Capitalising on the ignorance of the average driver..

impr0v

My mates brother brought his '00 Avensis into the local Toyota garage for a pre-NCT service and general check up. He left it there that morning and went off to work. About lunch time the dreaded call came:

'Some bad news for you'
'What?'
'Have you had the car long?'
'I have it just under a year'
'Oh <sympathetic sounds>, well I'm afraid the brakes, front and back need replacing, the front shocks need doing and the bushings are all badly worn, whoever sold it to you seems to have pulled a bit of a fast one.'

At this point your ordinary motorist, with the dreaded NCT coming up the day after, presumably says to them, 'oh you'd better do the work on it'. However, my mates brother said:

'Well I actually bought the car from yourselves, less than a year ago, and you gave me a one year warranty'

Their inspection was obviously not thorough enough to spot their own sales sticker on the back window, and at this point he said the guy's tone of voice completely changed...

'Oh, I didn't know that, well sure ring us up in a few days and we'll make you an appointment to get the work done'

So he brings the car to the NCT the day after expecting it to fail. The brakes got a 90% rating, and no comments whatsoever were made about the shocks or any element of the suspension.

His current plan is to book the car in and get the work done as per the guy's original recommendation, and without showing them the NCT results, so that he gets new parts in return for their attempt to 'pull a fast one'.

uberwolf

cvnts. Ha good enough for them. He should write to them and CC the newspapers after he's had it done.

pwd

name and shame!

mike65

Exellent! Never trust a franchise garage. I really think we should know who they are after all we would'nt want to give them our business would we?

Mike.

djeclips

:mad: makes you're blood boil,they've got to be reported for that,no excuses(after all the work is done of course.....for evidence purpouses )

lanno

ask them for the old parts back and then contact Toyota Ireland customer
care dept and report the dealer in question.They wont like there dealer for that

Cucullan

lanno wrote:

ask them for the old parts back and then contact Toyota Ireland customer
care dept and report the dealer in question.They wont like there dealer for that

Good point lanno. Name and shame too

unkel

Fair play to him

Interceptor

Bleedin' typical - my aunt left her 01 Polo to be 30,000mile serviced by a VW garage in Waterford recently and the cnuts changed every rubber bushing, o-ring, seal, belt and filter before presenting her with a bill for over €1300. The frickin' thing barely needed spark plugs.

You have to be sooooooo careful.

'c

D!ve^Bomb!

interceptor wrote:

Bleedin' typical - my aunt left her 01 Polo to be 30,000mile serviced by a VW garage in Waterford recently and the cnuts changed every rubber bushing, o-ring, seal, belt and filter before presenting her with a bill for over €1300. The frickin' thing barely needed spark plugs.

You have to be sooooooo careful.

'c

they can't do that if they don't inform you first.. it's your private property. Did she pay?

Seth Brundle

newband wrote:

they can't do that if they don't inform you first.. it's your private property. Did she pay?

It depends. Many people just ask for a full service and the dealer take that to mean "check everything and replace if we deem necessary". I saw this happen in Liffey Valley Peugeot where a man was charged 2500 IIRC for a service!

dcGT

Great story impr0v, glad to hear the f*ckers were caught out.

DC.

Interceptor

newband wrote:

they can't do that if they don't inform you first.. it's your private property. Did she pay?

She had to pay to get her car back but has undertaken a campaign of irate letter-writing to everybody in VW. And she wants me to find her a car that isn't a VW to replace it as soon as possible, muttering something about never giving another cent to those f3ckers.

'c

impr0v

Re the naming and shaming, as much as I'd like to I don't think it's my place to do so. I am, after all, relaying third hand information and there might possibly be some sort of feasible explanation for what happened, though I seriously doubt it. Either way, I might be on thin legal ice and be implicating boards as well.

