Long story I'm afraid but I'm stressed and pregnant and tired and fraught!
Our car broke down, and because it has a lot of things going wrong with it we were undecided whether to scrap it or repair it. So we had it transported to a dealership an hour away because our local garage couldn't fix it, and the dealer advised that they could use their computer to diagnose the problem. The dealer phoned to say they'd diagnosed the problem, and quoted a price for the repair. We gave it some thought and decided that on balance we'd be as well to fix the car up and run it a bit longer, so we asked them to go ahead.
I went to collect it yesterday, paid my several-hundred-pound bill and then discovered it wouldn't even start! One of the technicians came out and fiddled with some fuses and said he thinks the whole onboard computer is on the blink, and said it might run for a bit before dying and showed me how to reset the computer if it won't start. I wasn't exactly delighted about this but I had no choice but to take the car away - I had an appointment to get to, a 2 year old with me and my lift was one way only.
Anyway, the car got me nearly home and then when I stopped for shopping it wouldn't start. I phoned the dealership, in tears by now, and a nice man came all the way out with his computer to try and get it started for me so I could get it to the house, but basically it's no use because it might or might not start next time I go anywhere. The costly repair hasn't fixed anything.
They say the part, once fitted, is no use in another vehicle, so although they're going to be calling me today the guy thinks it's unlikely they can refund me. But nobody told us until after I'd paid and gone to collect it that the whole system could be flawed and the repair they did wasn't necessarily going to fix it. If they'd told us this beforehand we would never have gone ahead with the repairs, the car just isn't worth it (and to renew the onboard computer it's likely to be another £1000 or so, which is about as much as I could consider spending on another car, and more than mine is worth ).
I'm not in the wrong to argue for a refund of the parts and labour, am I? Obviously we're totally happy to pay for the transport and diagnostics, but I really feel ripped off, at best by a communication breakdown, at worst by really unscrupulous practices. And I've got a whole lot less cash to spend on another car now I've paid for this sodding useless part. It was savings for my maternity leave, too