Hi guys,

I took my 2 year old car to the main dealer (a franchise really) for scheduled full service.

Of course after an hour of leaving the car I get the telephone call telling me that many things are wrong, not part of the service and not covered by warranty.

The classic split wiper blades was there, discs and pads, four tyres, brake fluid etc.

I declined all the extra work and when i went to collect the car I was told that tyres and brakes make the car unroadworthy.

I questioned that some things that were supposed to be included in the full service were not done and i was asked to pay for them.

The bloke left and came back with a different invoice listing the things that should have been included.

I suppose that they didn't do a full service, but just changed oil and filter.

I went straight to ats tyres and they said that my tyres and brakes are absolutely fine and don't need changing for many more miles.

In fact I only covered less than 10k miles mainly on motorway.

Brakes looked as good as new they said.

I wrote to the manufacturer ceo and they passed the bucket back to the garage.

Their manager wants to inspect the car in my presence so to put things right.

I am not really comfortable with them even looking at my car from a mile away and I fear that they will agree to complete the service and then sabotage something.

What would you do?

What car for a start and since owing have you ever had a tyre replaced? Plus mileage would help.

Toyota Yaris, 10k Miles, tyres were rotated at 8000 miles by ats and tracking checked but was perfect.

Tyres are wearing evenly and still have another 10k miles to do before being changed accordingly to ats.

I confirm that the tyres are perfectly fine.

You should let them do it. First off, they won't want bad publicity so will check things properly and it will be in your presence. If they say the tyres are low, then they will have to show

you on the depth guage and the same with anything else they condemned.

You don't have to consent to any further paid for work being done.

Yes, all good to that point.

My problem is if they want to complete the service that they should have done and tell me to leave the car.

You know the health and safety rubbish that you can't watch a mechanic fix your car...

What would they do at that point???

Loose some bolts? Sugar in the engine??? Drain gearbox oil slightly so to make it break in a few months???

I can't trust them.

I was thinking of letting them see the car in my presence and anything they point out that they should have done, I get it done by another garage and bill them.

Is it too sneaky?

I think on balance you should take up their offer and go back and ask them to show why the parts need changing. Whilst ATS have confirmed the tyres look ok the dealer should be working to the manufacturers specification. So it might be that they have seen something they are required to report but a less knowledgeable company like ATS might not know about. An example of this would be if the car was operated in the UAE where you are not allowed to use cars on tyres outside 3 years from the date stamp for example. Further, brake checks would include a check on the disc thickness and condition. Whilst the pads could well have many miles left it doesn't necessarily run true that the disc condition follows. I come across this often with cars used for primarily motorway use where the brakes are seldom used. Pads are ok but the disc is knackered.

Interestingly, some manufacturers are now insisting on disc changes every time the pads are changed or every major service (two years) which seems absurd. The fluid change every two years is a standard item as is hydroscopic but there is no requirement to measure water content, but then that requires samples larger than the capacity of the brake sytem anyway and some seriously specialist equipment which dealers just wont have.

You say they haven't done things, what hasn't been done and how do you know ??

Well, I don't know if they have.

When they called me they said that I had to pay for brake fluid, air filter and fob key battery and I declined.

When I went to collect the car the invoice they produced didn't include these items.

While at the desk I looked at their leaflet and realised that these things should have been included.

I queried it and the bloke just printed another invoice with these items on it.

I concluded that they hadn't done them, would you?

Haven't had time to check the air filter which is the only thing that would be evident if not changed.

I'll look at it in a couple of days, I'm away for work atm.

I mean cabin filter, not air filter

Sabotage! Loosen some bolts!

Plain silly. Never heard anything like it. This is a Toyota Dealer you are writing about, not the 'A' Team.

H

Any update on this King ??

Not really Conniff.

I emailed the service manager 4 times but he's ignored me.

Time to write to Toyota head office again I suppose.

They're happy to scare customers with the dangerous/unroadworthy business, who's stopping them loosen a few bolts to crack up a suspension which of course is not covered by warranty?

Or loose the gearbox sump and give it a hammer blow so to look like it hit a road hump.

