An Update Would Be Nice! - Oh, And Not Joyriding My Car!

[jeebowhite]

So I find myself in a position that really just winds me up and I want to see if it does anyone else!

I dropped my car off at the garage yesterday, the airbag light is sitting there looking at me. I suspected initially it was a bad wire, as it was reporting a low resistance - took the car in, got handed a horrendous example of a courtesy car and told "we will let you know when its done".

Phoned up yesterday afternoon to check and was told "it will be ready tomorrow afternoon". Just phoned up again to be told they are waiting on a wire from Ford but its on backorder, and I need to bring it back next week for fitment.

Is it just me? or if someone tells you "it will be ready tomorrow" then you expect it to be ready tomorrow? and if nothing else, you expect that if they order the part and get told "its on back order" then it would just be nice for them to phone you, explain it and tell you that they will bring you back to fit it.

I really dont think its too hard to do? or am I just expecting far too much :P

[VickiW]

Your too soft jeebs. ....if they didnt do what they promised or even ring to inform you id have ate the head off them ...& ive worked on front line & got plenty of crap were customers were in the wrong dont be afraid to make someone cry

[jeebowhite]

haha, cheers Vicki,

In all honesty - if I was paying for it - I would have done! but as this is a warranty fix through the trader who sold me the car, I just cba to shout at them, they will be getting paid a fraction of what I would have if I got them to do the job, so they would have no encouragement to finish it quick for me! and I dont want to drive this lard lumping deathmobile anymore than I have to...

[VickiW]

Even if your not paying its poor customer service

[khevolution]

you don't have to scream and shout at people to get your point across, but if you have been promised that you car would of been ready this afternoon, then understandably that is what you should expect, its probably just a case of people at the garage not communicating to one another, im afraid when it gets like that, you sometimes have to act as the man in the middle and connect up the story

[jeebowhite]

This story just got a lot worse!

I am just having a quick conversation with Clive, once I complete this story, I shall share this with you, needless to say - they should consider themselves fortunate that there garage is not currently ablaze courtesy of a tin of petrol and one of my finest lit matches....

[VickiW]

Huh. ...do finish jeebs

[Pete80]

I find being cool, calm and collected works then when they dont expect it I make sure they understand Im not a happy bunny, this normally ends in me getting freebies to shut me up :D

[khevolution]

Still waiting for this update, typical.... He says he will update us with this story shortly, an hour later and we are still waiting...... Hypocrite! :p

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Ford OC mobile app

[VickiW]

Think we should report him to management!!!

[jeebowhite]

hehe, sorry guys.

The little one is not well and so far has been taking all my attention!

So the story....

I left the car with them as above for an airbag issue, phoned them up and was told "sorry it wont be ready - we are awaiting the part and you need to come back" - fine. Just to advise they loaned me a car for the period that the car was in the garage, and I am hoping that this was their offer of swapping cars for a few days!

Went to pick the car up, started driving back - noticed that the MPG had dropped, and I seemed to have lost 250 miles off my estimated range - odd I thought - perhaps they had disconnected the battery - seemingly not! got home, sorted the kids and shipped them off to bed and the anger began.

I plugged the dashcam into the computer and started digging through the video's, it didnt record yesterday evening but it recorded today!

The day started at 06:30, where one of the mechanics decided to take my car for a joyride. did a 1.4 mile round trip to go get cash out from the local tesco. Parked my car (I say that loosely, he abandoned it next to the cash machine, middle of the junction, then off he goes and you see him in frame getting money out the cashpoint.... back in the car, off he goes. I just want to add that at no point in the journey from here till his house does he have his seat belt on, I can hear the car chiming away!

On the way back he gets to his road and there is a bus approaching from the other direction, not a problem, not his car so why should he care - so he cuts a right onto his road in the path of the bus in doing so, loses attention and smacks the front nearside wheel into the kerb. chucks it on his drive and comes back shortly after.

