When Reliable Garages Go Bad

[sutoka]

Maybe I've been unlucky but I currently own four cars and so with a toddler and new baby on a the way I fired one of my cars into the garage for a routine service. I could have done it myself but time is short and so I put it into a previously reliable garage I had used a dozens of times.

Left it in with the usual, any issues give me a call. Next day I get a voicemail ' we had a problem because the oil filter is damaged but we did the oil change and it's ready to go"

So I calmly arrived to be told the couldn't get the old oil filter off, no idea why because they put it on the year before. Anyway the kept the old one on and put new oil in and charged me the princely sum of 95 quid for oil change alone. I

Asked why they didn't give me a call and I'd have come down straight away as its only a few miles away.

"well you know" came the answer. Owner then proceeded to tell me they are thinking of closing up as they can't get reliable mechanics. No st.

This after another mechanic tried to charge me 200 to get a wheel off when beside them is a place called ' The Nutcracker' that takes wheels off lorries.

[steveo3002]

yeah its why i diy my stuff ...even if it takes days

[Roboticarm]

I've had similar
Used to have a great garage around the corner from the house, but when we moved it was a pita to get back from on foot.
Local mobile mechanic bad a great reputation and whilst technically mobile he had a 2 post lift in his garage at home and did most of the work there.
Was great for years... Then did some work on my suspension and it knocked like heck, I spotted it within 10 metres, he took it back, changed something and it was still knocking, then told me "it's a sports suspension, what's what they do" eventually changed a few bits for more premium ones, at my cost and still not sorted
Went back to my original place, they identified it as a top mount issue and sorted it within a hour.

Local guy was great for years then quality and attitude changed...

[Alex_225]

Have had the same thing happen. Used a local garage where I lived for years, really nice bunch of guys.

What I began to notice was that if a job required a bit more work, say it was a trickier part to find or something they weren't confident on they'd just say it was a specialist job and send you on your way. To the point where I had an error on my old E Class, they took it in, gave me the code but said it's a specialist job. I Googled the error, took a punt on a second hand part and it took me 15 minutes to swap over a battery voltage sensor.

Seems many garages just want to service cars and swap over easy parts rather than take on slightly more involved jobs. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of jobs I'd consider specialised but it's felt that mechanics just like the bread and butter and if they're busy, they'll turn away harder jobs.

When you find a good mechanic, you have to cling onto them! haha

[CMTMB]

Alex_225 said:

Seems many garages just want to service cars and swap over easy parts rather than take on slightly more involved jobs.

That's exactly my experience too. A lot of garages just want to swap out brakes and suspension parts on >10 year old hatchbacks and aren't interested in taking on anything else. It's easy money and pays the bills.

It's the main reason I sold my old Z3, I couldn't get a local garage interested in working on it. People I've used for 20+ years just made excuses to avoid it, even though I was ready to pay good money to have jobs done.

[Smint]

We used a family firm in the town, then one year the Forester failed on a leaking rear shock absorber, my fault hadn't spotted it.
Can you replace them for us please? no its a specialist job.!!
So i fitted a full set of new springs and shocks across the back on my own driveway, simple enough job for a bloke in his late 60's.
Got it re-mot'd there and that's the last time they've seen us.

[Timetoleave]

I used an old friend of mine who s been a mechanic all his life. Couldn t fix the water leak from my car’s cooling system. Charged me £600 to fit a new battery then called me to say don t bother bringing it back in as they didn t know how to fix it. Having told me it needed a new water pump. Don t want the hassle / work. Can t get staff.

[t.boydy]

sutoka said:

Maybe I've been unlucky but I currently own four cars and so with a toddler and new baby on a the way I fired one of my cars into the garage for a routine service. I could have done it myself but time is short and so I put it into a previously reliable garage I had used a dozens of times.

Left it in with the usual, any issues give me a call. Next day I get a voicemail ' we had a problem because the oil filter is damaged but we did the oil change and it's ready to go"

So I calmly arrived to be told the couldn't get the old oil filter off, no idea why because they put it on the year before. Anyway the kept the old one on and put new oil in and charged me the princely sum of 95 quid for oil change alone. I

Asked why they didn't give me a call and I'd have come down straight away as its only a few miles away.

