Am I going a bit OTT.
My Leon for the last 3 years has been serviced by my local dealership. That has been six services and a turbo replacement. I serviced the car myself on Saturday last, and could not believe the number of minor items which had been IMO damaged by them. There were a couple of multi-plugs which had been damaged so they no-longer click into place, they are now easily removable without any form of resistance. The boot lining panel which was removed to repair the notorious leaking rear washer jet problem, has been cracked in three locations due to poor design and excessive use of force to remove or replace it.
The cosmetic / sound damping engine cover has which is held in place by three mounting bolts which screw into a plastic / rubber retaining bolt, two of these have been damaged due to overtightening, the plastic covers which hide the bolt heads from view have been removed and not replaced.
Am I making a fuss about nothing?? I cant help but think that if they are this careless and inattentive to such minor detail, do they possess the engineering skill required to carry out a more major engine repair? In my view they broke the multi-plug connectors they should replace them with new, same with the tailgate lining panel and the other aforementioned items!
Leon
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I don't think so, think you need to find a new garage
Taking pride in doing a good job for a fair price seems to have gone out the window now. What we have imo is a culture of cutting corners, bodging and generally doing the bare minimum of work necessary to prevent the customer complaining.
Garages rely on the get in and drive only type owners so they can get away with sloppy work. They then hate being rumbled by anyone who has any mechanical knowledge because it's not so easy for them to be fobbed of. Whats needed is main dealers staffed by properly trained technicians instead of kids straight out of school
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When my old company motor was serviced by our local Ford dealership I got so fed up with bodged servicing that I used to mark components before the service, they never ever checked the wheelnuts for tightness for example as the trims were zippied on, and on several occasions the oil and filter where not even changed, when challenged they just did the job, no apology. In my opinion they are a waste of time, if you have the skills do it yourself
Russ
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Yes, I agree, they're *all rubbish.
They replace suspension parts and don't have the weight on the car when they tighten them up, so they under huge tension and fail again, they break clips and don't replace them, they leave brackets and clips off around the engine such as aircon pipe brackets, fuel pipe clips and supports etc.. off alltogether. They overfill fluidsMy Dad's colleague was bored one sunday and in his garage, so he marked his oil filter and spark plugs, it was an Audi going in for service the next day, when he got it back they hadn't replaced them like they were supposed to and charged him, he went beserk, and they just did it, but no big investigation.
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yeah i see this all the time i work at a dealer(although im not a mech) and i see the apprentices round off fixings,break things ,and so on
i try my hardest to all my jobs myself...even if you do break a little something at least you know about it and have the option to fix/replace it instead of driving around without knowing
i think its disgusting that 16-17 yr old lads are doing the service repairs on cars that customer are getting charged £50 for.....its deleted if anyone cares
{No naming/shaming, thank you. DD}
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Years back during my brief career in the motor trade I worked at an entirely capable, genuine and conscientious owner-operated garage in Dorset.
In came a Stag one morning for major sevice complete with afore-mentioned nail varnish markers on plugs, distributor cap, oil filter,and so-on. I borrowed a similar colour from SWMBO at lunchtime so the car could be handed back'as found'.
Major puffed up wobbly ensued from owner who then became majorly embarrassed/victimised on being presented with old components each with half a red nail varnish mark.
You really can't win them all.
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Most of us have probably experienced this kind of corner-cutting and carelessness. But one factor which may contribute is the ludicrous price charged for replacement plastic studs and similar things which are easily broken during dismantling.
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At least post the dealers details on cupra.net so other SEAT owners can avoid it.
I hate this kind of treatment at any garage. When I bought my Ford Direct Mondeo both the salesmen and I noted that the rear brake light was out. When I got the car home a week later and checked it over they had replaced the brake bulb alright but all three plastic clips holding the cluster shroud were missing. I went back and asked for some replacements. They simply took some of another car on the lot. It was as if I was being fussy wanting them in the first place.
The main culprits IMO are bodyshops. They usually do a good job with a spraycan but they cannot seem to be able to put your car back together properly afterwards. My Mondeo went into the the local Ford bodyshop with "Factory trained technicians" to have the common rusty door bottom problem rectified. It came back with a broken trim clip on the remote mirror control and the front grille wasn't clipped back on properly - a job my four year old son could have done. Amazing really.
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Dont lay all the blame on the poor mechanic/body shop bloke. A lot of the time plastic "snap on" bits are not supposed to be "snap off"
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Fair enough but why don't they ever replace them? Because
a) they cannot be bothered
b) they're not allowed to
It's not good enough for a main dealer to treat your car in this way. An independent and you might expect it as they don't have the necessary clips in stock
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On a polar opposite, i noticed after my car was last serviced that minor damage that had been caused by myself and my passengers had been rectified without me mentioning it to the dealership!!
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I've just done a major service on my bike for the first time. At all other times it was done by the dealer.
I found the bracket that holds the rear tang of the front seat laying losse directly below the front seat. I found a cable jammed into the rear air cleaner houseing. Thankfully no chaffing to the cabel.
I guess alternatives are to do everything yourself but then you have no service history or get it done by a good independent. Both my Merc and my wifes Range Rover are serviced at an indpendent and both garages do an excellent job. Both cars retain a service history although I suspect both would be worth more money if they had dealer service histories. Seems daft when a specialist independent service history will mean the car has been much better treated than at a main dealer.
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Makes one wonder what a 'service history' is really worth if all it records is treatment like this. During a warranty of course a series of official stamps is important. After that, may as well fill it in by hand - at least it will show what the milages were.
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I've never done it, but someone should. IE, mark the componets that should be checked, etc under the service you pay for, including tyre pressures, etc (as one member mentioned earlier0 and then report to the local Trading Standards. Because we all maon but do not officially complain is the reason the main dealers and the rest get away with it.
In the main dealers favour - they may appear to cost more initially, but normally work out cheaper as they normally are more aware of common faults and will not try and beat you up if you are not happy with the service.
MM
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