Dodgey Mechanic!

alycat05

Hi,

I've recently had a truely AWFUL experience with a garage in the Tallaght area.

Long story short... this guy charged me 500euro to put a new timing belt and water pump into my golf. Car breaks down 2 months later, turns out the guy in fact didn't install a new pump or a new timing belt. I paid him 500 euro for doing NOTHING!

This mechanic insists all the work was carried out and refused to give me a refund. I have since paid another 500 euro to another mechanic to do the job which has left me 1000e out of pocket.

What are the rules here, can i name and shame?!

This garage are a DISGRACE and people should know what kind of operation they're running!

Thanks

Paulw

Report it to the Gardai as fraud and/or file a claim with the Small Claims court. Make sure you have all the documentation to hand.

Let them know you'll be taking legal action if they don't provide a full refund.

jor el

You're taking the word of the 2nd mechanic over the 1st, why? Is there some reason why the 2nd one isn't lying to you? If the timing belt broke, then it would more than likely have done a lot of damage to the valves in the engine, which would have cost you a lot more.

Do you have the belt and pump that the 2nd mechanic removed from the engine? Is there any way to prove that these were the ones supposedly replaced by the 1st mechanic, are they branded VW or spurious? What did the 1st mechanic use? Can the 2nd mechanic prove that he actually did what he says he did?

If you can prove the 1st mechanic charged you for work he didn't do, then you can take him to court, either Small Claims as it's below €2000, or using a solicitor.

upandcumming

The only way you can prove it if you marked it the belt and pump. we started to give the customers the option of keeping the stuff we replaced if they want...

Why did the golf break down?

alycat05

well initially the car was having trouble starting so the mechanic said it was the timing belt, he also suggested i get the water pump replaced at the same time - so i did. for 500 quid.

Then a month later i got a service done on the car by a totally different garage (as i thought i had a coolant leak) but the mechaninc said the water pump was leaking badly and needed to be replaced. I told him it was a new pump and he told me to bring it back to the original guy who replaced it.
I brought it back and he told me the pump was faulty so he 'replaced' it with a new one.

THEN, another month later the car starting giving touble again and i brought it to the garage that i'd had the service at. He told me the timing belt needed to be replaced, and my pump was leaking AGAIN!

He showed me how the timing belt was off by 4 cogs and had been aligned using TIP-EX, and the water pump had been plugged with silicone. In his opinion neither part had been changed.

This guy put in a new belt, tensioner?, and water pump and since then the car has been running like new.

I don't have the old parts so I can't prove it, unfortunately its one mechanic's word against another! Suppose i'll just learn a lesson from it and give up any hope of getting my money back from the dodgey mechanic!

keithclancy

upandcumming wrote: »

The only way you can prove it if you marked it the belt and pump. we started to give the customers the option of keeping the stuff we replaced if they want...

Why did the golf break down?

Well you can really... if the rubber is perished its clearly not a new Timing Belt.

alycat05

Yeah there were lines on the belt which the mechanic told me is a sign of aging.

dudara

Thread closed as there is a duplicate in Motors

OP - please do not create duplicate threads on the same topic.

dudara