944 man
Active member
This is a C&P of a post that Ive made on Pistonheads. Id be interested in peoples opinions/experiences here too.
"I'll tell chapter and verse, because I think that everything will be clearer, the more information that you have.
I took a car for MOT at a garage, where I had small confrontation with the tester. He tried to sit in the car without putting a cover on the seat: his overalls were dirty and the car is extremely clean. The car isnt valuable, but its a very clean 1990 944 and the trim is spotless, whichs unusual, so I wanted to keep it that way. He put a cover on the seat but I got a number of dirty looks as he got ready to test the car. He went out of his way to find anything wrong that he could, resorting to hacking at the inner sills with the handle of the all-metal MOT test hammer, which he saw me watch him do (after which he got a little friendlier and invited me down to see 'the problem'). He also spent a couple of minutes scraping the hard flexi to caliper pipes on the rear of the car. He scraped off the plastic coating but the pipes, as well as the rear discs, were left as advisories. Ive seen scores of MOTs performed and Ive never seen anything like this: even the seatbelts were inspected for over five minutes! It is this which makes me sure that the test was as thorough as it possibly could be.
You can imagine that I wasnt impressed by the damage caused to the inner sills and the garage that I contacted suggested that I complain to VOSA (about the sills). I decided against this as I couldnt see what Id get out of it. The car went in to the garage for repairs on Wednesday. They had quoted £40 for the welding and £30 to fit four new Goodridge hoses: I also agreed to an MOT test at the time.
This is where it starts going wrong. They MOTd the vehicle first and when I called in at the end of the day (the car was dropped off at 9am) they had a whole new list of failures, but no other work had been done. I agreed only that they should perform the two repairs originally quoted for. I was told that the car would be repaired on Thursday and that Id be called when it was done.
Yesterday morning a friend called me to tell me that hed seen my Red 944 being driven on a local road by a mechanic from the garage and another person. "Not to worry" I said, "theyve had it since yesterday and theyll probably need a road test after fitting the brake hoses".
Fast forward to this evening and I receive a call from said mechanic, the proprietors son, who tells me that the car is ready to collect and that I owe £244. When I question the amount he told me that a caliper broke when they removed the original hose and that they they had ordered a new one last night, with the work being completed today. I asked why I wasnt called and he mumbled that 'he thought they had'. Not so, not on any of the numbers they have for me. When I pointed out that I hadnt authorised the repair and that I had a pair of new Porsche ATE calipers in my garage he became evasive.
To cap it all, beyond the dubious MOT failures, the joyride and the unauthorised work, theres a very noticable dent (like an air rifle pellet mark) on the rear quarter, which wasnt there when I waxed the car two days before and it hadnt left the garage since.
To summarise and for anyone who didnt want to trawl through all of the above: theyve been caught driving the car and theyve fitted new parts without my authorisation, that I do not need and the body works been damaged whilst in their care. The garage in question is a small service/MOT/MOT repair garage in a village in West Derbyshire.
Ive a reasonable understanding of the law, but its hard to pay 'under protest' when they dont have a copy of the invoice to endorse. Id be very interested to hear peoples knowledgeable opinions or of their experiences of similar circumstances."
Simon
"I'll tell chapter and verse, because I think that everything will be clearer, the more information that you have.
I took a car for MOT at a garage, where I had small confrontation with the tester. He tried to sit in the car without putting a cover on the seat: his overalls were dirty and the car is extremely clean. The car isnt valuable, but its a very clean 1990 944 and the trim is spotless, whichs unusual, so I wanted to keep it that way. He put a cover on the seat but I got a number of dirty looks as he got ready to test the car. He went out of his way to find anything wrong that he could, resorting to hacking at the inner sills with the handle of the all-metal MOT test hammer, which he saw me watch him do (after which he got a little friendlier and invited me down to see 'the problem'). He also spent a couple of minutes scraping the hard flexi to caliper pipes on the rear of the car. He scraped off the plastic coating but the pipes, as well as the rear discs, were left as advisories. Ive seen scores of MOTs performed and Ive never seen anything like this: even the seatbelts were inspected for over five minutes! It is this which makes me sure that the test was as thorough as it possibly could be.
You can imagine that I wasnt impressed by the damage caused to the inner sills and the garage that I contacted suggested that I complain to VOSA (about the sills). I decided against this as I couldnt see what Id get out of it. The car went in to the garage for repairs on Wednesday. They had quoted £40 for the welding and £30 to fit four new Goodridge hoses: I also agreed to an MOT test at the time.
This is where it starts going wrong. They MOTd the vehicle first and when I called in at the end of the day (the car was dropped off at 9am) they had a whole new list of failures, but no other work had been done. I agreed only that they should perform the two repairs originally quoted for. I was told that the car would be repaired on Thursday and that Id be called when it was done.
Yesterday morning a friend called me to tell me that hed seen my Red 944 being driven on a local road by a mechanic from the garage and another person. "Not to worry" I said, "theyve had it since yesterday and theyll probably need a road test after fitting the brake hoses".
Fast forward to this evening and I receive a call from said mechanic, the proprietors son, who tells me that the car is ready to collect and that I owe £244. When I question the amount he told me that a caliper broke when they removed the original hose and that they they had ordered a new one last night, with the work being completed today. I asked why I wasnt called and he mumbled that 'he thought they had'. Not so, not on any of the numbers they have for me. When I pointed out that I hadnt authorised the repair and that I had a pair of new Porsche ATE calipers in my garage he became evasive.
To cap it all, beyond the dubious MOT failures, the joyride and the unauthorised work, theres a very noticable dent (like an air rifle pellet mark) on the rear quarter, which wasnt there when I waxed the car two days before and it hadnt left the garage since.
To summarise and for anyone who didnt want to trawl through all of the above: theyve been caught driving the car and theyve fitted new parts without my authorisation, that I do not need and the body works been damaged whilst in their care. The garage in question is a small service/MOT/MOT repair garage in a village in West Derbyshire.
Ive a reasonable understanding of the law, but its hard to pay 'under protest' when they dont have a copy of the invoice to endorse. Id be very interested to hear peoples knowledgeable opinions or of their experiences of similar circumstances."
Simon
]
