Top Tips on Surviving Your Visit to The Garage!

Tips on surviving your trip to the Garage

In this ongoing series about the Motor Trade I will cover some common misconceptions and tricks of the trade when dealing with main dealer garages. For those of my readers who don’t know me I will quantify my opinions by saying I worked in main dealer garages for 27 years. I began as an apprentice motor mechanic and became a Service Manager in charge of two workshops.

When you leave your vehicle in for service or a routine repair the service advisor or receptionist will present you with a job card which states the work you want carrying out to the vehicle. The service advisor will also take a contact no for you in the day. Lastly he or she will ask you to sign the work order, now be careful you are signing a legally binding contract!

Please also read the small print above where you sign? In the small print some garages will have in the text,

“I the owner of the vehicle authorise the above work to be carried out and any further work if safety related up to £200”

Take my advice if this statement is there put a pen through it and initial the fact! It is very important! You could pick your vehicle up at 5.00pm and the bill you were expecting is £200 more and you signed to say that is ok. Unless your car is under warranty or is in tip top condition you may be contacted by the garage during your working day and be asked for your permission for additional work to be carried out.
The conversation may go something like this,

“Ah Mr Smith this is David’s Volvo here your Volvo needs a full brake reline front and rear and a new exhaust I am afraid, do we have your permission to carry out this work?”

What ever you do don not reply like this,

“Err ok you’re the experts on Volvo’s if it needs doing then go ahead”

Big mistake! You need to take the service advisors name and note the time of the conversation and reply like this,

“Can I take your name please? Oh and I would like all my removed parts to be saved for my inspection tonight. Can you also give me a breakdown of parts and labour and a guaranteed final costing?”

Never ever just say yes! Good service advisors are trained to always give a breakdown of costings and they too will note the time and date of the conversation and initial your agreement for additional work over the phone. Mechanics and service advisors get extra money if they sell you additional work. Now I’m not saying that the work you have been asked to agree to isn’t necessary. How can I put this some members of staff can be creative with what needs doing on your vehicle? If you ask for the old parts you can always get another opinion on the validity of the repairs you have had done.

I have seen the next example happen on occasion beware! If you authorise additional work and for what ever reason you come to pick up your vehicle and you have not got the money! The garage may tell you,

“I’m sorry Mr Smith we will have to keep hold of your vehicle until you settle this bill in full”

Do not walk away without your car! You have entered into a legal contract to pay for the repairs if you don’t you maybe taken to court. However who owns the vehicle? You do and no matter what the garage staff tells you they have no legal right what so ever to hold onto your vehicle! I advised a colleague of mine who was senior at the time in this situation to allow the customer to take his vehicle and come to some arrangement regarding the payment.

My colleague refused and told the customer,

“Mr Smith your vehicle is in our workshop we have the keys you pay us and we will release your vehicle its simple”

10 minutes later a police officer entered our reception and advised my colleague,

 “Turn over Mr Smith’s vehicle or you will be arrested for theft! Mr Smith is on our computer as the legal owner, I’ll give you two minutes to get his vehicle or I will arrest you and take you to the station!”

You have never seen a vehicle handed over so quickly! The customer was not right to refuse to pay the bill however you cannot keep someone else’s property. Another example is a garage may tell you,

“Your tyres and brakes are in such a dangerous state we will not allow you to take your vehicle as its not road worthy”

They can’t do that its still your property. What they can do is call the police? and tell them if your car is in their opinion not road worthy. I have seen a customer pulled up by waiting police officers the second that vehicle was on a public highway, they will impound your car beware.

Now I am painting a pretty dark picture of main dealers however this in not my intention. You get good garage staff and bad as in every walk of life. I can say hand on heart I have never knowingly sold extra work on a vehicle if its not necessary regardless of the money incentive. This article is more to make you aware of some of the practises that can go on at your main dealer garage.

Lord Banks