Legal Advice (rip off garage)

[[KJA]]

Sorry this is a long thread:

Hello, I'm new, I’ve had my MR2 for almost 2 years now, it’s been fairly reliable, for the 1st year I was using it every day to commute to work, 100miles round trip, but for the last year I haven’t used it as much.

On new years day I was traveling home after spending x mas in Brighton with my family, half way home and my cam belt snapped

After getting towed back to my parents home I went through the yellow pages to look for a local garage that can collect my car and do the work needed to get me back on the road and back home so I can start work on the 5th, I won't name the garage just yet. Anyway, they collected my car, had it for 2 days and phoned me to say it had been done.

On the service sheet I was charged an extra £70 for the intercooler to be removed as they couldn’t do the work with it in place (allegedly)

When I collected my car they said one of the intercooler hoses had a split in it, and it would be a bit lumpy and run rich, I managed to get my car home.

My tax and mot had run out on the 3rd Jan so my car sat on my drive until the 5th march when I decided to use it to go back to Brighton to see my mum and friends as it was my 21st on Sunday.

I replaced the IC-TB hose that was split and set off, the car didn’t drive as it should, it was boosting fine but no way near as much power as normal so I pulled over, called a mate who knows more about me, he said take it easy and it’ll be fine, probably a tooth out on the cam timing.

I set off again, about half way home, going up a hill, probably on 5psi boost and the bloody thing just cut out

Called the RAC, low loader come out and took me down to Brighton, we fitted the car into a local garage to see what was wrong.

Yesterday I received a call from the garage, apparently my timing was so far out my car should never have started in the 1st place. The tension in the belt was good, there was a new pulley so it couldn’t have jumped a few teeth while I was driving.

To cut a very long thread short, where do I stand? I paid £375 for the cam belt to be done 1st time around, yeah the fitted new belt but didn’t do the timing! I'm looking at a £440 repair bill to get my car re done

Thank you if you have read this far, and big thank you if you reply.

[blueorb]

I would get in touch with your local citizens advice bureau. They will point you in the right direction.

Why have you left it so long?
Why did you not return the car straight away if it wasnt right?

It may be difficult to resolve anything now, as you should have give the first garage the chance to put their work right.

[[KJA]]

I didnt drive the car for 2 months as it had no tax or mot. And as the IC/TB pipe was split I didnt notice it wasnt right.
Thinking about it I think they split the hose so I didnt notice.

I wouldn't trust garage No1 to touch my car again. All I'm saying now is its an Importers in Lancing, Wast Sussex who cocked up the work 1st time.

[AndyMR2NI]

Firstly mate, bad luck.
Secondly, the law is on your side so stand up for yourself. Get an estimate of the repair work needed and go back to these cowboys and explain what's happened and what they are going to do about it. (Personally i'd insist on getting a refund as they don't sound like they don't know what they are doing).
If they dig thier heels in, the gloves have to come off. Mention the 'Sale & Supply of Goods Act' and how you'll report them to your local Trading Standards and get advice for the Citizen's Advice Bureau. That should put the S**T up them!
Your last resort is a solicitor and the small claims court and it's not the ideal route, believe me, but if that's what u have to do to get a result, then that's what you have to do. Good luck mate!

[Kelvin]

CAB is the way to go.

As an aside, do you fancy editing your post title to take the word 'rogue' out, just incase someone gets the wrong idea about the very good people at Rogue Systems?

Kelvin

[[KJA]]

Thanks Andy, I'll E-mail garage No1 now as that way if they reply I will have written proof ect.

Also, anyone on here who has had a cambelt snap on them, can you post your full name and e-mail address please as I can prove to the garage that the 3S GTE is a 'safe' engine, there might be more damage donw due to the poor timing, head gasket, cracked head ect.

Cheers

[[KJA]]

CAB is the way to go.

As an aside, do you fancy editing your post title to take the word 'rogue' out, just incase someone gets the wrong idea about the very good people at Rogue Systems?

Kelvin

forgot about that...

Do you live in Lewes, East Sussex? If so I went to school there

[Kelvin]

born and bred, now live in Portslade (can't afford Lewes). I'll PM you with a good garage I use thats fairly local.

Kelvin

[[KJA]]

Cheers mate, I use to live in Landport for about 9 years so know the area well

[Kelvin]

LOL born in Churchill Road!

getting a bit off topic here!

[[KJA]]

I have family on that road, you might know them... I lived on landport road.

anyway...

I think I have as much as I need really, I'm going to e-mail garage No1, explaing what has happened and that I can get trading standards on there case like CAB advised me to do ect.

P.S my timing was out 3 teeth on inlet and 4 teeth out on exhaust cam!

