To think they're trying to rip me off - shaking with rage!

[OneToughMudderFudder]

So booked car in for a full service before we set off on a road trip next week. Stupidly mentioned that to the guy when confirmed the booking [duh!].

Get called after an hour with the garage saying that they've found numerous things wrong with the car, including brakes needing stripping down, completely new brake fluid and engine flushing and they want an additional £700 to correct them (said very cheerily as if we have that just lying about).

Car sailed through its last MOT 6 months ago, all brakes were replaced last year, but apparently now its dangerous to drive . I haven't noticed any problems with the car apart from it being a little juddery very occasionally as it's an automatic diesel and needs a good long high speed run which it hasn't had recently, to burn off the diesel particulate filter, but it will get plenty of that over the next few weeks.

Guy was very rude when I said I would check with DH, saying the car was dangerous to drive, asking was I serious that I didn't want the work done! He was very annoyed I wasn't prepared to immediately agree to shell out there and then. I'm pretty sure they thought I would be freaked by them saying it was 'dangerous' because I'm a woman.

We had this a few years ago where we took both (different) our cars in for servicing and ended up paying nearly £2k for 'faults' they found. Not falling for that again.

Is this common when sending a car for a service? AIBU to think they were pulling a fast one?

Try to find a good local garage through word of mouth - it's well worth it. I've been going to a local family run garage since I moved to this area around 3 years ago and they are super. They don't treat me different for being female, they don't bump up the prices by finding things that aren't really wrong, and they have done little bits and pieces for free. They are wonderful. It gives you peace of mind to put your car into a garage you trust.

I reported kwik fit to trading standards years ago. I had a hole in my new (to me) car. Took it in to a local kwik fit and they phoned and said the catalyst (not sure on spelling, it was the most expensive part of the exhaust) needed replaced. I phoned my dad who said tell them no as we'd take it to the garage I got it from as they'd done a full service.
When I phoned to say that they said it had already been cut so I told them to put it in the boot as I was taking it back to the garage.
Lo and behold, 10 minutes later I got a call back to say it hadn't been cut after all. And there was nothing wrong with that part.
I reported them to the manager at the garage I think and trading standards. I got a phone call back from the garage that weekend asking why I'd complained as they'd saved me money as the part didn't need done. I'd never use them again or recommend them.

A few years ago Which tested 10 car garages out both local and chains with a car. The car had a few faults, a woman took it in and then a man sometime later. None of the places diagnosed the faults correctly and both men and women got ripped off but the women much more.

I would trust any of them, take it in to a few places OP before you get any work done.

Everyone saying they've got good garages, can we share?! Up and down the county - might help fellow mumsnetters!

I need a good garage in North/East London if anyone can recommend?

I always take my car to the council for the M.O.T.

I use an independent garage that have their own scrapyard for servicing & repairs.

Tell them you knew they would pull a fast one so just as well you caught them out. This happened to my DM, more fool them.

Or...

Phone them again and ask for the name of whom you are speaking with, then announce that you are infact an actor working on a new series of Rip Off Britain to be aired in the autumn.

Such bastards out there.

If 2 places have said you have brake issues, perhaps you should take it back to the place that did the work on the brakes last year and have them check the work.

The other possibility is that the brakes do genuinely need work now but that the garage you paid last year didn't do everything that you paid them to do.

Too bloody stressful

OP I hope that you report them to the local trading standards and they get closely investigated...

I've been done a few times by garages. Once we had a lovely local one and sent it in for its annual service and mot without realising that it had been taken over and they said we needed loads of unnecessary work.

Another time we lived in a block of flats that had a car lift that was always breaking down and once broke down for a couple of months while waiting for a part to repair it. Meant that when my car finally got out, it was overdue for its MOT so I had to accept what they said because I couldn't drive it off anywhere.

Most recently we had a new-osh vauxhall that had a problem the local garage couldn't fix. Finally spoke to vauxhall who said they were in the process of removing the dealership from the garage and installing a new dealer, who had several branches in the same region, with a good reputation. Took it in to them, while they still had their temporary garage and the guy was brilliant, sorted it out really well. Have been using them now for years - but this time for the first time I had an issue with them - usually they do the service and MOT as a package, so you get all the little bits that might cause a problem out of the way before the mot (things like wiping the window wiper blades clean, topping up the levels of everything etc). They rang and told me that it had failed its mot because it needed 2 new tyres. When I asked why they hadn't sorted this out beforehand their excuse was that this wasn't checked in a service but in their free car check, which they did at the end of the day as that's when they had time to do it and that I should have known that they needed new wheels so sortedit myself beforehand.

