Local Car Garage Repairs Bill Help

[thepalace1]

Hopefully I can attract some knowledge from other caggers, the story as it stands tonight is as follows.

 

I took my car down to my local auto centre to have a problem with the car diagnosed and fixed, the local garage owner is a friend (ok not close friend, but friend/aquantence all the same).

 

There currently is a bill of circa £700 owing from the car garage owner to Myself for works done by meself to him within the last year (Some computer networking work I DID), I also ran 2 recoveries on his recovery truck, and also for some labouring work, he owes me around £700..

 

The work he has been doing on my vehicle currently stands at circa £475.00, we have come to logg-a-heads regarding this bill as I think he has been dwiddling me. He say the second hand part he put on cost £100+, I have many many quotes from used car dealers/scrap yards and none of them have quoted more than £30 for this particular part.

 

Anyway, today (Tuesday 14th) when closing the garage, an employee there (another friend) told me to move my car out onto the street so he could get other cars in and out of the lock up, I parked my car on the main road, and have kept the key, I will not return the key until the bill is sorted, both the bill for the car and the outstanding monies owed to me.

 

Where do I stand, I know it can be a criminal offence for me to remove the vehicle whilst witholding payment, but does this now become a CIVIL matter as he owes me money also (More money than I owe him)

 

He has blocked my vehicle in on the main road with a Ford Transit mini bus at rear and Vauxhall Zafira at the front, BUMPER TO BUMPER...

 

I expect it to remain blocked, but where do I stand regarding the money he owes me and the money I owe him..

 

I also have some dirt on him, I know for example that in his other shop premises, his electricity meter is wired, they had it removed last week under warrant and police attendance due to the leccy bill not being paid, and I know he wired it to get free electricity becuase I was there in the shop when he did it......

 

 

Thanks in advance for any help, need as much as possible for when I see him face to face tomorrow

[Conniff]

Have you invoiced him for the work you have done? If not make that your first move.

[thepalace1]

That has been done twice now..

 

Needing to know wether I can take the car away...

[sailor sam]

Seems like any 'gentleman's agreement' you had has gone out of the window!

 

So it's two seperatate matters me thinks. You invoice him and he should then pay you within the terms that you have agreed with him. If not, you send him an LBA (letter before action) and after that if he still dosn't pay, you issue proceedings in the small claims court adding interest onto the debt.

 

As for your side of the 'bargin' you should pay him what you owe and follow the above. He holds the ace card at the moment which is your car. f you have a dispute over the bill, ask him for a complete break down in costs and explain the high cost of this 'part' and see if you can come to some sort of arrangement between the two issues.

[thepalace1]

Well I paid it, on my Visa, so will send an LBA and N1 court form if needed, thanks for all your suggestions and advice

[sailor sam]

Please keep us posted as to what happens and whether he pays you or you have to issue a court claim.

[numbers666]

Hi,

 

Get hold of some trolley jacks, raise the wheels off the ground, slowly pull your car out from edge of road, once clear of front and rear blockages, lower back down, unlock doors and drive off

 

have a nice one

 

N

[Conniff]

If he ows you £750 or more, you could make him bankrupt.

[thepalace1]

Update...

 

I paid him £475 on visa card, 2 days later I went to the garage to collect the vehicle.

 

He said there were now more problems, he said the ECU had fried and required a replacement at a cost od circa £300.00

 

Well I am fuming to say the least, the agreement we had when I first brought the car to him was for him to give me a quote to repair the vehicle and get it back on the road.

 

After initial checks which put £240.00 on to the bill (his in-house auto-electrician to diagnose problem) he said in total with the £240 bill so far he could complete all the works required to get the car fixed and back on the road for £475.00.

 

So we had an agreement the car would be fixed and on the road for £475.00 which has been paod on Visa Card.

 

Now hes wanting a further £300 to complete the job, I said forget it, I had the car towed home, The car is now outside my house still not running and in the same posision it was when I first took it to him and before i paid £475.00.

 

 

Can I do a Visa Chargeback for Services/Product not as described?????

 

He described a fully fixed car for £475.00, he lied

 

Do I have to do the County Court thing??

[sailor sam]

Yes, do a charge back ASAP. Once done (and now you have your car back), issue proceedings against him for the money he owes you.

[thepalace1]

Yes, do a charge back ASAP. Once done (and now you have your car back), issue proceedings against him for the money he owes you.

 

 

UPDATE from Santander

 

Question? AM I BEING FOBBED OFF???

