Disgracful service from two different garages
Discussion
Over the last week, both my girlfiend & her mum both took their respective cars, a Ford Focus & a Citroen C5 to garages for a service & MOT. The Citroen went to an independant garage, the Ford went to a main dealer...
Both got pulled up for low brakes, the focus being a particular concern with the front pads reportedly at "1mm & the discs worn badly", the Citroen being advised as "front pads very low, discs very worn". Ford wanted £260 for the discs & pads, Citroen £220.
So, Being a nice easy job, I ordered both sets of discs & pads & set about doing them last night. The Focus still had 3.5mm on the pads, so plenty of life left in them, the discs were fine as well, bar a tiny lip that I would class as usual wear,easily well within tolerence & will see another set of pads through quite comfortably. Now, I was cross that the Ford dealer had reported them at 1mm, but as they were at 3.5mm whilst they were off I put a new set on anyway, but trying to hard sell to a female on her own shows a huge lack of resepect, and taking the car back today it flew through the retest with no mention of the discs that they had played merry hell about only 3 days earlier, the service manager refused to believe the pads were at 3.5mm, so luckily I have kept them to show him next week....
Onto the Citroen, I took the front wheels off to replace the "very low pads & discs", only to find they are in perfect condition & will probably do another 10-15,000 miles...
How the hell can they say both discs & pads need replacing? Yet again, this was to my girlfriends mum, who was on her own
...
I am raging at the moment, having paid out £165 for 2 sets of pads & discs, the only thing that was even close to needing looking at was one set of pads, and even they had thousands of miles left on them. It really does show just how much needless work gets carried out on non-mechanically minded peoples cars, I am going to complain in writing to both garages, & report both garages to trading stanards, but I doubt either will have any effect whatsoever..
& yes I know I missed an e out of disgraceful, can't edit the title
Both got pulled up for low brakes, the focus being a particular concern with the front pads reportedly at "1mm & the discs worn badly", the Citroen being advised as "front pads very low, discs very worn". Ford wanted £260 for the discs & pads, Citroen £220.
So, Being a nice easy job, I ordered both sets of discs & pads & set about doing them last night. The Focus still had 3.5mm on the pads, so plenty of life left in them, the discs were fine as well, bar a tiny lip that I would class as usual wear,easily well within tolerence & will see another set of pads through quite comfortably. Now, I was cross that the Ford dealer had reported them at 1mm, but as they were at 3.5mm whilst they were off I put a new set on anyway, but trying to hard sell to a female on her own shows a huge lack of resepect, and taking the car back today it flew through the retest with no mention of the discs that they had played merry hell about only 3 days earlier, the service manager refused to believe the pads were at 3.5mm, so luckily I have kept them to show him next week....
Onto the Citroen, I took the front wheels off to replace the "very low pads & discs", only to find they are in perfect condition & will probably do another 10-15,000 miles...
How the hell can they say both discs & pads need replacing? Yet again, this was to my girlfriends mum, who was on her own
... I am raging at the moment, having paid out £165 for 2 sets of pads & discs, the only thing that was even close to needing looking at was one set of pads, and even they had thousands of miles left on them. It really does show just how much needless work gets carried out on non-mechanically minded peoples cars, I am going to complain in writing to both garages, & report both garages to trading stanards, but I doubt either will have any effect whatsoever..
& yes I know I missed an e out of disgraceful, can't edit the title
Edited by RWD cossie wil on Saturday 26th May 17:46
Most people only ever get a car looked at when it is serviced. Presumably the next service on the Citroen is due in more than 15,000 miles time. Therefore you admit yourself this car has 10-15k left on the pads - so it wont make the next service. Therefore its prudent to change them at this service if the owner is one of those who simply brings it in for servicing and ignores it the rest of the time, which most invariably are.
Fox- said:
Most people only ever get a car looked at when it is serviced. Presumably the next service on the Citroen is due in more than 15,000 miles time. Therefore you admit yourself this car has 10-15k left on the pads - so it wont make the next service. Therefore its prudent to change them at this service if the owner is one of those who simply brings it in for servicing and ignores it the rest of the time, which most invariably are.
Then that could be advised not told that they needed doing as very low .Fox- said:
Most people only ever get a car looked at when it is serviced. Presumably the next service on the Citroen is due in more than 15,000 miles time. Therefore you admit yourself this car has 10-15k left on the pads - so it wont make the next service. Therefore its prudent to change them at this service if the owner is one of those who simply brings it in for servicing and ignores it the rest of the time, which most invariably are.
Considering that it has brake pad warning sensors, it is pretty silly to replace components far earlier than is required? You wouldn't replace a tyre with 5mm of tread if you were planning to do 20,000 miles in the next year would you? Come on op they said the car needed new discs and pads and you didn't even bother checking before shelling out hundreds of £££ on parts.
I know you shouldnt have to check but if a women took a car to a garage I'd be suspicious of anything recommended because clearly there will be some trying on of parts/sundries that need replacing.
I know you shouldnt have to check but if a women took a car to a garage I'd be suspicious of anything recommended because clearly there will be some trying on of parts/sundries that need replacing.
SmoothCriminal said:
Come on op they said the car needed new discs and pads and you didn't even bother checking before shelling out hundreds of £££ on parts.
I know you shouldnt have to check but if a women took a car to a garage I'd be suspicious of anything recommended because clearly there will be some trying on of parts/sundries that need replacing.
Sadly I don't have the time to dismantle cars to see if garages are lying, I had to order them for the weekend as I work away during the week, so can't really take them apart, then wait for the bits to turn up. I know you shouldnt have to check but if a women took a car to a garage I'd be suspicious of anything recommended because clearly there will be some trying on of parts/sundries that need replacing.
Sorry just re-read and hope it didn't come across as having a pop.
I know it's not right but thought it was common knowledge that there are garages (even main dealer ones) that will rip of their customers no matter what.
I check everything even just a visual check cos I know they're lying b
ds.
Makes you sick.
I know it's not right but thought it was common knowledge that there are garages (even main dealer ones) that will rip of their customers no matter what.
I check everything even just a visual check cos I know they're lying b
ds. Makes you sick.
SmoothCriminal said:
I know you shouldnt have to check but if a women took a car to a garage I'd be suspicious of anything recommended because clearly there will be some trying on of parts/sundries that need replacing.
^ This.It's a ridiculous sitiuation, but you really can't let most women take their own cars to garages. A Mitsubishi dealer simply tried to steal money off one of my daughters by insisting the service cost was dearer than they'd (twice) quoted.
Deva Link said:
^ This.
It's a ridiculous sitiuation, but you really can't let most women take their own cars to garages. A Mitsubishi dealer simply tried to steal money off one of my daughters by insisting the service cost was dearer than they'd (twice) quoted.
Brings me back to fraud.It's a ridiculous sitiuation, but you really can't let most women take their own cars to garages. A Mitsubishi dealer simply tried to steal money off one of my daughters by insisting the service cost was dearer than they'd (twice) quoted.
Frankly if something was done about this and people went to jail for it, I bet it would reduce fairly quickly.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff