Just been down to the main dealer...

marksmith · Post by **marksmith** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:26 pm

...to pick up an oil filter. Got there just before they were closing, and as I came out from the parts desk, four employees came out from the workshop and drove four cars from the car park into the workshop for the night.

They wheel-span two of them.

This is the main Rover dealer, and this is how they look after their customers' cars. (They weren't their own courtesy cars, one had a private plate for example.)

They don't half feck me off!

-Mark

DanB · Post by **DanB** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:54 pm

That's why I service my own car.
I don't trust anyone to look after it.

will_c · Post by **will_c** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:23 pm

At my old rover dealer i know for a fact that they employed a lad that was 15 years old but failed to ask his date of birth. This lad told them that he was 18 and had a driving license and they just asumed he was telling the truth!!! as you can imagen they let him take out all the customers cars!!

fluke · Post by **fluke** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:53 pm

I worked for Ford main dealers for years.
And you would not believe what goes on people.

mook · Post by **mook** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 5:12 pm

Wouldn't take any motor to a main dealer. Luckily there's a decent family run place up the road that are into motorsport (run a mk2 Escort rally car) and they've done my servicing and some of the mods for the last five years. Not the cheapest, but peace of mind is worth the extra.

george_chick · Post by **george_chick** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 5:32 pm

Buy some spanners, substantially cheaper than any garage.
Obviously depends on the age of your car, if stamps in the book are worth anything.

Same here Dave, used to work for Frauds.
Take em out the back of the workshop, handbrake on da di da di, lots of acrid smoke one stuffed clutch, pump up the bonus.
My mate who works at a street corner operation is a bodgin n dodgin lunatic, problem is his guvnor is very picky so he has to behave now.

marksmith · Post by **marksmith** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:16 pm

fluke wrote:I worked for Ford main dealers for years.
And you would not believe what goes on people.

Be interested to hear...

Probably end up in a fit of rage, but still be interested to hear.

It's pretty obvious garages rip people off left, right and centre. Why do they never get caught? They seem to be imprevious to prosecution!

-Mark

C2K · Post by **C2K** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:20 pm

When i had to take mine into the bodyshop to claim off someone, this spotty little 17 year old wheelspun a brand new Civic Type R out of the bodyshop, lapped the car park and went back in. I'm sure the owner would love to know about that.

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:36 pm

I always make sure i note the miles on mine whenever i aint with it. Also a device which would limit revs to 3k rpm or something would be great when going to garages. Most i have been to seem to drive customers cars like racing cars.

xr4x4 · Post by **xr4x4** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:00 am

just thinking of the service book stamp thing...how much would a stamp be to buy?

i do all my own servicing and quite a few other peoples and i think i do it to a very high standard.

change oil, filter, air filter, plugs, leads, pollen filter, check levels etc. grease hinges, check and clean/dust off brakes, adjust if ness, give the whole car a good check over,,,

one 1/2 service, stamp the book, date etc...

Done.

fluke · Post by **fluke** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 8:00 am

I'll give you one example.
This is in the early 90's.
Guy brings in his Granada battery is going flat over a couple of days.
Gets towed in and put in workshop,a spotty 17 year old gets out the boost jumper to start the car.
You aint meant to boost charge em with the battery still connected.
Connects up the cables turns it on and walks away, I am watching this from my stable door (Partsman at the time).

Smoke starts bellowing out of the car as the abs box fries it's self to a crisp.
To cut a long story short the customer was charged for a new abs unit (Over Â£600 with labour) and the workshop stumped up for a new battery.

Now who can say if that happened to you, you would be any the wiser ??????

As for service history don't even bother that was another joke.
All the fitters just used to go in to service reception and stamp there own book.
How many of you who get a reasonable service history get the receipts with them.

Fitters changing your clutch finding out it's a bolt on the release arm and keeping the clutch for themselves (This could include brakes shox etc etc)

Just a few of the many many stories I could tell.

marksmith · Post by **marksmith** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 8:21 am

fluke wrote:Fitters changing your clutch finding out it's a bolt on the release arm and keeping the clutch for themselves

Interesting. I took my car to Rover with a snapped release arm and they diagnosed it as the clutch caliper. Even when they realised it was the release arm (obviously before removin the gearbox) they proceeded to remove the gearbox and fit a new clutch - and obviously charge me for it.

