where do I stand, bad workmanship what can i do

[madasamuppet]

My hubby had a stainless steel exhaust fitted to his car a couple of weeks ago. He was told all welds would be tig welded, all bends would be done on special bending machine, lifetime gurantee for exhaust blah blah. Well they used the old flange from his original exhaust, he knew they needed to do that but they also used a part of the old exhaust and welded this to the stainless steel. (Surely this bit will rust so defeats purpose of stainless steel one fitted) on closer inspection my hubby is not happy with level of welding work carried out. All welds have been mig welded and are crap to say the least. You can see daylight through some on the pin holes. Ther are pinches in the pipe which would not happen if a proper machine had been used. My brother in law is experienced welder of over 16 years and basically says this is crap work. Also other people have suggested that they have used mild steel for the welds or poor quality wire and thus this will rust and fail. i have attached a link to photos for anyone who wants to have alook and give their opinion on the work done.

Basically my hubby had phoned on several occasions to speak to someone in management about this and gets fobbed off and told someone will call. This has never happened I sent an email stating that we were not happy and that they had until the end of last week to get in touch about this. Loanbehold, an email of three lines saying we are busy we will be in touch. Still no phone call after phoning on sat and then today. We already stated that if no response from them then we will go to TS and LBA. I just want to know what rights we have in this matter. Is there anything in SOGA that covers this sort of thing. The exhaust works and does what it is meant to but the overall appearance and level of welding work is poor and we have no faith in the product. thanks in advance for any advice received.

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[jonnythehorse]

yep i have to say the work is ****e to say the least and have probably only used steel wire, get a magnet out to see, but stainless wire in the mig would have been more than sufficient, should have got your brother inlaw to weld it, take it back and say what your not happy with, did they fit it or just supply it ?

[raydetinu]

Put it all in writing and ask for replacement or your money back or you will take them to court. not to specification etc. wrong materials and poor workmanship.

[madasamuppet]

yep i have to say the work is ****e to say the least and have probably only used steel wire, get a magnet out to see, but stainless wire in the mig would have been more than sufficient, should have got your brother inlaw to weld it, take it back and say what your not happy with, did they fit it or just supply it ?

 

Would have done but we in scotland and he in midlands. They supplied and fitted it. Have taken magnet out and welds take a magnet that why we were suspicous of the wire used. Once challenged the welder about this he tried to bull***t and say was 80%stainless and 20% mild. There isn't such a grade of wire. Is there any part of SOGA that I can quote in my letter that covers bad workmanship etc. Want them to know that we are serious and reckon that they problably won't know what we are on about.

thanks again.

[jonnythehorse]

im sure there is somthing in the soga like this

(2B) For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—

 

(a) fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,

(b) appearance and finish,

© freedom from minor defects,

(d) safety, and

(e) durability.

 

and as you asked for a stainless exhaust and the welds are not then its not as described either

[jonnythehorse]

oh and by the way some stainless is magnetic

[madasamuppet]

Right typed this lot up can someone have a look and tell me what you think. Feel free to add or take away

19th August 2008

FORMAL LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Dear Sirs

FORMAL LETTER OF COMPLAINT RE EXHAUST

REJECTION OF GOODS UNDER THE SUPPLY AND SALE OF GOODS ACT 1994 (C.35) SECTION 1

Please accept this letter as my final correspondence with yourselves on this matter before I begin court proceedings. I have on various occasions contacted your company either by telephone or email and have been told on numerous occasions that a member of your senior staff will contact me regarding the complaints I have in relation to an exhaust that your company fitted to my car on Monday 4th August 2008. To date I have received one email from your company consisting of about five lines stating that there are issues with the exhaust and that I should contact you. I enclose a copy of this for your ease of reference.

I have outlined below the main complaints I have with your company and this exhaust:-

1. On telephoning your company to discuss what would be involved and get a quote for the work, I was told that all welds would be tig welded. You even advertise on your website that tig welding is used. On taking my car to your premises for the work to be carried out I was told once again that tig welding would be used. This has not been the case and in fact your employees are now suddenly playing the “I didn’t tell him that” game. I received an email from one of your employees saying that I was told it would be mig and visible welds tig welded at the welder’s discretion. From the photos you have in your possession regarding my exhaust, you can clearly see that the weld on the tail pipe which is clearly visible is NOT tig welded either. So yet again what has been told has not been done.