[[KJA]]

This is the e-mail I sent to the garage:

I took my MR2 (J660MHC) to your workshops on 03/01/05 for a replacement cam belt after it snapped on New Year's Day. When I collected my car, the intercooler hose was split, so I was unable to boost my car and test it. By the time I got my car back following the repairs, the MOT and tax had expired so I was unable to properly test it on the road.
I’ve now got it back on the road. The first time I drove it, I broke down and I had to get towed home which cost me £170. It is now at a garage in Brighton where, upon examination, the mechanic discovered that the inlet cam was three teeth out and the exhaust cam was four teeth out. He reported that the tension in the cam belt was correct and that a new pulley had been fitted although the bottom cover wasn’t put back correctly and there was no gasket. He stated that the cam belt could not have moved during driving so must have been incorrectly fitted during replacement.
The garage has quoted me £440 in parts, labour and VAT to rectify these problems and my car will be off the road again.
I could go to my local trading standards and put a case together using the Sale & Supply of Goods Act like the Citizen's Advice Bureau recommended I do but I don’t want to get into a legal debate even though the law is on my side.
I am disappointed that the work carried out by you has not been completed satisfactorily and hope that you will contact me as soon as possible in order to remedy this situation.
Kind regards,
Kieron Ash

Fingers crossed

[AndyMR2NI]

OUCH! I wish i was a fly on the wall in that place rite now!

You can just imagine the Manager's jaw drop when he read the piece about Trading Standards and Sale & Supply of Goods. Very subtle, i like it!

Just a thought, is the mileage recorded on the receipt of garage 1 at 03/01/05 to prove you haven't drove it? If it is, I can't see them getting out of this one!

[[KJA]]

Yes it is! good point! well ive done about 25 miles in it. (dont knwo what that is in KLM.

No reply from them just yet!

[StuartLaws]

I had a cam belt go about 18 months or so, no damage caused, just had the fibres cleaned out, belt replaced and back on the road the next day.

If you need details to help out send me an email and I'll dig out receipts and the like to prove what work was carried out by Mr T. At least I hope I still have the receipts, if not I'll have to talk to my Ex as she'll have any missing paper work...

As an aside the AA chap who came out to me, laughed when he saw it was a 2 and followed the laugh with the comment, "Unless you're extremely unlucky you'll only need a new belt and will be back on the road before teatime tomorrow."

[[KJA]]

They haven't read my e-mail yet, I'll only need your details if any other damage was done to my car i.e head gasket or crack head, valve damage. Would need it to prove that the cam belt snapping wouldnt cause this and it was (if it is) caused my the timing.

Thanks for the reply.

[Leon.]

Hey mate, really sorry to hear the news. I have been screwed over before although it wasn't as bad as your example.

Just to say that the best form of intimidation, bar none, is a personal visit down to the garage and firmly, calmly get them to back down and refund the price of the sh1tty job. Its good you sent the mail but if they don't respond, get down there ASAP. And if that doesn't work....... xxxx 'em!! I mean take 'em to the cleaners

Just my opinion!

[[KJA]]

I got a delivery report from there server saying the e-mail delivered, but no read reciept as of yet.
I will give them till the weekend, then ill go down there with 2 meatheads and sort it out that way

Did you get a refund on the poor work they did? the only problem I face is that I already instructed a garage to re do the work and didnt give garage no1 a chance to put it right.

[raptor95GTS]

I got a delivery report from there server saying the e-mail delivered, but no read reciept as of yet.
I will give them till the weekend, then ill go down there with 2 meatheads and sort it out that way

Did you get a refund on the poor work they did? the only problem I face is that I already instructed a garage to re do the work and didnt give garage no1 a chance to put it right.

you can stop read receipts being sent back to the sender so don't go on that.

Get round there and press your point home. Better yet report them and then go round. Garages like that need taking out and given a good beating with a baseball bat but since they are allowed to rip us off but we cant hurt the blighters back, just run them through the legal wringer.

[Leon.]

I got a delivery report from there server saying the e-mail delivered, but no read reciept as of yet.
I will give them till the weekend, then ill go down there with 2 meatheads and sort it out that way

Well, my incident was that I had a carburetta (probably spelt wrong!) replacement on my Fiesta many moons ago, and instead of giving me a new replacement, he put an even worse one into my engine, and charged me. I was young at the time and didn't bother to do anything about it, mainly because it was actually ok and there weren't any issues......... he also did some other work at the same time which was fine. Like I say, not nearly the same category as your situation.

Did you get a refund on the poor work they did? the only problem I face is that I already instructed a garage to re do the work and didnt give garage no1 a chance to put it right.

hmmmm, tricky one there, but in reality no one could blame you for not taking it back to those muppets!! In legal terms, I don't think that is really the issue. The issue is that the repair they made was extremely poor by any standards, possibly life threatening, and caused you further costs too, full stop.