Post of the week in reply to Super Complaint by Tony Sefton

Original thread Super Complaint

"It would be a lot easier to understand what all this is about if :-

They could explain what is a rip off. (i,e would it be £1200 that a Main Dealer charges to locate and rectify one bad connnection as it took them 12 hours to find it. ) ???

what is a reasonable charge, ??? ( £40 per hour or less that some independents charge or around £100 + per hour that some main dealers charge )

What is Classed as shoddy work. ??? ( A repair to a component thats not quite as good as it ought to be although perfectly safe as the customer doesn't have the money to spend on his car so he has asked for a temporary repair to keep his car running untill he can afford to do the job properly ) . ??

Whats wrong with Any Customer that has a Complaint going to the Trading Standards. and them passing it on to the office of Fair trading / government body etc. ?? Between them instead of Harrasing Genuine Honest Reputable garages, They would be concentrating on sorting out the Dodgy Garages and Get them Fined and then eventually shut down after a few complaints. ???

( Ohh yeah that would be expensive and they need some mugs to pay for it so they will pass the buck onto the reputable garages ). ??

We looked at a Van for a Company that sent it to the Main Dealer, The Dealers had the van for 3 weeks and estimated £1800 to repair the immobiliser, We took the job on and found the fault in 15 minutes, Repaired a broken wire and had the vehicle back on the road within a couple of hours of it coming in. ( and Foolishly charged around 1 hours labour )

Where would something like this come into the equation. ?? Would it be classed as Shoddy work, Incompetence, Rip off. ??
( or non as they didn't get the job and if they had, how would the customer have known whether it was a fair price or not or if the work carried out was necessary. ??? )

( And yes, This would be one of the first Companies to sign up to the CODE )

What about the Faulty Components that fail Prematurely and the Dealers and Vehicle manufacturers Deny any knowledge that there may be a Manufacturing problem untill watchdog gets hold of it. ?? ( But if we Sold a part and it fails, We would be for the High jump even though the part was bought in good faith from a large supplier )

What about the diagnostic equipment that we all buy that plugs in and gives the wrong information making jobs take longer than they should. ?? Who pays for the wasted time and sometimes wrongly diagnosed parts. ??

If they want to sort this Automotive mess out,
I think they need to start off by making Manufacturers responsible for the unreliable crap that they sell. ( ohh Sorry, they won't have the balls for to do that so pick on the independents )

Why Put more Expense, pressure, Paperwork and wasted time onto honourable garages that are doing their best to look after their customers and their vehicles. ??

I am 100% for doing the job properly, not ripping customers off, getting decent training, etc. But not for paying for a load of people that have never done the job, know very little about the job, to sit in an office and dictate to people as to what they should do and when and to say what was or wasn't a fair price for a job. ??

Can Someone from the "CODE" Tell me how much it will cost to Repair an immobiliser fault on a Citroen picasso. ??? ( what is fair ) How long should it take. ?? How much should it cost. ???

OR. How much will it cost to repair a list of faults on a Merecedes or a BMW. ?? All We can do is advise the customer that it needs so many hours to start with and see how the job goes Then hopefully price up the parts and get an idea of how much extra labour will be involved to do the work required when we find out what it needs.

If A Customer had a Job like this done, After giving his approval and then afterwards decided that it sounded too expensive and Put a Complaint in, How would anyone Prove how much the job should have cost or how long it should have taken. ??


what about companies that give employees bonus's to sell parts, ?? ( which then get sold even when not required just to get the staff a decent wage ) Yes, These include Big Companies with Big Reputations Trying to make Big Profits.


There is a lot more to this job than how much a service should have cost or an oil and filter change. ?? "

Tony Sefton