Dodgy MOT failure - What next?
Discussion
My friend has had a situation with an MOT and he is absolutely fuming! I thought I would pass this real situation by my fellow PH’ers to see what you think. I am keeping this story slightly vague to respect the PH naming and shaming policies.
My friend took his Passat to a well known garage chain for the MOT. In fact, this was arranged in a rush as the MOT had expired two days previous (naughty!) and he chose this garage as it was convenient and close to his office.
He was convinced that it would pass first time as he had a service last month at a well respected VW specialist out of town (he goes there every year) who didn’t spot anything massively wrong with the car.
To his annoyance, the chain garage failed the MOT on 3 areas
1) Uneven braking on front wheels
2) Excessive play in near-side suspension arm
3) Excessive play in off-side suspension arm
The chain garage were asking for almost £500 to resolve these problems.
He then phoned the VW specialist who remembers servicing the car and suggested that the chain garage may be exaggerating the problems. VW specialist said they had a time slot that same day to do the MOT themselves. Even if those were serious problems, the specialist said the work was way overpriced and it should come to around £200 all in.
My friend said he wanted a 2nd opinion and paid the chain garage the £50 for doing the MOT test and took the car over to the other garage, who performed the MOT test and passed it with no serious faults. The specialist even said that he knows of many cases where this particular high-street garage has found work that does not need doing and charged customers way too much.
As a PH’er, what would you do next?
Challenge the chain garage? Try and get your money back? BBC Watchdog? Speak to VOSA?
My friend took his Passat to a well known garage chain for the MOT. In fact, this was arranged in a rush as the MOT had expired two days previous (naughty!) and he chose this garage as it was convenient and close to his office.
He was convinced that it would pass first time as he had a service last month at a well respected VW specialist out of town (he goes there every year) who didn’t spot anything massively wrong with the car.
To his annoyance, the chain garage failed the MOT on 3 areas
1) Uneven braking on front wheels
2) Excessive play in near-side suspension arm
3) Excessive play in off-side suspension arm
The chain garage were asking for almost £500 to resolve these problems.
He then phoned the VW specialist who remembers servicing the car and suggested that the chain garage may be exaggerating the problems. VW specialist said they had a time slot that same day to do the MOT themselves. Even if those were serious problems, the specialist said the work was way overpriced and it should come to around £200 all in.
My friend said he wanted a 2nd opinion and paid the chain garage the £50 for doing the MOT test and took the car over to the other garage, who performed the MOT test and passed it with no serious faults. The specialist even said that he knows of many cases where this particular high-street garage has found work that does not need doing and charged customers way too much.
As a PH’er, what would you do next?
Challenge the chain garage? Try and get your money back? BBC Watchdog? Speak to VOSA?
Uhura fighter said:
FreeLitres said:
Speak to VOSA?
Would this fact cloud any chance of him getting his money back or even worse, get him in trouble?
Also, I read some of the Watchdog stuff but this was about poor quality servicing by that chain you mentioned. Would false claims on an MOT be a far more serious problem for a chain like that?
FreeLitres said:
Uhura fighter said:
FreeLitres said:
Speak to VOSA?
Would this fact cloud any chance of him getting his money back or even worse, get him in trouble?
Also, I read some of the Watchdog stuff but this was about poor quality servicing by that chain you mentioned. Would false claims on an MOT be a far more serious problem for a chain like that?
My friend also mentioned that to challenge a dodgy MOT with VOSA, you have to pay £50 up from for the VOSA investigation. If VOSA decide that the MOT is wrong, you get the £50 back from VOSA and the cost of the MOT from the garage.
Has anyone actually gone through this process and won their money back? After already paying for 2 MOTs, he really doesn't want to shell out an extra £50 if it means he might lose it!
Has anyone actually gone through this process and won their money back? After already paying for 2 MOTs, he really doesn't want to shell out an extra £50 if it means he might lose it!
Uhura fighter said:
FreeLitres said:
Speak to VOSA?
t you might have got a stinking £20 extra but nobody i know will ever use your garage again.This garage wanted £130 to change the front pads, i've got sick of bent garages now to be honest.
Edited by Ninjaboy on Wednesday 20th October 23:38
I just remembered that my friend said the chain garage mechanic looked rather annoyed when he was told that he would take the car to another garage. Almost as if he was losing out on a large amount of personal bonus???
You can rest assured that my friend will never take any of his cars to a high street chain garage ever again.
You can rest assured that my friend will never take any of his cars to a high street chain garage ever again.
I think VOSA will be more interested in garages that DONT fails cars, rather than those that do!
It is all a lot of time and grief to go down the appeals route. As said, your mate has learnt a valuable lesson and it has only cost him £50.
FWIW, why didnt he just take it to the indy in the first place - they managed to do it same day as well? Would have saved a lot of grief all round.
It is all a lot of time and grief to go down the appeals route. As said, your mate has learnt a valuable lesson and it has only cost him £50.
FWIW, why didnt he just take it to the indy in the first place - they managed to do it same day as well? Would have saved a lot of grief all round.
My car (now sold) failed an Mot on a few things last year, it had only done about 2000 miles since the previous Mot and had no advisories. Yet they managed to quote fixing it for about double what the car was worth.
The car had passed at the same place. Year earlier. It was a dealership chain, I believe they were just looking for work.
Won't be taking a car there again! Lesson learned and moving on.
The car had passed at the same place. Year earlier. It was a dealership chain, I believe they were just looking for work.
Won't be taking a car there again! Lesson learned and moving on.
Rollcage said:
FWIW, why didnt he just take it to the indy in the first place - they managed to do it same day as well? Would have saved a lot of grief all round.
EXACTLY what I told him! He said he needed a place near his office as he couldn't get the day off at short notice to take the car out of town (and be without the car to get to work). FreeLitres said:
Swoxy said:
Was the test at the chain pre-booked?
He said he booked (just one day) before, so yes it was pre-booked. The follow-up MOT at the specialist was arranged on the same day at the first MOT just after it had failed. I wouldn't challenge it - there's no point now it has an MOT. However he should still contact VOSA to tell them the garage is shifty.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicl...
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicl...
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