider that on the bill I'd appreciate it.. he went off in a frenzy telling me he's not going to complete the work and come get my van as soon as they're open again

It seems likely there was a case of COVID affecting some of the staff and a need for self-isolation.  No doubt the owner of the garage is stressed at losing income over this period of forced closure. 
Whatever a customer's view might be, having a customer then saying they don't wish to pay in full for repairs will not help the garage's financial position. 
Some forbearance might have been appropriate, rather than going straight for the jugular.

What has the OP done to mitigate their losses (reduced work) during the period without the vehicle? 
Apart from moaning at the garage, did the OP actually take any other steps?  Maybe borrow a car, or hire a vehicle.  (The OP does not say what they do for a trade and whether they could "get by" using the family car as an interim.) 
Did the OP truly lose work, or was work booked simply re-scheduled for later dates?

Finally, it sounds like the OP is trying to run a business on a shoe-string with a van that is on the last legs.  It might be time to consider investing in a new vehicle.  It can't create the best impression of the business turning up to Clients in a vehicle that is really on the last legs and failing the MOT on a long list of items.  The MOT is not the threshold for excellence.


For the record:

discardthismob said:

This is a long story! I'm sorry in advance! I'll try keep it to what I think are the important bits. The whole thing start to finish is just beyond belief!
I'm self employed and my work van failed it's MOT on christmas eve. There was a fairly long list of things that needed sorting. I got in contact with my local garage just after Christmas and they said drop it off early as possible Friday the 8th and I'd have it back by Saturday 9th. I had sent the owner the MOT failure list through whatsapp and he said 2 days to fix it and £600, I replied okay, and I quote from the whatsapp message "do what you have to but avoid what you can. Just need to get it though the MOT for now and I'll be back for the rest in a few weeks". I dropped it off Thursday 7th evening just to make sure they could get started first thing Friday. Saturday afternoon I call to see what's happening and he says some parts haven't come so it'll be Monday. So I gave them all of Monday and then Tuesday morning I tried to call the landline... no answer all morning. I realised I had the owners mobile. Tried to call him. No answer. Late that afternoon I got a text from him saying the garage is closed due to covid. They'll be shut for 10 days. I'm nothing but understanding of the situation but I do, very politely, say to him I'm going to lose a lot of work because of this if you can consider that on the bill I'd appreciate it.. he went off in a frenzy telling me he's not going to complete the work and come get my van as soon as they're open again. Not wanting to miss out on more work I pretty much begged him to just get it finished when they're back and I'll pay the full £600. I just need my van back asap to get back to work. 10 days passes then he says it'll be ready for Saturday 23rd. Saturday comes and he say's "All my guys are too scared of corona to come back to work so I have no staff. I've got a friend though and I'll have him on it first thing Monday morning".... considering the complete lack of social distancing and not a mask in sight when I dropped the van off I have BIG doubts about this story. Anyway, Monday comes, "it just needs a sensor, it'll be going for the retest in the morning". Tuesday comes, "it needs all new brake calipers so the bill is now £1000+". I didn't realise at that point but, as far as I'm aware, he had no reason at all to be replacing brake calipers because there was nothing on the MOT that said they were needed! One front brake pad needed changing.... they put on new discs and pads all 4 corners and changed the back two calipers and charged me £400+ for the pleasure! 27th he took it for the MOT and it failed. EVERY SINGLE THING it failed on was on the original MOT failure sheet that I gave him! They'd done half the work needed, some bits that didn't need doing and then took it to fail another MOT?? He then told me next day, next day next day until finally today, the 30th, it went for it's MOT and passed! I'd spoke to citizens advice on Friday to see where I stand with my loss of earnings and they said as long as I have proof he said two days, which I do, then the work should, by law, be completed reasonably soon after that and because it's my work van it was a "business to business contract" covered by Supplied goods and services act 1982 and not the usual consumer rights. As we stood this morning I'd had 3 weeks off work, lost £2600 worth of work I had booked in for these 3 weeks and, for me at least, 3 weeks is not a reasonable time frame for a 2 day job. So, as per citizens advices advice, I message to say I'm not happy paying for the work seeing as this has cost me £2600+ of income, if you waive the bill we'll leave it at that. As I expected he didn't want to do that. So, again as per advice, I paid him "under protest" just desperate to get my van back and get back to work planning on chasing my lost earnings through small claims court.

This is where it gets better... worse! So I went to pick the van up. MOT in the front seat. Happy days I can get back to work on Monday. The brakes feel a bit rubbish but I've had new discs and pads before and they can take a bit of wearing in before they feel really good, just take it steady.... I drive down a fairly large steep hill on the way home and the brakes don't work!! Luckily there are 3 lanes at the bottom of the hill and only two had traffic in them so I managed to get it down the empty lane but MY GOD I was terrified! I got pulled up safe and composed myself enough to have a look at what was what. I don't know much about cars/vans but I had a look underneath and there's brake fluid everywhere. Obviously I've taken photos. The brake pedal feels fairly normal to start with but I've now realised that it first has pressure under foot but on prolonged braking, down the hill, the pedal keeps travelling slowly down until it hits the floor!

