Help Needed for Argument with Garage

[Mav_UK]

Hey People,

Well I just got the bill from the Garage for last weeks service (on my '96 440 1.8i), and do not want to pay, but I need some help backing my case up.....

Firstly they charged for 4 hours labour for a big service and rear brake pads. I have it on pretty good authority that if you take it quite slow, or if you have MAJOR problems then it's about 3 hours work. Any ideas? BTW The rear brakes on mine are disc's.

Secondly the cheeky little so and so has charged me for a pollen filter. Now as far as I am aware there isn't a pollen filter for a 440. Can one be fitted as an after market thing, or is he totally screwing me over?

Other little things that they did were charge me to fill my washer fluid (it was full when it went in), and over charged me by up to 90% for some items. i.e. Fuel Filter 41 euros, fuel filter form a motor factors (and they are expensive for most things in Holland) 25 euros. Brake pads 50 euro's, motor factors 31 euros, oh and he fitted them without calling me when I specifically said that he was to do *nothing* without consulting with me first.......

Also is there a *special* thing with 440 handbrakes that means that even after they have been adjusted the handle still goes to full travel, or have they not done that either? Spoke to my dad (the mechanic) last night about it and he was saying that if the handle goes all the way up then the chances are it would fail the British MOT, so I can't see Volvo making a car ike that......

Thanks in advance people,

Stu

PS The one thing he didn't go beserk on was spark plugs, 3 quid each, thats less than I normally pay in the UK, So I have no idea what he's fitted to it....

PPS If I get no joy I'll send the info to Bob to try to name and shame, and post a scan of the invoice on my site to back my claim up.....

[karlos]

Hi!

Sounds like you have been seriously taken advantage of here.

I have 95 440 1.8i and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have a pollen filter, being a hayfever sufferer I can say that Its like any other car without a filter in summer, plus I couldn't find one when I had a look for one. I'm not sure about an after-market one though, or because of the country specification.

My rear brakes are discs and they are cable operated for the handbrake. When you tighten the cable the handbrake lever will not go full travel, it tightens the whole cable system, it will if you stand on the seats and pull at it for an hour!
Full travel is not a good idea as if for some reason your hydraulics fail (not really possible due to Volvo's little 88% thing) and you need to pull it on quickly, well you can't.

I have just had mine in for a 80 thousand mile service and it was definately done in under three hours if that helps any.

There is no way on earth he should have gone ahead and done 'major' work without your permission, and I don't see why you should pay for it! But then he has done the work so he has to recoup the money somehow.

Brakepads are a bit of a grey area as you can't definately say how long is left on them due to the driver and the overall condition of the system. Plus on the 440 if you tighten the handbrake the caliper tightens round the disc and so less hydraulic effort is needed to apply the brakes. This could be very dangerous to the brake force distribution if over tightened, as the rear of the car could be braking more than the front of the car and this would result in the car spinning round under heavy or emergency braking. The 440 does have a valve on the bottom of the master cylinder which in effect gives a primative mechanical form of ABS to the rear of the car when loaded.

Try it with a toy car down a ramp, if you tape that back wheels up giving the effect of the rear brakes giving greater braking effort than the front.

No to frighten you though! The pads would naturally wear down after a few weeks to even up the braking effort.

Its a damn shame that you pay somebody to service your car and they take advantage of your trust to request (or just go ahead and do it) that certain jobs need doing when they might not need to be, and they have got you are over a barrel as they have your car and trust, how many times have you heard 'I've got it in pieces, would you like to save your labour costs?' Having said that there are a lot of decent garages out there that provide an excellent service.

Stand up for yourself and your rights, the customer is always right?!

Maybe a register of trusted garages and dealers from up and down the country could be compiled with reports from customers to verify this. It would force them to get their act together or be shamed! This could be shaky ground though as slander should be avoided for legal reasons!

Anyway sorry for the essay!

Hope this helps

Karl

[Mav_UK]

Cheers,

I only took it to a garage for the service as it has FSH, I have only ever had one car in a garage for a service before (A MKII MR2, big service and rear brakes (what a weird coincidence) for 180GBP at a Toyota main dealer.........

I can do the servicing myself, and after that bill wish I had, I think I paid more for the service than the FSH is worth!

As for the slander thing that's why I am considering putting the invoice on the web, if the invoice is slander then he is ripping me off :) .

Again thanks for the info, I now have soemthing to throw at him at the weekend, I'll let you know what happens on Monday!

Stu

PS There is no way the handbrake will stop you in case of brake failure, I tested it, full trvel the car just keeps on trucking......