Roadstar Autocentre - i've raised a Court Claim re: terrible service after wrongly fitting a turbo **WON**

[BankFodder]

So I gather that you took your van to a garage and they apparently did a repair and charged you £2000 which you paid.

Since then you have found that the van has not been properly repaired – and that you have very recently had the repair properly carried out at your expense.

You now want to recover the £2000 which you paid for the defective repair – but you have left it for at least nine months. Is this correct?

[BankFodder]

So you are saying that you want to recover £180 which was the cost of addressing the defective repair so that it now works satisfactorily

[BankFodder]

Well if you can get some independent assessment of the standard work which was carried out in fitting the turbo nine months ago, and the fact that it took £180 to correct the problems then I don't see any difficulty with bringing a court action and winning.

Many garages are very slippery and make enforcement difficult – but for £180 it would be extraordinary if they even went to the effort of trying to challenge you.

So do you have the evidence necessary to convince a judge? If you do then I suggest that you start looking on this forum about how to bring a small claim in the County Court. It's very straightforward but it is worth knowing the steps in advance.

Once you have decided that you know what the steps are and you are happy to go ahead then we will help you. You would begin by sending a letter of claim giving 14 days for your money after which you issue the claim. Don't bluff. It's not worth it. Be as good as your word.

Don't forget though that this garage is apparently at the end of your road so they are inconveniently near to you if anybody wanted to do some mischief when you weren't looking.

If you bring a County Court action then your chances of success are better than 95%. It's most likely that they would put their hands up once they realise that you are serious – which would mean that you would puppy have to issue the court papers.

[BankFodder]

I'm thinking about some different aspects of your situation.

Firstly, I imagine that £2000 you paid was not the figure which was agreed in advance. Presumably you went to collect the van and they told you that the bill was £2000. Is that right?

What work did they actually carry out? Have you got a detailed list of the labour involved and the parts which were replaced?

 

[BankFodder]

When you collected the vehicle from the garage, had they improved in any way? In other words, did you get anything for your £2000?

[BankFodder]

Well I think that we need to know the answer to this question because I'm trying to figure out whether it might be worth your while suing for the entire £2000 she paid him – if he did work which then subsequently came to nought.

On the other hand, if for instance he supplied some parts which were then used in the final repair then the value of those should be deducted from what you're claiming. I'm trying to calculate the value of the claim you might make

[BankFodder]

Can you remind me. Did the garage supply you with a new turbo for your £2,000? If it did, then you will need to consider what the normal value would be of a new turbo and that at least would have to be deducted from the amount you are claiming.

It seems to me that if it was fitted incorrectly then you would be able to claim back all of the money which was paid in respect the fitting but not in respect of a new turbo if they supplied that

[BankFodder]

You won't get any compensation for the the screeching. 

 

you will have to find out what the reasonable cost of fitting a turbo would be and then that will probably be the value of your claim. Does that take care of all your losses?

[BankFodder]

Okay, so what you have to do is you have to take the money you paid to the garage which I understand is £2000. You've got to consider that the value of the labour they put in was completely wasted because you had to have the turbo taken out and then refitted – is this correct? However, the turbo itself was useful to you and so you should be required to pay for the cost of the turbo.

If this is correct and you have independent evidence that the turbo had been incorrectly fitted then you should sue them for the balance.

This means that you have to find out the cost of a turbo – was it an original or was it a pattern part? Anyway, you have to find out the cost of the turbo and deduct that from the £2000 and that should be the value of your claim unless you can tell us of any other losses which you have reasonably incurred as a result of their poor workmanship.

Let us know

[BankFodder]

Sorry I don't altogether understand. Are you saying that you should claim for the cost of the turbo and the Labour for fitting?

 

Also I have to say that I think you're taking a rather leisurely view of all of this. You don't really engage with this thread very well. We react very quickly and it's all in your interests to get it sorted out. It's very demotivating to find somebody who simply pops in now and then. I'm sure that you have your work commitments et cetera – but at the end of the day, there is some serious money at stake here if you are sufficiently interested

[BankFodder]

In terms of being a nuisance – it's never a problem if people meet us halfway in terms of enthusiasm and response times. Where we have to keep on chasing people – or else they are so slow about coming back that we then have to go back to the beginning of the thread to refresh our memories about the story, then that becomes time-consuming and an unnecessary nuisance.