As it was they sold the wheels for a reasonable price so we used them to do it and then retest - which they do for free if they do the work - but the tyres took a couple of days longer to come than they needed to as it was a friday and they hadn't checked before the cut off time for ordering so it took nearly a week to sort and get.

seriously unimpressed and they've never done it that way before - no idea what they were playing at this time.

Update:

Took car to Formula 1 this afternoon. They did a free summer check with the air con re gas which included brakes and pollen filter (which garage yesterday wanted to charge £69 for alone) and they said all perfectly fine! The garage I used yesterday actually sends cars to them for work.

I have the report which I am going to send to Servicing Stop.

Utter cheating bastards . Steer well clear.

Second opinion if I were you! It sounds like they're trying to rip you off.
I had a friend who had an older car and he bought a Haynes manual for his car and would leave it lying on the back seat when he took his car for servicing so it would look like they couldn't get one over on him.
They might have been reading it without his knowledge for advice though.

Their behaviour is very dodgy though. Do some digging online see what you can find out, if anyone else has had issues with them but yes definitely second opinion.

Good news OP but not a surprise to anyone at all.

Viviane- you can highlight the OP's posts to avoid cancel the cheque faux pas.

It took me years to find a trustworthy garage. I went to all sorts of places from main dealers to the ‘service while u wait’ type places. Many are useless, others dishonest and the upselling thing is really annoying when they try and see how far they can get you to go - every time you agree to a job, a new thing is added to the (unwritten) list. Definitely worth finding a regular garage you trust, through personal recommendation, and using them all the time. I go to a little place, looks a bit tatty and backstreety but they are honest. I’ve known the current owner since he was the Saturday boy there! OP should definitely get a second opinion here - but 3000 miles is a lot of wear on a car so things that might be fine at the moment like tyre tread, brake pads etc, might not have that much life left (that would be 6 months driving for my car!).

I had a car we'd bought brand new and now was 2 years old when this happen: I drove the car in for an oil change what-have-you because it was under warranty still. I was with my teenager, his friend and my toddler. We walked across the road to the mall to shop/eat while it was being serviced.

When I called to see if it was ready they listed about 10 serious things wrong with the car that had to be fixed asap. I told them to write them all down and I'd hand the list over to my husband who was a 'mechanic'. I said that because I knew they were lying to me. The car wasn't driven much and still smelled new ffs.

When I went and asked for the list of repairs to show my husband there was only one thing on it and it was something very simple, unimportant and cheap. Gone were there major repairs.

I believe they thought I was a single woman and were going to take advantage of me and maybe the warranty.

My mother had this when she sent a car in for an MOT. A local mechanic doesn't do them himself but takes it along to another garage.

When my mum went to collect he told her he'd changed her brakes as they were right down to the pads and dangerous. Made a lot of play about her grandchildren being safe. She told him he'd had no permission at all to change the brake pads and that he had no right to charge her for work she'd not authorised - he was asking for £700, too. She swiped the old brake pads and his cheeky invoice and went, after telling him if he didn't give her the keys she would call the police and make him.

He thought she was this old lady and he could rob her blind. She's got ovaries of steel and he tangled with the wrong pensioner. She took the car to her usual mechanic back home (she was with me because I've been unwell, so she's helping with the kids) and he said not only were the old brake pads fine, but she was being massively overcharged by a factor of around three for the labour, and that the man in question was using a trade organisation logo on his paperwork that he wasn't entitled to use, because he didn't belong to it. Her mechanic knew that because he himself was on the governing body.

We looked on the DVLA site for the MOT info, and the legit garage had passed it within an hour of my mum handing over the keys to the crook, too. So he was flat out lying when claiming to her that the only reason it passed the MOT was the work. He had taken a completely immaculate car in for an MOT, and when it passed, had changed totally okay brake pads to rip what he assumed was a helpless old lady off.

Absolute crook.

When I was telling a friend about this, she told me her garage told her her car was a writeoff and to accept scrapping for it, before selling her another. A week later they called demanding the logbook for her old car as the new purchaser wanted it.

There really, really should be better regulation of this industry.

