What is the worst service you have had from a garage?

AliEnRIK, I think this is the clear winner.

I only took mine in for an MOT:

JohnDuncan:

I only took mine in for an MOT:

A couple of years ago I had spent a long time looking for a specific model of almost new second hand Lexus, and eventually found almost exactly what I wanted on the website of the Lexus main dealer in Newcastle. It came with all sorts of Lexus warranties about condition etc but nevertheless I made all the usual enquiries (by email in order to provide a written record of the assurances I had been given).  Specifically, I asked if the car had ever been involved in a collision which needed a repair and was assured by return that it had not. During this part of the email conversation I was abroad on business, but based on these warranties and assurances agreed to purchase the car.

I arranged for the car to be delivered to my home in Warwickshire and on delivery noted that it was quite dirty inside, with several scuffs to the upholstery - more than would normally be justified in a car only one year old. Anyway I didn't have a chance to drive the car any distance until two days later but when I did and shortly after setting out from home a master engine / gearbox warning light came on. We called the helpline number provided and, as the nearest Lexus main dealer was only a short distance away, we slowly drove the car to them and arranged for a lift home.

We were advised a couple of days later that the entire gearbox and transmission needed replacing - which would all be done under warranty - but also advised to have the car independently inspected by an RAC engineer. This we did and the report made damning reading, especially the 'off the record' verbal report that the inspection engineer gave me. Bottom line is that the car had been involved in a heavy front end shunt, and then very poorly repaired, including use of some non genuine Lexus parts. I was also advised to have the car checked on a jig for alignment, etc etc.

Now this is the interesting bit - I contacted Lexus UK but they were disinterested, saying that my contract was with the garage. I then contacted Newcastle 'Trading Standards' and gave them all the evidence I had, including copies of all the emails and the RAC inspection engineers report. They agreed with me that this was appalling but, because I was "not in the UK when I opened the email stating that the car had never been in an accident" then the legislation did not apply and they could not prosecute. All they could do was go to the garage and 'feel the collar' of the Dealer Principal, which they told me they did.

I used a lawyer and eventually got a full refund, less almost £1000 of fees for the inspection engineer and lawyers. I tried to get this back as well but the garage rebuffed this strongly and told me that I would need to take them to court for this, which my lawyer advised against.

The ray of sunshine in all this is that during the period when the rogue car was having the gearbox replaced at my local Lexus main dealer the sales guy called me and said "you're never going to believe this, but the exact car that you wanted was traded in just a few hours ago - are you interested ?" I went to see it and it was indeed EXACTLY what I wanted, was only one year old and still looked and smelt new. We shook hands on a deal there and then.

Happy ending, but I still have a very sour taste about what is advertised corporately by this brand and what their dealers are prepared to try and get away with - indeed if I had been in the UK when I opened the email it would have gone through court, and I would have made sure it had all the appropriate publicity.

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Caveat emptor !  

hammill:

AliEnRIK, I think this is the clear winner.

Its certainly a toss up between AliEnRIK and bob.g!  

How is anyone stupid enough to think someone is, er, stupid enough, to not notice a diesel engine in a 205 GTi?  

a friend of mine has a 02 renault scenic , its an auto thats mainly used by his wife on the school run etc , anyway it wont drive , and it looks like its the gearbox ..

so my friend got it towed into the local renault main dealer , he asked for a price for repair , no problem he was told , we will ring you with a price later today , ok job done ..

but they didnt ring , he rang them the next day , and they said they would defo have a price later that day and would defo ring him . but they didnt ring ..

he rang them the following day and said , look i just want a price , surely by now you have one ? whats the delay ? i need to know where i stand etc , they again promised him it was all in hand , a price was being sorted and he would absolutely defo get a phone call that day within the hour ..

so after all that he gets a phone call within the hour like he was promised , they said they would need to open up the gearbox to see whats wrong with it , and that it would cost e79 per hour plus vat , and would take 5 hours  , thats around e500 just to get a price , it took them 3 days to tell him this extortionate nonsense ? what a joke , they said it could cost a further e2000 to repair , yet they didnt even know what was wrong with it , gangsters ...

Ford dealerships are pretty bad.

I used to take my Mondeo to 'Laidlaws' the Ford main dealer in Bexley Village. They were terrible, couldn't diagnose faults, parts supply was awful, but they were local and I wanted the FFSH so I stuck with them.

I bought my Maverick from there in '05 and there sales team was much better than their service team. I had a row over the phone with the service reception as they were trying to charge for a full service in '07, The Maverick requires a full service every 3 years (New in '02, full service just before I bought it in '05, so next full service due in '0. The guy wouldn't back down, so I told him I was on my way down to sort it out. When I arrived he told me I was right and that the full service wasn't due until the following year (which I'd stated all along)..... Idiots.

They shut down a couple of years ago (hoo-bleeding-ray). I now take my Maverick to Ford in Gravesend/Northfleet. Much better service, although they didn't have any wipers in stock when it went in last year, and they wanted to charge me £300 to fit a leaky sump gasket. I turned it down and glad I did, as I've been under the car and can't see any leak whatsoever and the condition of my drive backs this up. No spots of any fluids anywhere. But the rest of the service was faultless.

I've had Fords for 14 years, but the Ford Kuga is too small and too expensive. I think next time I'm getting a Skoda Yeti or the new Kia Sportage First Edition looks nice.

Big Chris:

Ford dealerships are pretty bad.

Indeed they are, my local dealership service department has a pretty bad reputation.  A friend of a friend used to be a mechanic there, and would tell some alarming stories.  The worst one about when some idiot didnt secure a car properly on a ramp, and it fell off from headheight.

Another friend had a Focus RS which he took in to have some work done, the usual "you need new, this, this, this, this".  He'd declined to tell them that he normally takes his car to an RS specialist and much of the work he alledgedly needed doing had already been done by them.  Oh, and they also tried to charge him £50 per new spark plug.  It didnt end well.  He got a bit upset and refused to leave the dealership.  They called the police.  Police came, took his side, dealership backed down.  He never went there again and now gets a little irate when he tells the story (whilst the rest of us laugh). 

Thats the problem with automatics when they go ,  You need to take it out to identify whats wrong  and worst case scenario is new box costing lots.   I was quoted 800 min  and  £1600 max when my auto started having problems reversing.   Why they did not just say that at the beining when advised it looked like a gearbox prob.