To be upset that there are miles on my car after a service

[Octavon]

The garage took my car for a service and left me a courtesy car. They were supposed to bring my car back the same day but it needed new tyres and they couldn’t get them till the next day.

When my car came back it had an additional 60 miles on the clock and approx 60 miles of petrol used. The garage is 10 miles away. Also the dash cam had been unplugged, presumably so it couldn’t record where the car has been.

The garage is ignoring my questions about where my car has been and why the dash cam has been unplugged. I’m finding it very distressing thinking some stranger has taken my car on a joy ride. Also I can’t afford to lose the 50 miles of missing petrol.

AIBU to be upset? Or is this to be expected? Where has my car been!

YANBU. At all. But I don't know what you can do about it other than leave an honest review.

That is shocking! Complain and take the cost of the petrol off your payment to them.

YANBU! I woudl definitely peruse this further, although I think the first thing the garage will say to ‘defend’ themselves is ask you to prove what the petrol or milage was when you dropped it off. I always take a photo of the dashboard for this very reason.

It’s appalling - and dangerous. I think all you can do is leave very public reviews and comments on any local Facebook pages and email your local paper. I would plaster them everywhere.

Is it a high powered car? Very odd.

Pursue*

No it’s a regular old 10yo Mini Cooper.

That's awful!! Do you have any proof of the mileage? Did the garage make a note of it when you dropped off or anything?

I'd be really upset too

I’d complain about the miles and petrol but not the dash cam, they usually unplug them for a service as they are allowed to not want to be filmed and recorded while going about their day on some randoms camera, that bit in itself is not weird.

DH reckons the guy who dropped off the “courtesy car” left me his own company car and took mine to the garage. Then when the cars didn’t get switched back before 5pm he took my car home overnight.

We always take a photo of the car's mileage and fuel level before handing it over to the garage and when leaving it at the airport we film it as we get out, state of the seats, the outside of the car etc because we know people who had their car taken for a joy ride in these circumstances.

I would want the cost of the petrol and an explanation of why the car has so many miles added onto it.

Tell the garage you are going to report the theft of the petrol to the police and see if that jogs any memories.

At the moment they are just ignoring me. Initially they said they’d investigate but now they’re just not replying.

If all else fails leave reviews on line

The dashcam thing is usual. If I’m reading correctly, they collected and dropped the car off so that’s a 20 mile round trip. It’s not unheard of for a car to have a short test drive or even a long one if they’re trying to reproduce a problem or be certain that something’s fixed. You say just a service though which makes it odd.

No I meant it’s 10 miles to the garage as a round trip. So 50 miles of petrol are missing and 50 miles on the mileage.

There was nothing wrong with the car, I didn’t pay for any repairs. They just did the service and MOT then replaced the tyres the next day. So they weren’t trying to check if a problem was fixed because there wasn’t one.

Years ago my friend’s almost new car was written off by some boy racer mechanic who was “test driving” it after a service. He was 30 miles in the opposite direction from the garage or her home, and the garage’s insurance wouldn’t cover it, so she had to claim in court for the loss, and he never paid what she was awarded. And she had higher insurance premiums for years afterwards.

EveryKneeShallBow · Today 09:09
Years ago my friend’s almost new car was written off by some boy racer mechanic who was “test driving” it after a service. He was 30 miles in the opposite direction from the garage or her home, and the garage’s insurance wouldn’t cover it, so she had to claim in court for the loss, and he never paid what she was awarded. And she had higher insurance premiums for years afterwards.

Years ago, my friend and I, in her car, were appalled to see two young lads racing along a busy road. Dodging in and out of traffic and causing people to blast their horns. One of them was in my car. I had taken it in to the garage for a repair.
I called the police, and was told that they had given them a 'stern talking to'.

Is it a diesel? Could they have had to run it on the rolling road to reset the dpf filter?

I can only think maybe they needed to re-torque the wheels after a test drive or check tracking but I'm not even sure they even do that nowadays as they should have the technology. The fact they are being shifty about it would send alarm bells ringing for me.

Can you write something on trustpilot about them?
I have found that to be the most effective way of getting attention with shitty companies.

Did they take it somewere else to get the MOT certificate done? Our local garage is not a registered MOT centre so they do all the servicing then drive the car over to a bigger garage to get the MOT signed off. But 25+ miles away would be pushing it!

I didn't discover a load of extra miles on the clock until my next yearly service! No idea what to do about it as even if I'd queried it at the time the garage in question would have just bull sxxxxxd me as the'd already done with the high cost of the service.

It’s a pretty big garage, a national chain. I bought the car from them and took it back for its 1 year annual service and MOT (free under warranty).

When I got the car home it turned out they had done the service but not the MOT. I think the reason they didn’t do the MOT is because the car needed new tyres and they didn’t want to pay for them.

I kicked up a fuss and they lied to me repeatedly, saying the MOT had been done. But eventually they had to admit that it hadn’t because the DVLA website showed that it hadn’t. I’m not convinced they had even done the service either.

They came and collected the car and took it to do the MOT and check that it had been serviced, and left me a courtesy car. Then they failed to bring my car back until the next day and it had an extra 50 miles on the clock.

The fact they lied about the MOT makes me distrust them. I wouldn’t put it past them to have taken my car on a joy ride. And now they’re ignoring my complaint.

I have a tracker on my car, it says when the engine starts, turns off, speed and plots route on a map.

When it went in for repair to Mercedes they used it for the greggs lunch run, hadn't moved it in days when I was told it was being worked on at that very second. The final straw was being told it had been test driven when it hadn't left their yard. DH pointed out we had tracking and there was a massive back peddle about how it had been muddled.