Potential MOT based ripoff

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Discussion

timskipper

Original Poster:

1,297 posts

265 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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Bit of a piss boiler this.

My better half has a W reg Yaris, she's an old girl (the car!) but apart from some suspension issues runs well for the age.

I knew it was going to fail the MOT so I swapped cars with her for a couple of days and had a speculative MOT done at a garage near my home to see what the issues were going to be. 6 weeks left on current MOT at this point.

It failed on broken rear coil spring, ARB drop-links excessive play and emissions at idle. They reckoned a good service would see the emissions dealt with. Quoted £3-350 for all the work.

I took it away, bought the parts and did it all myself one Saturday inc plugs, filters oil etc. Job's a good 'un. £110 spent.

FFWD a few weeks and I'm on holiday, she decides to take it into another garage to get the MOT done again as it's now fairly close to expiring. They tell her over the phone it needs the brake pipes replacing, and being unable to get hold of me to discuss and worried about "brakes" agrees. £250 paid and work done. MOT obtained. She was lead to believe it was necessary for the MOT.

Now on the MOT I had done, it wasn't even an advisory. I looked at them while I was under the car and they looked fine to me. She walked into that garage and they spotted an easy job, plain and simple.

It turns out there was no MOT failure document, it passed. The work was completely un-necessary at that time.

Where do we stand here? £250 is a lot of money to her and I am properly peeved.

supertouring

2,228 posts

232 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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First rule of car ownership, don't send the wife in to get work done as it will usually cost more.

Efbe

9,251 posts

165 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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nah, fight for it. damn right.

andburg

7,214 posts

168 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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Dont think you have much to stand on.

You could try taking them to small claims if you can get the garage who inspected to back you up and provide evidence but its still your word against them.

Have you checked that new parts have been fitted?

spats

838 posts

154 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
supertouring said:
First rule of car ownership, don't send the wife in to get work done as it will usually cost more.
Not always. I always send my Wife in for MOTs.

Shes a petrol head and if theres any suggestions of "work" needing doing she soon shuts them down over it.

To the OP, unless you have proof they didn't do the work, or have the old parts to prove what state they are in, I doubt you have allot of come back. MOT is a test for right then at that moment and they could simply say the last garage didn't do the check properly.

I understand your pain, I had similar happen when I was 19 and still green. Said the car needed brake pipes and I needed the car that day so paid for it, but my own mechanic told me he checked all the pipes during the last service a week before as he knew the MOT was due and found nothing wrong with them at all.

ging84

8,828 posts

145 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
they have screwed you
they will probably simply claim they gave the car a quick look over before the MOT and discovered it

check the time they called, see if it before or after the MOT, if it was before, you have a difficult fight to get any of that money back, if it was after, they are screwed

dogzilla

157 posts

210 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
spats said:
Not always. I always send my Wife in for MOTs.

Shes a petrol head and if theres any suggestions of "work" needing doing she soon shuts them down over it.
My wife gets better service at the garage. <guffaw>

Seriously though, they just wave her car through every time in about 15 minutes. And if they do mention any bogus costs she immediately gives me a call anyway.

There are benefits to having a good set of tits.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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Or, potentially...

They put it on the ramp and had a look over before logging it into the MOT computer. They spotted a rotten bit of brake pipe which the other garage had missed.

Retroman

961 posts

132 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
Or, potentially...

They put it on the ramp and had a look over before logging it into the MOT computer. They spotted a rotten bit of brake pipe which the other garage had missed.
I'd agree with this.

Anytime i put my car in for an MOT, i go under it and clean all the brake pipes up.
That way i can spot any problems myself and at the same time the MOT inspector knows not to try and fleece me because they can see they've been inspected recently.

In future if your wife is skeptical of any of the stuff needing done, request to see the fault. Some inspectors will let you under the ramps for a quick look, or else take a picture / video on their phone to show you.

As you have no evidence the brake pipes weren't a problem prior to them being changed i don't think there's any re-course with it.

