Rant of the Day v2.

[Pontius Navigator]

Ah, ball joints, wishbones etc, disc brake civersr, a shade over £1000 on an E Class.

Sold it back to him in March for £1000 as the suspension air bags needed replacing and of course a servicing. Offset a notional cost of £1500-2000 against a new car. Now twice the fuel economy on petrol, half the road tax and lower cost maintenance with 5 year warranty. WIn-win.

[Pontius Navigator]

#1 Son has received an e-mail from some insurance company congratulating him on his car purchase and confirming he has 7-day drive-away cover for the car until he has arranged permanent cover. He's a bit puzzled as he hasn't bought the car quoted in the cover note - it's the one that he kicked into touch because of the lousy service at the Ford dealer. Got me thinking, is this some kind of insurance fraud or the salesman pulling a fast one in order to get a sales bonus?

With Toyota they offer 48 hours or so but you have to speak with them directly at the time you want cover to start. The garage were surprised and slightly upset when I didn't take up the offer. The hope was that for simplicity I would stay with their special deal, only £200 more than Aviva.

Pretty clearly they get a kick back. In the Fford case, if the insurance company is not as tight the salesman may indeed have arranged insurance on the 7-day basis and got an introductory bonus.

Incidentally a neighbour had a car from the dealership in the Level, no names but they offer a 7 year warranty. They had a breakdown and had to go to a different garage. Turned out the selling garage had not actually done any servicing.

Think about it, 7 year warranty, if the car goes crook the warranty will pay. Why waste time looking for preventative maintenance? Just take the money and smile.

I thought the days of putting grease on screw heads and tell tales on wheel nuts were long gone, evidently not so.

[4mastacker]

Took my car there for a service and was a bit suspicious afterwards as the "new" oil filter didn't look all that new. The next service, I put a little red dot on the filter before taking the car in and lo and behold, they must have transferred the red dot as it was there on the "new" filter. Confronted them with the evidence and they claimed the "mechanic" had been distracted during the service and must have overlooked the item. They done another oil change and fitted a new filter whilst I waited. Never went back to the robbin barstewards.

[G-CPTN]

I had a 'problem' with a Ford stealership who returned the car after an oil change with the level on 'add oil'.

[OFSO]

TS Host not only closed down all Mr Site websites, including mine, on June 30. They just billed me £63 for my hosted website with them, which no longer exists, for 2020-2021.

Impenetrable website so letter written.

[Pontius Navigator]

Garage in Scotland failed to change the oil once and returned the car without brake fluid. Friday night before towing a caravan to the west coast. Hole in the wall mechanic fixed the brakes Friday evening.

[Rwy in Sight]

I used to maintain a car I owned on a dealer. At every service visit, I was invoice a break pad change. When I moved to service station specialized on the brand the technicians there refused to change the brake pads even when more km were covered

[Capetonian]

I have been watching Bill Nighy's Great Railway Journeys series. Great actor, but it really pisses me off that he mispronounces just about every place name he mentions. It grated on me on the ZA Rovos Rail one, I know some of the native language and Afrikaans names are difficult for an English speaker but FFS he's an actor and should be briefed. I just watched the Transcantabrico one and he mangled most of those names.

[Capetonian]

Garage crooks.
When I was in my 20s my mother had a Morris 1100 (I think) about 3 years old. Ghastly car. I suppose my father was away, otherwise I wouldn't have been involved as he did all the maintenance stuff.

She told me it was difficult starting it, specially from cold so I diagnosed a failing battery, started it with jump leads and it fired immediately. Took it to the local thieves and left it there with the keys in the lock as there was nobody there - good old days when you could do that. I forgot to leave a note to say what was wrong with it. My mother rang them and said : "It won't start" which was not quite correct but my mother was a classical scholar and anything remotely mechanical was a mystery to her.

A few days later she phoned me to say they'd replaced the starter motor and battery for probably about £50 - a lot of money in the 70s. I suspected bollocks to that, so next time I went to my parents I jacked it up and looked at the starter motor which was covered in road dirt and grease.

I was able to see the series number on the label (after wiping it down). I made a note of that and the chassis number and I rang British Leyland (remember the days when you could ring a company and speak to a human who would help you?) I said I wanted to check if the starter was the one fitted when the car was built (thrown together might be a better phrase). They told me to write in with those details and almost by return I had a reply that it was the original starter.

I went down to the garage with the invoice in one pocket and the letter in the other, asked the mechanic if I could speak to the boss. He asked why, and I said because I am a customer and I want to speak to the boss.

Boss reluctantly came out, obviously it was beneath him to talk to a customer who has a Morris 1100 (can't really blame him for that). Told him I'd come to settle the invoice .... " You didn't need to see me to do that."

Yes, I did, as I want to query it. I asked him for proof that they'd fitted a new starter motor as I knew there was nothing wrong with it as the car started fine on jump leads. He looked a bit shifty, so I acted dumb and said I didn't even know what a starter motor looked like but would he please show me. He fetched one from the store and said : "It looks like this." I said I want to see the one that you have fitted to this car.

That was difficult, there was another car on the bridge and bla bla bla. Eventually he jacked the car up, blocked it with axle stands, and I got underneath (no H&S crap then!) and asked him to shine a torch onto the starter.

He 'couldn't understand how it could have got so dirty so quickly' and said maybe the car had an oil leak. I lost my patience at that and dropped the act of not knowing anything about cars, and showed him the letter from BL.