 

Here is a scanned copy of the letter I have received from Santander after initiating a Chargeback

 

 

 

They are saying I cannot claim visa chargeback because the claim is for QUALITY OF SERVICE, but that is not the issue, the issue is I NEVER received the service, i was quoted and paid £475.00 for the vehicle to be fixed completely, the vehicle WAS NOT fixed so I never received the service paid for.

 

http://parkingcharges.co.uk/bmsia/001.png

 

Where do I go from here? Do I appeal to Santander? Just go straight for N1 county claim?

 

Any help much apprechiated, and sorry for the delay in updating this thread.

 

 

David (thepalace1)

[raydetinu]

The car was running was it not when you put it outside tthe garage at their request? and you said the bill was currently £475 so was the work complete or not at that stage, if it was then why did you not just drive it away? can you clarify?

It seems you have two claims then, one for your and one for the work to your car!

[thepalace1]

The car was running was it not when you put it outside tthe garage at their request? and you said the bill was currently £475 so was the work complete or not at that stage, if it was then why did you not just drive it away? can you clarify?

It seems you have two claims then, one for your and one for the work to your car!

 

Yes it was running, but the inside of the car was in a thousand bits, most of dashboard out, all trims unscrewed, ecu hanging on floor from wires etc etc. We cane to an agreement that he would finish the job, put all the inside of the car back together, and complete the job but he wanted the quoted amound (£475.00) paid there and then, so after I paid he put the car back together, I collected a few days later and he said it is still broken and needs a new ECU at an aditional £300 ish, but he had quoted me £475.00 ALL IN repair, so this quote should cover anything needed to fix the car, so after paying the £475.00 the car was still not fixed as agreed.

[raydetinu]

so what did he do for the £475? did you get a receipt? parts/labour etc.

I think you would have a valid claim, if you have some record in writing as to what the problem was and what the work was!

Also sounds a bit fraudulaent if he lead you to belive if was fixed and you paid the £475 and then told you it was not!

I suggest you write a letter to him ( recorded ) asking for your money back or you will start legal action and mention the fraud bit, give him 14 days to respond.

You may wish to consider a sepertae action to recover the other money he owes you ( hope you have this recrded ) and write in the same way.

[thepalace1]

He said he changed the Idle Control Valve and the Throttle Body, But on further inspection it seems highly possible that the throttle control body was never changed, and he just said it was and charged for it

[raydetinu]

Does not sound £475 worth of work to me and it could of been the ecu all along! if it is in fact faulty? have you had it checked anywhere else?

[thepalace1]

Hi there I have been following all about this garage my name is Chris Cullen I have a garage of my Owen and are willing to test your car and give you a answer on what has been done and what has not free of charge

My company is xxxxxxxxxxxxxx thanks

 

 

Thank you very much for your kind offer as above.

 

Un fortunately I have had to sell the vehicle as it was a relied apon vehicle, so I had to sell it and get a replacement.

 

But thanks soo much for your kindest offer.

 

The majority of the bill I am told is made up of £30 per hour for the in-house auto electrician, he said the auto electrician spent X amount of hours on the vehicle, when infact I have a written document that will be signed in front of a solicitor later this week to make it a Statutory Decleration, from an X member of his staff, that states that the autop electrician spent only about 20% of the time billed for on the vehicle.

 

The rest of the fees were for a ''SECOND HAND USED'' throttle body and idle control valve.

 

I know the throttle body was not changed because there was one of those quirky niggles with the cars excellerator, it was sticky when first pressing it, this error was attributed to the half moon wheel thing on the throttle body where the throttle cable goes round, when you used to lube it up with WD40 it used to be fine for a week or to until it wore off.

 

After he supposedly changed the throttle body the error persisted, I could even see the discoulouration on the throttle body from where I used to regularily spray WD40, unless of cause the odds are he took the throttle body from a car with the exact same niggly problem where its owners have also been spraying lube on it, But it think William Hill would give me a good price on that one.

 

 

The ECU was independently check and it was broken ''A mosfet chip inside it was reduced to molten mess'' it had burned and melted.

 

Although I only ever smelt the burning once the car had finally been returned half fixed, I never smelt any burning when the car originally went to him.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Conniff
spelling

[thepalace1]

Just found out this about the garage.

 

My distant friend just took his 2000 W Reg Fiat Punto to him for MOT, it passed after £80 of remedial work.

 

I contacted him and said you shouldn't have gone there he is dodgy as hell.

 

ANy way, I said to him, Just out of interest let me put your car in for a second mot (even though it had just passed) and I would pay the £20 MOT fee (Half Price Deal at my new place i go)

 

It came back as a BIG FAT fail... 16 hours after it passed with £80 remedial work.

