Shoddy workmanship from a Nationwide chain of car garages
Discussion
Well, after all the bad press & rumours that surround large national car garages, I was forced into using one against my better judgement last week. It ISN'T Kwik fit, but another Nationwide chain that is currently undergoing re-branding.....
So, last week I was on a course 140 miles from home, staying in a hotel for the duration. On the Thursday night, as I left the training centre car park, my alternator belt snapped on my daily hack.... Bit of a pain, but as the hotel was less than 2 miles away, I decided to just drive back there, and call the AA once there. On the way, I noticed an outlet of the aforementioned garage chain, which I immedatly swung into , and asked if they could sort it out. I was expecting a horrendous price, but they came up with a quote for £38 fitted, but couldn't do it until the Friday morning. I took the chance, and booked it in.
Friday afternoon, I go to collect the car, and all is well, so I start the 140 mile trip home. About 15 miles from home, I notice that the airbag light is on, and other strage indications! Of course, the battery is going flat, as for some reason the alternator isn't charging....
So I take it to my local mechanic today, and the plebs on Friday have fitted the new alternator belt, but left the earth wire dangling into the fan of the alternator
.... Of course this has arced out & shredded the wire, and killed the alternator, as well as rendering the undervoltage warning light inoperative as the system needs an earth to work, hence why I got no battery warning lignt on, unlike when my belt snapped.
As a direct result of this, I have had to have a day off work to get it sorted, and a bill of £100+ to get a new alternator fitted due to the incompetance of some monkey doing one of the most simple jobs on a car.
What makes me cross is that I will make a formal complaint tomorrow, but I know they will deny everything, so I will have to basically just suck it up. I work on aircraft engines and airframes for a living, if somthing like this happened, there would be a full investigation into why it occured, and the person responsible would have a serious problem.
So, not having used a franchised/branded/chain garage for years due to the stories of utter incompetance, in my sample of one, doing one of the most simple jobs on a car, they managed to completely botch it up and actually cause more damage than they started with...
A good independant mechanic/Garage who cares about thier reputation is absolutly priceless IMHO...
I will post up the results of my phonecall tomorrow!
So, last week I was on a course 140 miles from home, staying in a hotel for the duration. On the Thursday night, as I left the training centre car park, my alternator belt snapped on my daily hack.... Bit of a pain, but as the hotel was less than 2 miles away, I decided to just drive back there, and call the AA once there. On the way, I noticed an outlet of the aforementioned garage chain, which I immedatly swung into , and asked if they could sort it out. I was expecting a horrendous price, but they came up with a quote for £38 fitted, but couldn't do it until the Friday morning. I took the chance, and booked it in.
Friday afternoon, I go to collect the car, and all is well, so I start the 140 mile trip home. About 15 miles from home, I notice that the airbag light is on, and other strage indications! Of course, the battery is going flat, as for some reason the alternator isn't charging....
So I take it to my local mechanic today, and the plebs on Friday have fitted the new alternator belt, but left the earth wire dangling into the fan of the alternator
.... Of course this has arced out & shredded the wire, and killed the alternator, as well as rendering the undervoltage warning light inoperative as the system needs an earth to work, hence why I got no battery warning lignt on, unlike when my belt snapped.As a direct result of this, I have had to have a day off work to get it sorted, and a bill of £100+ to get a new alternator fitted due to the incompetance of some monkey doing one of the most simple jobs on a car.
What makes me cross is that I will make a formal complaint tomorrow, but I know they will deny everything, so I will have to basically just suck it up. I work on aircraft engines and airframes for a living, if somthing like this happened, there would be a full investigation into why it occured, and the person responsible would have a serious problem.
So, not having used a franchised/branded/chain garage for years due to the stories of utter incompetance, in my sample of one, doing one of the most simple jobs on a car, they managed to completely botch it up and actually cause more damage than they started with...
A good independant mechanic/Garage who cares about thier reputation is absolutly priceless IMHO...
I will post up the results of my phonecall tomorrow!
Did they own up ?
The local branch of a nationwide chain here (thats undergoing rebranding due to being taken over by the company that used to own them originally 10 years ago) has always been very helpful and reasonable
It's probably like a well known company that can makes paint chips disappear away - it depends a lot on the local staff/management
The local branch of a nationwide chain here (thats undergoing rebranding due to being taken over by the company that used to own them originally 10 years ago) has always been very helpful and reasonable
It's probably like a well known company that can makes paint chips disappear away - it depends a lot on the local staff/management
I had a similar problem with a Nationwide chain of Auto repair places that have Centres all over the place.
Head gasket repair under dealer 3 month warranty, I was directed there.