My DH took mine into a main dealer recently as I have a service plan with them. Never had any big surprises before, but this time DH was told that it needed £700+ of work for the brakes and something else. The daft sod told them to go ahead and do it. When I checked the paperwork the brakes were just advisory, and the care has only done about 20k miles. The other issue would have meant it failing MOT, but I could have sourced the part from a scrapyard and had it done for a fraction of what they charged.

Lesson for me, take it myself next time

Don’t always rely on word of mouth. Lots of residents from the small village where I live recommended the garage up the road. Took hubbys car in to have his exhaust looked at (part of it was hanging down - the other garage who we’d taken it to first had taken the bit hanging down off and took it away and gave us a quote which involved welding a bit onto the exhaust to save replacing the whole lot - they couldn’t fit it in very soon though hence finding another garage)
Spoke to guy at recommended garage - said that we’d had a quote of £120, to replace just the back box, he said he could do it for £65!!! Great says I and delivers it the next morning. Didn’t hear from him that night (despite him saying it’d be ready) got to lunch the next day and I rang, he confirmed it was ready so I walked up to collect.
He brought the bill.....£135....WTF says I? Oh well, we had to replace the whole exhaust says he.....erm, why? Says I - oh it was rotten says he - and proceeds to “prove” so by bringing an old rusty exhaust round to show me.
Only of course it had the back box with it too...which the previous garage had retained.....so I exposed him as a lying bastard. I told him that he had quoted me £65, and that when it was found that the quote would be exceeded he should have rung me. He got shirty - I said that I was willing to pay the £120 that the other garage had quoted me - and he tried threatening me by saying he could just take the exhaust off and put mine back on...I told him to crack on 😂😂😂
Randomly and to this day I still can’t fathom it but he eventually huffed and puffed and charged me ...... £110 😂😂 (and hubby got a brand new exhaust) and we’ve never gone back since - and having spoken to some other people realize that it seems like it’s common practice for him 😳

We took our ancient car to a garage for something quite small. We were waiting while they did it. They then told us that we needed a lot of work doing to it, and that they would not feel comfortable letting us drive the car away.

We believed them, even though we were shocked, but THEY INSISTED ON TAKING US ROUND TO SHOW US. They talked us through it all. They were utterly amazing. We got the work done, they then gave us an MOT cert, as is was due soon. The car passed the next two years MOTs with flying colours.

Your situation was different though OP, I doubt they would have been willing to show you were corrosion was etc. So glad you got a second opinion!

I found my current, very good, garage by asking the local taxi drivers which garages they used. The name of my current place came up a lot. No guarantee but worth a shot!

Just read update before replying, glad it was sorted even if they were trying to rip you off. I was going to warn you against some garages taking good parts off a car and swapping them with broken/damaged parts as I know has happened to people in the local garage to me, but since you’ve had another check over it’s unlikely they did. Leave them a bad review if you can!

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a big name garage I’ve always been to a friend of a friends (not always the same one over the years) because if they do you, it will get around that they did.

I know ours is honest because FIL kept on for ages about getting a new clutch and we were fully prepared to get one at the next service. Our mechanic said nope, you’ve got at least 18 months left, ring me then. He could have just sold it to us anyway, but he didn’t. If I need something doing urgently, he always fits me in.

@Holyshitbags you don't live in Glos do you? Because that sounds exactly like the guy my Mum used on local recommendation.

Then when she had that hassle, other horror stories began to emerge.

My friend always says her fella is a mechanic and that usually gets them to change their tune (he actually is) but for the point, knowing someone can check their work or their claims, usually shits them up and backtrack. Take the car for a second opinion and get your hubby to do it, I find some chancers try to take a woman for a ride as well

@perfectstorm
No, north Lincolnshire lol
Doesn’t surprise me that there are plenty, I have an inherent distrust of tradesmen anyway, but he definitely didn’t help haha
Pretty sure he wasn’t used to people (especially women) knowing a little bit about what they were talking about!! (My dad used to fix our cars and I was always interested so know a fair bit - just not very hands on sadly)

This is by far the worst thing about owning cars, I can't think of many areas in life where you have to put such blind faith in people not to rip you off!

I don't really understand all the responses saying that shaking with rage is an over reaction. If the Op had reported that someone had mugged her, stealing £700 from her purse, would she be entitled to that response then? As I don't see the difference. These people are literally attempting to steal money from her. Would it make a difference if she needed the car to get to work and without it she wouldn't be able to eat this month?