Atlas Sandyford Poor Service

gill91

Atlas Sandyford offer an extremely poor service. Recently had my car serviced with them and had to bring my car to another garage to have a diagnostics carried out as a light appeared on the dashboard. The mechanics in Atlas Sandyford had broke the solenoid when the spark plugs were taken out and the electrical block connector was damaged too. The ignition coil which was removed during the service was not refitted correctly. All this caused my car's engine to sound extremely bad. I will not be recommending this place to anyone and will be telling people to avoid it.

Toyotafanboi

if you were unhappy with the job atlas did, did you bring the car back to them to offer them to put it right.

from my personal experience in the motor industry, when a car is brought in somewhere with a fault, it is usually very easy to blame the last mechanic who worked on it.

what car is it and what level of engine service did you get? thay may not even have renewed your spark plugs. if the problems that you are describing happened while the car was in the hands of atlas then it would have been driving poorly from the minute you picked it up from them and you should have rejected it.

gill91

I wasn't bringing my car back to them for them to break it even more. Have made a compliant to them and all.
It was definitely the last mechanic who broke it because I have had the car too long and was sold to me in perfect condition.
The car is an 08 VW golf and received what I thought was a full service but clearly wasn't. The spark plugs were replaced.
I was told the car was driving perfectly by atlas and I wouldn't know a whole deal about cars so I thought that was the truth.

Toyotafanboi

you should really have brought it back to them. i think it's unfair to put them down if you didn't give them an opportunity to rectify it.

was the car driving poorly from the minute you received it back from atlas?

_Kaiser_

How much was this service? < €100?

To be fair, you're not going to get a full service on a Golf (or any modern car really) for a price like that. I spend a fortune getting my car serviced on-time/properly but it IS done right/properly.

You'd have been better off going a few doors up the road to Fosters. I've used them before and they have very competitive pricing/offers, loyalty card discounts etc (no other connection with them myself other than as a satisfied customer)

I know money is tight for most people these days but skimping on servicing a modern car is a false economy IMO

gill91

The service cost me 160 euro. I thought I was going to get a good service because there are loads of Atlas centres around Dublin. Money is extremely tight these days for me as I'm a student so I thought this place was offering me a good deal but obviously not.

I didn't know about fosters up the road, I just work about 20 mins from sandyford so Atlas was there.

_Kaiser_

gill91 wrote: »

The service cost me 160 euro. I thought I was going to get a good service because there are loads of Atlas centres around Dublin. Money is extremely tight these days for me as I'm a student so I thought this place was offering me a good deal but obviously not.

I didn't know about fosters up the road, I just work about 20 mins from sandyford so Atlas was there.

Well in that case I'd definitely go back with the car and demand they put it right or refund you so you can then take it elsewhere and get it sorted properly. How long ago was the service?

You have raised a good point though insofar as that a common theme on this forum is "use a good independent" but not everyone KNOWS such a person. I myself wouldn't know anyone in this part of town (Sandyford area as well) that would be "good", hence why I bring the car to a dealer or Portlaoise if I'm passing that way (there's a good guy down there alright that posts here too).

In any case though, hope you get it sorted out

gill91

I have been in contact with them so they want to see my diagnostics report from the other garage to prove that there was a lot of faults with the car. I got the car service about a week and a half ago and the light came on on the dashboard a couple of days later. I needed to get it serviced somewhere convienent for me for work so thats why I chose sandyford. Other than that I would have got it serviced in Wicklow where I live.

Thanks.

biko

Not even giving the original garage a chance to rectify the issue but instead jumping onto boards to give out is a bit ott.
They have several good mentions before on boards so this could have been a once off and I'm fairly certain they would have corrected their mistake if given a chance.

It's good you have approached them again now but tbh it should have been your first port of call.
Also get an itemised bill of work as a "full service" can be anything..

Anan1

I got four tyres and a four wheel alignment from them last month. They were very polite, and easy to deal with, and their pricing was keen. They did try the whole "your track rod ends are seized and you need new pads & discs" thing, but they were good-natured about it when I had my own mechanic free off the suspension and brought the car back for alignment. It did still cost me some extra time, though. I'd give them a qualified recommendation.