Spangles

1,441 posts

184 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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As an MOT tester I'd say they've stitched you up like a kipper but there's probably bugger all you can do about it. Brake pipes are a favourite for the dodgy MOT fail, very subjective and most people will be too scared not to have them done.

rs1952

5,247 posts

258 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
As others have said, you don't really have any recourse unless you can get hold of the "faulty" component, and this is going to be unlikely this long after the event.

Over the years I have had experiences from both extremes, with MOT testers trying it on with unnecessary repairs (the best one was when I was told by one that the horn on my Rover P5 didn't work, so I leaned in through the window and pressed it down for about 45 seconds whilst shouting over it "Is this the horn you say doesn't work?") to MOT testers missing things that I know were wrong with the car.

The best advise for the future is to learn from this experience, and then find an MOT garage/ examiner you feel you can trust and stick with them in future.

Sheepshanks

32,529 posts

118 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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dogzilla said:
Seriously though, they just wave her car through every time in about 15 minutes.
Hmmmm...wonder how they get around the MOT computer timer? scratchchin


With a wife and two daughters it annoys the hell out of me that I have to take all of our cars in for garage work.

I've tried letting them take their own cars a couple of times and both times the garages have basically tried to steal money off them.

Efbe

9,251 posts

165 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
at least have a go. what have you got to lose?
it's not like you will be going back to that garage!!!

George111

6,930 posts

250 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
dogzilla said:
Seriously though, they just wave her car through every time in about 15 minutes.
Hmmmm...wonder how they get around the MOT computer timer? scratchchin


With a wife and two daughters it annoys the hell out of me that I have to take all of our cars in for garage work.

I've tried letting them take their own cars a couple of times and both times the garages have basically tried to steal money off them.
So true !

iva cosworth

44,044 posts

162 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
Too late now but you should always ask for parts removed from YOUR car to be returned to you.

You do still own them.

Assuming they don't give you some old crap out the bin passing them off as yours.

Who me ?

7,455 posts

211 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
Not just garages. Some of the breakdown firms ( AKA THE "EMERGENCY SERVICE")can be just as bad. I was with daughter when she called out one lot. Battery problems, possibly battery on last legs. Started car up - checked charge rate, then turned it off and tested battery. THEN ,before oil had had chance to return to sump, dipped the oil and pronounced car low on oil . He had some, at about £9 a litre. FFS- car used bog standard oil , possibly that price for 5 litre in supermarket. Daughter refused . He then got in van and almost drove off, before daughter tried to start car. battery drained, of course as he'd done a test on it. What the bloke didn't know was that daughter is a biker, with a bike repairing hubby and a car daft dad, so she's not ignorant about engines, and oil needing time to drain down. What horrifies me is that this clown could have done this to some innocent lady ,and topped the oil up . Then a few miles down the road, the TDI ,he'd overfilled had started to burn off the excess oil and even at switch off continue and blow the engine, or less unnoticed damage the cat.

ferrariF50lover

1,834 posts

225 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
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This is why I pay a bloody fortune to have my car MOTed by the Council place. They can't do repairs, but must offer the MOT service to the public. Funny how much less is wrong with a car when there's no money to be made.


Silver Smudger

3,292 posts

166 months

Friday 17th April 2015
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iva cosworth said:
Too late now but you should always ask for parts removed from YOUR car to be returned to you.

You do still own them.

Assuming they don't give you some old crap out the bin passing them off as yours.
Which they probably do if they are conning you, so what is to be gained from this?

timskipper

Original Poster:

1,297 posts

265 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
Good call on the council place. Although the garage near me that I took it to originally I would trust anyway, it's only a small village place but they've got some nice motors in there quite a lot of the time.

Thanks for the replies, I guess on reflection there's not much else to do except never go there again. My g/f is pretty upset about it though. Colours ones view somewhat.

surveyor

17,768 posts

183 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
dogzilla said:
Seriously though, they just wave her car through every time in about 15 minutes.
Hmmmm...wonder how they get around the MOT computer timer? scratchchin


With a wife and two daughters it annoys the hell out of me that I have to take all of our cars in for garage work.

I've tried letting them take their own cars a couple of times and both times the garages have basically tried to steal money off them.
A cup of coffee.... or two.