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phipck wrote:but still you shouldnt pay for their problem.
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lets say you pay me to move your house hold goods when moving home, i loose it out the back of the lorry while driving on the motorway, i then tell you that its your problem and theres an addittional fee for me collecting it off the motor way i think you would be on to the trading standards or ombodsman.
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I think the issue is one of negligence.
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If the garage causes damage by negligence then they're responsible for it.
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If, however, they damage something while carrying out the work you requested in a competent manner then they won't be held responsible.
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This subject was a big issue a while back.
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In the end it was concluded that the people you hire should act in your best interests.
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That's what you pay them for.
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As long as what they're doing IS in your best interests then they should be left to get on with it.
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In this case, for example, the garage
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have phoned up and said
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"Hi, we've sheared bolts on your starter motor.
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We can try and drill them out and then rethread the holes but there's no guarantees about how long it will take or if it will be okay afterwards or we can order a new starter motor.
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What do you want us to do?".
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The reason they usually don't do this is cos most of the time the answer will be
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"Do whatever you think is for the best".
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Beyond that, it'd end up getting ridiculous for a garage.
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Every time any kind of decision needed to be made they'd be forced to phone up the owner and ask what they wanted to do.
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So, instead, they developed this idea of doing stuff in the best interests of a client.
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Also, finally, you're also messing with this huge Pandora's Box about ethics.
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Let's say you want something simple like new brake pads.
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At one extreme, you arrive to pick up your car and find that they've charged you
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£400 because the discs were getting a bit thin and the calipers were worn.
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Alternatively, there's a situation where the job takes 2 months because every time they find a rusty bolt they need to phone you to get authorisation to deal with it as they see fit.
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At the other extreme you take the car away, only to find the brakes are still making a horrid noise.
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You take the car back to the garage and they say
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"Oh yeah, your discs are knackered too but you didn't say anything about them so we just did what we were told.
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Basically, the
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only practical way forward IS to trust that a garage will act in your best interests but that they WILL actually act rather than sitting around waiting for your approval for every last facet of the work.
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I'm not saying that's definitely the case here.
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I'm just saying you can't always assume a garage is negligent just because they do cause damage to something.
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Incidentally, I seem to recall one specific case about this.
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It was something to do with a sensor which ALWAYS broke when you removed it and it had to be removed as part of the service.
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Somebody noticed there was always a bill for a new sensor as part of their invoice and there was a big fuss on Watchdog about it.
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In the end it was decided that the dealers WERE actually entitled to break the sensor and charge for a replacement if that's what it took to complete the service work.
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