good garage

[FPN]

Hi, i see that people are looking to try and find a decent garage service, take a look at Good Garage Scheme - Car Service, MOT Test, Car Servicing and Repairs Directory type in your post code and you should be able to find one near to you, at least you know your not being ripped off! all the best

[Scouse Paul]

The site mainly looks for garages that are specialised in your particular car so a lot of the really good smaller garages wont be on their list

[gbjadyy]

sites like that are not necessarly the best place to look anyway, its really not to difficult for garage to get listed and it does not mean they will be reputable.

 

word of mouth is always best so ask your friends and family, i am sure someone will point you in the right direction and steer you clear afo any places they have had problems with

[FPN]

I was not trying to plug any one, it just seems that some people have struggled to find a garage! if no ones can recomend a garage to a person in trouble, then at least it's a start. There are obviously small garages that are not on this scheme that are really good, but if you don't know who they are, how do you find them. any i used a garage from this site for my imported car and found them to be really good and now i recomend them. I did not mention them on here, just in case people thought i was advertising them!

[Conniff]

Before I retired, I owned and ran a small garage. I was very proud of my workmanship and more than 90% of my customers were 'recommends'.

One particular customer I remember had a problem with her rear brakes on her Fiesta. I replaced both leaking hydraulic cylinders and the brake shoes and charged her £103.

 

The very next day while in town her exhaust developed a blow and she called into a well known national free fit garage for a replacement.

She came back to me directly from leaving the said garage saying they would not let her take her car from their premises as the brakes were 'dangerous' even though she said they were fine. They charged her £200 for replacement parts and labour, and showed me the bill she had paid.

 

I examined her brakes and nothing had been done, (I always marked all the parts I fitted for later identification), and nothing had been changed or replaced.

 

I visited the free fit in question and challenged them directly and the manager admitted that they had in fact 'not' replaced any parts or done any work to her brakes.

 

She was refunded and I was paid compensation.

 

I did name the free fit above, but can't find the paperwork for it now so have deleted them, I do remember there was a lot of articles about them in the national press later for claiming and charging for work done when nothing was.

 

I will look for that paperwork (have to keep it for 10 years) and if I find it, I will come back and name them.

[rosiecotton]

I will look for that paperwork (have to keep it for 10 years) and if I find it, I will come back and name them.

 

I wouldn't mind betting that I already know who they are.

[DorsetStrider]

I'm reasonably sure I know too.

 

I'm currently a mature (well apparently) mechanics student at college (I've only been working on cars for 10 years but need a bit of paper apparently) a year ago I took my car to a well known national chain of garages for it's annual MOT. I was rather surprised when it failed (chipped windscreen and exhaust blowing).

 

After arguing with the bloke (who obviously didn't realise I knew anything about cars) and reading the MOT regs to him we agreed the stone chip was outside the drivers field of view which just left the blowing exhaust.

 

Now this was a surprise as I had only recently fitted a new exhaust but figured maybe I'd not tightened the clamps enough so it was still leaking. When I took the car home and jacked it up I found a perfectly round hole (including swaff) where the garage had drilled a hole in it to make it blow.

 

I took the car straight to my local trading standards office and made a complaint. 2 days later their inspector checked the car, confirmed my findings. The garage was fined and the manager and 2 employees fired after and were taken to court for criminal damage by the trading standards office after their investogation.

 

Don't you just love it when people get what's coming to them