How patient would you be?
Discussion
Long story not very short, car went in for MOT about a week ahead of time. Failed with a couple of major defects (Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases pipe to turbo unit (6.1.2 (a)) and Emissions unable to be completed due to exhaust system (8.2.1.2 (d))) and I authorised the garage to repair with a new front exhaust (my one has a crack in it).
A week passes and the current MOT lapses, fine. I called the garage to see where we are with the repair and they are 'having problems getting the part'. OK, it happens. Three days later I call again to see where we are and there is no information because 'the only person who can do anything is off sick'. Problem is I need the car next week, what with it being Xmas and wanting to visit people. They have no more news to give me, and no apologies (which is probably the bit that annoys me most to be honest).
So I suppose the pre-emptive question is; if they can't get my car back to me before I need it then I will either have to cancel my Xmas visiting plans or hire a car. If I hire a car then I want that cost reimbursing .. on the assumption that the only person with authority is off sick, I'd imagine there's no-one else there who would agree to that, so am I pissing in the wind thinking I'd get anywhere? From my perspective it's their lack of system (for want of a better word) that means one person can be off so no work can be done. This is a small chain with 18 branches so someone must be able to step up, right?
ETA I should say I've called them a couple of times at the garage and am waiting back on a call from their head office.
A week passes and the current MOT lapses, fine. I called the garage to see where we are with the repair and they are 'having problems getting the part'. OK, it happens. Three days later I call again to see where we are and there is no information because 'the only person who can do anything is off sick'. Problem is I need the car next week, what with it being Xmas and wanting to visit people. They have no more news to give me, and no apologies (which is probably the bit that annoys me most to be honest).
So I suppose the pre-emptive question is; if they can't get my car back to me before I need it then I will either have to cancel my Xmas visiting plans or hire a car. If I hire a car then I want that cost reimbursing .. on the assumption that the only person with authority is off sick, I'd imagine there's no-one else there who would agree to that, so am I pissing in the wind thinking I'd get anywhere? From my perspective it's their lack of system (for want of a better word) that means one person can be off so no work can be done. This is a small chain with 18 branches so someone must be able to step up, right?
ETA I should say I've called them a couple of times at the garage and am waiting back on a call from their head office.
Edited by bigandclever on Thursday 18th December 17:31
bigandclever said:
Long story not very short, car went in for MOT about a week ahead of time. Failed with a couple of major defects (Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases pipe to turbo unit (6.1.2 (a)) and Emissions unable to be completed due to exhaust system (8.2.1.2 (d))) and I authorised the garage to repair with a new front exhaust (my one has a crack in it).
A week passes and the current MOT lapses, fine. I called the garage to see where we are with the repair and they are 'having problems getting the part'. OK, it happens. Three days later I call again to see where we are and there is no information because 'the only person who can do anything is off sick'. Problem is I need the car next week, what with it being Xmas and wanting to visit people. They have no more news to give me, and no apologies (which is probably the bit that annoys me most to be honest).
So I suppose the pre-emptive question is; if they can't get my car back to me before I need it then I will either have to cancel my Xmas visiting plans or hire a car. If I hire a car then I want that cost reimbursing .. on the assumption that the only person with authority is off sick, I'd imagine there's no-one else there who would agree to that, so am I pissing in the wind thinking I'd get anywhere? From my perspective it's their lack of system (for want of a better word) that means one person can be off so no work can be done. This is a small chain with 18 branches so someone must be able to step up, right?
ETA I should say I've called them a couple of times at the garage and am waiting back on a call from their head office.
Can’t you source the part for them?A week passes and the current MOT lapses, fine. I called the garage to see where we are with the repair and they are 'having problems getting the part'. OK, it happens. Three days later I call again to see where we are and there is no information because 'the only person who can do anything is off sick'. Problem is I need the car next week, what with it being Xmas and wanting to visit people. They have no more news to give me, and no apologies (which is probably the bit that annoys me most to be honest).
