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!

I have a knackered old Land Rover that I've taken to the same garage for about 15yrs now. Quite often, one of the guys will drive it home for the night to check that nothing else is going to fall off it before I collect it the next day. They always let me know they'll do that though so it's not a surprise. I wouldn't be very happy at all if I were you.

Yeah that's weird OP :( one of my previous cars had some modifications which meant it had to be hot or it wouldn't pass emissions tests for MOT - so if they didn't have a specific slot that I could turn up to having driven it hard, they'd take it for a decent spin before doing the tests. Was a completely weird yet completely standard thing to do for that model of car, which are all 20-30+ years old now, and a family run garage I knew and trusted. You'd know about it if this was necessary for your car and I'm fairly certain it isn't for a ten year old mini! Definitely keep pushing for a response and see if there's a higher up person / franchise owner / similar you could escalate to?

I wouldn’t imagine they were joyriding, but they probably used your car to do so business errands such as collecting parts from a wholesaler. Not acceptable but from experience probably not unusual. When I saw my last new car on the forecourt it had 10 miles on the clock. When I collected it it had 40 miles on it.

My mechanic when doing my Service and MOT need to take my car to another place for the MOT. Could it be something like that? As people have said about dash cam that’s not unusual.

Thats not good about the miles.. but i just want to add every time my car is in for a mot and service the dash cam is always unplugged.. i thought it was maybe they didnt want them filmed etc, and i know they test run it... but i shall be checking my milage next time..

If there was a simple reasonable explanation why wouldn't they just say so?

My son is a mechanic and the first garage he worked at there was a chap who did a test drive in some high powered vehicle, unfortunately for him the owner had cameras and stuff that told him his car was doing 90 in a 40 limit. By the time he got back his boss was fully aware and sacked him for bringing his business into disrepute. But don't know what you can if you can't prove it.

This happened to me back in about 2006.
Got a speeding fine out of the blue, and it really upset me. Something like 43 in a 30. I was really shocked and confused. I don't drive like that.

Then I looked into the date. It was when the car was in the garage for repairs. It was a 5 year old 1.2 fiat punto with no boy racer modifications or anything but they'd obviously taken it out and significantly broken the speed limit.

I complained to the garage and they must have apologised in some way because I know I wouldn't have let it go if they didn't.
Then I filled out the speeding fine letter saying I wasn't the driver.

Nothing came of it, but I was very stressed about it for a while. I never went back to that garage, and it certainly hasn't helped me with trusting garages in general.

In a similar but not the same incident, I left my car at an official airport meet and greet (expensive!). A week after returning from our holiday I got a speeding ticket through for whilst I was away from Hertfordshire police! I could prove I was out of the country and where the car was so I didn’t have to pay it but I never leave the car anywhere where I have to leave my keys when we go away now.

YANBU because although there could be a legitimate reason for the extra miles they should be able to easily explain it.

Unfortunately people who work in garages tend to be so used to having random cars around they don't treat them with the same respect that the owners would. Each car is just a machine to them, whereas to the individual owner they can become more personal. It's a bit like with a doctor, they can come across as cold because they don't care about the patient, it's just another illness to them.

The ‘national chain’ is probably a franchise. I’d certainly make more of a fuss and turn up in person

Lesson learnt - never use the dealership for service and MOT, even if it is free. They'll kick the tyres and shine a torch h on the brakes, but telling you they've changed the filters and oil, and checked the brake discs and pads.

Former mechanic here. Should always do a test drive after a service, to check everything running fine, no knocks etc.
The person doing the picking up/dropping off most likely was a driver rather than a mechanic, so that wouldn’t count as a test drive. 40 mile test drive is excessive though! Most I ever did was maybe 15

Give them a deadline, say two or three days. They explain why, or then you assume it was driven uninsured, and complain to the police.

If payment has been made, request a chargeback from the bank.

No! Absolutely not on!
If it's part of a dealership get in touch with their head office.

And funnily enough (following a repair) I was called by a customer service employee (my local Mini dealership!) if they could have my permission "take the car for a decent drive, just to ensure it was running smoothly" I said "Yes of course, if you replace the fuel you use"
Guess what, it came back with only 3 miles extra on the clock!

For future reference, when you buy your next car, see if it has a built in tracker and app. Lots of cars do these days, you can use the app to start the car, turn the air con on etc. Mine doesn’t quite do all that but I can see its location, see where it’s been and at what time, it tells me if the doors are open etc. I love it if I have to leave it at the garage or airport parking, I can see exactly what’s going on.

Assuming a lot of these horror stories are from women, I wonder if they'd try the same with a fellow man's car.........? Maybe there hoping the stupid little women won't notice additional mileage etc.

You do know that you're meant to have at least a quarter tank of petrol and sufficient oil for an MOT so that they can run an emissions test? They will run the engine.

I would ask perhaps if they left the AC on while working on the car cos that's a sure fire guzzler.

That doesn't add miles to it. The MOT will run the car on the rollers to check the brakes but that won't be miles!

I am confident that would be the case. Hence the suggestion of involving the police if they won't provide an explanation.

Of course they're lying and of course they drove your car the 60mi you say. Report and complain where ever you can and leave a comment on their social. And find another shop, obvs.

Take the complaint to general manager/service manager. No response? You go to customer services @ head office.
list EVERYTHING that was wrong with their “service” how unhappy you are as well as cost and money implications.

Also.. check the mileage marked on MOT certificate to what is on your car. May also prove what miles have been added to your vehicle since it was done. Ie 45000 at MOT (if it’s dated the day before) today on return 45060..

Oh OP, that's so annoying! I'd defo say something. I had a car in 2019 that logged all journeys on an app, showed you exactly where it had been driven etc. I took it to a body repair shop and they had it for a few days. Cheeky beggars took it to go get their lunches! I was fuming, but young and too scared to say anything 😂