Pramas

well i just thought id post this 1 up there, not naming any names just yet, but this is a sponser on these forums, althought affter there intial response maybe i shouldve, but the story goes as follows

i initally bought my sti some 11 month ago, as any would when u dont know the history i choose to side with caution and had every fluid and cam belt changed.
Fast forward excatly 10 month, the car isnt used daily , infact it has done a total of under 4k since cam belt change, now since it was coming up 2 almost a year i choose to have a service and the engine was making a huge noise so i asked the mechanic who in this case was darren from darlington ( btw in all of this i cannot fault darren, he is the best mechanic ive dealt with and will do more dealings with) . Btw the original serive with cam belt change cost £645 quid so i do feel agrieved
After the oil change it did its normal train coming down a track noise and darren agreed thats not right, so he proceeded to pull the car apart untill he found the fault, it turned out to be the orignal cam belt change was done incorrectly and was the cam belt guides were secured to close to the belt ( i should maybe point out at this time i have a 06 hawkeye since classics dont have the cam guides )
He showed me the old belt while still on the car and it honestly looked like it could snap at any time, was a no brainer to tell him to change it immediately. After it was done i then drove to the garage who did the original work and after telling them i was informed i shouldve took the car to them to fix ( while i agree they have a case, i could not have took the chance on the stae the belt was in to drive 30 odds miles, it had rubber shavings all over the guides )
Now bearing in mind ive spent around £2k in the last 10 months with the garage in question with more to come this year, they choose to fob me off totally saying its only 6 month warranty and i shouldve noticed it immeditealy, now the car is bearly driven and its only since winter came i choose to use it more and its become apprant, iam not even asking for them to pay the cost of fitting the new belt , all ive asked for is the cost of the orginal subaru cam belt that is now shreded, a total of £60 , is this totally unreasonable? So far ive just had the finger basically, Before i take it further id like a few coments to see if iam wasting my time I guess the days of postive discretion and lifetime value of a customer is long gone

zayd

iTrader: (1)

This is exactly why I stopped using dealers to do any kind of work on my cars. I know it's no consolation, but at least now you know to avoid these kind of establishments. They are only interested in taking your hard earned money, without a care in the world of what service and quality they should be providing in return.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with all the hassle of trying to recoup a small sum of £60. Just find yourself a good independant specialist and you'll then enjoy many years of confident motoring in your Scoob.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Difficult question.

A six month warranty is just that: six months, no more. Maybe you ought to have asked for a mileage warranty, say 6000miles? Did you KNOW it would be used so infrequently?

I would have had it straight back. But I'm paranoid: when mine was rebuilt, (by Darren), I drove for the first 1500 miles or so with no music, just listening to the engine etc. I DID pick upon a knocking/tapping, early on, but it turned out to bethe crankshaft pulley disinteghrating, so was an easy cure, which also saw Darren pick up on the alternator bearings and get those done at the same time.

Nearly two yeras on I'm now OK, but ANY slight movement of the gauges or noises I don't understand, my adrenaline level shoots up.

I must, at this point, state that I IN NO WAY mistrust Darren's work. Before he rebuilt it, it suffered a catastrophic failure of the bottom end at high speed. In France. With no European cover, just RAC UK. And cost me £700 JUST to get it home.

Pramas

I was aware the car would cover low miles this year however not once was the warrenty period mentioned and i falsely assumed it would be a minium of 1yr, after all cam belts are meant to last for 5yrs or 50k miles !
Lesson learnt, car will from now on only be taken to Darren

rob84

iTrader: (5)

Not all dealers are the devil just so you know.

yes they made a mistake which is a school boy error in my eyes, the tools are there on the board to set these up so theres no excuses really & can see why your annoyed at there shoddy workmanship. I'd be annoyed too. They should admit the fact they Fckd up and sorted it out in my eyes

Steve Whitehorn

iTrader: (13)

Hope you get it sorted. will be interested to see the outcome.

For anyone looking for someone to look after their car in NE - Darren and Harvey are top people.

Pramas

well like ive said this is Revolution in gateshead, wasnt gonna name them and they are a supposed "Subaru Specailist " but since all theyve said all they have said is i feel it should be known, to me any company is great untilll there is a problem, a truely great company is found once somthing goes wrong and surely theyve failed in this respect, should they change there mind i will correct this. Good publicty is easy untill a problem arises. £60 isnt much but i feel theyve bummed me off and i still have the oringal mashed up belt i could post pics of however they dont want to know, my hard earned will now be spent elsewhere

Dave Y

iTrader: (52)

Subaru paranoia,i suffer from it as well.I think i imagine half the noises.

Bristol98

Same, same, I thought I had a slight knock until my mapper said it was one of the quietest engines he had heard in a classic!

REVOLUTION

iTrader: (7)

Hi Mark and all members reading this post.

Very sad you feel that you've been fobbed off when we havent even come back to you with a decision after looking at our job sheets from when your car was in for its service.

It had been 9 mths since your car was in here and although your mileage is low, with all due respect, you could have had a new engine for all we'd known.

