Another unfortunate story of main dealer rip-off attempts.... My colleague at work has a S reg 1.0 CL Polo with full VW service history, he has always used the local VW dealer here in the west (obviously cannot name it). He rang up on last Monday to book the car in for a service, they said they can do it Tuesday (i.e. the day after - not a good sign of a busy dealer!). During the afternoon they rang him to say:
1 Exhaust blowing
2 Front discs and pads need replacing within 1000 miles
3 Both rear wheel cylinders leaking and have contaminated the rear shoes, needs 2 wheel cylinders and new shoes
Estimate for the job (including the service) £800.
Two of us in the office volunteered to do the work for him, so he paid the £150 service, got the exhaust mid and rear sections replaced for £100 at a a local specialist as opposed to £200 at the dealer, then ordered front dics/pads, rear cylinders and shoes from Euro Car Parts (cost £90). On Thursday evening we jacked the car up, took all the wheels off to do the work and....
1 Front discs measured with a micrometer had 1 mm of wear left before minimum, slight scoring but I would say good for 5 to 10,000 miles. Pads almost new.
2 Rear brakes - NO sign of any leaks from the cylinders, not even the slightest drip, shoes fine with 1.5mm left before minimum.
So no work was done by us on the brakes, we put the wheels back on and kicked the tyres. The car was due for MOT the next day and in the absence of any local garage having a Friday MOT slot available he took it back to the same VW dealer who surprise surprise could fit it in, guess what, it passed fine.
It is a shame that obviously short of work, the dealer to meet its targets or whatever conjured up several hundred pounds of unnecessary work, they have now lost a loyal customer (who will now use a local specialist) and done their reputation no good after the we tell as many people as we can what happened.
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Ian, You're telling us - but have you told the dealer, or asked for their comments. Did you give them opportunity to explain?
Confussed receptionist/mixed up paperwork/wrong worksheet etc, etc, excuses, maybee, but give them a CHANCE to respond!
VB
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VB
My colleague is on the case and will talk to the service reception/manager to see what they say, will update with any new info...
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I had a similar experience involving a small garage in Leicester. I suppose in hindsite I did set myself up a little.
I was about to try and sell my Renault 11 GTL - without doubt the best and most cost effective car I ever owned. However, it only had two months MOT remaining and needed a minor repair to the driver's door stay.
I popped into this garage with "For Sale" signs in the windows and asked the guy to quote for this small job on the door stay. He was happy to do it for a fiver, which seemed reasonable. I then saw that he did MOTs for the going rate of £25 and against all my instincts, sharpened by the fact he had NO vehicles in his workshop, I asked him to put it through and went for a coffee.
When I got back I was confronted with the well rehersed speech about how all the brake pipes needed replacing, front number plate was cracked (away from the digets) etc etc. I thought that that was funny as I have never had any problems with any of the steel pipes. The cost to me would have been over £150 - A lot on a car I was just about to sell for £795.
I contacted the MOT inspectorate in Town and questioned the validity.
Headlight poor - OK there was an issue with corrosion on the reflector so agreed on this.
Front number plate. The crack was not across a character and therefore should not have been an issue (1993 rules here). Indeed the plate was still complete, ie no corners missing. It was still perfectly legible. However, as I had a replacement plate (experimenting with a plate making kit for an employer) and I felt a new plate would sell the car more easily, I decided not to fuss about this.
Brake pipes corroded to excess. When I asked for clarification on this over the phone he was hazy to put it politely. I asked him what he meant by corroded to excess. He simply repied "well they're really bad" however he still couldn't remember which pipes were affected. The MOT inspectorate stated that some corrosion was inevitable and unless serious pitting was present, they should be OK. These were definitely not pitted.
I decided to replace all the brakepipes myself and refilled and bled the entire system.
I then tested the brakes on the road with a friend who had experience of rebuilding these cars. We both agreed they were OK.
I persuaded the garage clown to accept a couple of quid for an interim brake check. He failed the rear brakes, apparently by a large margin.
Took car back and stripped down and rebuilt the rear assemblies and roughed up the new shoes and got a free ATS brake test on the way back. All brakes passed with flying colours.
However the garage clown still only rekoned they scraped through.
A begrugingly signed MOT cert was awaiting me on my return.
Another call to the MOT inpectorate to report back
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Is it forbidden to name dealers because I am going to get my wrist slapped by HJ if so?!
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=16...1
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Is it forbidden to name dealers because I am going to get my wrist slapped by HJ if so?! www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=16...1
It's forbidden if your remarks are defamatory, but praise is OK. HJ can't get sued for hosting positive comments.
You may want to look at this as well:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/directories/index.htm
The good garages link may be of interest.
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The missus was told her rear axle bushes needed replacing at a cost of circa £250 on Renault Clio. After second and third opinions, this was absolute rubbish. And from a main Renault dealer.
There are so many of them out there able and willing to invent work as a licence to print money, you just can't afford to trust any of them.
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