Advice needed for local garage problem :(

heartofwhite

Hey guys,

I left my car (2001 VW Bora) in this morning to a local garage for two reasons:

Firstly the brake pad warning light came on the dash
Secondly, the centre console was not lighting up anymore

The guy rang me and said that the brake pads were fine and that it was only a faulty sensor which they fixed

The bulb was gone in the console


Here is the problem:

In order to replace the bulb, they removed part of the dash. I went down to collect the car and was charged €95 for the job. I paid for the work and took the car. When I got in to the car I realised that the dash was completely loose and missing screws. I went back in and was told to leave it with them.

I am now in work and I looked up online and apparently in my car it is simply a case of removing the middle switch on the console and replacing the bulb. In other words no need to remove the dash at all.

Am I right in saying this? They charged me €75 for labour because they needed to remove the dash.

I have to collect the car in an hour and do not know what to do. Should I ask for the labour cost back?

obezyana

That is shocking I bet they done both jobs in about 20 mins.

heartofwhite

Got the car back and told them that about how easy it was to replace the bulb. They said that they did it their way and that it took 1 hour in total. They told me to call in and see the manager next Monday if I want but they could do nothing for me.

They left me with a crack in the gearstick case and it still does not fit right. Not sure what I am supposed to do now.

bazz26

Was it a main dealer? €75 is a little high for an hour's labour by an independent garage.

Big Cheese

That's a very high price to pay and does not sound like the right way to do it at all. Keep a record of all the transactions and correspondence between you and the garage. Emailing your concerns tonight is probably best as you have it in writing. Ask for a breakdown of the costs of all labour and parts (should be standard). Contact a main VW dealer and ask what is the process for the works you have had done. there may be some factor that involves taking off the dash but they are liable for any damages caused due to there works.

heartofwhite

bazz26 wrote: »

Was it a main dealer? €75 is a little high for an hour's labour by an independent garage.

No it was not a main dealer, just a local garage. Essentially, they did not know how to replace the heating console bulb properly so proceeded to remove part of the dash which took an hour. Then when they replaced the dash, they cracked the gearstick case and left it mis-aligned.

When asked about getting a refund for the labour, they told me that they fixed the bulb as asked the best way they knew how and I was billed accordingly.

Kaiser D

There isn't much you can do really. That's their rate, and it took them an hour. They are entitled to seek as much as they want for a job. But, you should see the manager about damaging the gearstick casing.

Chimaera

Kaiser D wrote: »

There isn't much you can do really. That's their rate, and it took them an hour. They are entitled to seek as much as they want for a job. But, you should see the manager about damaging the gearstick casing.

IMO if they didn't know what they were doing they should have made the effort to find out or say they couldn't do it and refer the customer to someone who can. Now their customer has been overcharged and left with a damaged car and probably won't use that garage again.

Crap like this is why it's so difficult to maintain cars properly in this country if you're not willing to do it yourself.

Kaiser D

Chimaera wrote: »

IMO if they didn't know what they were doing they should have made the effort to find out or say they couldn't do it and refer the customer to someone who can. Now their customer has been overcharged and left with a damaged car and probably won't use that garage again.

Crap like this is why it's so difficult to maintain cars properly in this country if you're not willing to do it yourself.

I do agree; OP has been massively overcharged. But the garage got the job done and it took them an hour to do it so they charged for the hour. They are allowed to do that.

Have they admitted to damaging the gear stick casing OP?

visual

So glad I diy as much as I can.

The way I see it is they charged you their rate and job was done no comeback there.

But the damage to console is their doing and should be reified by them.

Grolschevik

Kaiser D wrote: »

There isn't much you can do really. That's their rate, and it took them an hour. They are entitled to seek as much as they want for a job. But, you should see the manager about damaging the gearstick casing.

I suppose they could've looked up on the internet how to do it if they were unsure of the best/quickest way, but the time it took to look it up would probably have been lumped into the labour time anyway!

obezyana

visual wrote: »

So glad I diy as much as I can.

