Tag Archives: garage complaint

garage services

When car repairs for Bee cost more than she’s worth

Yesterday I spoke to Club member Fiona following her visit to a manufacturer approved Nissan repairer in the Midlands last week. I won’t mention their name at this stage in case they can put matters right here, but if they don’t (and I have my doubts), I will add it later.

The offending garage in question isn’t a member of our FOXY Choice network but they are signed up to the Motor Codes scheme so we have referred her to them for advice.

The car we’re discussing is an 02 reg Nissan Primera called Bee. Whilst it is undoubtedly an elderly car it has never failed an MOT and Fiona has never bought other than Nissan since passing her driving test. In short she loves and cares for this car.

FOXY’s recommended garage for members is a dealership some way across town for Fiona so we understand why she opted for a nearer but Nissan-approved independent repairer on this occasion to diagnose a mysterious light on Bee’s dashboard.

This garage identified the fault as a dodgy sensor and quoted £266 to replace and rectify the matter, all in. With the benefit of hindsight, we’d say this was on the expensive side but we weren’t involved then. The problem is that this didn’t fix the dashboard light so the work would appear to have been done to no avail.

The verdict? “We think it may be the cambelt now; this will take the bill over £1000…” their technician said. Which would have exceeded the likely value of Bee of course…

But he wasn’t at all nice about this, made Fiona feel the car was too old to be worth bothering with, nobody apologised to her and the final straw was when he suggested it’d be best to explain this to her husband – as if her ‘pretty little head’ couldn’t take all this in.

Needless to say, Fiona’s husband wasn’t overly sympathetic about this and was quick to point out that they had failed to diagnose the problem correctly so why was there a bill? An impasse was reached and even the Manager seemed unable to come up with a solution of any sort.

It’s too soon for us to know where we go from here until Motor Codes gives us their advice.

Certainly Fiona will now go to our ‘female friendly approved’ dealership and we know she’ll be looked after there. But the tricky thing is always when motorists are expected to pay these offending bills before collecting their car, even when the bill seems unreasonable. Perhaps the work wasn’t needed, or done in the first place? Our experience suggests that many garages get paid for unnecessary work in similar and often more expensive situations and then the motorist has no option but to take his or her car elsewhere to remedy the situation, paying again and unsure of how to get the initial party to cough up.

As a result of some to-ing and fro-ing here, possibly at the mention of the second car dealership involvement, we had understood that the Nissan approved repairer had dropped the bill to c£90. That sounded better than the initial £266 of course but it’s still important to remember that the garage hadn’t fixed the problem and may well have replaced a perfectly good car part unnecessarily. In fact the Service Manager said that the new parts were removed, so how can Fiona be sure that the work was ever done?

But when her husband went to collect Bee he was charged £288 so not only did they exceed the original quote by £22 but they also seem to have ignored the fact that this has achieved nothing for the customer. So was the work done or not? The second car dealership should be able to confirm this or otherwise and we’ll be looking at this invoice and breakdown of their charges later.

But the lesson is surely that they could have saved face by being upfront and honest about the problem, realistic about the value of the car they were working on and more knowledgeable overall. Aren’t they supposed to know what’s wrong with a car, not just say ‘we don’t know’ which is how they’ve left things for Fiona. We certainly thought a manufacturer approved repairer should know. But being an authorised Nissan repairer doesn’t count for a lot really when the person representing this brand is rude, patronising and uncaring.

We’re in this for the long haul of course because Fiona is a member. If we don’t get the right outcome for her in a reasonable period of time we’ll be spreading the word about this repairer within the Club. Otherwise how else can female motorists single out the best and steer clear of the rest in future. That’s what FOXY is all about.

Watch this space.

FOXY

women drivers

How FOXY helps women drivers…

I am reading a letter from a lady we helped recently, whose daughter was a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club and introduced us.

It says ‘We have had a full refund of £949.99 and the missing zinc discs have now been fitted so the matter has been fully resolved. Without your invaluable help and expertise I am sure we would not have had a successful outcome. Lady drivers can be reassured when they have FOXY on their side.’

In this situation we worked with the garage concerned to identify a staff failing and to rectify this.

Had we not been contacted in the first place, as a result of a member checking this situation with us, I wonder if the garage would have discovered this personnel problem before something even more serious happened.

I am confident now that the garage has done the right thing by the customer and, a little later, by resolving matters with the member of staff. This also highlighted a training need which is now being addressed.

This is the sort of area FOXY gets involved in when women drivers are in trouble, to do with garages, fastfits, dealerships and bodyshops. Supporting female motorists when they need it and counselling garages when it’s clear that something has gone wrong. We are diplomatic, we check to see if the business is a member of a trading association to involve, we advise the lady but we don’t take sides at the outset and we certainly understand that mistakes can occur!

