rant Are my service timescales unreasonable?

[Stuliet]

To let off steam, I need a little space to rant - here goes!

 

I arranged to drop off my car for some work on 24th July. I was then on a family holiday for a week and then had a further week off work when it was agreed I could go and pickup the car.

 

The work involved was primarily a check over after my recent engine rebuild with a few little extra bits;

 

1) Check/replace oil/running in fluids, etc

2) Fabricate a 'proper' turbo to intercooler pipe

3) Swap jubilee clips for mikalor clips

4) Check idling/low revs map (the car stalls sometimes)

5) Check coolant pipe work - there is a leak somewhere as the level is going down

6) Fix scratched window tint (scratched by garage on previous visit)

7) Remove rats nest stereo & replace (stereo never worked since it was removed/replaced by garage so I have decided to swap to a more modern stereo)

8) MOT

 

Now two weeks later and my car is still not ready! This is my daily driver and I now have no way to get to work on Monday. To say I am annoyed is an understatement!

 

Should this work take two weeks? To me it seems like a few hours, not a few weeks.

 

/rant

 

-- Stuart

[Dnk]

Sounds like a days work to me, find another garage would be your best option

[geordie82]

sounds more like 7-8 hours of work, really poor garage by the sounds of it name and shame

[Wez]

A days work, at most two.

[Stuliet]

Cheers guys, it seems my feeling of being taken advantage of is justified then! There are always two sides to everything, so until I get an explanation I will not name & shame. I have no complaints on the actual work done by this garage as I have used them before, but their timescales are absolutely horrendous!

 

Now I need to charm my wife now to get a lift to/from work - not easy with 3 kids on school holiday who are all at different clubs/friends throughout the day - perhaps I had better get my bicycle out

[nevins]

That work should have been done within 2 days, the longest job would be the window tint, as it would have to be removed and the glue is a nightmare to get off. The garage is taking the piss, did you record the mileage before taking the car in, as you may find that its gone up quite a bit.

[dude]

No need to name and shame the description of the work is a little missleading.The stereo removal entailed reemoving the entire interior of the car and the wiring was horrific, Matt has a large cardboard box full of just old wires, the amount of steroe equipment to go back in was almost the same as came out just newer and smaller, this took matt a fair amount of time as there was other wiring issues that needed to be sorted as the stereo came out, the cost of doing just this part will no way relate the more than 2 days matt spent on it, the MOT is not as simple as normal as the car has a single and no cats and is uk so shows on the database, the only MOT station that will let us sit with a laptop etc and get the emissions down was fully booked and we have to wait for the chief tester to be present, so no point in doing any mapping to sort the idle issues till after that and the dyno was out of action for a couple of days so theres a lot of queing to get on that as other cars are booked in. A days work or even 2 you make me laugh, fimne on stock cars that need servicing, i think its time we started charging for every hour spent and not looking at cars with minor problems for free and helping people on the phone for hours at a time!!!

 

Of course if customers are stuck for a car then all they have to do is say, there is a little diesal Yaris at the workshop all taxed and tested.

 

from now on all cars go on a job sheet and each hour will be charged, So that is over 2 days on the stereo, 3 hours driving too and at the MOT station, fabrication and dyno time @ £95 and hour, all plus VAT....................................or we can do our best with the workload we have and charge what I consider a fair price. we have been looking for another technician for about a year but could not find anyone i would trust to work on my car, so I would not expect them to work on your cars, we ahve now taken on Simon from Abbey motorsport so the timescales can come down.

 

Its easy I can charge each hour spent and you get your car back in a set time or it gets done cheaper but one off cars are a law unto themselves.

[dude]

That work should have been done within 2 days, the longest job would be the window tint, as it would have to be removed and the glue is a nightmare to get off. The garage is taking the piss, did you record the mileage before taking the car in, as you may find that its gone up quite a bit.

 

Yeah right I really need to smoke round in customer cars, 500hp is such a novelty!!!

 

If you can do that work in 2 days i will give you a job at £1K a week.

How you going to match the tint then???

 

That brings me to another point , from now on we will take no responsibility for non standard parts, ie window tint, for example if and I mean IF we put the little scratch on the window would it have happened if a piece of trim touched the stock glass, no it would not, we always take every care with cars but accidents happen.

[Stuliet]

As I said, there are always two sides to a story and I have no problem with the work, just that I had agreed on a two week timescale and I am now in trouble with getting to work.

 

I am sure you are doing a good job, but I have had to call up today to find out that the car is still not ready. If this work was going to take longer than two weeks, then it would have been nice to be kept informed of this fact. I have had no indication that the car would not be ready and have been told that everything was going well with the last job the MOT on Friday.

 

To once again be totally clear, I have absolutely no problem with the work done on my car and trust you all with looking after my car while in your workshops. As you know it has been with AFR for several weeks in the past for the engine rebuild. That work did not go to plan either but I was informed on progress and delays. Shit happens.

 

You are not happy, I am not happy - no-one is a winner for the need of better communication. A phone call or IM with an update on the progrees/worload would have kept me happy.

[Stuliet]

if and I mean IF we put the little scratch on the window

 

Am I a liar?

 

Anyway, this is not a dispute thread and I am not trying to cause problems. I just wanted to vent my frustration. I am out of here.

 

MODs - please lock/delete this one

[dude]

As I said, there are always two sides to a story and I have no problem with the work, just that I had agreed on a two week timescale and I am now in trouble with getting to work.

 

I am sure you are doing a good job, but I have had to call up today to find out that the car is still not ready. If this work was going to take longer than two weeks, then it would have been nice to be kept informed of this fact. I have had no indication that the car would not be ready and have been told that everything was going well with the last job the MOT on Friday.

 

To once again be totally clear, I have absolutely no problem with the work done on my car and trust you all with looking after my car while in your workshops. As you know it has been with AFR for several weeks in the past for the engine rebuild. That work did not go to plan either but I was informed on progress and delays. Shit happens.

 

You are not happy, I am not happy - no-one is a winner for the need of better communication. A phone call or IM with an update on the progrees/worload would have kept me happy.

 

I was not aware you were picking the car up today Stu, as you all know I have been very pre occupied trying to get the car (mine) ready for TOTB which put loads of pressure on Tommy and Matt, as I understand it from Tommy the issue is a problem related to the stereo, as you all know Matt is here at TOTB and is the only one to resolve this issue as he does all the wiring. Racing takes up so much time and effort and money, it should not effect our service to you but unfortunatly sometimes it does.

 

Just so you understand the pressure, I put the head on the block of my car at 12.30 on monday, due to customer enquiries on the phone and calling in (1 hour long call with a guy up north who had a problem and will prob never use our garage) I actually managed to Torque it down at 4 O clock !!!!!.

 

Apologies Stu if you are stuck but call the garage and get them to leave the Yaris out with the key hidden and use that till the supra is ready, the air con pump rattles but dont worry about that.

[Septic]

 

(Edit) Damn I posted my popcorn too late. You've already put your hand bags down

[Homer]

Locked at OP's request