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Legal advice for Cowboy servicing from franchised Chrysler dealer,Belm


sako751sg
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Last year the old fella bought a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee,and last Friday stuck it into Belmont Kemnay for its first service.Being the fella that he is,he marked the air filter and also the wheels as these are listed in the check list for rotation to make sure it was carried out as it should be.Just over 2 hours after dropping off,he picked it up,drove hame,and on checking service sheet and bill found he had been charged for a new air filter costing £28 and the wheels had been ticked as being rotated but on checking the old filter was still in place and wheels were still on their original corners.Instead of contacting the garage,he phoned the head office of Chrysler UK and explained the situation and they said they would get in touch with Belmont and get back on Monday.Phone call came on Monday,and the advice was vague to say the least with him being told that it is really between the garage and him but they would phone again when they heard back from Belmont.The old man asked how he is supposed to get the Jeep serviced from now on and was told he must build up a trust with the garage again,which is laughable to put it mildly.Its been a week today and the garage hasnt been in contact regarding the issue which is shocking PR so im wondering what would be the best course of action to take.I would have thought they would be bending over backwards to rectify the affair but seemingly nay.Always see these things on the box but when a local garage is ripping folks off at your back door its not so funny and how many other folk do they rip off?

Any advice legally or otherwise appreciated.

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Local trading standards and a stinking letter to them first of all. its pretty much fraud so at least he should expect a refund for work not done. I however would not take it back there as you just never know what the monkeys would do as revenge its also worth mentioning you will be contacting the local rag.

Edited by al4x
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It's fraud. Trading Standards, private prosecution is the small claims court, and if they want to settle before the court case, a huge and VERY public letter of apology to all their customers and local media.

 

Edit : do you have small claims court in Scotland ? I do know your legal system is very different

Edited by robbiep
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Thats a similar experience I had with a Toyota Camry td. I'd noticed how the first 500 mile service specified torquing down the head bolts - but half of them were inside the rocker cover.

 

I marked the rocker cover bolts and when I collected the car checked them - the bolts had not been moved. There reasoning after I pointed out the shoddiness was that the ones outside the rocker cover still tightened up the head. Three weeks later the head gasket went - I kicked up a stink and it got done under warranty. They closed soon after that - I guess it was quite a common occurrence.

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Oh c'mon Sako! you know as well as I do that most people in Kemnay are six fingered banjo players!

 

On a serious note - I'd go to the trade standards, ask to speak to someone with a position no less than the service manager and take a draft of a letter to show him that you intend to drop with your brief - this could well have caused a fatality if the wheels had a failure/issue - the first services usually pick up manufadcturing flaws/faults and are cruicial.

 

A great example of this was when I worked for Landrover (At Town and County - you will know of them) - P38 Range rovers were all recalled as the original service sheet called for the studs on the hub to be coated with copper grease - this proved an error as Range Rovers all over the country were shedding wheels at an alarming rate - it was later discovered the wheel nuts had no relief hole - when you tightened the wheel nuts on and torqued them the grease caused the nut to hydrualicaly lock, after driving the centrefugal force caused the grease to fly out and the wheel nuts to be loose and in extreme cases the wheels to fall off...

 

On a monday we used to count the P38 's that had been drooped off and the journeyman used to sing -

 

"you picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel" :lol::lol:

 

This is terrible service especially on a £30,000 odd vehicle! and no less than a 2 year service deal free of charge is what should be handed to him as an appology - also the service manager should be offering the chace to come in and watch the car being serviced to build confidence - there are people who used to do this when I worked in a garage - the were given bump caps and told to stay out from under the ramp but that they could ask any questions they like.

 

Regards,

 

Gixer

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That's a bum deal my mate did the same with his L200. Went in and kicked up a big fuss so got a full refund and a cracking deal on his next motor. But vowed to never use the garage after that and sold it shortly after. I would go back in with him the morn when it's busy and kick up a big fuss and see how it goes from there

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I believe in most of Europe now there's no legal requirement to have your vehicle serviced by the main dealer in order to maintain the manufacturers warranty.

So long as the work is done to manufacturers specifications using manufacturers own parts.

You're almost right mate, you Do Not have to use manufacturers parts, any parts used must meet Original Equipment specs. Its called Block Exemption and says you can get your car serviced anywhere you like and as long as its done to manufactures service schedule and using OE spec parts its fine.

Google Right to Repair campaign and Right to Choose campaign

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Trading stds or police its obtaining money by deception pure and simple. the only real defence would be no intention, thats hard as surely the parts must be called off in advance. I suspect it might be a case of a spanner on bonus for times ( i thought that ended years back to stop this sort of thing)

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No seriously, phone 999 and get the police involved, then immediately phone Trading Standards followed by Santa, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny.

 

1. Generate lots of paper and send it by fax

2. If service paid for by credit card, reverse the transaction if possible (probably not)

3. Letter of demand for return of cost of service and follow up in small claims

 

Chop out car with alternative dealer and buy something else.

 

Don't stress it and don't get all Daily Mail. The garage doesn't give a **** and no one else will.

 

As for trading standards, absolute joke in his neck of the woods.

 

 

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brings ya back to the old adage "If a jobs worth doing properly...do it yourself" ,...... for my own entertainment I used to mark things and torque spark plugs and bolts up to specific values (not the one in the book) whenever I stuck a new bike into the dealer for it's free 500 mile service, without fail it always came back untouched, lots of different bikes, lots of different dealers, same rip off .... all it did was give me that valuable stamp in the book for the warranty..... then I did the service myself

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That is bad if you pay for something then you should get it having said that they probably think he will probably be chucking it in for a new one in a couple of years so it dose not matter anyway. like when I was younger it always used to make me laugh when people got new cars and kept the plastic covers on the seats so that they would not get dirty so they are sliding about on plastic so that the next person to have it can have clean seats.

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