Mechanics taking the p*ss

Hyperbollix

Would like some advise on this….. Had an ABS brake issue on my car. Took it to a reputable garage about 30 minutes from me as they had the diagnostic equipment to check older models. Was advised by the reception the fee for diagnostic was €50. Brought the car along and a member of staff hooked it up to a scanner and proceeded to fiddle with it for 45 minutes. The owner came out after speaking to him and told me the ABS pump appeared to be faulty but more investigation would be needed and it may need to be removed and sent to a refurbing company. I agreed to book the car in again a couple of weeks later to complete this job. I also asked them to give the car a once over while on the lift to check for wear n' tear and age related issues that might need addressing and to give me a list of these items.

Took the car back, dropped it in at 10am. At 4pm that day, I got an invoice emailed to me for work completed of €200. Soon after I got a call to say car was ready for collection. Spoke to owner again on my return. He said the ABS pump was indeed faulty and it would need to be removed and sent to a 3rd party to refurb it. On the other issues I wanted checked he said to "try a new sensor first and see how it goes" and when asked about the suspension and control arms etc, he said two ball joints needed changing and "there was another yolk that wasn't put on right before, that should come off and be done again" He said it was his employee who found it, but he was now gone home and he couldn't tell me what the thing actually was! He wasn't interested in giving me any resolution of any kind, just that this much was done. Pay for it. Then we move onto the next step. The invoice was inclusive of the €50 diagnostic fee plus 2 hours labour.

I had some kind of gut feeling that told me to get a second opinion before going down this very expensive route. I decided to try a "low tech" local mechanic in the meantime who hasn't got a receptionist or all the latest equipment. I told him the whole story. He had the car for 3 days and discovered that the ABS pump wasn't actually faulty. The issue was a fuse or relay in the glovebox. Possibly a bad contact. Once that was cleaned up and reinstalled, hey presto, the ABS issue is gone.

If I buy a TV from Curry's and it won't switch on when I get it home, I can return it for another one or full refund. What are my rights here as regards a pisspoor service that lead me astray and eagerly ripped me off in the process. I obviously want to go back and demand a refund but I don't know where I stand here.

Thanks

kirving

You don't have much recourse, outside of going back to the garage, being as reasonable as you possibly can be, in explaining that you were charged €200 for a misdiagnosis, and you're not happy about it.

When you say reputable garage, are they a main dealer?

Rows Grower

You agreed to 50 euro charge beforehand and asked for extra work to be done which took 2 hours, can't see you getting your money refunded.

mickdw

Tts all well and good cleaning up electrical contacts and getting a car fixed but who looks like a cowboy when customer is back after 3 weeks roaring and shouting that the fault they paid to repair is back same as ever and looking for a free repair.

Main dealer for example won't get into cleaning up damaged contacts. Its new part or nothing.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524891#Comment_122524891

Not a main dealer but a well known, family run garage. Very nice people to chat to and deal with on the phone, but you get the idea that getting invoices out as fast as possible takes priority over solving customers issues.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524918#Comment_122524918

A fair point. Which is why the man who had the car blocking up his limited space for three days didn't want any payment until I tested it for 2 or 3 weeks to make sure the issue didn't return.

Both he and his staffer could find no fault with the pump and suspected the issue was electrical or electronic. They are fairly certain that's that, but still want me to give it a while to test it.

Ted222

A receptionist in a mechanic’s shop is the first red flag. You’re already one step away from whoever’s doing the repairs.

Rows Grower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524937#Comment_122524937

You might be in for another fright in a couple of weeks when you get the bill from the local low tech. Sounds like he put a bit of work into finding the fault.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524937#Comment_122524937

Fair enough. You seem to have found an old style garage not too focused on making his hourly labour rate for each and every hour but no large operation could operate like that.

Or else, you are going to get a bill for 3 days labour which could be saucy enough.

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524918#Comment_122524918

Sounds like the new part wouldn’t have solved this problem though. They were looking at the pump when the relay controlling it was the issue if I understand correctly.

mickdw

It's possibly connector at pump but not certain.

Not saying 1st garage were right buy they may not be rip off merchants either.

Oscar_Madison

What was the additional 200 euro for over the original 50 agreed? Was this a full top to bottom check of the car?
That feels a bit pricey tbh but depends just what exactly they checked and what sort of report you were presented with at the end of the day.

I’ve the benefit of a good mechanic so they know my car well- have you just got the car, or lost your old mechanic or something?

If you were worried about it not being up to scratch in other areas. putting it in for a service might have worked out cheaper overall for you.

I’m terms of the costs and diagnosis, you wouldn’t know what they may say to slip out of it- there could still be something there that “might” be an issue- then again “refurbishing” it means essentially they could have just handed you back your car with the fuse replaced without mention this and say “there all done, good as new”- in other words fleece you.

it’s all down to just how good and honest they are- if you’re not happy with them, don’t use them again - it’s their loss - got scammed from a right so-and-so about 15 years ago for about 200 quid- said he fixed something and actually did nothing- only after was I warned about him - it can happen - I’d probably move on - like I say if they were interested in your business you probably would have been treated better

Hyperbollix

No, the 200 was inclusive of the original 50 fee for the diagnosis, so €150 was for 2 hours labour. Bear in mind the original diagnosis of a faulty ABS pump was what I got the first day as I waited 45 minutes for the guy to hook up the scanning tool and get some codes. When I brought it back the second day, I was just told the same thing again, a confirmed ABS pump that would need removing and sending off for refurb. So I doubt very much any other investigation was done on that issue, ie they never checked the glovebox fuses/relays etc like the low tech place did….

So the two hours labour was basically for time on the lift to give the car the once over I asked for. As for the "report" I got relating to that, well it was laughable to be honest. Just a couple of "comments" added to the invoice. You wouldn't be any the wiser what exactly was right or wrong with the car. As I said in a previous post, I spoke to the owner when I was picking it up and he couldn't confirm what exactly was needing doing or what the item was that his employee found to be "installed wrong and should be re-done" - He had no interest. Compared to a "healthcheck" I got for my daily driver earlier in the year where an indie specialist garage made a 3 minute video pointing out all the problem areas and what needed to be done, this report was a bloody joke, to be quite honest.

As it stands, the ABS fault hasnt returned and the car is booked in for a NCT in mid September. I am going to go back to the garage after that and explain the situation to the owner. I don't expect there will be any refund (that would be admitting guilt for a shoddy service) but I will see if he's interested in doing some sort of minor freebie for me going forward. If I meet a brick wall and a bad attitude, I'm just going to do the only thing that stings these operators that go in for sharp practices, write a full and frank review of my experience on Google, where I've noticed a couple of other customers have had similar experiences (poor service for big fees)