Hi there, I have several issues with the work my mechanic has carried out. I paid by credit card an amount of approx £1500 for the job. I want to sue for wasted time, costs of repair (done by another mechanic as a result of poor workmanship), costs of insurance paid for on another car because my car was not driveable and related expenses. I have already tried to reason with the mechanic and after him first ignoring me, I got him to respond to my email and we were emailing back and forth. He eventually sent a what he described as a "full and final response". Most of his response was either factually incorrect, pure ignorance of clear facts or illogical. He is pretty much denying all fault. He offered a final settlement which was a laughable amount considering the actual cost of his poor workmanship. My question is, should I go the charge back route first to claim some of the money or straight to a section 75 or is there another route that is better? I have his full and final response as mentioned above and was planning to annotate this on MS Word with my comments. Please advise! Thanks.

Hi everybody, I have a van Toyota Hiace from 2004. I bought it this summer (July) and from the beginning I regularly bring it to my garage. I spent around £700 in 7 months for maintenance. Initially I did a general service, i changed some mechanical parts, tyres, and recently I did the MOT. A couple of months ago the orange light of the oil turned on, i checked the oil and it was full. I spoked with my mechanic about it and about the fact that the van was doing some smoke at the start. The mechanic cleaned the filters and told me that the light was probably caused by an electric malfunction and that there was no risk in driving the van. On the 21 of December my colleague was driving the van when it stopped in the middle of the road and started to do a weird sound. After several trial the van started and he manage to reach home. When we went to the closest garage (which is not my usual) they say that we were running without oil and the engine failed and need to be replaced. I went to my garage and they confirmed that i need to replace the engine. The cost of my van is £2200 + the work done that are around £700. Replacing the engine with a second hand one is going to be around £600 work and £500 cost of engine. I would like to understand if my garage has some responsibilities on what happened. If I bring my van regularly there, I asked about the specific issue with the oil lights and they tell me that i can run without problems and after few weeks the engine get damage so badly that I have to replace it do they have any legal responsibility? Thank you. Filippo

Hi I'll be brief but I do hope I can get some advice off anyone here! I listed my camper-van on ebay the other week. A guy contacted me outside of ebay and asked to come and inspect it. He came to my house, had a cup of tea etc, seemed a nice guy in all honesty. He did an inspection, liked it, asked me how much I wanted for it, said he had £3k to play with - I (I don't know why I'm so honest) said "I don't think it'll go to £3k on ebay, how about £2.5k". He said yes and left a deposit of 1k. He transferred another £1k on the Monday daytime and paid the balance of £500 in cash when I delivered the van to him on the Monday evening (deposit left on Saturday). Now, I've been driving this camper about all over the UK, with and without the family in it, and yes, it sounds rough around the edges, i.e. it doesn't sound like a brand new engine - it's thirteen years old, but it's been ultra reliable, never had one problem with it, even though it's done 165k. On the Monday evening he texts me to say he drove five miles and the engine cut out, and asked me "had it ever done it before?". I said I stalled it twice when I first got it, getting used to the clutch, but that no, in XXXX miles it hasn't missed a beat. He called me today, a very brief call, and says "My mechanic says the engine isn't worth repairing. I'm not going to say anymore but will leave that with you to think about because I'm at work". Then about an hour later, sends me a text to say he's sorry but he's no option but to take me to the small claims court!!! I ask him if he maybe put some bad fuel in, and said that it's been fine in my whole time of having it, and that if the van was broken before I sold it I wouldn't have been able to drive it the 25 miles to him! And I filled it with half a tank of diesel for him, and delivered for free......(why did I bother). The vehicle really has been utterly great, I even drove it 270 miles each way to Essex non-stop a few weeks ago, of course if I'd had any inkling there were problems I wouldn't even have tried that. I didn't, it was ready to drive around the world as far as I was concerned. Anyway this guy is pretty angry on text, and I do actually feel gutted for him, it must be awful. So I offered him £200 as a gesture, non-fault non-admission of fault or anything, if he sends me a copy of the receipt for the first bill he said he's got. He's since come back and has got a bit sweary on the texts, asking me if I have no shame (?). I said that to be shameful I could only be that if I had known it was going to cut out (or whatever has actually happened, he's been a bit vague). Anyway he's refused the offer, I can't give him all his money back because it's already gone to pay off some of my credit card. Plus, at the back of my mind I can't help think he's trying it on. But he seemed a really nice guy, so....argh. What are my rights, it's a private sale from me to him, I didn't offer any warranty, I'm not sure what the outcome of this is going to be if it goes to court. I've been 100% honest.

Please can anyone advice me as I am in a right mess. A month ago I bought myself a Golf 1.6 16v on a 2001 plate, the car was sound but due to my job working for Domino's as a delivery driver I decided to have a new cambelt kit fitted by a mobile mechanic. Two weeks later when on my way home from a hospital appointment 10 miles from home, a bolt in the engine sheared off wrecking all 16 valves, I called out the mechanic who stratched his head and help to push the car onto a side street where is stayed for a week, every day he said he was going to recover, it finally came back to my drive on Tues its now Saturday. He's taken the engine out and taken it to his house, he's also now saying that it isnt his fault the timing belt had failed and "not to worry as it is under guarantee". A few days later he told me that the parts company (not the manufacturer) was going to supply all the parts to fix it? Within the conversation he mentioned the parts company name, so I called them. They knew of this incident but had not agreed anything as it will need a full investigation, which could take months however this mechanic had ordered parts (don't know what though) they arrived on Thursday and my car was promised back yesterday, then I got my ex-partner to call him today and he then said it will be done today. I have lost £300 in wages and my little girls follow up appointment in Manchester is Monday, I am a single parent and running out of money fast as I can no longer work been without my car for 2 weeks now? And the mechanic isn't answering his phone now!

