AA and Garage Repair Sham

[peck08]

Hi I wonder if anyone can give me any advice i want to complain but not sure who too. I recently was on a weeks holiday at centre parcs (i am female!!!) in the lakes and on my way there i had trouble with my clutch but still got me there ok but the day before i was due to leave i went and checked my car and could not get it into gear with the engine on so i phoned the AA as i am a member through my bank but i only have road side assistance.

 

The AA man came said it was the clutch that was faulty and i had one of 2 options

A) upgrade my membership to full so that they could get me home but this would cost me round about £150 - £200 due the distance i was away from home

or

B) Get towed to the nearest garage and have the clutch replaced there.

 

The AA man told me it was pointless me upgrading and may as well just get the repairs done. he then phoned a near by garage that quoted me £320 plus VAT my car is a very old car (R Reg) but i was on my own with a child and was told that they would be able to fix this by the next day when i would need to get home.

 

I asked the AA man to tell the garage to have a quick look over the car before starting any work and then ring me so that i could get hold of my husband to see what he thought. I got no phonecall so i telephoned them and asked exactly what they had quoted for and what guarantees came with the parts and that i needed to phone my husband back before they could start they told i could have 5 minutes to make the decision otherwise it would not be ready for me the next day. I obviously was panicking by then that i would not get home so allowed the work to go ahead.

 

The next day it got to 2pm and i had not heard anything so i telephoned the garage who said yes they had fixed it but i could not drive it home because they had found that the front coil spring had snapped and some other part had seized and i could end up with a blow out if i drive it. They then quoted me another £170 plus vat to fix this i refused to have this done and had a recovery truck pick me up.

 

I asked the garage why they had continued to work on the car when they had found another fault without phoning me first because i would have told them to not bother doing any of the work. They said they had not discovered this until they had put the clutch back in (conveniently).

 

When i got the car home it worked out cheaper to have the car towed and the coil spring fitted at a local garage because there was NO seizing.

 

What i find most frustrating is the no contact from the Garage and the AA man was clearly very friendly with his local garage

[traffer]

Well, they could have spotted the coil spring problem while they are putting it back together after replacing the clutch. Things may well have seized on an R reg car. Depends what. It would not be unusual or unreasonable for a garage to have to replace other parts that have seized and cannot be dismantled to allow the clutch to be changed.

 

What car is it? Also, often "not being able to get it in gear" is not a clutch problem but a clutch cable/clutch hydraulics problem. It is not unknown for clutches to be changed and the owner advised that the cable/hydraulics also need to be replaced.

[D.H AA Rep]

Hi there, if you would like to discuss this with the AA, we would welcome your feedback. Please give us a call on 0845 607 6727.