I'm still trying to understand what you think you're going to claim for – but yes I suggest that you post up a draft letter before action here before you send it.

[BankFodder]

As far as I understand it, your turbo failed and had to be replaced. That means that you have to pay for the turbo unit and also you have to pay for the costs of installing it.

I understand that the first garage supplied you the turbo and therefore the cost of that is legitimate and cannot be claimed back.

I understand that the turbo was installed incorrectly so that eventually the work had to be redone by a second garage and that you paid the installation fee to the second garage.

In essence that means that you have paid the installation fee twice. Once to the first garage who did the job so badly that you then had to pay the fee again to the second garage who did the job correctly.

This means that the payment to the first garage – is recoverable. The payment to the second garage, is not recoverable because the turbo failed and it had to be replaced.

You say that you paid the first garage £2000. Find out the cost of the turbo – and deduct that from the £2000.

So, if the turbo cost £200 – deducting that from the £2000 means that they have charge you £1800 for Labour. That means that you can recover the £1800 because it was wasted as they didn't do the job correctly and the job had to be done again.

Is that clear and is it correct?

[BankFodder]

It's not necessary to see an invoice.

You will have to figure out how much you paid for the installation part of the work which was carried out – because that is what you want to claim back. If it's not clear what proportion of the bill was in respect of the installation, then you will probably need to get some outside opinions – independent opinions – as to the cost of an installation. It would be better to understate the value then overstate it – because if the cost is not clear then that could become the subject of a dispute if you take this to court.

You will be better off identifying an amount of money which you could reasonably attribute to the cost of installing the new turbo – and which will be supported by independent evidence – and which will be accepted without much question from the judge.

[BankFodder]

"Quite sure" suggests that you're not completely sure and that you are guessing to the best of your recollection.

Don't.

Be sure.

[BankFodder]

The letter has far too much in it – some of it is not relevant – and apart from anything else, if he didn't comply with the various things that you are saying, you wouldn't know what to do about it.

The best thing to do is to keep it simple.

 

Quote

Dear XXX

On XX date I left my vehicle registration XXX to investigate for certain problems. You reported that you were unable to find anything wrong. You recommended that I take it to a Ford dealership.

The Ford dealership reported that amongst other things the turbo had ceased to function – which you had not discovered.

I returned the vehicle to you and asked you to replace the turbo. You did so and charged me for the turbo £XXX and also £XXX Labour for installation.

Within a short time the turbo unit started to make serious noises but when I telephoned you about it you told me that it was not your problem and that you wouldn't do anything about it.

I have since had to take the car to a another repairer who discovered that the turbocharger had been incorrectly installed. They were obliged to remove it and reinstall it correctly and it is now working satisfactorily.

This means that I have unnecessary paid you £XXX for the installation of the turbo.

I require the refund of this money.

I have tried to engage with you on this but you have declined to become involved.

If I do not receive a full refund within 14 days that I will sue you in the County Court and without any further notice.

Yours sincerely
 

 

[BankFodder]

I hope you won't mind me saying that when you draft letters or documents, you should be using words and phrases that you understand and that you understand the impact of – and in that way you will be confident and in control. If you simply cut-and-paste stuff from other sources that you don't really know what they mean, then it will look as if you are making up as you go along – and you will never have confidence in what you do.

[BankFodder]

If you don't understand what you're saying then don't say it.

 

Yes recorded post is a good idea

[BankFodder]

Head office might be best

[BankFodder]

Sorry, I'm not sure where you are on this. It's been so long since you engaged with this thread that I rather lost track.

Can you explain exactly what you've done so far.

[BankFodder]

A number of things:

First of all, are you referring to the draft letter of claim which you posted up here on 30 October – a month ago? If so, then when did you send it?

Secondly, if you have sent a letter of claim giving 14 days and the deadline which you set out in the letter has expired, then why haven't you moved onto the next step? Haven't you read around this forum about the steps required to begin an action in the County Court so that you are ready to go the moment that your deadline expires? Do you understand the steps that you need to take? Have you registered on moneyclaim online?