In my experience the sign of a good business is one that accepts a mistake has been made, recognises its responsibilities, learns from its mistakes and addresses the matter fairly from a customer’s point of view. The sign of a reasonable customer is one who understands that mistakes can be made on both sides, that their expectations might have been too high in the first place and is willing to give the business a fair chance to put things right…

However, having waited for a reasonable time period and actively encouraged a fair outcome between supplier and customer FOXY’s tone will change if it seems the business is being uncooperative. In fact, if we detect a garage/dealership or car insurer that doesn’t care, that isn’t willing to be reasonable or was misleading customers in some way, FOXY will have no hesitation but to blow the whistle about them within the Club. In a feminine way of course.

How else would Club members know which businesses to steer clear of in future*?

FOXY

* I hasten to add that this has yet to happen involving a member of the FOXY Choice female friendly garage network!

female friendly

How to complain about a bad garage

If you aren't satisfied, tell them why.
As you might expect in an industry where garages don’t have to be licensed or mechanics qualified (but few motorists realise this and most opt for the cheapest MOT and car servicing products) this formula quickly converts into a high level of complaints.

Sadly too many female motorists fall at the first hurdle, like our daughter did some years ago. It’s when you realise you’ve been ripped off ie received poor value for money or worse, that the work you’ve paid for wasn’t done and you come away from the business or an unpleasant phone call feeling insulted and treated like a muppet.

Don’t imagine that the parts they show you, that they tell you are yours, are always yours either. We say to always look for evidence of new parts fitted to your car, not just trust a garage you don’t know from Adam… As an aside the best parts are stamped OE (original equipment) and will last longer than OEM stamped parts (original equipment manufacturer; parts supplied to but not necessarily approved by the manufacturer). Steer well clear of any parts that have neither stamp.

Yet if the complaint in question is relatively minor and you’re getting nowhere telling your story, many of us simply put it down to experience, take a financial hit, moan to our friends and take our business elsewhere.

Being foxy and female, we take a slightly different tack here. We don’t think this is good enough and we’d like to encourage all women to keep on complaining until their message is understood and it gets put right. How else will the offending business know the standards women expect if we accept lower ones, in their minds?

We make sure, for example, that any really bad garages that our members come across are outed privately, within the Club. And we support members whilst they go through the formal complaints hoop here…

Rest assured, our run ins with bad garages have never included FOXY Choice female friendly approved ones as obviously any garage that joins the FOXY family signs the FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell women things they don’t need or want.’

If no service outs the bad garages how will motorists know which ones to avoid? Certainly our experience of Trading Standards, for example, is that they won’t tell us ‘for legal reasons…’

So here are FOXY’s top ten tips to help lady drivers complain effectively when things go wrong at your garage (dealership or fastfit)…bearing in mind that the final bill has probably had to be paid by you to collect your car and you are still very, very annoyed…

1 Stay calm. State your case politely, firmly and in person where appropriate. Prove things where you can.
2 If you feel you are getting nowhere with a junior member of staff – ask to speak to the Manager. Where appropriate, put your experience in writing to him/her asking for a formal reply within a reasonable period eg 7 days.
3 Be prepared to accept a compromise with good grace. If you allow the business to save face in some way you stand a better chance of negotiating a discount or getting things done again… If you are too unforgiving, the garage is more likely to dig in and less likely to admit they made a mistake.
4 If that tack fails too – refer the complaint up a notch where you can. For example is the garage part of a business group or an approved manufacturer repairer? If yes, relay your complaint to the business HQ or manufacturer and ask for help. Once more, ask for a reply within a reasonable period of time.
5 Does the garage carry any trade signs or certificates in their office/workshop, on their external walls or at their website to suggest they are a member of a trade association. If so, contact that association for advice. If the garage is a member of the Motor Codes scheme, post feedback at their website and ask them for advice.
6 Consider a conciliation scheme but if it doesn’t seem to be independent (some seem skewed in favour of the trade businesses whose subscriptions presumably pay for this service…), consider arbitration.
7 Arbitration is an independent process which you pay for. You have to weigh up the pros and cons here.
8 If all else fails you can go to court. Certainly if you are still steaming by the time you get to this stage we recommend you do…
9 Don’t give up. If nothing more, you are doing all this to make sure the business learns from its mistakes and so that other women drivers don’t find themselves in the same situation.(We hope you get a fair financial solution of course…)
10 Join FOXY to help you through the process. We have a good track record here!

NB: Complaint resolution is all about the word ‘reasonable.’ Don’t expect a business to respond well if you go in mentioning the local media or threatening you’ll contact Watchdog, for example. And you can’t jump from 1 to 8 because a court will want to see you have tried every other (reasonable) route first…

On the other hand it is reasonable for women to say ‘I am a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club which requires me to share garage feedback which is then shared with local foxy ladies’. Few garages like to think of this happening and providing they know this is how the Club works they will often look to compromise here… Indeed this approach has resolved many a tricky complaint – without FOXY getting involved.

To read more about this subject from the Citizens Advice Bureau that is replacing the current Consumer Direct service.

FOXY