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!

Not read whole thread but could you report to trading standards?

Cut your losses and go get them a shitty 1 star review on Google (and any other review site you can think of) and then forget about it.

It's not dangerous .

If they lied about the mot they are capable of lying about everything else and clearly have no concern over anyone's safety. I'd report to head office, trading standards and ask the police if there is anything they can do to track your car if it left the garage.

It can, especially if it's been running for a while and it gauges from fuel used and remaining and they used a low gear to test. I remember reading somewhere it can throw off the miles until empty.

I once had my car in at the Vauxhall dealership when I went shopping in town only saw my car there! I went mad rang them and told them I was reporting it stolen they did my service for free

I had similar (but no courtesy car). Went back to the garage and asked what had happened as I left half a tank of fuel (left it for a week with someone who I trusted). He owned up to taking it home every night, as he’d done the mileage since the mot so it was bloody obvious and I was on red as I drove off to my important appointment that was fifty miles away and only realised I was low on fuel about five mins after I’d left him.

I was blooming livid, and told him I was seriously disappointed he thought he could just do that. He’s a fab mechanic and it didn’t suit me to go elsewhere, but now I only ever take it on the day (and I always get an extremely favourable bill) but if things were different in my life I’d never have gone back. He’d did offer me the petrol money but I was so annoyed I refused. (Because him paying for the fuel after the event didn’t make it an ok thing to do).

There was a man at my daughter’s old nursery and he’d collect the kids in customer cars daily, rarely in his own. Never used to put the car seats in them either 😡😡

This exact situation happened to me, down to the garage being spluttering and evasive.

I escalated it (had a tracker on the car so could screen grab the weird and wonderful holiday it'd been on while I thought it was getting a service) and got £100 knocked off. I was furious.

OP, if the garage are ignoring your calls and messages, I would make a point of going there myself and telling them quite loudly, in front of other customers, that I'm not moving until I get an explanation for why there are 50 additional miles on my car and payment for the fuel used (and I'd be charging them £22.50 (45p/mile), not the value of 50 miles worth of fuel, because you have to take account of the wear and tear on the vehicle for those 50 miles.
45p/mile is standard travel expenses rate according to HMRC.

yeah they’re fun to blast around in.

A friend of mine put his in for a service. I live the next town over and saw it being driven like a bat out of hell.

They blew the engine and refused to pay for a new one. Garages are a law unto themselves

An MOT takes like 1 hr, just sit and wait. Get a new garage OP, they are taking you for a ride....

Also, my sister lives opposite a garage owner and he drives home clients cars every night. We know this as she called me once and asked why I was parked on his drive, and I said I had taken my car to the garage!

It’s nothing to do with the miles until empty, the OP’s car has had 60 miles added to the odometer.

If they're still ignoring you now then I'd contact head office and make a complaint.

The mileage thing is annoying and fucking cheeky but actually lying to you about whether work has been done that's legally required is so bad.

About 15 years ago my car was in the garage for several days whilst they were trying to mend it, I was told it wasn’t safe to drive. A week later I got a parking ticket for when my car should have been in the garage but was actually parked illegally; it was parked in a town centre of a different town! There was nothing I could do so I had to pay the fine. I have since found a garage I trust and only ever use that one.

My car failed it's MOT a few months ago and needed some welding doing. I always take it to my BIL's garage but they don't do welding so it goes to another guy about 3 miles from BIL's garage. A total of 9 miles from my house to the welders place, then 3 miles from there back to BIL's garage. Over a third of a tank of petrol in it.
Went to collect my car once it was done.....and ran out of petrol before I even pulled out of the garage onto the main road . Didn't think to look at the petrol gauge.I had a 3 year old in the back. For some reason the welder had driven nearly 90 miles in it.....
My BIL got onto him about it but never got to the bottom of it.

I would also add it's worth checking the MOT website before speaking to a garage when your car's been in for MOT. I saw mine had passed with an advisory and they then tried to get me to pay £350 for something that wasn't necessary to pass... I had the advisory work done elsewhere and saved £150.

Go in to the garage in person OP. Far harder to fob you off than over email or the phone.

If you have got any proof of this 'misunderstanding' then I'd get into the DVSA and report the garage. They are VERY hot on things like this. Of course the garage will just claim it was a mistake, but at least the DVSA will have them on their radar. They are very strict and very fussy about who they have on their testers register.

A few miles on the clock is fair enough. Some garages use a rolling road to check for various things, and a garage I used to use would drive the car round the block a few times after fitting new tyres. Anything more than about 3-5 would raise alarm bells though. Especially if they'd had the car overnight.

I really could not be arsed worrying about this. A tenner in fuel. They did the wrong thing but you are wasting energy on spilled milk.

Really? Shows fundamental dishonesty on the part of the garage. Not a small thing.

They can't ignore you if you're standing in front of them. If you go in and demand the price of petrol back and they still won't do anything. Call the cops right in front of them and let them know what you're doing. They basically stole your car. Bet you'll get their attention that way.

Apparently garages always turn dash cams off.

They have driven it to go somewhere or been fannyin about in it I would check my mpg

Do you think they care? Nope. I would just vote with my feet.

Probably leave a bad review to warn others. The faff and fighting to make a point is a waste of breath. Imo.