I've picked garages up on these things before - when it's been obvious I've been had - and they just deny it. One guy even told me that if this goes to court, whose technical explanation are they going to believe - mine, as the owner of a car, or his, as the owner of a garage? They know they can get away with this stuff.

I do whatever I can myself now, but not everyone is able to. It infuriates me to think how corrupt the industry is.

-Mark

fluke · Post by **fluke** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 8:30 am

It happens everywhere.
You can never be sure if you get what you pay for.
I will not let anyone else work on anything on my cars (Unless i'm there with them at the time).
I've been ripped off recently with some gearbox bearings (NO ONE ON HERE),from a gearbox reconditioner (Secondhand Bearings) should of realised by the price

But it happens to us all :evil:

Best policy is trust no one.
I know that does not help but the best thing to do is get recommendation from others.

marksmith · Post by **marksmith** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:26 am

Gary wrote:I always make sure i note the miles on mine whenever i aint with it. Also a device which would limit revs to 3k rpm or something would be great when going to garages.

I have a device for that exact purpose: Omex Rev Limiter, hidden somewhere (not going to say where ;-)

) out of sight, but easy enough to get to to set/unset. When the car goes in, it's set to limit at 2.5k RPM, which is more than enough for driving it around the workshop.

Of course for some jobs it's quite reasonable for them to road test the car - and if they don't feel they can do it without exceeding 2.5k RPM, I have to go and take the limiter off.

Certainly gives me peace of mind on that front - at least one less thing to have to worry about.

-Mark

Post by **MarkCoupe** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:29 am

My local dealers are pretty good, they not very young and appreciate the time and effort put into my car.As for stamping, i do want to keep my full service history going , but they pretty much just check her over then stamp it as they know its always serviced and healthy.They also let me in the workshop to help or just keep an eye on my car.

george_chick · Post by **george_chick** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:38 pm

xr4x4 wrote:just thinking of the service book stamp thing...how much would a stamp be to buy?

i do all my own servicing and quite a few other peoples and i think i do it to a very high standard.

change oil, filter, air filter, plugs, leads, pollen filter, check levels etc. grease hinges, check and clean/dust off brakes, adjust if ness, give the whole car a good check over,,,

one 1/2 service, stamp the book, date etc...

Done.

Should have got round the liquidation auctions when dealers were getting the boot left, right and centre, could have picked up the stamps for a now non-existent dealership.

Get your own made http://www.rubberstampsdirect.co.uk/, custom stamps link.
Make up a name, address etc, with a nice company motto at the bottom.
"If you need to ask you can't afford us"
"It's not a fault, its a hidden feature"

DanB · Post by **DanB** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:20 pm

george_chick wrote:
xr4x4 wrote:just thinking of the service book stamp thing...how much would a stamp be to buy?

i do all my own servicing and quite a few other peoples and i think i do it to a very high standard.

change oil, filter, air filter, plugs, leads, pollen filter, check levels etc. grease hinges, check and clean/dust off brakes, adjust if ness, give the whole car a good check over,,,

one 1/2 service, stamp the book, date etc...

Done.

Funny you should say that *ahem*
My service book is stamped up to date!!

fluke · Post by **fluke** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:23 pm

DanB wrote:
xr4x4 wrote:just thinking of the service book stamp thing...how much would a stamp be to buy?

i do all my own servicing and quite a few other peoples and i think i do it to a very high standard.

change oil, filter, air filter, plugs, leads, pollen filter, check levels etc. grease hinges, check and clean/dust off brakes, adjust if ness, give the whole car a good check over,,,

one 1/2 service, stamp the book, date etc...

Done.

Funny you should say that *ahem*
My service book is stamped up to date!!

Just wait till you try and sell your car on here

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:27 pm

fluke wrote:Just wait till you try and sell your car on here

I was just thinking that ...

Gun, foot, etc ...