Posted by Derek Warwick on September 13, 2003, 2:14 pm
Hi All, About 3 or 4 weeks ago I did a Vectra service, rear brake discs and pads, and also a timing belt kit for a regular customer of mine. Since then they have been on holiday in Cornwall and all has been well. They phoned me up the other day to report that the rear brakes were squeaking and clonking, the ABS light was coming on now and again and the car also "Wasn't running very well". Well, having just done the cambelt I was worried about the running problem and I'm always worried when someone complains about brake problems so I had a look at it this morning. One and a half hours later, after having stripped all the rear brakes down again and finding nothing wrong, testing all the ABS and checking the engine over I am at a loss to find a fault on the car. I explain to the customer about the backlash on the rear brakes when the handbrake is on as normal on all these Vauxhalls and apart from a small blow on the exhaust, which was nothing to do with me, everything else is fine. Now, to the crux of the matter, they obviously weren't expecting a bill for this extra work and I didn't want to get into an argument about it as they have been good customers and I also do work for other members of their family but I would be interested to know what you guys would do in a situation like this, are we expected to just accept this as part of the game that every now and then we're going to have to spend a couple of hours gratis just to appease the customer or put our own minds at rest about a job we didn't think was wrong anyway. Sorry about the long post but what would you guys do? Cheers, Derek