Dodgy Dealer taking the piss?

Hi all,

A woman at work took her 3 year old Punto in for it's MOT yesterday to a
well known dealer. It passed the MOT with no problem, then she was told it
needed £720 of work to "make it safe". Now understandably she was pretty
shocked to hear this so I told her to ring them, tell them her ex-mechanic
boyfriend was going to call and discuss it with them first. I tried to call
on her behalf 3 times, the guy was always busy, then miraculously, he called
her and said "it was too late to do the work now and we are bringing your
car back"...

That sounds like a serious piss take to me...

The dealership included an estimate of what "needs" doing.

Front discs and pads - £298 (I nearly shat when I saw that)
Rocker cover gasket - £62 (??? It's a 1.2 8V, the part is £2 online!)
Emissions service - £29 (sounds like a bottle of injector cleaner and a
caning)
Two front tyres - £178 (!! for what tyres?!! ) obviously not that bad as
they passed the MOT at a garage they use!!!

and a couple of sundry items that I can't remember.

Car has done 17K in 3 years, and is treated like a baby. I've had a look
myself, the brake pads are fine and the discs are not scored or lipped, even
though they stated so on the estimate.

Anyone else agree they are taking the piss? Especially when my tame
independent mechanic reckoned he could do the lot for about £75 + vat

Mike P

"Mike P" <privacy (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote

Hi all,

A woman at work took her 3 year old Punto in for it's MOT yesterday to a
well known dealer. It passed the MOT with no problem, then she was told it
needed £720 of work to "make it safe". Now understandably she was pretty
shocked to hear this so I told her to ring them, tell them her ex-mechanic
boyfriend was going to call and discuss it with them first. I tried to
call on her behalf 3 times, the guy was always busy, then miraculously, he
called her and said "it was too late to do the work now and we are
bringing your car back"...

That sounds like a serious piss take to me...

The dealership included an estimate of what "needs" doing.

Front discs and pads - £298 (I nearly shat when I saw that)
Rocker cover gasket - £62 (??? It's a 1.2 8V, the part is £2 online!)
Emissions service - £29 (sounds like a bottle of injector cleaner and a
caning)
Two front tyres - £178 (!! for what tyres?!! ) obviously not that bad as
they passed the MOT at a garage they use!!!

and a couple of sundry items that I can't remember.

Car has done 17K in 3 years, and is treated like a baby. I've had a look
myself, the brake pads are fine and the discs are not scored or lipped,
even though they stated so on the estimate.

Anyone else agree they are taking the piss? Especially when my tame
independent mechanic reckoned he could do the lot for about £75 + vat

Mike P

sounds as though he used to work for kwikfit.

Mike P wrote:

Hi all,

A woman at work took her 3 year old Punto in for it's MOT yesterday
to a well known dealer. It passed the MOT with no problem, then she
was told it needed £720 of work to "make it safe". Now understandably
she was pretty shocked to hear this so I told her to ring them, tell
them her ex-mechanic boyfriend was going to call and discuss it with
them first. I tried to call on her behalf 3 times, the guy was always
busy, then miraculously, he called her and said "it was too late to
do the work now and we are bringing your car back"...

That sounds like a serious piss take to me...

The dealership included an estimate of what "needs" doing.

On paper? I'd get it printed in the local paper and complain like fuck to
whoever would be interested/listen!

Cheeky scrotes.

Si

That sounds like a serious piss take to me...

The dealership included an estimate of what "needs" doing.

Front discs and pads - £298 (I nearly shat when I saw that)
Rocker cover gasket - £62 (??? It's a 1.2 8V, the part is £2 online!)
Emissions service - £29 (sounds like a bottle of injector cleaner and a
caning)
Two front tyres - £178 (!! for what tyres?!! ) obviously not that bad as
they passed the MOT at a garage they use!!!

Take the "estimate" to your local trading standards and ask them if they

want to view your car with a view to an investigation into them. This is the
only way that they will learn. Please, please tell trading standards, you
were lucky that you were clued up, imagine how many people just say yes when
challenged with more work

Steve

"Steve" <no (AT) way (DOT) com> wrote

That sounds like a serious piss take to me...

