Is Saving £21000 Per Year Good
Family & Relationships1 min ago
What Happened
20 Answers
What's the last ( unexpected ) bill you had or pending, that as wobbled your finances / income a little or a lot.
Answers
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Car engine started making a bit of a noise. First diesel car so knew they were a bit noisier but not happy with it. Friend who is a HGV driver and mechanic said it could possibly be the timing chain. Took it to our normal service depot who said they could strip it down to check but replacing it would be too big a job for them. Told them we had taken out a warranty when we...
11:21 Tue 06th Aug 2019
Car engine started making a bit of a noise. First diesel car so knew they were a bit noisier but not happy with it. Friend who is a HGV driver and mechanic said it could possibly be the timing chain. Took it to our normal service depot who said they could strip it down to check but replacing it would be too big a job for them. Told them we had taken out a warranty when we bought it so advised us to take it back to them. We took it back to their service dept who just listened to it and said yes it sounded like the timing chain, and again, too big a job for them so they contacted the warranty people for us who gave us the name of a local garage to take it to. The 3rd garage also said yes - timing chain - but too big a job for them and advised it should go back to a main dealer. Checked with warranty people and they were ok with that. Took it to main dealer, told them three garages had said most likely the timing chain and left it with them. They said we would have to pay £95 for a diagnostic check which we agreed to. Phone call 2 hrs later to say nothing wrong with the engine but had found a fault with the exhaust which was causing the noise. Relieved as a lot less to pay out and it did sound a lot quieter. One week later I was driving in the outside lane of a double carriageway when the car stopped suddenly, and I mean suddenly. Never been so frightened in my life. Luckily three men managed to stop the traffic and push me off the road into a layby. Not a flicker out of the car. Called Green Flag who could not get it moving so loaded it up and took it back to the dealership to be checked out. Couple of hours later got a phone call from them saying timing belt gone, can't be repaired and they wanted £5,100 for a new engine. My language was unprintable and I asked them why on earth I would give some as incompetent as them that amount of money. Advised if they were not doing the work to please remove my car as they would charge me rent if my car was left there. Paid £40 for tow truck to bring it home. Warranty people were superb and gave me details of where I could get a restored engine which is what we did but that still cost us £2,700 + VAT. To add insult to injury within 20 Minutes of the car being removed from the dealers premises a salesman rang me up and said I believe you're in the market for new car and is there anything I can help you with. More bad language from me I'm afraid. Phoned the head office of the company and made an official complaint. They came back to me saying that as I was happy when I picked up the car originally then there was nothing they could do. Of course I was happy as I was paying £300 for the exhaust instead of £1800 for a new timing belt. Too late but when I checked on Trust Pilot the dealership only got one star with some people complaining that there was no facility for giving them zero stars if they wanted to continue with their review. Got £1,000 from warranty firm but still had to pay £2,200 out of savings and be without he car for two weeks.
Good example of unexpected bill, (Best answer) also a good example of garages ripping people off, with little hope of being able to do anything about it, without incurring further costs to oneself, ie court costs, along with all the aggravation that also brings. Sorry to hear BD, I know the frustrating feeling you get with garages, all to well.
Further to this tale my son was telling his workmates the saga when one of them piped up that his brother was a salesman for the same garage and had recently done him a good deal on a new car. When he went to pick the car up his brother told him to drive it away and under no circumstances ever bring it back for servicing or anything as he wouldn't trust them with any car he had to drive.
The ignition key wasn't recognised by my car. After several false leads in trying to find a fix for it, I got a Saab specialist to provide me with a 'new' (i.e. secondhand) key and to reprogram it. That cost me £420.
However, when he'd finished playing with his box of tricks, the steering lock didn't engage when the key was removed. (I could have lived with that but, annoyingly, even though it's not a safety feature it's still an MOT failure). He denied that the fault had anything to do with the work that he'd just done (although it seemed an amazing coincidence to me) and took several weeks to fix the new problem. For that he 'generously' agreed to charge me only around a third of his normal rate for the hours he'd put into the job, but I was still landed with a bill for a further £650.
(To make matters worse, the alternator failed at around the same time and, as soon as I'd finally got the car back, I had to put it in for its MOT test).
That was nearly a year ago and I'm now waiting for him to return from holiday so he can fix a problem with the key (or possibly with the circuit in the car that it communicates with) that means I can't get the boot open. Grrr!
However, when he'd finished playing with his box of tricks, the steering lock didn't engage when the key was removed. (I could have lived with that but, annoyingly, even though it's not a safety feature it's still an MOT failure). He denied that the fault had anything to do with the work that he'd just done (although it seemed an amazing coincidence to me) and took several weeks to fix the new problem. For that he 'generously' agreed to charge me only around a third of his normal rate for the hours he'd put into the job, but I was still landed with a bill for a further £650.
(To make matters worse, the alternator failed at around the same time and, as soon as I'd finally got the car back, I had to put it in for its MOT test).
That was nearly a year ago and I'm now waiting for him to return from holiday so he can fix a problem with the key (or possibly with the circuit in the car that it communicates with) that means I can't get the boot open. Grrr!
A leak from my water tank which a rip off plumber charged me £270 to fix. He charged £55 for the part to fix it and later a male friend told me he could have bought the same part for just over £6 and fixed it himself ! Said plumber charged £80 an hour also and he made damn sure it went over into a second hour. He was the most surly man I have ever met and never met my eyes. Naturally, I will never use him again!
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