We give advice here but it is a self-help forum and part of the deal is that we help you for free but in return you have to read around to understand where you are and what your next steps are. This means that you join in the effort with us and also you will gain confidence by understanding what to do rather than having to ask us for answers all the time.

So please let us know what date you sent the letter – and if you have registered with the County Court website – moneyclaim.

Finally, you sent us a very generous donation. Thank you very much indeed. It's appreciated very much – but I have refunded the money to you. I think that you sent it to us by way of an apology for bothering us but you're not bothering us and that's not what donations are for anyway.

What would be really helpful is if you would make sure that you understand all the steps and that you engage with the thread properly.

If you get a result – and I expect you will if you are tenacious and persistent about this, then you can certainly give us a donation if you want – and we will be pleased to accept.

[BankFodder]

Okay, well it has the merit of being brief – and that's good. Most people want to write their life history.

I suggest:

Quote

On XXX date the defendant agreed to investigate and to repair a problem with the claimant's vehicle make XX registration XXX. The defendant discovered that the vehicle's turbocharger had failed and had to be replaced. The defendant replace the turbocharger at a cost of £XX for the replacement unit and £XXX labour charge. The repair failed and an independent garage discovered that the turbocharger had been incorrectly fitted. The defendant declined to rectify the problem and so the claimant paid the independent garage to refit the turbo unit which is now working satisfactory.
The claimant seeks reimbursement of £XXX wasted labour charge for the fitting of the turbo unit plus £XXX ancillary losses incurred plus interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984

 

 

Please have a look at this. I haven't looked back at your whole story so I'm not sure if this sums it up. Please let us know if there is anything missing or anything wrong and we will amend it. Also, I can't remember if you suffered additional losses for since by having to pay me for the car to be transported or anything. So I have included that in the POC but of course it can be removed.

If you did incur ancillary losses then please let us know what they were

[BankFodder]

That looks ok so if you are happy then send it off.

please will you start doing some proper reading about the steps which are going to happen. Follow the links >>>>> small claim county court

 

[BankFodder]

Have you received the directions questionnaire?

If you have, then it will be at this point that you will need to decide that you are prepared to pay an extra fee to go through to a court hearing. You will also be able to agree to mediation.

On the matter of the choice of the court, you should choose your local court because the other side is a business and so they should come to you if they have a different local court.

You need to make sure that you have evidence to prove the basis of your case.

Although it's not totally relevant – it tends to give a clue as to the incompetence of this garage so it would be helpful if you can show some evidence that when you first took it to the garage they were unable to find anything wrong and it was only when you took it to Ford that they identified that there was indeed a problem and in fact the turbo needed replacing.
I think it's important to emphasise that it's quite extraordinary that the garage were unable to recognise that the whole turbocharger needed replacing.

As a say, this is not strictly relevant that it tends to show the incompetence of the garage. It also may tend to suggest that they were not competent in the fitting of a turbocharger because they couldn't even recognise that there was a problem.

Secondly, you need to get a statement from the garage to recognise that it had been incorrectly fitted. This needs to be a written statement and you should obtain it as quickly as possible please and post it up so that we can see.

This is your most important piece of evidence and it needs to be very clearly stated by the person who makes the statement, that they were asked to look at the van on a particular date, they inspected it, they discovered that a turbocharger had been incorrectly fitted – and they should give a description of the way in which it was incorrectly fitted.

They should then say in the statement that they were asked to reinstall the turbocharger which they did and they charged £XXX for it.

This is essential evidence and you should get it as soon as possible.

Finally, you have said that when you first realise that there was a continuing problem with the turbocharger after it had been fitted, that you went back to the garage and they can do anything about it. You need some evidence of this – emails or anything else.



 

[BankFodder]

Recorded delivery

[BankFodder]

Thanks for the update.

We've had a lot of experience of people going to mediation when they have been bringing actions against Hermes, the parcel delivery service.

I suggest that you find your way to the Hermes sub- forum and look at some of the threads there and see how the mediation works and see also how the mediator puts pressure on people to give up their rights.

I suggest that you search on "Hermes, mediation" – and see what that brings you. It is well worth understanding exactly what is going to happen and there are some very good experiences there