How much trust?

A long while back my 2 year old Rover was in the dealers for its standard service. Got a phone call saying it needed new discs on the front, can’t remember the large cost quoted but I agreed for the work to be done. I phoned them back half an hour later and asked them to put the old discs in the boot, no problem we’ll do that was the reply. Another half hour went by then the garage phoned me back. Very sorry they said, we’ve made a mistake, it wasn’t your car that needed new discs.

So do i trust them. What do you think!

I certainly don't trust main dealers, but I have absolute confidence in our local garage - a Bosch Service Centre. According to the main dealer, my last car needed new discs and pads at about 30k miles - which they would do for £750.  My local garage - knowing the price the main dealer had quoted, did the same job for less than half that amount - and used the same OEM parts.

The same garage was also brilliant when a warning light came on in my present car and whilst the main dealer was about to set to and strip the engine down, the local 'techie' very quickly diagnosed a faulty air mass sensor - which cost me £180 - that they fitted it in 10 minutes. Problem solved.

They aren't the cheapest garage in this area, but in terms of quality of service - and ultimately, trustworthiness - I can't fault them.

Franchised dealerships do need to be diligent to protect their franchise. A genuine complaint to a manufacturers customer services dept usually gets attention - it certainly seems to work for the manufacturer of my vehicle.

With a previous vehicle - same make and same dealership - I had cause to question refusal to change a cam belt at the prescribed time.  The service contract was with the manufacturer, and their Finance Dept who operated the contract instructed the dealership not to change it.  With that dept standing their ground, I went to their customer services dept.  They agreed with me and instructed the dealership to follow the prescribed procedure; advising me to book the car back in for this to be done.

In any type of business, and at all levels, there will always be good and bad to varying degrees.  The only way is to use one's experience to sort the wheat from the chaff and act accordingly.

There are some unhappy stories here.  All I can say is that the main VW dealer in my area has looked after my last 2 cars under  pre purchased service plans.  They have never tried it on  and explained when additional work was due eg Air Con service and Drive Belt change, both done elsewhere as it was cheaper!  They will now look after my new car again under  a pre purchased service plan.  They even collect the car and deliver it back after a service washed and valeted.

That's true. I have never turned my climate control or air-con off in any car I have owned and never had a problem with any of them.

I keep mine on all the time as well but it still doesn't get run for 10 minutes each week. When I had the Kuga, I didn't have it on all the time but did give it a periodic run, probably about monthly, which seemed to do the trick. Prior to the Kuga I just used to open the window from time to time.

Does anyone know who should pay for damage caused during servicing at an approved agent.

A few years ago I took my van for annual  service, everything was working on it, after a few hours I had a call to say the water pump would not work and there was an error message on the control panel.  They wanted £700 to fit a new control panel.

They would not agree that  they had caused the failure and insisted  I would have to pay the £700. 

Is it necessary to demonstrate that everything is working when I take my newer van for service to avoid being ripped off?

How do you know they caused damage? 

Good question - it was working previously because I was using it, so I could reasonably assume that they caused the failure.  When I brought it home I found they had also screwed the pump pressure setting up to maximum - it was pretty clear they caused it.

Incidentally it was only £50 for an expert to fit a new component on the control panel and solve the problem.

I don’t follow that. They might well have adjusted the pump wrongly but you’re saying there was a fault in the control panel. I’m afraid you can prove nothing as you are assuming there’s blame but, in the context of this thread, I’d not trust the dealer/servicing person or any caravan dealer.