 

Now some people will say YEAH i have a guy who will push my car through an mot.

BUT my friend has 2 children, 1 5 years and the other 4 months, he doesn;t want a car pushed through its mot, he wants to know the vehicle is SAFE and road worthy.

 

Any way, the new garage who failed it said its probobly not worth goping to vosa at this stage, but to sit on it and use it in my case as a sort of reference of leverage if it comes to any bargaining or to help with credability in court or something,

 

ANy way , IT FAILED after 16 hours (Now I dont expect 16 hours and 21 miles later for this to have happened by course or general wear and tear) these problems must have been present at the original MOT PASS TEST

 

Parking brake lever has no reserve travel (3.1.6b)

Fuel pipe insecure (7.2.1)

Nearside Front passengers seat insecure (6.2.A.1)

Rear box clamp Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2)

[Conniff]

There is no 'fail this' or 'pass this' in the examination. What is passed by one examiner can be failed by another and vice versa, the decision as to pass or fail is the examiners.

 

You could have taken that car for another test elsewhere and it could have passed with flying colours or failed on even more items.

 

Parking brake lever has no reserve travel (3.1.6b)

Fuel pipe insecure (7.2.1)

Nearside Front passengers seat insecure (6.2.A.1)

Rear box clamp Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2)

 

 

Pass or fail can differ even between examiners in the same MoT station, one could well pass something the other would fail.

[Surfer01]

I also have some dirt on him, I know for example that in his other shop premises, his electricity meter is wired, they had it removed last week under warrant and police attendance due to the leccy bill not being paid, and I know he wired it to get free electricity becuase I was there in the shop when he did it......

Thanks in advance for any help, need as much as possible for when I see him face to face tomorrow

 

You are actually admitting to being an accomplice to theft. I suggest you delete the above.

[thepalace1]

I have now issued a County Court Claim for the defendant to refund the £475.00 as the contracted services were not supplied.

 

However, I am struggling on the wording of the Particulars of Claim which I understand must be sent to the court and the defendant within a certain amount of time after the claim is issued.

 

Could any legal minded folk help with the best way to word it and lay it out.

 

Much appreichiated

 

 

thepalace1

[sailor sam]

I have now issued a County Court Claim for the defendant to refund the £475.00 as the contracted services were not supplied.

 

However, I am struggling on the wording of the Particulars of Claim which I understand must be sent to the court and the defendant within a certain amount of time after the claim is issued.

 

Could any legal minded folk help with the best way to word it and lay it out.

 

Much appreichiated

 

 

 

 

 

 

thepalace1

 

Well that's more or less it. Just add the invoice number and say "as per invoice number xxxxx".

 

You may find some help here. Don't forget to claim the interest.

 

http://smallclaims.me.uk/index.html

[thepalace1]

UPDATE from Santander

 

Question? AM I BEING FOBBED OFF???

 

Here is a scanned copy of the letter I have received from Santander after initiating a Chargeback

 

 

 

They are saying I cannot claim visa chargeback because the claim is for QUALITY OF SERVICE, but that is not the issue, the issue is I NEVER received the service, i was quoted and paid £475.00 for the vehicle to be fixed completely, the vehicle WAS NOT fixed so I never received the service paid for.

 

http://parkingcharges.co.uk/bmsia/001.png

 

Where do I go from here? Do I appeal to Santander? Just go straight for N1 county claim?

 

Any help much apprechiated, and sorry for the delay in updating this thread.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34939[/ATTACH]

 

David (thepalace1)

 

 

Can anyone say weather or not santander have just fobbed me off, can I complain to Santander and have them re-look at it, as according to Visa, if you have failed to receive services paid for then the bank must issue a chargeback!

[thepalace1]

I have today received the Acknowledgement of Service.

 

I originally filed the claim in the following format (Not his actual details)

 

Mr Andrew Other

Repair Motor Service

 

On the AOS it says

 

The defendant's name has been corrected to read Repair Motors Service Ltd.

 

He has taken it out of his name, and addes an s to the motor part.

 

I have checked Companies house and the new name of Repair Motors Service Ltd is not registered.

 

His old company name of Repair Motor Service IS registered as DISSOLVED.

 

Is there any significance in this???

 

I was under the impression that according to the Companies Act 1985 and 1989, all Ltd companies must be registered..

[sailor sam]

Contact the court and ask them pointing out that the company which is registered is dissolved. Seems to me he is trying to pull a fast one.