We can only presume this noise wasn't apparent straight away otherwise you would've taken to a garage earlier so still not sure how the cambelt guides could have moved from their original poistion.
I can understand your worries when you heard the noise from the belt rubbing, but as soon as you heard this noise you could've popped the car back down to us and it would've been looked at and anything we did would of course be done free of charge as a gesture of goodwill.
Like all garages that anyone has any work done at, you should always go back to the garage you had the work done at to give them the opportunity to rectify. You can imagine our surprise when someone turns up with a belt in their hands from 9 mths previously asking for a refund on the belt...
We keep job sheets for up to 12mths and it takes a long time to sit through them to look at your file so a decision can't be made there and then.
I was going to call you by the end of the week after I had discussed your car with the mechanic in question and having discussed it with "Boss Glenn" to agree what to offer you.
We had a fantastic offer on the table for you far in excess of the £60 in question....but having had a go at ourselves on here before we've had time to respond I'm not sure what our position is anymore.

Pramas

With all due respect iam not after an offer in excess of the £60 in question, yes you did say you would check the job card and ring me later that day, 3 days later and still not even a courtesy call to say its still being looked at. Again to me that is basic customer service.
As said i was only after a token gesture of the cost of the belt and the reason the car didnt come back to you was there is no way i was risking driving the car the 30 odd miles on a belt that could potentially snap.
Whether or not i get a refund is now at this point irrelevant, i did the only sensible thing i could at the time and would do the same again.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

We are not supposed to meddle or mediate in this types of affair but I can't help pointing out:

UK law does dictate the original repairer has the right to be given the chance to rectify the problem FIRST. And they have every right to take that stance and refuse if someone else does the work. As pointed out anyone could have messed with the car in that 9 month period ( for example a light front-end shunt, that damaged the cam belt cover, but has since been repaired by another garage on insurance etc., or maybe someone else has changed the oil pump, or water pump or whatever etc. ). So there is always an element of doubt and suspicion especially with a infrequent or one-time customer.

How the garage reacts is sometimes down to the repertoire with the customer; If its a one off customer that only turns up once in every blue moon. When it comes to dealing with any come back after such a long duration, they would be treated with alot more suspicion than that of a regular 6 monthly customer (assuming they pay the bill and don't question/quibble over every single tiny detail ). We've had regular customers for over 20years, and I assure you they get treated a lot more favourable than a one-off customer. That may not seem fair, but we trust the 20yr customer, for example we'll let them not pay a bill for over 2months, whereas a new customer won't have their car back until everything is fully paid.

But there are mitigating circumstances here. The OP quite fairly is just asking for the damaged part to be replaced FOC and no labour. Which compared to the labour charge for the task is the much smaller amount. From an outsider stance on face value that is a reasonable request, and good compromise for both parties due to the complications, risks and costs arising from the logistics of either the repairer going to see the customers car, or the car being transported to the repairer.

Further mitigating points are:

If the repairer wanted the car to be driven to their premises to be inspected...would they cover all cost of damage caused if the belt broke en-route? (engine out, heads off, new valves, new pistons..big end damage? etc.).

Does the repairer have specific insurance to cover this worst case scenario? (incidentally we have a liability insurance against faulty parts/workmanship - we have to as our affiliate demands we have to guarantee everything for 12months). Can you afford to cover that potential worst-case issue?

If the owner of the car took the safe option and had the car sent via a flat-bed truck/trailer, would the repairer cover the cost of transporting the car...arguably this can be easily more that the cost of the belt!

Would the repairer be willing to travel to see the customers car instead? And consider the costs and inconvenience involved in doing that in or out of working hours for both parties.

Given the above points. I think they really do need to be considered by both parties. On the face of it the request to cover the part only is not unreasonable, and is probably the smallest cost element when compared to the costs and implications of the other above options (flat-bed the car, or drive it with potential of belt failure en-route and labour of changing the belt etc).

Finally, not calling back the customer on the same day when saying they would is not on. OK it happens in a busy environment, but its still something one should always try to avoid. But having the time to log onto a forum kind of implies you do have time and at least should have made that call.

To the customer; Unfortunately your actions don't bode well either. Putting 'pressure' on the repairer via public laundry airing is bad form. Even if you didn't name names, you have left hints for people to quite easily work out who. Its a typical tactic of those out for something for nothing (not saying you are), and by doing this you have instantly landed yourself with that label. Now, my family is in the motor trade and more often than not, in our experience these types of thread are often from people who are out for something for nothing or with a skewed expectation of what is right or reasonable.

You have already said you will not go back to the garage in question, which is just digging yourself into a hole further. I tell you why. From saying this, you are now a 'lost' customer. There is nothing they are obliged to do to put your car right as you haven't given them the chance to rectify the car.

So, as you are never going to return back to them, there is nothing to be gained if they bow down and do what you ask because you are not going to go back to them. The only thing it scores against is reputation (hence the dirty laundry thread), and that a gamble, as it can swing either way for either party.

On that end. I think what's need to be said has already been said. And I urge you both to considering everything in detail and call each other and discuss this properly rather than laundering it out in public.

Thanks

AL

Pramas

Revolution has now been on phone and made an offer of £60 gift voucher and free wheel alignment. A respectable offer but i declined as it was earlier pointed out i am a "lost customer " and seemed pointless
Matter has now been resolved and i feel i at least have some closure
Mods , thread can now be relocked if you wish and thanks