The way I see it is they charged you their rate and job was done no comeback there.

But the damage to console is their doing and should be reified by them.

Yeah I'm like that myself thank god I DIY I don't like the thought of paying some one stupid money to fix something in my car when I know I can do it myself for next to nothing it's terrible how some mechanics rip people off.

Drummerboy08

Did you try to agree a price beforehand?

heartofwhite

FFS - just are getting home now from work and the Radio is not working in the car! I cannot tune in stations at all - I am guessing that this is directly related to them messing about trying to fix the bulb as the radio is directly above the console. I am so so annoyed and upset now. I feel like I have no comeback now that I have paid. What am I supposed to do about the radio? If I go back into them tomorrow they might make it worse as they obviously do not know what they are doing.

All of this caused because I asked them to check the bulb in the centre console.

Chimaera

Call the manager there in the morning and demonstrate the issues caused by his troglodytes employees. Mention that you will be bringing it to a VW garage to have it repaired and will be billing the repair costs to him. Suggest a date in the small claims court if he gets upset.

jt65

heartofwhite wrote: »

FFS - just are getting home now from work and the Radio is not working in the car! I cannot tune in stations at all - I am guessing that this is directly related to them messing about trying to fix the bulb as the radio is directly above the console. I am so so annoyed and upset now. I feel like I have no comeback now that I have paid. What am I supposed to do about the radio? If I go back into them tomorrow they might make it worse as they obviously do not know what they are doing.

All of this caused because I asked them to check the bulb in the centre console.

the cable to the aerial might be loose or pulled out,

best put it down to experience & move on, unfortunately this type of shoddy workmanship is increasing even with what were previous reliable garages,

both my self and another family member have had similar experience lately

heartofwhite

If I bring the car to Halfords, do you think that they would have a look at the radio? I bought it from them two years ago and they installed it. If I offer to pay for them to look at it perhaps they would do so. Probably only a five minute job. The thoughts of going back to that other crowd tomorrow is upsetting me.

Chimaera

I'm not sure I'd bother with Halfords. This garage screwed up your car and that's not ok. If you need to bring someone with you, do that. Remember, you're only going back there to inform them how much the VW dealer will be charging them for the repairs to your car.

burke027

Chimaera wrote: »

I'm not sure I'd bother with Halfords. This garage screwed up your car and that's not ok. If you need to bring someone with you, do that. Remember, you're only going back there to inform them how much the VW dealer will be charging them for the repairs to your car.

You do understand they fixed the brake pads sensor also yea.the radio is clearly the antenna hanging out the back of the radio not connected. Although I do not condone shoddy workmanship like this and it doesn't happen in out place sadly it does in some spots. If u Google to find out how to replace it why didn't you do it yourself. 95 euro to replace a brake pad sensor and a bulb I presume this includes parts so it's not to bad. Although between us you can't replace the brake pad sensors on the bora without changing the pads what you can do tho is bridge the light out to turn it off but u won't know wen ur pads are low in this case.
But if u where that good at Google u could of found that out to. So in essence you could of had both jobs done yourself in 15 mins

heartofwhite

burke027 wrote: »

You do understand they fixed the brake pads sensor also yea.the radio is clearly the antenna hanging out the back of the radio not connected. Although I do not condone shoddy workmanship like this and it doesn't happen in out place sadly it does in some spots. If u Google to find out how to replace it why didn't you do it yourself. 95 euro to replace a brake pad sensor and a bulb I presume this includes parts so it's not to bad. Although between us you can't replace the brake pad sensors on the bora without changing the pads what you can do tho is bridge the light out to turn it off but u won't know wen ur pads are low in this case.
But if u where that good at Google u could of found that out to. So in essence you could of had both jobs done yourself in 15 mins

I should not have to look up on Google how to do things - I am not in anyway mechanical and make no apologies for it. I believed that the garage would know the best way to fix the issues with the least time and expense. If they did not know what they were doing they could have easily said so and I would have gone elsewhere.