Driver error, gearbox failure after a few months, not under warranty, that will be £3000 Sir, thanks (idiot).

All with a smile in their face...

Thankfully, the phraseology used in response to my post highlights how little you know about the subject.

Just to clarify, some gearboxes, mostly auto's, have an oil sump, if it was damaged, this wouldn't be covered under warranty. It would however almost certainly be covered by the vehicles insurance.

H

As far as I know and experienced in the past insurance companies take your money and try not to pay out at all costs.

Imagine if I called my insurance and told them that my gearbox is broken because at unknown time of an unknown date at an unknown location and in unknown circumstances I unknowingly damaged my gearbox sump, lost the oil and damaged the gearbox.

Are you sure they'll say: Sure Sir, send us the bill and we'll pay you immediately.

In your dreams!

Well have you tried????

I cannot believe this thread. People with the knowledge and experience are trying to assist you.

So let's cut to the chase. what do you want out of this?

Frankly if you were a customer of mine I'd be telling you where to go and not in any polite terms either and be willing to pay any court judgement just to get rid of you. You sound wholly unreasonable and ignorant.

Well, I wouldn't be your customer if you get angry at a computer screen, I don't even want to imagine what you would do in real life.

I read many complaints about Toyota garages that you defend so vehemently and they all say the same thing: You take your car there for a cheap service and they produce a monstrous bill telling you that the car is a scrap.

You might think that I am ignorant and I fully support your statement.

In fact i only learned to read a couple of weeks ago via an online course.

There you won a match, happy?

Back to the real subject, I would have liked them to look at the car in my presence and explain on what points it's to be deemed dangerous as suggested by their employee.

But maybe I will never get the chance considering that the manager has ignored all my emails.

Will have to vote with my feet and go somewhere else.

I just wish I could service the car myself so to be sure that it was serviced properly, but I need a stupid stamp on the book to preserve the warranty.

You can read many complaints about dealers from any franchise, the problem being is that you don't ever hear about the good ones as this is a site for people in trouble who are looking for help. Despite people advising you what to do you seem to ignore the advice.

Why have you not taken the dealers offer to take the car back in??? Given what you have posted I'm not surprised the service manager is ignoring you. You need to get pff your high horse that every dealer is out to screw you. They have regulations to work to and are closely monitored which is why you end up with a list of work required to keep within the manufacturers specifications. You don't have to buy it, it's just advisory but you seem to think it's mandatory.

It seems to me that no matter what advised to do you have your own set agenda yet admit you are ignorant but then go on to advise other people as to what they should do.

Frankly I think given that you admit to having no automotive industry knowledge you should shut up and take the advice of people in the know who have tried to help you .

If you take that advice on board or not is your choice but don't then come back moaning you think you have been hard done by.

If you had the capacity to read past the first line of my post you would have noticed that I responded to the garage manager's email trying to book an appointment to take my car back there. I wrote four emails with my availability and he ignored all of them.

No agenda from my part, but they've proved that they don't want to deal with the fact that they tried to con me.

And I'm still not sure that they really fully serviced the car as they claim.

So, I have followed the advice, I have accepted to take my car back there and given them a flexible availability, but the manager ignored my emails.

Why?

Because if he leaves it at that he will only get another bad review which will be lost in the internet shadows.

If he got me in his garage he would have to admit their wrongdoing and in today's world where everyone records conflicting conversations, he might find himself in a difficult situation.

So better for him to ignore, logically.

On a separate note, I was being sarcastic when I let you be right in saying I was ignorant.

You don't seem to be able to grasp that concept.

I've been messing about with cars and motorbikes since I was a boy, in fact I still drive my 20 year old vw which runs perfectly because I was the only one ever to work on it.

Messing about....................................

H

Yes, I better explain given that here some people take everything by the letter.

Messing about: Modify, fix, maintain, swap parts, dismantle, enhance performance etc.

[i]Modify, fix, maintain, swap parts, dismantle, enhance performance etc.[/i]

You of course notified your insurance of this, didn't you?

At the time yes.

I now drive 100% standard cars.

Sometimes I was just modifying for the sake of it (too much time in my hand), go for a spin on a farm track and sell the car to raceboys.