Then he admitted there 'had been a misunderstanding', to which I said fraud and deceit are very different from a misunderstanding. I paid the price of the battery and 10 minutes labour, which I thought was generous. Reported them to Trading Standards or whatever the equivalent was then, and got my mother, who was a lady who did 'coffee mornings' and 'lunches' and was a bit of a gossip, to spread the word. I also wrote to the local rag and to my joy they published the letter.

What really pissed me off was that he accused me of 'tricking' him. I said you can't trick an honest person.

Revenge is sweet ....... which reminds me I've just written to an ex-friend who deliberately ripped me off £700 which it later became apparent he had no intention of paying.

Andrew

I did not really expect you to reply to my last email, I realise that you are too much of a coward and a fantasist to face reality and honour your commitments or confront anyone with whom you are in conflict.

As you have lied and cheated your way through the last few years, if not longer, it would be too much to expect that you would confront the matter, let alone offer to pay off your debts if only by drip-feeding.

One way or the other, you will be made to pay up as Karma is a wonderful thing and will catch up with you and hopefully make your miserable life even more miserable.  Abusing friendships, leaving a trail of debt, and stealing money will ultimately catch up with you.

It is a great shame as I once regarded you as a good friend and a decent honest man.  Clearly I was wrong in those judgments.
Prove me wrong! 

[Pontius Navigator]

Cape, in contrast, at school I needed 2/- or so and asked another boy if he could lend me 2/-.

He was barely a friend but immediately gave me a pound (in the 50s). Too much I said. He said if I lend you a pound you won't forget...

I guess had you lent £7000 he would not have forgotten but you would be another £6300 out of pocket

[bob2s]

Some thing similar to Cape. Had a Land Rover Discovery 4 and on the last visit to the stealers for a service and out of curiosity on arriving home had a look at the invoice,charged twice for brake fluid and twice for engine oil.Onto the phone and spoke to the service advisor whom stated the they had seen that as well and had deducted it from the total.Asked them to email me an invoice showing the corrected total,sure enough invoice now shows same total with correct quantities for the oils,further reading of the invoice shows that while the charges for the oils had been removed, low and behold the labour charge when compared to the first invoice had increased by exactly the charges for the double up of the oils on the first invoice.Neeedlss to say i returned to the stealers and gave the Manager both barrels in front of other owners waiting to pick up their cars,In a rush to get me out of there he offered to give me back the full labour charges whichI took and departed stating that I would never darken their doorway again. Robbin bastards!

[ExSp33db1rd]

Honda Accord Euro - needs new windscreen wiper blades, first time for me on this car. Just been to the local Man Cave type shop that has in past years provided new blades that I have slotted easily into the wiper arms on various cars that we have owned, but now .. cannot, only genuine Honda complete arms fitted with irreplaceable blades can be obtained, the existing rubber blades don't slide in and out. 2 units cost nearly as much as we paid for the car a few years ago. Barstewards. Annual safety check not due for a few months, drought still in effect, Summer coming - stuff 'em.

[OFSO]

Bloody cicada. On palm on our terrace. Must be over 100db. Tried everything to get it to go away including that Chinese massage oil that Alison recommended. Waving a broom did the trick, but it will be back...

[Pontius Navigator]

Bob, can't remember the exact details but that rings a bell - charged for more oil than the car capacity. Charged for a full bottle of windscreen washer fluid; I pointed out I had filled the bottle to capacity before the service. A bottle of fluid immediately appeared in the passenger footwell.

Also brings to mind habeas corpus "changed the lower floggle toggle on the best side so had to change the other one too". Show me the but you took it off please. No self-respecting swindler will be caught by that one. They will have a box of worn bits and blown exhausts ready to show you.

Present car, new and new dealer, and a pre-paid maintenance plan. Must remember to put some tell tales around.

[1DC]

Mrs 1DC had a wall jump out and touch the back bumper of her B Class Merc, she couldn't understand how it managed to do it! The scrape could be covered by both hands and Mercedes wanted £1486 to sort it, the quote had new bumper and new fashion bits on each side.Went to a Mercedes approved body shop and they did it for £280. When the bloke from Merc called Mrs 1DC to find out when she was bringing the car in, cos if she delayed the cost may have to be increased, she told him she had already had it done he said she had invalidated the guarantee for her car. I took the invoice in with Mercedes approved written on it and asked the manager how the guarantee had been invalidated he said it hadn't and apologised. All unnecessary pressure by Merc to try and rip someone off. That was about ten years ago and they are more customer considerate now.

[Pontius Navigator]

1DC, if you want a specialist there is one near Stickney. Bit of a drive but he would loan you an old Merc while yours is fixed, some good eateries not far away or even Skeg.

[Magnus]

A friend took his old Rover 3500 in for a tyre change and was told his shocks were stuffed and needed replaced. Oh, said he, OK then. When they handed him the invoice, he handed them the previous year's receipt for the same job with a "lifetime" guarantee. Dave 1, garage 0.

[OFSO]

Into the opticians today for both to be tested. 40 minutes each including an optical tomography scan. No charge. Why no charge ? Mrs OFSO needs two new lenses from Zeiss putting in her existing frames. €900. Hence no charge for the - I must say- very detailed examinations.

[G-CPTN]

two new lenses from Zeiss putting in her existing frames. €900.

What do you get for €900?

Do they see you coming?

[Magnus]

I specified Oakley lenses for my varifocals (also Oakley). They had a go at upselling to Zeiss for an extra £100. No, ta. When I collected my new glasses, lo and behold, Zeiss lenses. Apparently Oakley had discontinued the lens blanks for my frames, so they fitted the better ones anyway. No charge.