Ripped off

[Becky22]

This is a bill I had to pay to repair my wrx , after driveshaft broke after taking it to a garage they scammed me and broke more parts on my car , after taking it to a decent garage this is what I'm left with .....

[Gambit]

!Removed! hell what a rip off have you paid in full, I take it you hadn't used them before to do repairs. Have you got the car back yet I'd go get some other Garages to look at it and have them price up what they have damaged and photo's. And refuse to pay and say you want them to take you to court. with the evidence you have. It will more likely be the word against your's type thing but if you have gone to the lengths to have some other garages look at it I doubt it would get very far. :(

[scottishtaffy]

i think that sucks as they seen a female and seen pound signs . that really is !Removed!. but ive seen it sooo many times. and being a mechanic my self ive had the storys from mostly women saying ' when the garage looked at doing it it was 4 times the price. its pure ******. and really pisses me off. sorry rant over.

[Gambit]

I'v had a guy do me before said it was going to be about £275 final bill without telling me was £780 I paid it like a mug :( And I was wearing man clothes ;)

[savage bulldogs]

did you ask to see the old broken parts ?

have you checked to see if all the parts you've been charged for are fitted to the car ?

as that seems a steep bill for a driveshaft   as when I broke one on my classic i bought a new full drive shaft for just over £100 and fitted it my self in about 2 hrs .

[Jay762]

Jeez Becky that is terrible - did they list what parts needed changing because that only looks like 2 or 3 hours labour

[scottishtaffy]

I'v had a guy do me before said it was going to be about £275 final bill without telling me was £780 I paid it like a mug :( And I was wearing man clothes ;)

thats not what ive heard about you

[savage bulldogs]

lol ^^^^ pmsl taffy

[Gambit]

Only at weekends my friend only at weekends. Rest of the week it's full leathers and bondage gear ;) 

[Tlag]

That looks horrendous. What did they break? The only things I can think of they may have touched is the bottom ball joint and maybe a track rod end but even if they broke those, the bill should be no where near that high!

[Becky22]

Basically I went to a garage that a friend recommended that specialise in high performance cars , they had a garage that was legit and all set up , they told me what part to get etc , after I brought the part they failed to tell me it was the wrong one , so they fitted anyway which damaged the abs sensor , after a few weeks they told me the garage had closed down temporarily and they were locating elsewhere , they agreed to carry out work at their home address and my address , which was convenient for me (or so I thought), I thought driveshaft was fixed until I noticed all lights on dash , they told me it was just a small sensor and they had ordered part and it was on its way out to me , after trying to get in contact with them I had no reply , so I decided to take it to the garage which completed the job (receipt above) they told me it was the worse job they have ever seen and that it was forced into place they failed to but a oil seal on , which left my car leaking .

I take it they discovered price of abs sensor and panicked hence the instant loss in communication , so originally I would have just had to had driveshaft replaced , instead it was an extra 350 for an abs sensor , and this had been dragged out for over 2 months , finally have car fixed , but at a costly rate due to cowboys

[Phil1981]

I had drive shaft and abs sensor done for no more that £150

Second hand parts from a local tuner

All still tuning fine a year later

There are some right cowboys and and thieves out there

[Gambit]

:( Not good as the saying goes. I've think you been done up like a kipper << (Not sure how that saying came about either ;) )

Like my over priced bill that also failed and cost me more money but not as much as you, I'd look at it as a lesson learned :( a costly one. 

A young lady Surgeon I know text me yesterday she had been quoted £785 to fit a windscreen motor for her CRV and that's from a garage that people talk about and is highly recommend. Not sure how they couldn't find a MAF fault and a split pipe when I took my car there. Since then I spoke to a guy who now works for a mate of mine who I use now without fail, even let's me use his ramps if one is free at weekends if I need it :D He told me while he was doing his apprenticeship they sometimes didn't even do tests on the cars that they said they did. Just drive it down the road pull in the garage and look for other fault's and not even test anything, but still charge for it. So you're not on your own just annoying and bad for the good garages out there when this happens :( Think it's made worse as someone recommended them to you, I hope they sort you out with free drinks and a meal :D I'd make them wash the car too ;)

[Ash007ks]

Trading standards would be your best bet, and if you have paid on card you can get in touch with the bank to let them know exactly whats happened

[Gambit]

No point if the Business has gone. Oldest trick in the book that. Places that sell 2nd hand car's do it when they have a few people trying to get money from them for selling a clapped out car to the customer :( 

[Miggs]

that does seem a bit excessive, id get trading standards or the ombudsman involved, i have a female friend who drives an R32 golf with a supercharger on, she once pulled into a petrol station with a car mechanics at the side, as she got out one of the mechanics walked over and told her that the alternator was whining a bit and he was willing to have a look at it for her for free, if there turns out to be a problem he would fix it for her for a reasonable price, her response was "that's not the alternator making that noise pal, it's the &#33;Removed&#33; off great supercharger i have strapped to the side of the engine" the mechanic went bright red and walked off lol

[Becky22]

I can't even get in contact with them now , think I will take it to trading standards at least then no one else will get ripped off like I did as they are still advertising online and trading from home , lesson well and truly learnt

[Becky22]

That's great I bet he was well embarrassed , think I'm going to do some reading up , I know the basics but I suppose a subaru is a little bit different :)

[Gambit]

I think if they still advertise online and you can get the company's to a small claims court if you want the hassle, you might be able to get some money back. But you would need the evidence to back it. Trading Standards don't do much IMO really but might be able to advice you if you have enough evidence to see if it's worth going through with it, and if you can get a mechanic to go with you who has inspected the work and said it's shocking even better. But as I said before they can just close it down and start again with another name. It's almost made that easy for them to do it that way. And will be back trading without you being able to do a thing :( 

[Becky22]

I have texts from them , even a text saying they damaged sensor and have a new one on the way , I don't have any receipts as they didn't complete work , will start looking to take legal action as i have heard from other people and businesses it's not the first time they have done this

[Gambit]

Oh that will be good if they have done it before. Mean's they are known already to Trading Standards. So I would get as much as you can including the photo on here. the text's from them everything you can think of to throw the book at them. I'd even try going for the final bill you had to pay out because of the work they didn't do and the damage. 

[Jay762]

a bit of tenacity and you may well get some money back - its going to be a slog though if they have a rep for shoddy work