Garage tricks

1217 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by 5tevie, May 24, 2012

Daimlerman

Discussion Starter · May 22, 2012

Just wondered if anyone else has been 'had' like I was. It's a 2000 Daimler 4.0 V8 that I've owned for 4 years. I put it in to Jaguar main dealer for service...collected the car and didn't use the sunroof for a few days, now it doesn't close properly - it continues to run past the shut position into the ventilation position. A check of the motor/control shows a unit dated 2004
I would put money on the chance that the Main Dealer had a problem unit and did a swap while my car was in for service. Easily done, 5 minutes, saves them £100's
Or maybe I'm a bit cynical...

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Galcian

· #2 · May 22, 2012 (Edited)

I know for a fact that this stuff happens in IT - before I taught myself how to fix/upgrade hardware I had computers come back from the shop with with different (cheaper) parts in them than they went in with, and I saw it happen first hand when I was behind the counter. I expect IT support and mechanics workshops have a similar atmoshpere - you have customers who come in with things that they don't know anything about and they ask you to fix them. You're in a position of power because you have expertise that they don't have, and it's extremely easy to take advantage of that for your own benefit or at least to make things easy on yourself.

With cars and computers and any other esoteric knowledge I think you really need to find somebody you trust to work on them and not mess you around. Or you need to show them that you know at least marginally what you're talking about so that they know they can't pull the wool over your eyes.

So in short - it wouldn't surprise me at all.

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twojags

· #3 · May 22, 2012

There is no way you can prove it, is there? You could try going back and asking if they used the sun roof and if they had any difficulties with it.

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jamiewilson

· #4 · May 22, 2012

Sounds a bit odd, although not all IT people will lift your leg!! Have you a stack of invoices for the car? if so have a rummage for the sunroof repair invoice then if there isn't one go shout! You could always suggest you have security marked parts of the car to the service manager to see what response you get.

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Galcian

· #5 · May 22, 2012

jamiewilson said:
although not all IT people will lift your leg!!

Indeed! I didn't want to smear my whole profession; I've worked with plenty of very professional help desk people and computer programmers, but I've also worked for some very dodgey ones (The things you put up with to make a few quid as a student...).

I just mean that I'm sure this stuff goes on and you really have to be careful.

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jamiewilson

· #6 · May 22, 2012

No offence taken it was a bit tongue in cheek. I have seen it happen during my time looking after ford then vauxhall IT systems on sites. The techs would just wander onto the sales pitch and borrow bits. I would imagine a customers car would pose no barrier to them and it was probably an oversight that it didnt get swapped back.

Op should go confront the garage as I said in my previous post.

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goshawk

· #7 · May 22, 2012

Hi Daimlerman its hard to tell, they will probably say they never touched the sunroof, but what i do know is that our commercial dealership will cannibalise one of their sales vehicles to save time on fixing customer vehicles. Is there a procedure in training the sunroof, there was one on my old mondeo ghia x. Gos

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5tevie

· #8 · May 24, 2012

Just a thought.
If a similar car to yours came into the workshop with a sunroof issue, maybe your car was cannibalised to avoid a 2 week delay in getting a part. The sunroof of the second car was fixed. You got the duff sunroof part fitted to your car and then a communication ****-up meant that your car was returned to you "as-is".
What I mean is that it may have been deliberate or it could have been a genuine mistake.

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