Stoneacre Poor Service

[Mr Allen 0]

If I was getting a car (and it's highly unlikely I ever will, even though being on enhanced PIP I could've had a Motability car) I'd possibly get one from one of the Motability places on Saville St (opposite the big Tesco)

 

[Resident 1,190]

5 hours ago, PRESLEY said:

Same here, after around a month   the car I bought developed a slight windscreen wiper problem, I took it to their service centre in Rotherham, problem sorted on the spot with no quarms.  Had the car a further six years with no problems whats so ever, just changed a couple tyres through wear , well happy. 

Conversely my sis-in-law took her car for an included service last week. 

 

Service was done but she was then told that several issues were evident to the 'technician' whilst carrying out the service, including brakes, suspension, tyres and a battery leak. The cost to rectify would be in excess of £1200.

 

She said no and took it to an independent garage who checked the whole car over and found that the only potential issue was 1 tyres on 2.2mm of tread, the rest being 5+.

 

Nothing wrong with brakes, suspension & the leaking fluid in the battery tray was fresh oil... 

 

Needless to say she complained to head office and they are currently investigating, allegedly. 

[alchresearch 214]

Its quite worrying to think they offer an "annual service" which is nothing more than a look over the car.  It doesn't include any oil or filter changes.

[Carbuncle 0]

I feel I had bad treatment from Stoneacre's service department. See what you think of the following.

 

I agreed with Stoneacre that they would do an MOT and service on my car on a specific day. Car goes in in the morning, in the evening when I chase up it turns out they have done what they call a 'free vehicle health check' and they send me a document with a list of issues and the work they are recommending. Some of the recommendations are for generic options and have no connection with either MOT or service but do appear to have high mark-ups. Other items are associated with flashes of red and indications that the issue would represent an MOT fail. Basicly, they have failed to do the MOT and service which was agreed upon and instead have performed a fairly brief inspection of their own devising with a view to selling me stuff. I take my car elsewhere and have an actual MOT and service and get actual MOT fail issues fixed at a considerable monetary saving.

 

My knowledge of the law is limited but I think a garage that issues an MOT fail certificate with bogus issues is taking a big legal risk while one that issues its 'own paperwork' with bogus MOT fail issues but without actually doing an MOT runs a far smaller risk. Morally, I think the situations are the same but the DVSA (?) is not routinely going to involve itself in the latter case and I think the garage using its own paperwork for which they have made no charge can argue in court that they issued a sales document which is subject to less stringent law than an MOT certificate. I can not know for sure this is why Stoneacre did a free vehicle health check or that its MOT fail issues that were not actual MOT fail issues in the view of another garage were not mistakes/ differing judgement calls but I am suspicious. Stoneacre also should have done what they agreed to do on the day they agreed to do it instead of wasting my time.