So I suppose the pre-emptive question is; if they can't get my car back to me before I need it then I will either have to cancel my Xmas visiting plans or hire a car. If I hire a car then I want that cost reimbursing .. on the assumption that the only person with authority is off sick, I'd imagine there's no-one else there who would agree to that, so am I pissing in the wind thinking I'd get anywhere? From my perspective it's their lack of system (for want of a better word) that means one person can be off so no work can be done. This is a small chain with 18 branches so someone must be able to step up, right?
ETA I should say I've called them a couple of times at the garage and am waiting back on a call from their head office.
Edited by bigandclever on Thursday 18th December 17:31
If you can then you know they are bulls
tting for whatever reasons.bigandclever said:
'the only person who can do anything is off sick'.
That's not quite true. The only person who can do anything who works at that particular garage, is off sick. So you could take the car to a different garage (or do the exhaust repair yourself) then get it MoT'd elsewhere. I imagine if you left the MoT fail sheet on the passenger seat, they would do the exhaust repair then pass it (ie not find additional faults missed by the previous).paul_c123 said:
That's not quite true. The only person who can do anything who works at that particular garage, is off sick. So you could take the car to a different garage (or do the exhaust repair yourself) then get it MoT'd elsewhere. I imagine if you left the MoT fail sheet on the passenger seat, they would do the exhaust repair then pass it (ie not find additional faults missed by the previous).
That’s not going to happen, at least not a reputable garage.The car should be fully tested as presented. You never know, you might end up with it failing on something else as well as the exhaust.
Inspectors are getting pretty sneaky and it would be a major risk to the garage not to do a full test.
Drawweight said:
That s not going to happen, at least not a reputable garage.
The car should be fully tested as presented. You never know, you might end up with it failing on something else as well as the exhaust.
Inspectors are getting pretty sneaky and it would be a major risk to the garage not to do a full test.
Agreed, BUT the point I was making was twofold. 1) it is courteous to leave the official MoT printout in the car, to save them having to look up the item(s) which need fixing or to refer back to the booking, 2) It would be a reasonable assumption to make that both the first and second tester looked at the same things on the same car within a short space of time, and came to the same conclusion. Sight of the certificate would be "subliminal" but I am never in doubt that the second tester would look at the car properly.The car should be fully tested as presented. You never know, you might end up with it failing on something else as well as the exhaust.
Inspectors are getting pretty sneaky and it would be a major risk to the garage not to do a full test.
I'd say you have zero chance of getting the garage to pay for any sort of hire car whilst yours is in there and you should probably be proactive in calling another garage to see what they say about doing a repair and MOT before Christmas, though you will be pushing it at this point.
Some garages just aren't very good at sorting things out, I could have had a similar position with my BMW M4 where I took it to a local garage for an MOT a couple of months ago, it failed on a couple of minor bits but still had a good amount of MOT on it so I collected it whilst waiting for the garage to come back to me with a quote for parts, after a couple of days of no communication I booked it into a specialist instead and got it all sorted and a new MOT done.
To this day the local garage still hasn't given me any quote for the work
Some garages just aren't very good at sorting things out, I could have had a similar position with my BMW M4 where I took it to a local garage for an MOT a couple of months ago, it failed on a couple of minor bits but still had a good amount of MOT on it so I collected it whilst waiting for the garage to come back to me with a quote for parts, after a couple of days of no communication I booked it into a specialist instead and got it all sorted and a new MOT done.
To this day the local garage still hasn't given me any quote for the work
Jamescrs said:
I'd say you have zero chance of getting the garage to pay for any sort of hire car whilst yours is in there and you should probably be proactive in calling another garage to see what they say about doing a repair and MOT before Christmas, though you will be pushing it at this point.
Agree entirely.bigandclever said:
I know you're all on tenterhooks 
Had a moan at a higher-up at head office and all has been resolved. Car is repaired, MOT'd and back on my drive. No real explanation given, and I'll be voting with my feet in future.
Hooray! It would be interesting to know what the actual reasons were. Pre-Christmas workload/poor organisation perhaps. Had a moan at a higher-up at head office and all has been resolved. Car is repaired, MOT'd and back on my drive. No real explanation given, and I'll be voting with my feet in future.
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