Hi, I really need some help. I had seen a mobile mechanic advertised, and my car needed to be repaired. He came out and told me what was wrong with the car, it had been losing oil and water and over revving. He came and said the head gasket was going and also should change the cambelt. He quoted me £450 which i agreed to. He spent 3 days working on the car. When my husband took the car out a week later (he didnt get a chance before due to work) the engine started smoking and there was oil all over the road and car engine. We tried to contact the mechanic who said he was very sorry and will come out and fix it, that he may not have tightened a pipe properly. This was 2 weeks ago, he has said on numberous occasions that he wil be out and hasnt turned up, when we ring he apologises again that hes been busy, gives us another date and still doesnt come, we have had enough, hes now not answering the calls at all or replying to messages. I have had to declare the car as SORN now and just had enough. I have no idea what my legal options are. I have no business address for him or email address. Can anyone help? If i go through small claims court will it cost me more? I just cant afford to repair the car again and also pay court costs. Thanks in advance for any help and advice you can give me.

After a recent clutch failure I engaged the services of a local Mobile Mechanic. The guy seemed reasonable on the phone, came round, inspected the vehicle and left a quotation. Whilst not excessively cheaper it did save the recovery costs so I gave him the go ahead. He had quoted for 4 hours labour and it was agreed that I would leave a cheque for him. On the day in question I went to work and expecting to hear from him on completion around lunchtime was dismayed to arrive home to find a pile of parts in the front footwell of the car and no completed repair. Needless to say the cheque had gone. I phoned him to be told that he had been supplied the wrong part and he would be back the next day. He was and was there the whole day....at the end of it he said job was done, new clutch master cylinder fitted. But the brake lights no longer fitted, reservoir cap was not in place, steering column was 90 degrees out and there was brake fluid all over the engine. I voiced my disatisfaction. The cap was found and refitted, the brake light switch readjusted and the steering colum was realighmed by whipping off the steering wheel, including airbags. When all was restored I was now left with an airbag warning light. That night I checked my account and the cheque had already cleared. Ipointed this out and he undertook to return the next day to reset it. The next day he did not and the clutch also failed again... he came back on the Friday rebled the clutch but could not reset the airbag. He disappeared and has not been back despite a number of letters. I subsequently had the ECU tested and it was blown. To sort it out was quoted at just under £200 which I requested in a letter from him/or that he make good the damages. All correspondence was either returned or ignored. I have since applied on-line for a small claims judgement. This was lodged with MCOL and the site now says that a default judgement has been issued. Will I receive this judgement in the post, what do I do with it. It seems that if I want it enforced it will cost another £100 with no guarantee that the money will be received and half will be lost in enforcing it......

Hi, I need some help with a Cowboy Mechanic, Here's the story, I advertised for a mechanic to repair my anti-roll bar links, i had a few replies and chose one who could do it on the evening that i requested. He came down and started to do the droplinks on the rear of the vehicle, he done the drivers side with a bit of trouble with seized nuts, so he bought an angle grinder to get them off, which i checked online first and this is the general solution with this. when he done the passengers he just used the angle grinder from the go and as he was cutting he caught my shock absorber, and cut through the cylinder that holds the hydraulic oil and it poured out. he was kicking himself, he then sorted the droplink out and put the wheel back on he said that he would price up the shock absorber and bring it down to me i paid him £30 out of the £50 quoted due to the mishap and said i would pay when he gave me the part, i have his address and his mobile number that was wednesday 4th i text him with no response so i messaged his partner who recommended him to me and this is what i got Me Please can you ask ray to get in touch please Her U owe him so get the part and get some else to do it Me um no he owes me if he is not going to get the part i will go to solicitors and take him to court for full price of the part and labour plus costs so all i want is the part off him Her **** off get a life and stop trying to rip him off u owe him money u cheecky git !!!! Me um so he ****s up my shock absorber and i owe him ok have it like that i will be seeking legal advice and taking him to court which will increase the amount that he owes me by 3 fold all i want is £40 off him so i can get the part he is the ine who ****ed up my car so he owes me Her What ever u r the one is ****ed up and dont treathened people u dont know dont text me again bye !!!!!!!! So I want to put a claim in for the work that needs to be done my car is now off the road due to unable to do MOT which expired yesterday. So I am paying insurance for a car i cannot use. The Part Costs £60 plus VAT and Labour £40 plus VAT What Can I Claim For? Thanks Dewiwayne

Hello, I have a Skoda Octavia TDI and at 60000 miles I asked my mechanic to change the cambelt (as indicated in the manual). The car was in perfectly working order and never had any problems with it, so only had the camblet changed because the manual recommends this to be done at 60000 miles. In November 2010 the mechanic changed the camblet and the car worked fine until last week (so three months later) when it just stopped in traffic. I called the AA and their guy said the camblet jumped timing; the mechanic who changed the cambelt confirmed this today after failing to start the car. He will come back on Monday and try to reposition the belt but there is a very high chance that the belt has already damaged the engine valves, which means that the engine (and therefore the car) is unusable. Given that the camblet was supposed to last at least another 60000 miles and it broke after only a few hundred I wander what are my rights and what can I ask the mechanic to do about this. Many thanks for your help.