In any case, I went to Halfords this morning and a guy took out the radio and it turns out that the garage mechanic forgot to put in the antenna. It was a quick fix and no charge so at least that is good.

king_of_inismac

Try not to stress too much over this. Take the positives from the situations:

1. You learned not to bring your car to that garage again.

2. You might attempt some smaller DIY jobs yourself in the future. A Haynes manual might be worthy he investment.

3. You got the sensor fixed.

All that for 95 euro. If you like, get the gear casing replaced and don't darken their door again. Plenty of good decent mechanics out there

burke027

heartofwhite wrote: »

I should not have to look up on Google how to do things - I am not in anyway mechanical and make no apologies for it. I believed that the garage would know the best way to fix the issues with the least time and expense. If they did not know what they were doing they could have easily said so and I would have gone elsewhere.

In any case, I went to Halfords this morning and a guy took out the radio and it turns out that the garage mechanic forgot to put in the antenna. It was a quick fix and no charge so at least that is good.

Glad u got sorted although no need to be so uptight I was mealy pointing out the facts

renofan

I had a similar experience with a VAG car recently. In fact the Haynes manual states you need to take the dash apart! I said to myself surely that can't be right and tried pulling the heater control switches off. And sure enough the center one came out and behind the switch was a small bulb.

The reason I can see that they are instructed to take out the dash is because the only way I could take out the bulb was with a long nose pliers and if one was to use too much force the bulb would shatter. And then the only way to get the bulb out is to take the dash apart.

Very bad design imo. All I can think of is in the op's case is that whoever did the job didn't take pride in their work and made a balls of putting it back together as it's not that big a job.

Delta Kilo

To be honest I think you were done over the brake pad indicating sensor also. The "sensor" is a wire that is embedded in the brake pad material. When the pad wears down eventually the cable is broken by the friction, breaking the circuit and illuminating the light on the dash. When you buy replacement pads the cable and connector is already embedded in the pad.

When the indicator went off on my dash on my mk IV golf, I used to cut the cable going into the pad and join them together there, thus taking the light off the dash because it was annoying. (Still about 1,500 miles+ left on the pads when light came on). This is what they did OP and I dont think its right for a garage to do the same! They did not "fix a faulty sensor". Its front left pad, if you take off the wheel you will see it.

Chimaera

renofan wrote: »

I had a similar experience with a VAG car recently. In fact the Haynes manual states you need to take the dash apart! I said to myself surely that can't be right and tried pulling the heater control switches off. And sure enough the center one came out and behind the switch was a small bulb.

The reason I can see that they are instructed to take out the dash is because the only way I could take out the bulb was with a long nose pliers and if one was to use too much force the bulb would shatter. And then the only way to get the bulb out is to take the dash apart.

Very bad design imo. All I can think of is in the op's case is that whoever did the job didn't take pride in their work and made a balls of putting it back together as it's not that big a job.

A piece of rubber tubing does the trick quite well for getting those bulbs out.

GSBellew

Delta Kilo wrote: »

To be honest I think you were done over the brake pad indicating sensor also. The "sensor" is a wire that is embedded in the brake pad material. When the pad wears down eventually the cable is broken by the friction, breaking the circuit and illuminating the light on the dash. When you buy replacement pads the cable and connector is already embedded in the pad.

When the indicator went off on my dash on my mk IV golf, I used to cut the cable going into the pad and join them together there, thus taking the light off the dash because it was annoying. (Still about 1,500 miles+ left on the pads when light came on). This is what they did OP and I dont think its right for a garage to do the same! They did not "fix a faulty sensor". Its front left pad, if you take off the wheel you will see it.

The brake pad wear function can also be switched off completely using VagCom / VCDS it's just a coding change in the instrument cluster.