Jumps in the car, he completes a 20.4 mile journey in 20 minutes, combination of some motorways, but he was most of the time inside lane avoiding the speed camera's (I hope!) being overtaken at some points then gunning it. He then continues his antics, but this time he is going rather quickly through towns 30/40 mph zones I expect much more quickly. He averaged a 20 mile journey (half and half motorway / town) in 20 minutes so he was speeding at points! then pulled up and disappeared for a few minutes, not sure if I heard someone else get in the car - so now he is using my car as a taxi. drives the next 8 miles and chucks my car into the parking space in which I picked the car up! seemingly, they havent even TOUCHED my car today, but they were happy to use it as there own personal transport.

They did NOT at any point tell me they would take the car, they did not ask me permission to use it as there own personal vehicle, they drove it as far as I am concerned innappropriately, dangerously, damaged the alloy and would not have said a word to me if I didnt have the dashcam in the car.

Then Clive made a valid point... their motor trader insurance policy covers them for purposes of business only - so going for a "test drive" or picking up parts for my repair - neither of which were happening at his house, the cashmachine or anywhere else for that matter. In which case - wheres his insurance? Comprehensive insurance covers you third party to drive other peoples vehicles with the owners consent. The only consent they would have is to drive my car from the space it was in, 3 seconds along to the garage, to be looked at then back to the parking space - so he didnt have my permission, so his own insurer would not have covered him.

So around 50 miles that I can account for, if not whatever he was doing yesterday with the car - have been driven in my car without my consent. They didnt bother replacing the fuel, didnt bother to ask my permission and I am SERIOUSLY angry about the entire ordeal. So I am burning them a DVD and heading down there with the father in law tomorrow to confront them.

I seriously felt violated, almost as if someone had walked into my house, picked up the keys and I was watching their journey along for the fun of it.

Words cannot be used to describe how I feel right now. Last night I had about 2 hours sleep, got home before watching the camera I was shattered and ready for bed. As you can see by this timestamp, I am still up, extremely angry and dont feel tired at all anymore, just a small impact that these people have bestowed upon me.

So there you are, the reason for my anger! I will update you all tomorrow after confronting these idiots and will share there defences in the morning. I believe that I will be taking this to the police and allow them to determine what course of action they want to take. The driving they had I will be damned if I am going to have this come back on me just because these people decided to use my car for their own abuse and gain - much as Clive said, if my car hasnt already been reported - I dont want to have them knocking on my door about it...

[Pete80]

Give it to them with both barrels mate, that is a serious case of negligence

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Ford OC mobile app

[b1g_dav3]

Definitely go to the police, I know I'd be straight there >_>

[stef123]

Just repel I to your email James, unbelievable is all I can say!

[Ru4hie]

Good job you have a dash cam fitted isnt it? if not how would you have any chance of proving this? you should be in for some serious apologies/freebies out of this. then again not sure i would ever leave my car with them again! what garage/dealer was it? I just read all that with my mouth open in shock. hope you get some sort of resolution and fast!

[VickiW]

Total !Removed! take. ...Oh I'd love to be there. ...police & local newspaper to let everyone in ur area know what kinda cowboys they are!!

[karlos1987]

That is bang out of order. I would definatley go in there with a calm head and then.if no joy flip out. They owe you petrol money, wear and tear money, alloy refurbished and compo.

If they don't settle this how you feel necessary I'd have to cause damage to their property.

They have basically stolen your car as you said.

Sent from my C5303 using Ford OC mobile app

[SandyCat]

That is seriously disgusting. It shows total contempt for the customer. When it's over stick it on Youtube with the name of the dealer in big letters.

[khevolution]

That is disgusting! Was this a Ford garage? Name and Shame and kick up a storm!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Ford OC mobile app

[jeebowhite]

Hi Guys,Thanks for all the comments! I just got back from giving them both barrells Pete and it went well! Stef, I will catch you ont he email :) Dave, I am definately still taking it to the police, there is evidence there that he broke road laws on camera and I suspect if nothing else they can give him a ticking off, at best an FPN.

Daniel, you read it with your mouth open, I watched all 50 odd minutes of it exactly the same, I watched each segment about twice because I couldnt believe what I was seeing, amongst other things it was just having to see it twice to believe what he was doing. I believe I will be publishing the video online, if nothing else but for you guys to see what could always happen!

