Brake pads worn after 5000 miles - who is responsible?

Emmy77

Hello,
I bought a 2015 Citroen Berlingo last year and had discs and pads replaced shortly after.  11 months and just under 5000 miles later, had advisory on MOT that the pads were badly worn, braking imbalanced and just within legal limit. 
I spoke to the garage A which fitted them, who said it couldn't be the discs, but it would be the calipers. Had brakes checked by other garage B: clearly a pad issue, with with photos and info some other brake replacement items hadn't been cleaned /replaced when discs & pads had been fitted. Had new pads discs and pads fitted and was provided with the ones which were taken off. Their verdict re garage A: low quality discs and pads, poor workmanship. 
Back to garage A, showed report& photos,  asked for at least the cost of parts back. They said it was still not evidence it was the discs and pads, and in any case, I should complain to the manufacturer. 
Both the MOT place and garage B who replaced the discs and pads last week said that garage A would be responsible to have replaced them under guarantee. Admittedly, I chose not to do so because they denied it in the first instance, and I didn't want the discs and pads replaced with other poor quality ones. 
Question: if a garage installs low quality parts which last much less than half the time as what can reasonable be expected, who is responsible/accountable: garage or manufacturer of the pads? 

fatbelly

It's a difficult one. 

Can you see the manufacturer names on the photos of discs/pads?

If you post them, the guys will offer an opinion.

I recently sourced my discs online and my garage was happy to fit the Borg&Beck items I bought. I wasn't aware that it was possible to source low quality discs.

Goudy

It sounds like the pads and disc wore excessively due to sticking brake calipers.
It's not uncommon as they work in a pretty harsh environment, lots of heat and brake dust and water.

To claim on the parts warranty you will need evidence the pads and discs were defective in some way and the issue wasn't because of some over issue, like the calipers or poor fitting.
That will be difficult, very difficult.

So now you consider if it was poor workmanship by the fitter of these parts.
You would need evidence that the parts were fitted incorrectly.
Perhaps the fitter knew the calipers were sticking when they fitted them but it's also likely that they didn't start sticking until later, which I suspect the garage will imply.

It might be more than probably this happened either way, but the fitter has something going for them to suggest it all happened after fitting.

The fitter would have had to push the pistons in the brake calipers back into the caliper body to fit the new pads and discs as the new ones are much wider than the old as the old would have worn down.

New brake pads tend to have around 10mm of material on each pad new.
Discs tend to have a wear limit of between 2 and 4mm depending on the type of disc.
So if the old discs and pads were at the limit of wear it's likely the fitter needed to push the pistons back 20mm or so just to fit the new parts, if they were sticking and seized they'd never get them on.

I honestly don't think you will get far with this.
I admit something isn't right but you haven't much to fight with.

I obviously can't inspect the parts but I would hazard a guess the pistons in the caliper have rusted which has caused they to stick when pushed back in when the new parts were fitted.
Proving they were rusty and sticking at the time would be impossible though.

As mentioned, the more brakes wear, the further the pistons come out of the caliper body into the dusty, wet, salty atmosphere (then need pushing back in when fitting new pads and discs)
Over time the piston surface can rust, so when they get pushed back in it can cause then stick and jam.
If the problem hasn't been identified and rectified (replace or rebuild the capliers) it'll happen all over again.