Garage damaged my car - what next?

Garage damaged my car - what next?

Author
Discussion

shandyboy

Original Poster:

473 posts

160 months

Tuesday 25th July 2017
quotequote all
Wow. Just when I thought Servicing Stop couldn't sink any lower...

This morning I got an email saying my review had been removed as they claimed I wasn't a customer!

Like Sa Calobra said, they get ALL bad reviews removed - how many people can't be bothered to prove their review is genuine?

I've sent proof and hopefully it will be re-instated soon.

shandyboy

Original Poster:

473 posts

160 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
quotequote all
Sorry to keep replying to my own thread - but a quick update.

I took the car to a local garage (actually where it was originally purchased from), to get it booked in for a quote for getting everything sorted.

I mentioned that I'd noticed after the "repair" the internal lights (radio/dials etc) had stopped dimming when the car lights were turned on, but it was probably just a fuse or something, and the mechanic looked at the rear of the car and showed me where the other garage had left the rear wiring loom unclipped so it had dangled onto the hot exhaust and shorted all the wiring - he said it was lucky it hadn't caused a fire, but it meant the car was now an MOT fail as the rear reg lights don't work (I think the brake lights do!)

It's going in again on Friday evening for a more thorough going over. Can't wait to see what they find. :\

Trustpilot still haven't re-instated my review. Total joke. Contacting Citizen's Advice again today with the view to initiating a small claims.

berlintaxi

8,535 posts

179 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
quotequote all
shandyboy said:
Wow. Just when I thought Servicing Stop couldn't sink any lower...

This morning I got an email saying my review had been removed as they claimed I wasn't a customer!

Like Sa Calobra said, they get ALL bad reviews removed - how many people can't be bothered to prove their review is genuine?

I've sent proof and hopefully it will be re-instated soon.
Service Stop are a bunch of sharks, charged me to supply and fit Continental tyres, returned the car with Barums fitted, moan like hell and hopefully they will resolve it.

xjay1337

15,966 posts

124 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
quotequote all
berlintaxi said:
Service Stop are a bunch of sharks, charged me to supply and fit Continental tyres, returned the car with Barums fitted, moan like hell and hopefully they will resolve it.
The actual fk???

BertieWooster

3,461 posts

170 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
quotequote all
shandyboy said:
Trustpilot still haven't re-instated my review. Total joke. Contacting Citizen's Advice again today with the view to initiating a small claims.
I've just checked and it looks like it has been reinstated - unless they have put wood screws in another customer's car as well!

zedx19

2,887 posts

146 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
quotequote all
Yesterday when I checked there was a single 1 star review on Trustpilot, today there are 54 pages worth!!! Trust pilot must have got wise to their tatics and reinstated all negative reviews. I've only looked at a few but it makes for pretty shocking reading. OP's review is back up as well.

Driver101

14,376 posts

127 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
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Why so many reviews for them? I hadn't heard of them or realised that they were that popular.

I can't help but notice that the majority of glowing reports are made by people with one review only. This always screams out fake reviews to me. It looks with the volume of reviews made today it's an effort to push the negative reviews off the top page.

F10ben28

1,702 posts

98 months

Wednesday 26th July 2017
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Shocking how a company like this is in business.

If they charged a proper rate for their service they would have less customers but could actually provide the service they are claiming to.

ritch

567 posts

193 months

Monday 21st June 2021
quotequote all
shandyboy said:
Sorry to keep replying to my own thread - but a quick update.

I took the car to a local garage (actually where it was originally purchased from), to get it booked in for a quote for getting everything sorted.

I mentioned that I'd noticed after the "repair" the internal lights (radio/dials etc) had stopped dimming when the car lights were turned on, but it was probably just a fuse or something, and the mechanic looked at the rear of the car and showed me where the other garage had left the rear wiring loom unclipped so it had dangled onto the hot exhaust and shorted all the wiring - he said it was lucky it hadn't caused a fire, but it meant the car was now an MOT fail as the rear reg lights don't work (I think the brake lights do!)

It's going in again on Friday evening for a more thorough going over. Can't wait to see what they find. :\

Trustpilot still haven't re-instated my review. Total joke. Contacting Citizen's Advice again today with the view to initiating a small claims.
@Shandyboy - what was the outcome of this? Did your car get sorted or did you have to go to the small claims court?

shandyboy

Original Poster:

473 posts

160 months

Monday 21st June 2021
quotequote all
The resolution was a bit depressing really.

Servicing Stop lived up to their name and stopped answering (or returning) my calls, so I started a small claims against them.

In the meantime the garage that originally screwed the car up rang a few times offering to make good, and to "buy a new bumper if that's what it takes" - but I obviously couldn't trust them again. I had my usual garage look at the car and they said it had been more than botched, the rear lights didn't work anymore as the wiring loom had been left dangling on the hot exhaust which had melted the wires so it would fail the mot and need repairing, before even looking at the bumper and bodywork.

I completely fell out of love with the car I'd cherished for 7 years, so part exchanged it for a fraction of what it should have been worth for a rather nice MR-2. I do love the new car but missed the little roadster.

The small claims was handled over a phone call where the adjudicator spoke to each of us in turn. He seemed a decent bloke and when I said I'd sold the car he was really sad and said "I'll pretend I didn't hear that because if they know that they may want to go to court and you won't have proof of their mishandling"... so they offered a small payout which I agreed to, just to put a close on the whole sorry episode.

Servicing Stop are a scam plain and simple - the idea of taking your car to the nearest reputable garage is obviously total horrocks (hindsight is a wonderful thing)...