Unknowing of what would happen when I got there, I took my father in law - the wife and I were a little apprehensive that they would take accusations of this in a light hearted means, so I thought it best to have a witness. Got there and there was only the boss in so spoke to him. Told him the story, gave him the video and showed him the curbed wheel.

the first two words to leave his mouth were "he's sacked".

Going through the story, he didnt have a clue what was going on - every incident, every event I told him was a shock and he looked like I just punched him int he gut with each one. My father in law and I are very good judges of character and we both agreed that he was completely none the wiser.

Final result is that I got £20 for the fuel, I am going to arrange the allow repair which they will pay for, and I told them that I cannot trust them to bring my car back to him - I half expected him to beg for forgiveness or try change my mind, he held his hands up and said fair enough! but the trader is still going to pay for the repairs just with another mechanic.

At the end of the day the garage owner didnt have a clue what his staff were doing, and to be honest I cant blame him, you cant know what all your staff are doing all of the time, outside of working hours - so I dont blame him personally, but the trust has been damaged and cannot be repaired. He is going to watch the DVD but I can honestly say he was as fuming as the wife was (no one can match my levels :p) but he was gobsmacked and angry. He is going to take the lad into the office and tell him he has something for him to watch and just ppop the DVD on and see his reaction to it, then he will be fired. I personally think that is a good thing.

In the interest of fairness, I will say that it was TJAY Auto's in sittingbourne (medway), but this one experience doesnt mean that they are a bad garage. they did the work on the air con compressor and the job was done very well, and Tim (and Pam on reception) seem really good people and really open and honest, I was considering (until I saw the dashcam) recommending them as a garage for use in the medway towns, and to be fair - now that this endabell has been sacked, I probably still would say if your looking for someone, give them a try. I would personally recommend that everyone gets a dashcam, not just for insurance purposes and catching idiots ont he road, but when you can buy them for as little as £20 - this particular incident has saved me the early guess of £100 by having this camera, and thankfully (more to the point) will stop this happening to anyone else.

[karlos1987]

Glad you got this resolved. A fair result I would say. I'd love to see the mates face though when the boss presses play. Lol

Sent from my C5303 using Ford OC mobile app

[SandyCat]

Good job thanks for the update.

[jeebowhite]

Yeah there is only one other time I would love to see his face, when he suffers the Alan Sugar Moment...

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[VickiW]

Fair dues to the owner, god knows how many times he has damaged other customers cars. ...and to do something so stupid when people are hard up to find a good job

[jeebowhite]

Sorry guys, I didnt see you all had also replied on page 2! lol

Vicki, Yeah I agree, police at least will be contacted, I think its harsh to penalise the owner by taking his company to the press, if he wasnt so upfront, honest, apologetic and accepting I would have done it without doubt, but the fact that he acknowledged the error his employee made and decied on the spot he is out of a job then I think its fair to leave it as is!

Karl, yeah the calm head stayed on and thanks to the guys attitude, wear and tear I will just accept the alloy damage repair, anything else is almost impossible to prove and claim for without taking the matter to court.

Rick, I agree, it shows just how little contempt this guy actually held for his customers, and clearly his job. He never said a thing to his boss, which shows that he really thinks he can do what he likes as he likes. Video is uploading at the moment almost there but will be visible in my next post.

Kieron, name and shame was done in my post above, but to be honest now the guy has been sacked I dont really want the shame to go with it, this is one idiot employees grievace error of judgement, its cost him his job, and damaged the business trust with a customer, I will leave everyone to their own decisions on going to them or not. I wont personally, but as I say, they did a good job on the last few visits I have had, Tim is fair, did a free aircon regass after I paid for the first one before the compressor was diagnosed. the diagnostics rate was a fair price £36) and the price for a compressor replacement seems to have been reasonable compared to others I spoke to recently about the same job at different garages, £200.00 cheaper.

Overall I think if it wasnt for this incident then they would have been an excellent garage, now that this idiot is gone, they can still be a very good garage, but not one I can personally trust anymore.

Vicki, I agree, thats what I said to the owner, I wonder how many others have been affected by this. clearly any damage isminimal or perhaps it was just my misfortune, who knows!