The dealership included an estimate of what "needs" doing.

Front discs and pads - £298 (I nearly shat when I saw that)
Rocker cover gasket - £62 (??? It's a 1.2 8V, the part is £2 online!)
Emissions service - £29 (sounds like a bottle of injector cleaner and a
caning)
Two front tyres - £178 (!! for what tyres?!! ) obviously not that bad as
they passed the MOT at a garage they use!!!

Take the "estimate" to your local trading standards and ask them if they
want to view your car with a view to an investigation into them. This is
the only way that they will learn. Please, please tell trading standards,
you were lucky that you were clued up, imagine how many people just say
yes when challenged with more work

Steve

You will soon find Trading Standards and VOSA are uninterested and powerless

to deal with complaints. I found trading Standards simply couldn't be arsed
so the Police dealt with my complaint about Lookers/Masterfit. I was given
an MOT certificate for a car that could not have passed the MOT due to
broken parts. I was also charged for work that was never done and for parts
that were never changed. I give the director of MasterFit a chance to
rectify the problem before taking it further and although he acknowledged I
had been ripped off and presented with an unroadworthy car - he refused to
do anything about it. He just referred me back to the local manager who
lied and said the car was perfectly safe. I can't wait to see what will
happen!
It took a lot of effort to track down the Managing Director of Masterfit as
Lookers refused to give me the details and trying to get them from Vauxhall
was a waste of time.

I would never use Masterfit at my local Lookers garage again. Up until that
bad experience I always used to take my cars there, now I use an independant
garage that uses genuine Vauxhall parts and charges a lot less. I don't get
some stuck up receptionist trying to sell Winter care packages or engine
flushes !

It's always best to have an idea about cars. In the fast change type
garages women are an easy target so they will be ripped off.

Disgracefull. Name and shame the garage so other people don't fall fowl of
such practice.

In article <56anabF275867U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Mike P says...

Anyone else agree they are taking the piss? Especially when my tame
independent mechanic reckoned he could do the lot for about £75 + vat

Sounds like the same tricks various places have tried with my missus.

--
Conor

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright
until you hear them speak.........

Conor wrote:

In article <56anabF275867U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Mike P says...

Anyone else agree they are taking the piss? Especially when my tame
independent mechanic reckoned he could do the lot for about £75 + vat

Sounds like the same tricks various places have tried with my missus.

Trading Standards ?

FIAT HQ ?

On Mar 21, 3:34 pm, Conor <conor.tur... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

In article <56anabF27586... (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Mike P says...

Anyone else agree they are taking the piss? Especially when my tame
independent mechanic reckoned he could do the lot for about £75 + vat

Sounds like the same tricks various places have tried with my missus.

Seems to be the way but I'm really not sure anyone could do *all* that
stuff for 75+vat and make it worthwhile.

If they state that work needs doing when it doesn't (like the discs)
isn't that attempted fraud?

Best thing is to never give them any work without agreeing it yourself
and the hard part making sure the girlfriend doesn't agree without
your opinion.

You could maybe ask for you MoT money back. I'm not sure you'd get
much in compensation.

"adder1969" <adder1969 (AT) yahoo (DOT) co.uk> wrote

On Mar 21, 3:34 pm, Conor <conor.tur... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

In article <56anabF27586... (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Mike P says...

Anyone else agree they are taking the piss? Especially when my tame
independent mechanic reckoned he could do the lot for about £75 + vat

Sounds like the same tricks various places have tried with my missus.

Seems to be the way but I'm really not sure anyone could do *all* that
stuff for 75+vat and make it worthwhile.

He reckoned £15 each for the discs, £18 for a set of pads and less than an
hour to fit them.

The FIAT garage is in a Yorkshire city. I'll write to them and send a copy
to TS and FIAT HQ and see what they have to say. If they tell me to piss
off, I'll tell you who it is ;-)

Thanks for all the replies

Mike P