Legal advice please - poor garage repair work

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Just want some thoughts here - currently going through the motions.

Story is -

Garage A took my car in for warranty repair work (dealer secondhand car warranty) on an R Reg Corsa. Head gasket had failed. Collected car a week later from Garage A. Water leak from top hose, which had been put on without a gasket, covered in sealant. Took car back to garage A, they apologised, replaced gasket but massively overfilled coolant. Still leaking. Replaced top hose myself in the end and all is good. Car however is idling rough, which it was not doing before, left it to see if it would sort itself out. This was about 3 to 4 weeks ago. They also lost my dealer reciept and warranty paperwork, and did not refit the airbox properly which I also did. Total loss of confidence in this garage.

Car is still idling rough, so took it to Garage B (independant trusted) for a complete diagnostic check and investigation into it. They discovered it was air getting in from the breather pipes under the inlet manifold. All repaired now (4 hours labour plus parts) - here is a summery from the engineers report -

"Removed top inlet manifold branches and found that the main inlet pipe to the thottle body is not only worn, but fitted incorrectly and securued with cable ties"

"Vacuum pipe from rocker cover to inlet manifold also found trapped and partially squashed inside the top inlet manifold branches, thus not allowing full vacuum flow"

This just about sums up the standard and reputation of work from Garage A.

I have contacted their head office (of garage A), and I am waiting for the area manager to call back. I intend to ask them to pay the cost of the labour (not the parts or diagnostic charges), which comes in at £235+vat.

My question is, what evidence will small claims court require? The car has had no engine work done to it since new bar normal servicing, so the only garage to have the head off is Garage A, and all the area indicated would have to have been removed in order to do the head gasket.

Hopefully it wont come to SCC, but I want to be prepared...

Just to add, garage B was not informed who Garage A were, nor were they informed that I was dissatisfied with the work caused by Garage A, so no bias there.

Many thanks

[pacman1]

I'm no expert here, but I can't see that the SSC route is the way to go, because you have fixed things yourself. Won't garage A's angle be that you should have given them every opportunity to rectify any problems?
I would suggest that all you may hope for is a good will payent of some sort from them, if they value their reputation.
Just me tuppence.

[JustinP1]

pacman1 said:

I'm no expert here, but I can't see that the SSC route is the way to go, because you have fixed things yourself. Won't garage A's angle be that you should have given them every opportunity to rectify any problems?
I would suggest that all you may hope for is a good will payent of some sort from them, if they value their reputation.
Just me tuppence.

You are correct.

A successful claim would be one where you have given warning to the garage along the lines that you expect them to rectify the problem or that you will seek the work done elsewhere.

Without that, a claim won't be successful I am afraid.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

JustinP1 said:

pacman1 said:

I'm no expert here, but I can't see that the SSC route is the way to go, because you have fixed things yourself. Won't garage A's angle be that you should have given them every opportunity to rectify any problems?
I would suggest that all you may hope for is a good will payent of some sort from them, if they value their reputation.
Just me tuppence.

You are correct.

A successful claim would be one where you have given warning to the garage along the lines that you expect them to rectify the problem or that you will seek the work done elsewhere.

Without that, a claim won't be successful I am afraid.

The work I did myslef is simply to replace the top hose - there is no way on this earth that it would be sensible to take the car back to a garage that had repeatedly bodged the jobs before.

However I take your point on board and will proceed with caution.

[JustinP1]

TheCarpetCleaner said:

JustinP1 said:

pacman1 said:

I'm no expert here, but I can't see that the SSC route is the way to go, because you have fixed things yourself. Won't garage A's angle be that you should have given them every opportunity to rectify any problems?
I would suggest that all you may hope for is a good will payent of some sort from them, if they value their reputation.
Just me tuppence.

You are correct.

A successful claim would be one where you have given warning to the garage along the lines that you expect them to rectify the problem or that you will seek the work done elsewhere.

Without that, a claim won't be successful I am afraid.

The work I did myslef is simply to replace the top hose - there is no way on this earth that it would be sensible to take the car back to a garage that had repeatedly bodged the jobs before.

However I take your point on board and will proceed with caution.

That is the way that the law of contract works however, although I do agree.

Technically, they are in breach of contract and you have to give them the reasonable opportunity to rectify anything you feel they have not fulfilled.

They *may* brick it if they receive court papers, however, if they defend the case then it is unlikely you will win I am afraid.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

JustinP1 said:

TheCarpetCleaner said:

JustinP1 said:

pacman1 said:

I'm no expert here, but I can't see that the SSC route is the way to go, because you have fixed things yourself. Won't garage A's angle be that you should have given them every opportunity to rectify any problems?
I would suggest that all you may hope for is a good will payent of some sort from them, if they value their reputation.
Just me tuppence.

You are correct.

A successful claim would be one where you have given warning to the garage along the lines that you expect them to rectify the problem or that you will seek the work done elsewhere.

Without that, a claim won't be successful I am afraid.

The work I did myslef is simply to replace the top hose - there is no way on this earth that it would be sensible to take the car back to a garage that had repeatedly bodged the jobs before.

However I take your point on board and will proceed with caution.

That is the way that the law of contract works however, although I do agree.

Technically, they are in breach of contract and you have to give them the reasonable opportunity to rectify anything you feel they have not fulfilled.

They *may* brick it if they receive court papers, however, if they defend the case then it is unlikely you will win I am afraid.