My mate's brother is going to attempt to get all new parts put on it since he is covered by their warranty and if that doesn't work out, he's going to report them to Toyota Ireland, and whomever else will listen. It's a fairly selfish action in my view, thought somewhat understandable. If it was me I would be going straight to option B and would make sure never to visit their garage again.

In order to ensure that they don't simply tell him that the work has been done and leave the current (perfectly adequate) parts in place, he is having a friend mark all the relevent parts so that they can be identified afterwards.

FX Meister

I had a similar problem in quick fit a few months ago, went in after failing the NCT to get the exhaust replaced and I was told I needed a new cat converter as it was completely knackered. Which I found quite funny as the NCT report said it was fine. I told them so and and that it wouldn't need replacing. I'm sure they fleece people blind though with these kind of scams.

Seth Brundle

FX - go to uk.rec.cars.maintenance and also uk.rec.cars.misc (using google groups) and do a search on Kwik Fit - you will see how good they are over the water!

FX Meister

Unfortunately that goes for a lot of services in Ireland when you compare them to england.

mike65

FX Meister wrote:

Unfortunately that goes for a lot of services in Ireland when you compare them to england.

I think K was being factitious if these are anything to go by.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/uk.rec.cars.misc/browse_frm/thread/29c39eb16720bb7b/8fad6d6501197134?tvc=1&q=kwik+fit&_done=%2Fgroup%2Fuk.rec.cars.misc%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dkwik+fit%26&_doneTitle=Back+to+Search&scrollSave=&&d#8fad6d6501197134

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/uk.rec.cars.misc/browse_frm/thread/722aa9e863102c3d/ab9b8040d2c1cb8e?tvc=1&q=kwik+fit&_done=%2Fgroup%2Fuk.rec.cars.misc%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dkwik+fit%26&_doneTitle=Back+to+Search&scrollSave=&&d#ab9b8040d2c1cb8e

Mike.

Seth Brundle

I think he was!
I have read stories about how people with citroens were told they needed new shocks, people had pads replaced by KF the day after they had already replaced them, people had...
too many tales to tell!
According to an ITV undercover programme before, these biys work on commission and the more they replace the bigger their pay packet! The prog also showed how individual shops were told to find flaws with peoples cars to increase business (kind of like our NCT!)

unkel

impr0v wrote:

It's a fairly selfish action in my view

Not at all. If it was me I would get all the parts changed (the marking is very clever - must keep that in mind) and then report them to Toyota Ireland anyway

Serves them right, avoid the stealers!

ambro25

Nah - make'em salivate about the prospect of a trade-in for something brand new with a big commission... Indulge yourself with a test drive... Give out all the green lights of the punter ready to be pruned... Then (just as they're bringing the paperwork and have spent the best part of an hour trying to flog you extra paint protector, car mats, extended warranties & what-have-yous & you've said yes to everything and you can actually seeu the € in the sales guy's eyes), just walk out, don't say a thing, get in your car, drive off...

It's an hour of your time but boy, the satisfaction of knowing the guy's ulcer must have popped in a grand way with frustration!

Alternatively (don't try this at home or in Ireland, for that matter), do it my style and 'accidentally' reverse the test-driven car through one of their showroom windows. (I had a claim of negligence that may have endangered my life to dangle over them f*ckers, so I got away with it ).

RainyDay

Check the terms & conditions of the warrenty closely - it is unlikely to cover wear & tear items like brake pads.

Dades

Last year before the NCT I got a pre-test service from Advanced Pitstop. Of course they did loads of stuff including putting on a new exhaust.

The car failed due to frayed cable or something. When I brought the car back AP claimed they could fix it. When I said they had checked the car a week before and missed it, they said it wasn't part of the pre-NCT check. This is despite the fact that they could fix it, and it's obviously part of the test.

The funniest thing was when I was driving out, one of their crew stopped me and told me I should get my exhaust looked at as it sounded dodgy. He didn't have much to say when I told him they had fitted the exhaust a week earlier.

Go figure.