Not What I Expected From A Dealer's Repair ...

[rotwang1985]

Please bare with me whilst I vent my spleen ...

Recently my '08 Aygo Blue has had the airbag light flashing. I did the right thing, booked her in for a checkup where I was told to bring it back so the passenger seat airbag could be replaced.

Today, I drop my car off & sit in the waiting area watching through the glass at the other cars/vans (including a KIA or Hyundai !!!) getting sorted with MOTs & stuff.

Then much to my surprise my beautiful baby aygo is driven in by a mechanic & he drives over an inside wheel arch from a 5x plate Toyota Celica

The mechanics are having a brief laugh or discussion about it. I went round to have a look but couldn't tell if there was any damage (poor lighting etc).

After an hour I was called to the desk to pickup the keys, I asked the nice lady could she check if there was any damage from the 'incident' - already I know that I wasn't going to be told about this. The lady comes back & says it was just the tyre that ran over it .... fair enough .... I thought.

I went to the car & looked from the front to see the rubber valence/splitter type thing almost hanging off at 1 side .... :censor: .... I go straight back in to tell them & a mechanic (different to the guy who did it) comes out & gets down on 1 knee to say & I quote "Have you ran over a kerb" ...... I said NO!!!! ... your guy ran over a wheel arch ... He fiddled with it in the car park & then took it back in to the garage to get on the ramps ... he showed me it fixed & it seemed fine. Its very tough/flexible rubber.

The points I think I want to make are:

• Why did they not check the damage properly, on ramps etc
  
• Fix it
  
• Tell me what had happened & reassure me that the world was good
  

Also if you have had a blue Toyota Celica in at Pentagon Doncaster today ... errrrm ... your part has been run over !!!!!

Oh & finally the airbag light came on on the way home & they think it is the wiring looooom .... so she goes in for a day next week - where maybe the AYGO will be run over by an Amazon or Hi-Lux ....

Ahhhhhh ... I feel a little better .... or maybe that's the caffeine

[kerf]

From my experience (albeit not with cars, but warehousing equipment) it seems to happen more often than not. Warranty repairs are likely to be on a matrix and will have a set number of hours. The aim being to get it in and out asap (the more hours saved, and therefore money made, the bigger the bonus at the end of the year)

If they send the car back out there is a chance the customer won't notice, if the customer does notice the damage it is likely be done under warranty agian.

That's my opinion based on my experience but the guy could have just been lazy.

[rotwang1985]

From my experience (albeit not with cars, but warehousing equipment) it seems to happen more often than not. Warranty repairs are likely to be on a matrix and will have a set number of hours. The aim being to get it in and out asap (the more hours saved, and therefore money made, the bigger the bonus at the end of the year)

If they send the car back out there is a chance the customer won't notice, if the customer does notice the damage it is likely be done under warranty agian.

That's my opinion based on my experience but the guy could have just been lazy.

Yeah, I know that accidents happen & to be honest I wouldn't have minded had they been a bit proactive & checked the damage properly, sorted it & then let me know at the end.

Its the "fingers crossed, he didn't notice" attitude that's disappointing.

[Mord]

At the end of the day the dealers don't care about your car. It's all about money. Why would they tell you about incidents/accidents/***** ups caused by them? If the customer cannot see what happened or the damage no need to tell him, they can always fix it later and the customer will pay for it.

The only reason why I visit a dealer every year is the damn stamp in the service book when the car is under the warranty.. once the warranty runs out I'll be fixing Aygo myself.

[Chris81]

^^^Exactly what he said^^^

It may be your pride and joy but to the dealer it's just another piece of work. The days of reassuring you that the world is good are long gone (if they ever existed)

You should be equally annoyed that they didn't even fix the original problem. I can't think your will ever be the first Aygo to have this fault. Don't dealers speak to each other to save perfectly good parts being replaced (the airbag, in your case). Yeah I know there are service bulletins and recalls etc but just replacing parts willy nilly till they fix the problem through trial and error isn't exactly particularly efficient.

[timcrasher]

If the mechanics have damaged a car in full view of the waiting customer, I would be taking my car somewhere else.

I would suggest writing a letter to the dealer priciple, quoting all the details of what happened and when. You should also include the mechanics name on your paperwork/ Healthcheck for the repair/ warranty work, if you have it.

If I did something like that at work I would in deep doodoo. The whole idea of the glass viewing windows is to install confidence in the waiting customer, that the work is being carried out to a high standard. For them to dismiss it as a joke and suggest that you damaged the car id appauling

I bought my Aygo from a dealer in Wakefield, but was let down by their customer service 2 days later. I have never given them any of my business since. I quite happily travel to Lincoln, where Listers Toyota have carried out all my service and warranty work. I am always impressed with the service I receive from them, and will continue to use them. I am due to relocate to Essex this week, but will still use Listers for my servicing work.

I can visit my folks and drop the car off at the same time.

I am a Technician by trade but still value the back up of a good dealer. A good reputation for quality service is alot harder to get than a bad reputation.

[Phoenix999]

The incident that you experienced is far from acceptable and is sadly not rare :(

Following a bad puncture I had to have a new tyre fitted just 4 weeks after taking delivery of my current car.... bloody expensive too :(

I got the car back the same day and hey presto there are two decent size chunks taken out of my pristine wheel, the mechanic never had the decency to own up to it. Anyway I pointed this out to the service receptionist and following that out comes the senior service technician who looks at the wheel and says "mmmm this does look fresh so I suppose it was done here!" :o I responded by telling him that the wheel was perfect when I took it in the same day so it HAD to have been done there.... idiots

The following day the dealership replaced my wheel with one off their own demonstrator cars.... I hope the mechanic had to pay for it :censor:

Even if they are to blame they rarely hold up their hand and say 'sorry'

[Unklian]

At the end of the day the dealers don't care about your car. It's all about money. Why would they tell you about incidents/accidents/***** ups caused by them? If the customer cannot see what happened or the damage no need to tell him, they can always fix it later and the customer will pay for it.

The only reason why I visit a dealer every year is the damn stamp in the service book when the car is under the warranty.. once the warranty runs out I'll be fixing Aygo myself.

100% Fact

Ian.

[ormi]

not all us tecs for main dealers are like that!! but back to your fault it sounds like the connector just under your n/s/f seat i have done a fair few of these....sliding the seat back and forward a lot pulls the connector slightly apart..take connector apart and push back together that should put the light out or it could also be the air bag ecu done a few of them too.