"well you know" came the answer. Owner then proceeded to tell me they are thinking of closing up as they can't get reliable mechanics. No st.

This after another mechanic tried to charge me 200 to get a wheel off when beside them is a place called ' The Nutcracker' that takes wheels off lorries.

£95? Gallon of decent oil is now around £60. Plus the labour, remmeber thats not just to do the oil change. Get car, drive onto ramp, drain the oil, refill, clean off any spillages, run up, check level, take vehicle off ramp and park up. Do the paperwork. Got to be half hour in all of that

Also how long did they spend trying to get the old filter off?

[RandomCarChat]

I have a local place i've used for years, MOTs, Tyres, small jobs on the wife's car etc. Recently dropped the FK8 in for an MOT, passed all fine with no issues. Came to collect it and noticed this damage.



Go in to ask them about it, they are none the wiser so I ask them what they are going to do about it. Manager calls me to say he's checked the CCTV, the tech caught the rollers with the wheel and never owned up to it.

They fixed the wheel and replaced the tyre FOC but its the fact the tech didn't own up to it, I don't think i'll use them again. Not sure I can trust them to properly fix anything if this is the sort of stuff that passes them by.

[Dynion Araf Uchaf]

RandomCarChat said:

I have a local place i've used for years, MOTs, Tyres, small jobs on the wife's car etc. Recently dropped the FK8 in for an MOT, passed all fine with no issues. Came to collect it and noticed this damage.



Go in to ask them about it, they are none the wiser so I ask them what they are going to do about it. Manager calls me to say he's checked the CCTV, the tech caught the rollers with the wheel and never owned up to it.

They fixed the wheel and replaced the tyre FOC but its the fact the tech didn't own up to it, I don't think i'll use them again. Not sure I can trust them to properly fix anything if this is the sort of stuff that passes them by.

On this one I think you are in the wrong. The garage has paid for the wheel and tyre. A tech didn’t own up is plausible because he might be worried he’ll lose his job. Not sure if that’s a MoT failure but maybe the technicians want to fail it as he caused it.
I am not sure what else the owner could have done

[OPUT]

sutoka said:

So I calmly arrived to be told the couldn't get the old oil filter off, no idea why because they put it on the year before. Anyway the kept the old one on and put new oil in and charged me the princely sum of 95 quid for oil change alone.

Is that £ 95 labour or was that for labour, filter and synthetic oil?

[vikingaero]

I've been using an old boys garage for 30+ years who described themselves as Motor Engineers. Half the workshop had lathes, saws, milling machines that they no longer used in the current era of removing and fitting parts. Never paid when collecting the car, I got the invoice later when they worked it out - that sort of place built on trust. Son in his 60's was retiring, Dad in his 80's still helped there. But they sold it on. New owner assured me he would keep it going as it had done before and was keeping the Son on for 6 months to bed in.

First service with them and there was a line for Bosch wiper blades for £45 - a bit pricey, but I'll let it slide. Now I have Bosch wipers on nearly all my cars and there is a BOSCH logo like 4D number plates where they latch onto the arm, and sometimes the Bosch rivet logo. Only the ones on the car were my old Silmek/Silmak wiper blades that I bought in Croatia a couple of years a before as an emergency purchase.....

[Ian_SW]

OPUT said:

sutoka said:

So I calmly arrived to be told the couldn't get the old oil filter off, no idea why because they put it on the year before. Anyway the kept the old one on and put new oil in and charged me the princely sum of 95 quid for oil change alone.

Is that £ 95 labour or was that for labour, filter and synthetic oil?

I suspect the OP had more of an issue with them not doing the oil/filter change properly/as asked and still charging a good chunk of the cost.

If they had phoned and said "we can't get the oil filter off, what do you want us to do?" it wouldn't have been the same problem. If the car was a shed "put some new oil in and leave it" may have been the answer, but on a newer car the answer may be to spend more time correcting the issue at extra cost.

