Legal Advice (rip off garage)

[[KJA]]

OK cheers for that!
Still havent heard back from them, its been almost 24 hours since the e-mail was sent, Im going to ring up CAB and see what they think the next step should be.

Cheers.

[Leon.]

cool, let us know

[[KJA]]

I rung the garage but they wont accept any responsibility

[AndyMR2NI]

They are calling your bluff mate! Ring them back, inform them they are in breach of the law, you can prove they made a dodgy job of it, say you are getting a lawyer, informing trading standards and your local paper.

Any respectful company hates bad press, time for those gloves to come off!

Best of luck mate, i have first hand experience of getting f***ed about so i kinow how you are feeling!

[[KJA]]

Cheers for the advice mate, What I'm going to do is get the garage re doing the work to call them, as they can explain it better than me what went wrong and how its there fault, any comments on this? good of bad idea?

Its a pain in the ar$e, I might have to sell my Apexi ECU to pay for the work done otherwise

[poyntesm]

They are calling your bluff mate! Ring them back, inform them they are in breach of the law, you can prove they made a dodgy job of it, say you are getting a lawyer, informing trading standards and your local paper.

Any respectful company hates bad press, time for those gloves to come off!

Best of luck mate, i have first hand experience of getting f***ed about so i know how you are feeling!

Just as a word of warning...taking the legal route can be a very stressful and initially expensive route...I am currently pursuing the builder of my house and I have never been so stressed in my life...and my bank balance so low.

I am not saying it is not worth doing it...just weight up the cost and hassle of actually doing it before setting of down that road.

[AndyMR2NI]

If they are willing to do it, then great! Although the 1st garage are chancing their arm in my opinion and wanna see if they can get away with it!

[/quote]I am not saying it is not worth doing it...just weight up the cost and hassle of actually doing it before setting of down that road.[/quote]

What I was trying to say was the THREAT of using this course of action would be enough to maybe get a refund but yes, every case is different and the stress is a factor too. In my case it's the whole car that's the issue and I'm not gonna let it drop. I just hate the idea of decent working people getting scammed by complete cowboys.

But i'd definately use the threat as a weapon, they could buckle without you paying a penny for legal fees!

If that fails, I'd be getting a quote for the legal route and consider it then - just my opinion!

[Leon.]

Just don't forget the Citizens Advice Bureau - free legal advice - if it goes that far!!

All the best

[Fonzy]

This is the exact reason we need someone heading this site! i was scammed by a company that used this site for their main source of advertising, they were called club mr2 and where based in Devon, when they Bu!! FuC%ed me for almost 6k the man at the helm of this site wouldnt even make a call for me! so i thought at the very least he would allow me to tell me story and cover it on the front page!NO so i weighed it all up and decided to move on with my life! about six months ago i got a mail from a fellow imocer saying did i know who club mr2 are or where they have moved to, so i replied sorry they are not my favourite people, i recieved a second mail explaining that a further 3k of an imocers money had gone walkies!

When are we gonna get someone to back us up???

Its no heartache or pain to act as a group and put the pressure on these monkies!

I cant tell you how sorry i feel for you matey, but i cant help thinking that someone could be helping out!

[Sidewinder]

Without putting a dampener on things, sending an e-mail or phoning them up with a mention of Trading Standards and the like won't mean a thing to these guys, and they'll just laugh it off. Bear in mind it won't be the first time that the garage has received this sort of thing.
You need to write a stiffly-worded letter (or get a solicitor to do it) to the garage and explain the situation without 'going in to one'.

Like Esmond says, you've got to weigh up the extra time/money against how much it's cost you already. Personally, I'd just put it down to experience and just write it off, but that's just me.

Another reason for using Toyota places to do the work on your car - expensive, but at least you have some comeback if anything goes wrong.

Good luck anyway!

[Essex MR2]

Not sure if I can really add much to what's been said already, but I'm just coming to the end of my law degree and just thought I'd say that you need to really know exactly what you were told when you booked the job in.

If he had told you, or lead you to believe that the cam timing would be done, or that it had been done when you collected it, you'll have a case under section 14 of the Trade Descriptions Act, which coversmisleading statements in relation to services provided. It could also apply if he had held himself out to be a professional as that implies a certain standard of quality of service, and if the service wasn't up to the standard, usually that of the reasonable professional person in that capacity, then again he may be in breach.

Failing that, there could be grounds for a claim of misrepresentation if he'd told you something that proved to be untrue, can't remember much of this now, but I think if you can show a misrepresentation had been made, the contract between you and him for the original work would become void and be set aside, meaning they have to give back your money.

Definately worth going to the CAB as they deal with this kind of thing all the time.

Hope that helps.

[Essex MR2]

Probably worth adding that any kind of legal action is loooooonnngg and expensive initially.

Plus, if you were going ahead with a claim against the garage you MUST speak to a specialist solicitor who deals with these kind of claims as, although it might appear that you're in the right and law is on your side, the law gets very complex and there a numerous defences a decent solicitor could expolit for the garage, such as, ememption clauses.
Don't do anything without proper advice.

But do write him a letter, pay him a visit and do what you can to get him to pay up!

All the best with it mate.

Keep us informed.

[[KJA]]

Cheers for all the advice. I'll keep you updated but its not looking good. Like Nige said, I may have to put it down to experiance and write it off.