Took my car to a new garage for a basic service. My 'change engine oil' light came on last week and today was the soonest any local garage could fit me in.
Basic service was £120. I've just been to collect it and the mechanic told me that he has completed the service but unfortunately can't get the 'change engine oil' light to reset. He said my car manufacturer (not going to post the model as I've already posted on my local FB page for some advice from mechanics) has made it that only official dealerships are able to access the software (hardware?) to reset it. It can't be done manually like a lot of cars where you can access reset buttons through the dash. He said I would need to contact an official dealership to do this for me.
Just off the phone to my nearest one (100 miles away!) and they have said they would only be able to do this after they have done a service themselves which would cost much more money.
Basically, this is a car almost ten years old. I have no intention of selling it (it will do me until it packs in) so I've never been fussed about having it serviced at the official places.
My usual garage sold up at the start of this year and the family moved away and they've always managed to do it just fine! I explained this to today's mechanic who looked like he didn't believe me and said well, they must have had illegal equipment to be able to do that.
Today's garage won't offer me any sort of reduction as they have said they have done the work/service and didn't know about the issue of resetting the light until afterwards. They said they have never come across a car before that can't have its oil light reset manually.
I'm getting some responses on my FB pages from mechanics who say they'd be happy to take a look or for me to bring it in so hopefully I'll get the issue sorted.
My AIBU is - would you expect today's garage to give some sort of discount? Or are they right? I've paid the same price as other people would but have the added hassle now of trying to find someone to reset the light.
I really feel nervous driving the car with that warning light visible and pinging all the time.