At least the garage was honest when the OP arrived (unless the only reason they couldn't get the filter off was because they didn't have a new one to put on). Properly dodgy places would have just cleaned up the outside of the old filter with a rag to make it look new, and charged for its replacement anyway.....

[Ussrcossack]

Similar thing in our village
Gargae MOT bodyshop car sales.

Owned by 1 man employes 6

Service receptionist was great, proper bloke knew what he was doing, good with mechanic and customers. He leaves

owners daughter takes over service reception duties
Every repair was a pain for her and only wanted to upsell

I moved garages

[Mars]

I had been using a main dealer for a few years, mainly because they offered loan cars which I needed. When another of the same franchise closed, all their work transferred to my local and they were overrun and the quality declined. It came to a crunch when I arrived for my drop-off timeslot only to be told there were no loan cars despite my specifically agreeing there would be.

I ended-up sat at the dealership all day until a hire car was provided.

This was also on the back of work they wanted to do to resolve issues which were excessively priced and - as it turned out - incorrectly diagnosed.

I was deeply saddened by this because they had been really good - even their prices were consistent with almost anywhere else. Considering they were a main dealer, this particularly impressed me.

When I moved house and had opportunity to use a new local - independent - I leapt at the chance. Big shout out to Avonside Motors in Evesham. They are superb, and have even done work on my Merc GL that they haven't tried before. They listen to the problems, decide on a course of action, and execute properly. Prices are reasonable too. The GL is a complicated car and it's only because places like Avonside Motors exist that I would consider keeping it now it's approaching 150K miles.

[Buster73]

Used a BMW/Audi /VW specialist for a about 10 years , good work at a reasonable price , they moved into much larger premises and slowly they put the prices up accordingly.

Sent my old man down to them to get a clutch fitted on his A4 and they charged him more than an Audi dealer would have charged

Gone from servicing 3 cars to none .

[V12GT]

Used to use a main dealer for the estate, which was great for many years. Family owned dealership, just the one place and they had a good set of mechanics, which meant that I kept going back long after the car’s warranty expired.

Sadly the owner ship changed, now part of a larger group and the mechanics now incentivised on upselling rather than long term relationships with loyal customers.

I don’t go there any longer, but fortunately someone gave me the name of a home mechanic, who has been great for the past 5 years. Hope he continues to be!

[OPUT]

Ian_SW said:

OPUT said:

sutoka said:

So I calmly arrived to be told the couldn't get the old oil filter off, no idea why because they put it on the year before. Anyway the kept the old one on and put new oil in and charged me the princely sum of 95 quid for oil change alone.

Is that £ 95 labour or was that for labour, filter and synthetic oil?

I suspect the OP had more of an issue with them not doing the oil/filter change properly/as asked and still charging a good chunk of the cost.

If they had phoned and said "we can't get the oil filter off, what do you want us to do?" it wouldn't have been the same problem. If the car was a shed "put some new oil in and leave it" may have been the answer, but on a newer car the answer may be to spend more time correcting the issue at extra cost.

At least the garage was honest when the OP arrived (unless the only reason they couldn't get the filter off was because they didn't have a new one to put on). Properly dodgy places would have just cleaned up the outside of the old filter with a rag to make it look new, and charged for its replacement anyway.....

Yes, I didn't spot that. I should have read the OP's post more carefully.

[Tuvra]

t.boydy said:

£95? Gallon of decent oil is now around £60. Plus the labour, remmeber thats not just to do the oil change. Get car, drive onto ramp, drain the oil, refill, clean off any spillages, run up, check level, take vehicle off ramp and park up. Do the paperwork. Got to be half hour in all of that

Also how long did they spend trying to get the old filter off?

£60 a gallon? Don't be silly, I bought 7 litres of Castrol EDGE 5W-30 LL Advanced Full Synthetic for £8.60 a litre last week, so £39 a gallon. A garage buying it in 45 gallon drums would be £6.00 a litre, or £27.00 a gallon, that's including VAT.