VW Dealer - Disgraceful Workmanship

corrcullen

Hi
I would like to know if I have any legal standing as regarding an incident I had with a VW motor dealer.
The details are as follows.
I purchased a 2000 VW Golf privately from a neighbour with 112000 miles on the clock.
The car had a full service history, and all work was carried out solely by this particular VW Dealer that he bought the car off.
Last week I decided to change the front brake pads myself as I am a qualified mechanic. I discovered that the caliper/hub attachment bolts were bolted on to the hub on the wrong thread and were almost impossible to remove.
When refitting the new brake pads, it was impossible to tighten the bolts to the hub as the threads were too badly damaged in the hub, by the previous mechanic in the VW garage.
The only solution is to replace the hub/bearing assembly.
I phoned the VW dealer as they were who replaced the last set of front brake pads and I have the service history record to prove it, as I believe they should supply this assembly free of charge, because they didn’t do the job correctly the last time, and caused the damage.
He refused to take responsibility.
Is it possible that I can take this matter further anywhere???

Garibaldi

Do VW have a head office here? If so, I'd go directly to them (assuming it was a proper VW main dealer you're haveing the problem with). I had similar trouble with another manufacturer until I got the guys in their head office involved. I think it's just standard policy in the industry to fob you off in the belief that this will get rid of the chancers but, once you let them know you're serious (by going above them), they're pretty quick to move.

corrcullen

yes it was a main VW dealer. I phoned the head office and they said I had to sort it out with the actual dealer.

Dub13

corrcullen wrote:

yes it was a main VW dealer. I phoned the head office and they said I had to sort it out with the actual dealer.

Great PR there.:(

Get back onto the dealer preferably in writing and hand it in yourself.Tell them you are not happy with the work they carried out and you will be taken them to the small claims court and reporting them to the Health and Safety Authority if this is not sorted out.Give them a time frame to reply to you,say 3 to 5 working days,this should stop them dragging it out.

Let us know how you get on.

Dub13

Plankmonkey

My sister is having a similar problem with a garage she bought her car from (not VW). The car was sold as fully serviced but one day i had to drive it and noticed the brakes were extremely dodgy and advised her to get it checked out by another mechanic. Lo and behold the brakes were in a bad state along with a rake of other things. She went back to the garage she bought it from and told them it was supposed to be fully serviced and they insisted that it was.

After much arguing the only course of action she has left is to go to a solicitor, which she has done and the guy will soon be getting a solicitors letter asking fro the money back on the repairs she had to get done (she has all receipts). This will go all the way to court if needs be, he took advantage of an inexperienced driver. This was her first car and was meant to be just a little run around to do her while she was learning and this guy sold her a death trap.

Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread, basically if I were you I'd just go straight to the solicitor and they'll tell you how to approach it.

corrcullen

I was thinking of taking a case with the small claims court for the price of the new part. The only thing is, am I entitled to take this action, even though I wasnt the owner of the car when the job was done before?
Considering the fact that one of the reasons I bought the car from my neighbour was because it had the full service history..

Lenny

hah.. don't believe this, I work in the garage you're on about the lads were talking about this there during the week

gerrycollins

when was the service done? what was the time difference between the service and your purchase of the car they could claim it was done unsolicited in the intervening time their word against your neighbours plus u went at it urself not an independant mechanic would look bad on ur case sorry to say so. worth fighting tho for the little guy!

Also in reference to comsumer law your actual gripe is with your neighbour cause you bought the car off him and it would be up to him to chase the garage for faulty repairs because they did it to him(do u get me)

gerrycollins

Lenny wrote:

hah.. don't believe this, I work in the garage you're on about the lads were talking about this there during the week

just out of argument its best advised u dont say anymore due to the issue at stake otherwise he can clean the garage out = u no job
just advice no bias towards anyone intended

jetsonx

corrcullen wrote:

When refitting the new brake pads, it was impossible to tighten the bolts to the hub as the threads were too badly damaged in the hub, by the previous mechanic in the VW garage.

How are you so sure you did not damage the threads ? You had to take the
bolts off right ...to put on the new break pads ?

skywalker

gerrycollins wrote:

just out of argument its best advised u dont say anymore due to the issue at stake otherwise he can clean the garage out = u no job
just advice no bias towards anyone intended

Hes obviously just **** stirring, theres no way anyone would post that if they really worked in that garage.

gerrycollins

skywalker wrote:

Hes obviously just **** stirring, theres no way anyone would post that if they really worked in that garage.

true but u never know imo some ppl dont engage the brain b4 the mouth operates (not said against anyone just a general observation)