Both of the crooked garages ( Witham Motor in Balham high rd, Elite Motor in Garret Lane - Tooting ) I experienced are beside main roads, likely to get new customers everyday, so felt free to invent flaws in my mini ( to induce more business , & make more money from me ). Both of the honest garages ( Springbok in Tooting, 1 in Croydon ) are not beside main roads, so were likely to prefer to satisfy customers ( likely to introduce new customers ). Any1 here has similar experiences ?
VOSA @ the mo are doing a traffic light scheme, green, amber & red. they are checking all 19,000+ mot stations for administration, maintenance, cleanliness of the garage, health & safety, qualifications of the staff ( city & guild's / NVQ ) booking in procedures, complaints procedures ect ect, we had our visit 2 weeks ago & got a green which means no visit's from VOSA for 3 years unless an appeal was raised for an mot test, amber is things need to be addressed & red, well red is if you don't sort your act out you are out of the scheme if things don't improve.
its still ongoing, i think march 08 is when we all would have been assessed, so no data as such as yet & im not sure wether it will be made available, but dont quote me on that, i think its more to do with VOSA in getting thier/us house in order & we are all singing from the same song sheet so to speak, because in an ideal world they would like all "greens" !
you could say that about all garages not just testing stations, but belive it or not there are garages out there that do mot's & repairs & dont need to generate unnecessary repairs.
True, but even the most honest of us might be tempted if the opportunity was there. Better the MOT station only, with no financial interest in a pass or fail.
I know that. I used to use a garage just down the road from me who were always completely straight. Until the day they said I wasn't booked in that day (I know I had booked it, the day they said I had booked was impossible). They haven't seen me since. But there are still others that will take the unwary for a ride. Sad but true.
I now use a "test-only" specialist - I know them, they know me, and they're totally fair.
My part of the world. You can add in Coopers of Wimbledon - the main BMW agents - as wankers of the first order, and dishonest too. And that MOT while you wait place in Haydons Road - said I needed a front wheel bearing adjusted on my E39 and new rear discs and pads. Which they would do at an attractive price. Pretty attractive to them - given the wheel bearings ain't adjustable and there was no play, and that both discs and pads were both well within spec. At least they refunded the cost of the MOT (fail) after being confronted by another MOT place (BMW specialist) who passed it with no problems.
My elderly sister has just had an MoT unpleasant experience. She has used the same garage for several years and been happy, her car is a low mileage diesel Peugeot 306, this year she was told the emissions were too high (6) and it needed a new pump at 1300 pounds. She said that was ludicrous, so they said they might be able to get it through for 300 quid. This was the point at which she phoned me, I said to immediately get the car back and bring it to me. When she went to collect the car they said that they would be interested in buying it as an MoT failure for the bosses son. !!!!
She brought the car to me, I drove it to my usual MoT place where it sailed through, only needing two bulbs, the emissions were 1.7 on the first go, we gave it another test, just in case and it turned in at less than 1.
Year on year Which do a report on garage servicing. As do others. And this sort of tale is common. Garage servicing is generally abysmal. And certainly no bargain cost wise either.
Given the reams and reams of legislation and regulation recent governments have enacted is it *really* not possible to improve the garage trade to something near average?
Of course I'm being optimistic thinking *any* government these days could enact legislation that was truly in the favour of the customer. A money making effort for the 'regulatory' body yes - but that's about it.
Personally I have not been stung, yet. As has been pointed out, the only safe place is one not undertaking any repair work.
Most local councils have facilities to MOT their own fleets. These are also open to the public. The fee chargeable is at the full standard rate; there is no discount here. But, the fact that they do not do repair ensures that you don't get conned for repair of nonexistent damage/engine malfunction. This doesn't mean they are honest (they may well be), it's just that they are not given any room for manipulation.
My local council doesn't have this MOT service section (I phoned to enquire), but my neighbouring council has (London Borough of Barnet; it's also on the Yellow Pages).
The government has looked at licensing garages/technicians, but the report came back recommending that compulsory regulation wasn't need at the current time, and to give the trade an opportunity to utlise voluntary regulation.
There are various schemes that garages can be part of that involve technician licensing, but it increases cost to the customer. The government don't want to make licensing compulsory, as it could be seen as a step towards only suitably qualified people working on vehicles.
Then there's the whole issue of bonus schemes. I have never came across a bonus scheme that does not encourage people to cut corners. Managers/Owners will tell you that they have strong guidelines that technicians have to work to, but they'll quite happily turn a blind eye to people cutting corners if it helps improve profits, until the point at which they get caught out, and then they can blame the technician. Certain large companies have bonuses for all matter of things. A collegue of mine used to work for a large dealer group, who awarded prizes to whoever sold the most tyres that week, along with a bonus if you managed to sell a full set of tyres along with a service. Now the only people to benefit from those were the technician and the company.
The priorities of alot of people in the motor trade are totally wrong, but the people where the basic problems stem from, are those who can hide behind blaming other people. There are a lot of good technicians who have left the motor trade due to feeling they've been exploited by managers, and are fed up with mistreatment of customers.
My BMW main dealer already charges 120 quid an hour and is useless and dishonest. Just how much extra per hour would some form of policing cost that gave me decent service from these wankers?
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