So my real questions... Sorry it took a while to get here!
Am I right in assuming I can take this elsewhere to get it fixed and add it to what he owes me? After the initial negligence of taking it for an MOT with barely half the work done, then the unbelievable time this all took and then the fact he gave me it back with brakes, that if I wasn't so lucky with an empty lane would have caused an awful accident, I really really don't want to give him it back.
When I went to pick up the van this morning I had plans to go to small claims court for my wages.... now I'm considering getting a solicitor and trying for bigger compensation because this whole thing from start to finish has been so stressful, it's cost me so much money in lost work and today was beyond terrifying! The problem with that is I am skint beyond belief. After so much time off work and my van STILL isn't back on the road and need more money spending on it I'm struggling like hell... but I really don't want to let him get away lightly with this, pardon the phrase, absolute car crash of a transaction.

Your opinions on the situation are greatly appreciated.

discardthismob said:

Just to add... my point at the end is I'll struggle to afford a solicitor at the moment but from what I#ve read at small claims court you have to give the amount you're claiming. I wouldn't know where to start with "quoting" for my absolute horror of faulty brakes!

AdrianC

discardthismob said:

Tuesday comes, "it needs all new brake calipers so the bill is now £1000+". I didn't realise at that point but, as far as I'm aware, he had no reason at all to be replacing brake calipers because there was nothing on the MOT that said they were needed! One front brake pad needed changing.... they put on new discs and pads all 4 corners and changed the back two calipers and charged me £400+ for the pleasure!

I drive down a fairly large steep hill on the way home and the brakes don't work!! Luckily there are 3 lanes at the bottom of the hill and only two had traffic in them so I managed to get it down the empty lane but MY GOD I was terrified! I got pulled up safe and composed myself enough to have a look at what was what. I don't know much about cars/vans but I had a look underneath and there's brake fluid everywhere. Obviously I've taken photos. The brake pedal feels fairly normal to start with but I've now realised that it first has pressure under foot but on prolonged braking, down the hill, the pedal keeps travelling slowly down until it hits the floor!

Not hard to predict how that's happened.

The MOT doesn't take the wheels off, so won't see disks and pads that are damn near worn out, unless they're visible with the wheels on. The brake efficiency standard is laughably low.

So he takes the wheels off, and sees the disks and pads are knackered. You don't just replace "one pad". You do all four at the same end. If only one is worn worse than the others that, in itself, is a sign of problems - sticking caliper slides at best, more likely a seizing caliper. Except the rears are seizing or leaking. So it needs a pair of calipers. And that means it all needs bleeding with new fluid. Which puts the master cylinder into a part of its travel that it doesn't normally go through - and if fluid changes have been neglected, it may well be rusty inside. So the rust then damages the piston seals...

I've had it with a clutch master on a recently-acquired car - I changed the fluid and, bleeding it through, suddenly lost any resistance to the pedal. The inside of the old master was horrific. The small return spring was in several parts, and the bore was like coarse sandpaper outside of the very narrow section of normal movement. The slave failed shortly afterwards.

It's the kind of escalation that's entirely predictable when something that's been neglected finally gets work done on it.

feolojad

Unfortunately for vehicles that are poorly maintained, which usually means most vans used for works, what should be simple jobs usually end up being a can of worms.

lesalanos

discardthismob said:

Just to add... my point at the end is I'll struggle to afford a solicitor at the moment but from what I#ve read at small claims court you have to give the amount you're claiming. I wouldn't know where to start with "quoting" for my absolute horror of faulty brakes!

Your "quote" for the faulty brakes is the financial loss caused by such

Ectophile

You can only claim actual monetary damage.  So don't bother asking for money for stress, or accidents that nearly happened.

Why didn't you hire a van for the period that yours was off the road?  It would have been cheaper than losing out on £3600 of business.

ontheroad1970

Ectophile said:

You can only claim actual monetary damage.  So don't bother asking for money for stress, or accidents that nearly happened.

Why didn't you hire a van for the period that yours was off the road?  It would have been cheaper than losing out on £3600 of business.

And it would have been considered to be a reasonable cost to charge to the defendant.  Charging full loss of earnings when there were other options may lead to disappointment.  You are meant to do all you can do mitigate costs.

bartelbe

Is no-one concerned that professional mechanics sent a vehicle out with defective brakes? Forget the rest of the post, that alone condemns them.

Though to be fair the OP has left himself wide open to being scammed by agreeing to any work needed to get the van through the MOT. In future only agree to specific work and insist your are consulted and given a price for any additional work that is found. The OP basically gave the garage a blank cheque and they took advantage.

AdrianC

bartelbe said:

Is no-one concerned that professional mechanics sent a vehicle out with defective brakes?

They appear to have been working just fine when the OP left the garage - it was only some unspecified distance into the journey that they failed.

The garage must have bled the brakes through quite happily after the caliper changes. There's no suggestion that the failed test was on the grounds of inefficient footbrake, and it had passed the test before collection, so they must have been working at that point... unless you're now expanding this conspiracy to include a corrupt tester happy to pass a van with brakes that don't work...?

fred246

Unfortunately this sort of story is all too common with UK garages. They are totally unregulated. Mechanics have no test of competency and need no experience or pass any exams to work on a car. They have no registration. They have no characteristics of a "profession" and can't be regarded as such. They are putting people's lives at risk. Servicing and repair of cars desperately needs regulation.