I have been had !!!

[Bob3356]

I received a Gift Voucher for a major service some months ago, I called the dealer to confirm it was free.
Yesterday the Wife took the car in confirmed there was nothing to pay 3 hours later she was presented with a bill for over £300 !!! the voucher also stated free roadside assistance which was not given.
Looking at the paperwork hardly any work has been done...PLUS I know none of the wheels were removed (I marked them) Plus it was implied that my gearbox oil has been contaminated extra £80
and my track rod ends need replacing, the MOT is only a couple of months old !
I have made representation to my local trading standards office.
The morale of my tale is just be very carefull when you decide to use a main dealer !

[guest2898]

Comes as no surprise.. my wife's GD went into a honda dealership in southport for a recall on the electric window switch, while it was there, and without my consent it underwent a "honda health check" the result of which was a massive list of faults... from track rod ends to bushes all round the car, worn discs, etc, etc, (which were the only thing that was true, and i had them replaced at a local garage at 1/4 of the price they quoted) anyway, the total cost for this massive amount of unnecessary.. are you sitting down??... just over £1,300!!! the car went in for a MOT shortly afterwards and while it was under severe braking on the rollers, the back brake pipes burst, losing all fluid resulting in braking failiure.... funny, they did not mention the badly corroded brake pipes on this "health check" i am just glad they did not fail while she was driving it... the pipes were repaired and the car then sailed through the rest of the MOT and has done so again since with no advisories.... i will stick to having my GE and her GD serviced at the local gargage....

[guest3340]

You should have refused to pay if you asked before they did it and confirmed it was free.  Unless it was only the labour charge that was free if no parts were needing replacing in this instance it seems as if they were charging for parts that were not required as they usually do at the stealers. Complain all the way false advertising

[chrisc]

Were there "terms and conditions" attached to the free voucher?

These seem dodgy trading conditions.  ADT (a security company) tried this here by printing 54 paragraphs of terms and conditions in light blue ink on dark blue paper, all of which were summarised by the lawyer to took them to court as "1) If we stuff up for any reason whatsoever, it is not our fault, and 2) we can sell all your private details to any third party at any time.  If you took the paper into bright sunshine you could make it out, but under artificial light, it was unreadable

Hate this kind of marketing.  Why cannot they make a living out of honest work?  I would be ashamed to con my customers like that

[Bob3356]

Update.
The Wife did refuse to pay BUT.... they would not let her have the keys back !
No there were no terms and conditions that I missed.
I have contacted trading standards, the advertising people, and The motor association.
The thing that sticks in my mind is that if it was a full service why could they not even be bothered to take the wheels off.
I will keep you all posted on the outcome.

[culzean]

Sounds like a work creation scheme to me - good luck with your campaign.  Did you report the dealers conduct to Honda UK head office?  Honda are proud of their dealer network and may not take kindly to this sort of behaviour. No one likes bad publicity.

[chrisc]

Yes, I would also drop a restrained note to Honda UK.  Good idea.  The Japanese are terrified of "losing face".  You might hint in your note that, should there not be a satisfactory outcome, you will take it up with a consumer body.

[bill888]

The thing that sticks in my mind is that if it was a full service why could they not even be bothered to take the wheels off.

Fwiw, I think it is rare for any garage nowadays to take the wheels off a modern car when performing a major service unless they have to actually change something like the brakes or tyres.   Brake friction lining thickness and hydraulic brakes bleeding can be done without needing to remove the wheels.  (One of my relatives uses cable ties to keep the plastic wheel trims attached to the wheels - they have never been cut off by a garage or tyre shop unless the brake pads or tyres need replacing.)

Most decent garages shouldn't carry out 'extra' work without first getting the owner's permission.  I always tell the garage not to do extra work without phoning me first when I hand the keys over to them.  When I collect the car, it's not unusual for the garage to come up with a list of things that 'supposedly' need attention.

[guest2040]

Who was the dealer involved ?

[chrisc]

Most decent garages shouldn't carry out 'extra' work without first getting the owner's permission.  I always tell the garage not to do extra work without phoning me first when I hand the keys over to them.  When I collect the car, it's not unusual for the garage to come up with a list of things that 'supposedly' need attention.

My good friend has a Mercedes A200 and was experiencing slow running problems.  Local MB agent diagnosed it as the computer box and quoted R 18000 (about £1500) to replace it as it was not covered by the motorplan.  He didn't have it done immediately, but mentioned it to a friend whose son is a mechanic.  This guy drove the car around the block, went down to a spares place and bought 4 new spark plugs - problem solved.

Next day MB agent phoned to find out when car was coming in, and when they were told that 4 spark plugs had been replaced that solved the problem, told him that his motorplan was therefore null and void since someone other than a MB appointed workshop dealer had "tampered" with the car.  But he, said, I would have paid R18k to replace a component that was clearly not at fault.  Oh yes, they said, but you could always bring it back again, but no refund on the money spent.  We stand by our diagnosis they said.  But it was incorrect friend said.  Prove it they said.  So he took car down to w/shop and they drove it.  "There has never been a problem" they now said and you did not replace the spark-plugs.  So he produced the old set but they were adamant that these plug had not come out his car.  So he asked for the computer to be checked again.  Now they wanted R 1500 to do that check.  So he walked out and has never been back.

Letters to Mercedes Benz South Africa are ignored.

[RichardA]

A week after picking up my car following a body repair after an accident last year I noticed the driver's door mirror wouldn't adjust (the folding and heating worked fine as did everything on the passenger side mirror). I took it back to the Honda-approved bodyshop thinking they had forgotten to plug something back in after the repair. They fiddled about with it for an hour and then told me the motor had blown. 10mins after leaving the garage I discovered that during the fault-finding process they had now killed the passenger side mirror glass adjustment and tripped a fuse - the latter of which I thought "sod it" and replaced it myself for less than £1 from Halfords, while the dead mirrors were left unfixed.

Not convinced by their explanation, I asked my Honda dealer to investigate when I had the car serviced recently. The dealer's suspicion of a blown adjustment switch (on the dashboard) as the culprit was confirmed when they swapped it with one from an identical car. The cost? £79 + VAT. A new mirror motor had been quoted at least double that (I haven't fixed it yet by the way).

[Bob3356]

 UPDATE.

Just gained a letter saying sorry AND the promise to give me a complete refund !
Thus there is no need to name and shame, I am tempted to ask for a copy of their method
statement, so as I can see just how its possible to fully check my brakes without removing
the wheels. But I think I might be pushing my luck. (I replaced them fairly recently !)

[guest2040]

Great news. 

[chrisc]

Did they volunteer this, or did you have to nudge them?

If the latter, they might be tempted to try this on with someone less aware of his rights in a business deal.

[Bob3356]

My great outcome was a result of trading standards taking an interest !