They did the head gasket repair, and left a leak from the thermostat housing, broke loads of bolts, left the air filter housing unsecured, car came back with a really odd rough idling problem (still not repaired despite months of investigation from other garages), they also refitted worn parts, and cabletied other parts rather than securing them properly. That is just the stuff I can remember. A 1.4l R reg Corsa should NOT be rocket science to work on...
Cost me £350 to put right from a professional garage, which they coughed up for in the end.
Call their head office number, and get an enginers report from the garage that fixed your car. Do NOT let them fob you off. I had to threaten them with small claims court action before they did anything.
IMO they are the engine repair version of a large chain that fits things kwickly, total shoddy outfit that needs to be put out of business now.
If you want further info, PM me, I may still have an email with their head office people on it.
Good luck, and DONT let the cheating f**kers win...
Head gasket repair under dealer 3 month warranty, I was directed there.
They did the head gasket repair, and left a leak from the thermostat housing, broke loads of bolts, left the air filter housing unsecured, car came back with a really odd rough idling problem (still not repaired despite months of investigation from other garages), they also refitted worn parts, and cabletied other parts rather than securing them properly. That is just the stuff I can remember. A 1.4l R reg Corsa should NOT be rocket science to work on...
Cost me £350 to put right from a professional garage, which they coughed up for in the end.
Call their head office number, and get an enginers report from the garage that fixed your car. Do NOT let them fob you off. I had to threaten them with small claims court action before they did anything.
IMO they are the engine repair version of a large chain that fits things kwickly, total shoddy outfit that needs to be put out of business now.
If you want further info, PM me, I may still have an email with their head office people on it.
Good luck, and DONT let the cheating f**kers win...
RWD cossie wil said:
I am going to ring them tomorrow...
I'm not excusing them but surely, you with your knowledge would have checked the work by having a look?I do, if I have to use any other (only with cars in warranty) and have often found problems.
Pointed out, on collection, can often mean for free or reduced.
I got 2 tyres fitted at a garage that operates nationwide. It took over an hour to get it done, in part because they seemed more concerned with poking each other in the back, and then spending the next 10 minutes chasing each other around the workshop like a couple of school girls.
A really pathetic operation. The term 'spanner monkey' would be flattery.
A really pathetic operation. The term 'spanner monkey' would be flattery.
Edited by MX7 on Monday 29th November 22:10
WhoseGeneration said:
RWD cossie wil said:
I am going to ring them tomorrow...
I'm not excusing them but surely, you with your knowledge would have checked the work by having a look?I do, if I have to use any other (only with cars in warranty) and have often found problems.
Pointed out, on collection, can often mean for free or reduced.
Should I REALLY have to check the work of a "professional" garage, on an extremley simple job?
RWD cossie wil said:
Should I REALLY have to check the work of a "professional" garage, on an extremley simple job?
Nope, and thats what I thought as well have driven away my newly repaired corsa... only to find a puddle of coolant under it next day (and upon further investigation, the coolant filled right up to the filler cap 
)It makes you wonder, how can they be so bad?
Doing a job like this should be their bread and butter, they should be able to do it with their eyes closed, all day long, perfectly.
Surely it doesn't make business sense to employ these sub-simian tits, when you can get above monkey average joes for the same price.
Doing a job like this should be their bread and butter, they should be able to do it with their eyes closed, all day long, perfectly.
Surely it doesn't make business sense to employ these sub-simian tits, when you can get above monkey average joes for the same price.
If this is turning into a garage ought to know better thread?
A mate once took a car to a specialist rather than a main dealer.
No surprise that by the time theyd finished the specialist bill somehow increased to that of the main dealer fixed price.
Later having a nose under the bonnet- should there be brake fluid there?
They'd only topped the brake fluid reservoir as full as it go plus a bit.
Quick use of the turkey baster to empty the reservoir down to max and cleaning the fluid off the engine bay paint before it ate it.
A mate once took a car to a specialist rather than a main dealer.
No surprise that by the time theyd finished the specialist bill somehow increased to that of the main dealer fixed price.
Later having a nose under the bonnet- should there be brake fluid there?
They'd only topped the brake fluid reservoir as full as it go plus a bit.
Quick use of the turkey baster to empty the reservoir down to max and cleaning the fluid off the engine bay paint before it ate it.
Jimboka said:
Last time I used the aforementioned establishment for a 'cheap' service, the coolant expansion bottle was filled to the top, interesting whistle when hot. I declined the offer to change the leaking brake calipers, Indy couldn't see a leak!
They did exactly the same thing to me after doing the gasket repair... Stil makes me wonder what other bodges they did that have not manifested themselves yet...Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff