Dodgy MOT - complaint needed

[thegaffer2007]

Hi!

I have recently had my car MOT'd at a large garage chain (I won't name them, but apparently "you can't get better").

All seemed well and being an oldish car, I knew it would need a little bit of work. After failing the first MOT, they gave me the list of work, which included the replacement of the front wheel bearings. I accepted their quotation (which they said would take 1 day to complete) and they got on with the work.

They took nearly 2 weeks to complete the work and everytime I rang them, they had either had problems fitting the parts, broken them or were waiting on delivery.

Anyway, when we came to collect the car, they had re-done the MOT and it had "passed". They also "jokingly" made it clear that this was one of the hardest cars they had worked on.

I paid for the work and took the new MOT certificate and thought nothing more of it.

A few weeks on since this ordeal, the car broke down - I don't think it was anything connected with what they had done, but I got a mobile mechanic to come out and they fixed the problem (engine this time).

They asked if I had a valid MOT and I told them I had just paid out a lot of money to get it fixed and the MOT was a couple of weeks old. His reaction was one of shock. He said that the car was dangerous to drive and pointed out the wheel bearing (which was meant to be fixed) was the major problem. He simply said in his professional opinion that it wouldn't get passed its MOT, full stop. With the car jacked up I was able to look and it appeared the "new" parts, seemed to look very old - possibly the exact same ones, or perhaps the garage had used, used parts. Either way, their reaction of "the hardest car to fix", didn't exactly give me confidence in them.

So after the long story, I need to know what I can do. The garage is obviously a major chain so I can phone their head offices and make the complaint.

Can I threaten legal action and what authority should I advise to hopefully make them look up?

Any other information would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[louiboy]

Have a look here at the VOSA site.

Theres 28 days allowed for a complaint with failure of mechanical parts.
3 months allowed for rust or corrosion problems.

Give them a call and ask for their advice.

Have a look in the garages services part of the forum. Theres a few MOT threads.