Understood.

I am waiting for a callback from the area manager first, I am keeping polite and factual, so hopefully they will just sort it out without having to go there first. There is absolutely no doubt on the report that the poor refitting could have been done any other way.

What do I stand to lose if I go down the SCC route financially worst case? I will be claiming for £276.13 for the labour plus whatever court fees and actual travel time I incurr - being fair and honest I am not charging for the diagnostics or the parts (gasket, perished hose etc), as those are my problem.

[Andy_GSA]

TheCarpetCleaner said:

JustinP1 said:

TheCarpetCleaner said:

JustinP1 said:

pacman1 said:

I'm no expert here, but I can't see that the SSC route is the way to go, because you have fixed things yourself. Won't garage A's angle be that you should have given them every opportunity to rectify any problems?
I would suggest that all you may hope for is a good will payent of some sort from them, if they value their reputation.
Just me tuppence.

You are correct.

A successful claim would be one where you have given warning to the garage along the lines that you expect them to rectify the problem or that you will seek the work done elsewhere.

Without that, a claim won't be successful I am afraid.

The work I did myslef is simply to replace the top hose - there is no way on this earth that it would be sensible to take the car back to a garage that had repeatedly bodged the jobs before.

However I take your point on board and will proceed with caution.

That is the way that the law of contract works however, although I do agree.

Technically, they are in breach of contract and you have to give them the reasonable opportunity to rectify anything you feel they have not fulfilled.

They *may* brick it if they receive court papers, however, if they defend the case then it is unlikely you will win I am afraid.

Understood.

I am waiting for a callback from the area manager first, I am keeping polite and factual, so hopefully they will just sort it out without having to go there first. There is absolutely no doubt on the report that the poor refitting could have been done any other way.

What do I stand to lose if I go down the SCC route financially worst case? I will be claiming for £276.13 for the labour plus whatever court fees and actual travel time I incurr - being fair and honest I am not charging for the diagnostics or the parts (gasket, perished hose etc), as those are my problem.

If you issue for £273 you'll pay an issue fee of £30 (£25 for online issue) and a hearing fee of £25 if it goes that far. If you lose you'll also have to pay any witness expenses incurred by the other side (travel plus loss of earnings), plus any legal costs if the court think you've behaved 'unreasonably' - however that's a very big hurdle for them to overcome.

[cuneus]

Well just to add another viewpoint.

You do not have to give the original garage the opportunity to rectify the fault - this is a proven fact.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

cuneus said:

Well just to add another viewpoint.

You do not have to give the original garage the opportunity to rectify the fault - this is a proven fact.

Anything to back up that fact?

(Not that I don't believe you, I just need to base an opinion based on events, so as to be sure to know how far to push these guys )

[cuneus]

TheCarpetCleaner said:

cuneus said:

Well just to add another viewpoint.

You do not have to give the original garage the opportunity to rectify the fault - this is a proven fact.

Anything to back up that fact?

(Not that I don't believe you, I just need to base an opinion based on events, so as to be sure to know how far to push these guys )

I had a respray done.
It was very bad - so bad I "lost faith" in their ability to fix.
I had an independent inspection and 2 quotes for remedial work.
The County court judge had no hesitation in awarding me full costs

I still have all the paperwork and can take pictures with a tin of custard if required

[TheCarpetCleaner]

cuneus said:

TheCarpetCleaner said:

cuneus said:

Well just to add another viewpoint.

You do not have to give the original garage the opportunity to rectify the fault - this is a proven fact.

Anything to back up that fact?

(Not that I don't believe you, I just need to base an opinion based on events, so as to be sure to know how far to push these guys )

I had a respray done.
It was very bad - so bad I "lost faith" in their ability to fix.
I had an independent inspection and 2 quotes for remedial work.
The County court judge had no hesitation in awarding me full costs

I still have all the paperwork and can take pictures with a tin of custard if required

No that's fine for now - cheers dude!

Sounds like the spraying version of my problem.

Head office are getting copies of their original invoice, and the engineers report from Garage B today, they have apologised for not calling back 3 times in a row (looks like this standard "Garage" trait runs all the way up to management ), and they are going to speak to me early next week.

Here is hoping we don't get to court level... so far they sound reasonable and have not dismissed me straight away...

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Small update - for anyone google searching or having similar issues - I have contacted the Warranty company that paid for the repair, they are being extremely helpful and are also going above the secretary to the managing directors to get a response - they are very unhappy having paid for a bodged repair.

Also contacted the AA, as these garages pride themselves on "being fully authorised and randomly audited by the AA as a trusted garage of choice" and left a full report, this will also be being sent over to the managing directors, however it doesn't seem to mean much in the grand scheme of things - seems almost as useful as the good garage scheme...

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Final update - it is all done now.

The garage that bodged the repair work have paid the labour costs for the other garage to fix it, they also had it in (with me present) at a different branch, so I could have them compression test and sniff test it.

Results came back as all ok (compression within spec and no trace of exhaust gases in the coolant) so the final issue of slightly rough idling is down to something else (I have some ideas from reading the various forums on this car)

So thankfully, it didn't get to court, but I am still annoyed that they didn't bother to just speak to me in the first place, that would have avoided all these stupid threats and wasted time IMO.

Then again - I have only ever had one garage ever call me back. Ever. Such is the way of these things...