Legality on wrong work carried out?

[LambethBoy]

Where would one stand for example, if you were told (after investigation) of a particular fault with your vehicle, to then pay to have that fault repaired to then find out it the garage got it wrong, and you have paid a large sum of money based on their conclusion.
Is there anyway to recover costs?
Should an agreement have been made prior to the work being done, if it wasn’t the fault, they had specified?

 

[Salty Spuds]

Where would one stand for example, if you were told (after investigation) of a particular fault with your vehicle, to then pay to have that fault repaired to then find out it the garage got it wrong, and you have paid a large sum of money based on their conclusion.
Is there anyway to recover costs?
Should an agreement have been made prior to the work being done, if it wasn’t the fault, they had specified?

This is a very tricky one, & having been on both sides of the counter, I still don’t know how to call it. Personally I think there has to be a grown up conversation BEFORE work starts, budgets & outcomes agreed prior to either party chucking money at the job. There is a case for a substantial proportion of the budget being set aside for a thorough investigation/diagnosis, unfortunately most punters would balk at this, seeing it as wasted money, in the long run however, it could be money well spent.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful, but as I said, it’s tricky.

 

[DXX]

Personally I wouldn’t do business for any significant £ without a written scope of work and itemised quotation agreed by both parties.
No doubt this is a common issue.

Looking for Consumer Help and Advice?

Up-to-date information for UK Consumers seeking advice about problem purchases and other Consumer Protection issues.

www.tradingstandards.uk

 

[jimc91]

I’m surprised this scenario hasn’t been commented on before given the number of times I read on here garage A diagnoses a faulty whatever based on a scan, the faulty part gets changed, fault reappears, trip back to the garage and something else is diagnosed and another part replaced. The only thing I can suggest is challenging the garage as to why they did the work given it didn’t solve the issue and push for them to wave the labour charge related to it or take some advice from a solicitor who specialises in consumer rights,

 

[DXX]

I’m surprised this scenario hasn’t been commented on before given the number of times I read on here garage A diagnoses a faulty whatever based on a scan, the faulty part gets changed, fault reappears, trip back to the garage and something else is diagnosed and another part replaced. The only thing I can suggest is challenging the garage as to why they did the work given it didn’t solve the issue and push for them to wave the labour charge related to it or take some advice from a solicitor who specialises in consumer rights,

If the vehicle owner and garage agree to go ahead with the work I don’t think it matters in law if the defect is cleared. There are many cases where the very best diagnosis results in parts being renewed without the defect clearing. It’s a case of balancing the odds and component / labour cost. That should be clearly communicated to the owner at all times.
The difficulty is distinguishing from an honest garage and one that is just sucking your wallet dry.
A garage that carries out a poor job repeatedly should hopefully be put out of business fairly soon as there has never been a better time to read online reviews.
That said VW UK dealerships are thriving with wanabee owners queueing up to put their deposits down and sign up for the long wait.

 

[Bav]

Unless the garage has been demonstrably negligent in their investigations, I suspect you'll just have to suck it up. Hopefully, a decent business would be willing to compromise on labour costs and/or margins, but I don't think they'd be under any obligation to do so.

 

[Paynewright]

How many times do we see DIY repairs starting off changing a component due to one set of fault codes but turn out to be something else random?

Its a difficult scenario - personally, I’ll google the symptoms, plug in the fault code reader and google any codes also. VW tend to use standard ECUs, sensors, wiring across the range so the search results might be for a completely different vehicle but the right fix.