Putting brakes on garage’s charges

LAST year, while giving her VW Golf a quick once over ahead of its first NCT check, a Galway reader discovered that the centre seatbelt in the back was jammed.

“I was unaware that there was a problem as the seatbelt had never been used,” she says. She brought it to Western Motors on the outskirts of the city, figuring it would cost around €80 to be repaired. She was taken aback, then, to be quoted €320 for the job.

They asked her for a deposit, which she paid. She collected the car and did the NCT, which it passed. A few days later however, she lowered the back seat to increase the boot size and when the seat was returned to the upright position, the seatbelt jammed again. She realised the belt had jammed simply because she put down the seat and rang Western Motors to complain.

“They told me to bring it and said that the repaired item was under warranty. On the day I was due to bring it in, I rang to check that they had the parts they needed to fix the car and was told they did. So I brought it back in, left it in for the day and when I came back to collect it several hours later, I was told that they didn’t have the part, so they couldn’t do the repair.”

Our reader was less than impressed at this point, not least because she had checked in advance to see if the part was in stock and had paid for taxis to and from the garage and wasted a day waiting for the repairs to be done.

“I booked in the third time and when I went to collect it, it was ready, but the mechanic said that I would have to leave the seat belt locked into position as if I opened it then it would jam again. I pointed out that then it wasn’t actually fixed. He hummed and hawed and told me that another cable would be needed and it would cost another €180 plus labour and VAT to get it fixed.”

She pointed out she had already paid €320 to get the problem fixed and was told she could take it or leave it, so she left it. “I have been in communication with them ever since, but they refused to budge.”

When we contacted the garage, a spokeswoman for Western Motors said she was “disappointed” that our reader was unhappy with the service she received.

“Customer satisfaction is very important to us and we continually strive to deliver a high standard in this area. We would ask all involved to acknowledge that a motor car is a complex piece of machinery with many parts interlinked.” She said it was impossible to diagnose the fault with the cable until the first repair had been carried out and “even then this would not have been diagnosed until the seat was folded and the seat belt jammed again.” She said that Western Motors was “contracted to replace a jammed seat belt and this was the work that was carried out.” She added that the garage was “more than willing to repair the fault” and said that while they would do so with no labour charge “the part would be chargeable to the customer.”