2. Once I got my car home it wasn’t until three days later that I was in a position to inspect the work close up and noticed that the level of workmanship used on the welds was below an acceptable standard to me and was in fact just a complete mess. There are parts that are not welded and you can see daylight through these. Other parts have been over welded and you can clearly see where the welder has stopped and started and missed bits. There has been a lot of splatter across the exhaust and you can clearly see where he has taken a tool to linish off some of this splatter. The welds themselves look as if they have been done using mild steel or a very poor cheap stainless wire and in fact they take a magnet. Surely stainless steel should not do this. When challenging your welder about the wire used I was told it was a mixture of 80% stainless and 20% mild. There is in fact no such mixture and that is not how the wire is graded. I would really like to know what grade of wire was used on these welds. It seems to me that your welder doesn’t know what he is talking about or is trying to bamboozle me with facts and figures and science in the hope that I will take his word for it and drop the matter. I am not prepared to do this and anything told to me is in fact researched.

3. I was informed that when welding the new exhaust on it would be necessary to use the flange from my existing exhaust. I was aware of this and that there was nothing else you could have done. Although I was not aware that you would actually be using a section of my old exhaust as well. What is the point of using a stainless steel exhaust if you are going to weld this to an original exhaust, it defeats the purpose as the old exhaust will rust and fail and thus this will need replacing in the future. Being told that I can come in and get it fixed if anything goes wrong is not good enough. I live at least 60 miles away; I am expected to make the trip every time something goes wrong. The whole point of getting a stainless steel exhaust in the first place was that I would not have to worry about it going wrong in the future.

4. I am extremely unhappy with the exhaust; the workmanship carried out on this and have no faith in the product whatsoever. Your company’s customer service leaves a lot to be desired and the attitude of your staff is rude to say the least. On one occasion when my wife telephoned to ask a member of your company to call me back, again, and to reiterate that we were not happy your employee promptly hung up on her. Very mature I must say.

5. You have used very good materials in the form of the exhaust but have ended up with a second rate bodge job that I am sure even yourselves would not be happy to have on your own car.

In conclusion to the above the only way I can see forward in this situation is that you provide me with a full refund of all monies paid to you in relation to this. This amounts to. I do not want your company to try and repair what you should have got right in the first place. To repair would mean grinding off all the welds, filing back replacing the botched bits with other pieces of stainless steel and then welding again. It would not mean going over the welds with more weld and thus just putting in more heat and weakening an already botched job. I have no confidence in your welder’s abilities to perform the work a second time and make a good job of it. Neither would I be prepared to accept a new exhaust and get this fitted again. For the same reasons outlined above.

I would like a refund of my money so that I can go somewhere else and get the work done to a standard that is acceptable to me. On completion of this I will gladly return to you all parts of the exhaust that you have fitted. I do not want this exhaust on my car and am rejecting it under the terms of the Supply and Sale of Goods Act 1994 Section 1 which states:-

Provisions relating to the United Kingdom

 

1 Implied term about quality

 

(1) In section 14 of the [1979 c. 54.] Sale of Goods Act 1979 (implied terms about quality or fitness) for subsection (2) there is substituted—

“(2) Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied term that the goods supplied under the contract are of satisfactory quality.

(2A) For the purposes of this Act, goods are of satisfactory quality if they meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking account of any description of the goods, the price (if relevant) and all the other relevant circumstances.

(2B) For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—

(a) fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,

(b) appearance and finish,

© freedom from minor defects,

(d) safety, and

(e) durability.

As this is a formal letter of complaint and letter before action, I will give you seven days from receipt of this letter to issue me with a cheque for the total sum of £. If a cheque for this amount is not forthcoming then you leave me no option but to issue court proceedings in the Sheriff Court through the small claims process to recover my money.

If you feel that your standard of service and workmanship is as high as you can give and wish to defend any action that I bring then by all means do so.

Please bear in mind that if court proceedings are necessary I will be including any court costs, research costs, independent examiners costs and costs for my time and effort and thus any outcome may result in you being even more financially out of pocket.

Not to mention that you or your representative will require to attend court and take time out of what I must assume is an extremely busy schedule given that you have not found the time to date to call me back.

I sincerely hope that in this instance you will see my point of view and we can come an agreement without the need for the above mentioned action. I am sure that with your company’s years of experience you have had many satisfied customers, it is just unfortunate that in this instance I am not one of them.

I await your response in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Enc