My tale of service woe continues.
After taking the car in on Monday, I was contacted a few hours later regarding the faults I'd cited, given the estimated cost of repair, and told it should be done 'by Wednesday'.
Wednesday came and went, then Thursday. Just after 1600 on Thursday, I phoned them and asked where my car was. The woman went to ask, and three minutes later comes back to advise me that 'Oh, the workshop says it's ready for you to collect at half past five.'
Oh. Nice of them to let me know.
'Sorry,' I said, 'that's no good to me, I don't finish until late, can you send someone to collect me from my house tomorrow?' 'Morning?' 'No, noon please, you have the address?' 'Yes, 22 Shit Street, Caerfilthy?' 'That's right, Thank you very much.'
So, today, got up at 1130, quick shower, dressed, sitting in the front room, curtains open at 1145.
NOBODY BASTARD TURNED UP. At 1300 I had no choice but to jump on the bike and head into work, as I've had to do all week.
Upon arrival I immediately called them and advised them that my car was booked in with them, and that I should have been collected today so I could get the car, and that nobody had come for me. The chap was fairly apologetic and asked when I could get the car later, I told him I was now in work until 2100, and couldn't. I also asked what the bill and list of work carried out was. He took my number, and said he'd find out and call me right back. This was just after 1400.
An hour and a half later, I get a call from a different chap, apologising for the confusion. It seems that the car WASN'T ready after all - the touch up stick for the paintwork (which I'd ordered two years ago the last time I had it in there for the service) had not turned up, nor had the replacement boot lid catch. These were due tomorrow, he didn't know when, was it convenient for me to pick the car up then?
Well, not really. More to the point, what would have happened had I turned up yesterday as I'd been told it was ready to be collected? Why did *I* have to call *them* to be told it was ready to be collected? And most importantly, HOW MUCH IS THIS COSTING ME? I had it put down on the form not to do any work costing over £50 without calling me for my approval. Because nobody had bothered calling me, I said, I'm now very concerned that a bunch of expensive work has been done without my say-so. He had no details of the cost, just that everything that was wrong barring the boot lid catch had been done, and told me the same price (roughly £500 parts and labour, please spare me your 'you've been ripped off, mate, I could have done you that for less' comments) as before. He said, however, that for the inconvenience I won't be paying that much now anyway. He then offered a courtesy car... which is a waste of time now as I'm not in work again until Monday, having made my own arrangements all week, including today.
So, to summarise, I won't be getting it back until Monday, and they've messed up spectacularly. I bet they haven't dealt with the water ingress/central locking fault, or something else has been forgotten. I'm very unhappy, not least of all because the last time I had it serviced there (two years ago) I actually wrote to the manager PRAISING THEM for the polite, helpful staff who handled all my queries and concerns well, and even came out straight away to sort it out when, upon getting in to drive it home, found a small problem with the air vents. Something has gone very wrong in the intervening two years.
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