75ZT Community

Took Gill's MX5 in for MOT last week, and got a call to say that it had failed on "seat belt anchorages" both sides and needed "four hours of welding"

They wouldn't give a price as "welding work is difficult to estimate"

Guessed that the four hours was total work needed, not actually four hours solid welding, so said to go ahead. Assumed the time would be taken up by removing seats, taking out carpet/trim, welding, then replacing carpet, trim and seats

Picked car up next day, and was reasonably pleased to find the bill was £266. This was made up of £1 for a bulb, £180 for labour (rate/time not specified) and £48 for MOT plus VAT

However........

Later that evening looked at the sills and was amazed to find what you see below. Turns out that the work was done from the outside, and they had "made good" by painting over the result with ugly, black underseal. Compounding this, they hadn't even gone all across the sill, instead just painting a patch

What a load of ****

So, what to do next? They'd not actually quoted any price or said what they intended to do, but surely they should have told me that they could either go the cheap route (underseal) as they did, or offer me an option of a more expensive body colour?

We're going to pop to a local bodyshop on Monday, get a quote, and then go back to the original garage and insist they pay

Any advice folks?

Here's what it should look like



Here's what it looks like now

Did they have a rail with their horses tied to?

PaulT wrote:Did they have a rail with their horses tied to?

LOL!

Thing is, we have been going to this (one man band) place for years, and never needed any work of this kind before, so this has come as a bit of a shock

Needless to say, once this is resolved, we'll never be going again

(oh, and they didn't give me last years MOT back)

Regardless of the quality of welding (which I doubt), the paint job is less than satisfactory, to the point of idiocy. I can't imagine them finishing their own car to this (for want of a better word) standard.
I fear your only choice is to take it elsewhere.

The body shop round the corner will do a good job (have taken two cars there before with excellent results) but I do need to confront the original garage for the cost

Should be interesting!

You should involve Trading Standards.

You could ask if they are part of the good garage scheme

Apart from anything else, underseal on it's own is not an effective treatment for metal. It needs to be properly primed and painted, underseal should only be applied as a coating on top. It dries out and cracks, allowing salty water to get in behind and holding it there.

So ask, them, is it painted underneath? If not the work is plainly unsatisfactory, if yes, ask them to remove the unsighly underseal.

Well, I went to see them, which was not fun as I am not the confrontational sort. They are actually a couple of nearly OAPs (thinking about it, they are probably past retirement age) but nevertheless, not fun this sort of thing

Anyway, on the way there I went to the local bodyshop. He agreed it was a terrible job and said it would cost £150 to fix. I told them this, and although they agreed that the job wasn't good, said "someone will have to pay for it" I told them it would not be me!

They said they would ask the mechanic about it (not sure why) and then phoned me later to say they would pay half. I texted Gill who said she wouldn't pay more than £50. I got back to them and they said "let's not argue about this, we'll pay half - is it worth getting worried about £25". Er, in that case, why don't you pay an extra £25!!

Next bright idea they had was that they wanted me to go back to the bodyshop and see if I could get them to bring their price down to £100 "and we'll pay half". Hang on, that's even less that they would be stumping up! They seemed to be trying to convince me that this would be a good offer. Yes, at this stage I'd be paying £25 less, but so would they!

Starting to get fed up with now, but in the meantime Gill had found that, as we paid by credit card, we had a claim against the card company too. Not sure how this works, but happy to go with it if we can get things sorted.

So, the upshot is that the car is going in next week, it's costing £150 (I declined to talk the price down!) the garage are paying £75, we're paying £75 and then hopefully claiming something back

Oh, and I'll be going somewhere else for all future car work and MOTs!

The claim against the Credit Card Company has to be for more than £100 same as protection on companies going bust.

No sorry, by doing what you have done is merely encouraging bad workmanship. They need to put right what they have screwed up.

As I suggested you should have involved Trading Standards. They will often get involved and if there have been other complaints take action.

As John says you will not get the money back from the credit card company so you are paying for someone to bodge your car

Hmmmm Might have to look at this again then

Certainly don't want to encourage bodgery and definitely won't be having the remedial work done at the same place... I trust the bodyshop I have got the quote from

PaulT wrote:No sorry, by doing what you have done is merely encouraging bad workmanship. They need to put right what they have screwed up.

but I believe you have to give them the chance to put it right, unfortunately.

As I suggested you should have involved Trading Standards. They will often get involved and if there have been other complaints take action.

I think it depends on whether the garage are sorting out the problem or refusing. It is worth telling TS though, in case it's part of a pattern.

As John says you will not get the money back from the credit card company so you are paying for someone to bodge your car

Credit card companies are very slippery here anyway, so I wouldn't expect much of them no matter what.

Duncan wrote:I think it depends on whether the garage are sorting out the problem or refusing. It is worth telling TS though, in case it's part of a pattern..

Thing is, they are sorting it, although not entirely at their expense. And I don't think it's part of a pattern, as we've not had any issues with them before.....

Dave wrote:

Duncan wrote:I think it depends on whether the garage are sorting out the problem or refusing. It is worth telling TS though, in case it's part of a pattern..

Thing is, they are sorting it, although not entirely at their expense. And I don't think it's part of a pattern, as we've not had any issues with them before.....

But how do you know - how many times have they welded your car?

The type of work you have had done might have been ok but if this is the first time you have had welding done then you have now found what is wrong with their service.

I also think you are being very silly sharing the bill with them for putting right their total and utter bodge job - sorry but that is the way I see it

Morning dave...why would you pay towards their bodge? Especially given they have admitted it is their bodge? I would merely be saying I wanted the car properly repaired at their expense..end of...

Granted it is difficult sometimes playing the bolshie customer and feeling like you are making life difficult...but the fact is, THEY made life difficult by trying to palm you off with a crap repair so you should feel no guilt about being ruthless about this...

Agree whole heartily with Zeb, and report them to trading standards and any "body" they are members of.

We have had welding done in the past, but never in a place that could be seen and also by a previous mechanic

I don't want to pay for the bodge, but not really sure how much of a bodge it is - the welding is probably/hopefully OK, it's the paint (or lack of) that looks bad

Having said that, I don't know. I just want it sorted and, I'll freely admit, I don't want any aggro. I am 100% rubbish at confrontation, and if Gill hadn't pushed me into it, would probably have done nothing.... Not good I know, but that's the way it is.

I trust the bloke that will be doing the repair, so happy that it's getting done, just wish it hadn't been necessary in the first place

I would ask myself. Is it worth the aggravation? Generally the answer would be no, if it was just a matter of a few quid. Better to get it sorted and get on with life, it's too damn short to get bogged down in principals over so little.

I think Mick is right - it's not worth having sleepless nights over so put it down to experience and move on.