Dodgy Mechanics

[SpunkySteph]

I just had the worst experiance Ive ever had with my car and it made me so thankful that my boyfriend is a mechanic (and a good one to boot!) SO I thought Id start this thread, so we can all out any dodgy f***s out there.

I had an experiance at an UltraTune (and anyone wanting to know exactly which one can PM me) where I needed to see what my oil pressure was (my bf coulnt bring the gauge from his workshop).

When I went back to my car, the guy said i had leaks everywhere (which was funny cuz I never saw any oil on the ground AND my boyfriend would have seen them first)and itd cost $500. I said Id come back next week but I needed to know what the pressure was and you know what? He couldnt tell me.

They offered to try again, saying there wasnt enough oil in it to get a reading (which was bullsh*t because you can get a reading off anything).He then pulled the dipstick out, cleaned off half of it RIGHT infront of me thinking im a dumb ass.He sayd he'd top it up and do it again. He put more oil in it (so much it almost overflowed) and THEN said it was gona cost me ANOTHER $65 to test it again!!!

I refused to pay him anything at all cuz it was obvious he didnt do the work to begin with, or else he would have given me an answer. We had a huge fight in the middle of the workshop with me trying to make the point that he couldnt prove he did squat to my car and I wasn't going to pay forsomething that didnt occour. He ended up swearing at me to get out of his workshop and never to come back again (how professional).

SO let's hear it guys!!!!! Im sure you all have a story to tell

[Poogene2001]

Not quite as annoying or stupid as the above scenario, but I recently had my 15000km service with holden and asked that the tyres be rotated. He said it would be an extra cost, and I agreed. Upon picking the car up, the service manager listed what had been done to the car but didnt mention the tyre rotation. When it came time to pay, i was charged $25 for the rotation. Just for fun, i decided to make sure the work had actually done. I was able to do this because I had had a flat a few months earlier and had a tube inserted into the that tyre which had a different style valve and cap. Lo and behold, it was still on the right rear where it had begun. I decided to play it coy and simply asked who had done the work on my car, approached the mechanic and asked if a tyre rotation had been done. He simply said "nup, was it meant to be done?" I went back to the service manager, politely pointed out that he was a liar, that i would like a refund for the cost of the rotation and that in future I would be taking my car elsewhere for the profitable business of servicing. His come-back was that if I go elsewhere, it would void my extended warranty, so I had to keep coming to them. Upon hearing this I asked where I could find the dealer principal for a brief discussion about the days matters.
5 minutes later I had a full refund. 10 minutes later my tyres were rotated and 15 minutes later I told the service manager where to stick his extended warranty. Still not decided where to go for the 30000km service!

[CAL.16V]

a perticular ultra tune in the hills is dodgy... not many i that area so go figure...

they couldnt diagnose anything with my last car and they stuffed my mates 180sx to the point where he now needs a rebuild

[MatsHolden]

...stick his extended warranty. Still not decided where to go for the 30000km service!

Yeh mate, those extended warranties are a joke. They are only offered to ensure you use the dealer you bought the car from for servicing. If I wanted the extended warranty on my car when I bought it new, I not only had to get it serviced at the dealer I bought it, but also had to have it serviced every 6 months instead of every 12 months. I still get letters from them saying that if I come back to them for my next service they will still offer me the extended warranty. Where in Melbourne are you based?

[SpunkySteph]

Well...this particular UltraTune is run by a guy that is famous sydney-wide as a dodgy a**. Almost every mechanic friend of mine, and all the guy my boyfriend works with all said the same thing when told about my experiance...
"nahh...not 'so and so'! that guys the worst!"
One guy we know got hired by him when he started his apprenticeship and he told my friend all the dodgy ways of doing things. Shortly after, he got fired from that place and one way or another ended up getting the job running that UltraTune Im talking about.

[MatsHolden]

Are you physically able to write a post without mentioning your boyfriend? :p hahaha

[SpunkySteph]

Are you physically able to write a post without mentioning your boyfriend? :p hahaha

well...when your talking about cars...and you have a boyfriend that is a super fantastic mechanic....you put two and two together...and thats what happens.
why...jealous? lol
(jokes)

[MatsHolden]

hahahahaha

[PaulyJ]

hahahaha mat jealous? no!
its just funny because in that last post you again mentioned him... hahaha
mechanic wise, i've been quite lucky. my current mechanic (Con) is an absolute legend. Funniest guy, down to earth and straight to the point, no bullsh!t. He's into his performance cars, and does a lot of custom work...
One of his vans (HiAce) has a worked 5.0L haha and his little sleeper (1986 Corolla) has a Supra twin turbo in it (BIG single turbo conversion) with Wolf 3D comp, black cooler, the works. Looks stock, kills you on the road.

If anyone needs a good mechanic, he's in Dandenong. K-Line Mobile Mechanics. On Princes Hwy next to the Heatherton Rd Junction.

Other side of Melbourne in Sunshine, go to ProChoice Automotive. Awesome mechanic.

[Skibum]

What a joke extended warranties really are !

I bought an Astra SRi in September 2002 and was enticed to take up the extended warranty which would take the warranty up until September 2008.

I have just sold the car, and when I advertised the car I included that the car was under warranty until Sept 2008. It wan't until when I checked with the dealer about selling the car and transferring the warranty that I was informed that the warranty was void once I sold the car.

Not bad, 2 1/2 years remaining on the warranty that is not worth the paper that it is printed on.

[beep beep sri]

well it must be an ultra tune thing. my parents car got stuffed a few years ago by ultratune near me. ultratune are just like midas. big company dodgy work MOST of the time. midas did a sports exhaust for my barina i asked them if it would cause any dash lights to come on "no no definatly not". 2 days latter dash warning lights on so back to midas. go over the car and the front o2 sensor is busted they blaim holden. back to holden they put a new o2 sensor in. the next day lights on again back to midas. they say its not there fault. fight with them call head office they agree to fix it. midas go to put an aftermarket o2 sensor in so i hit the roof. after 3 hours of fighting they put the genuine 1 in. a month latter flex pipe packs it in take it to another midas they fix that. then the rear muffler mounts tear off (not welded on properly) new rear muffler at another midas (again) while there under the car they say the whole exhaust is stuffed and they will do it again. i spit it say i want my money back ofcourse they say no i call the head office everything under the sun still said no so i leave with a full new exhaust. the reason behind the busted o2 sensors was the driveshaft hiting the o2 sensor. the idiots put it in the wrong spot and when i gave it a bit the mottor moved back a bit and bang good by o2 sensor

[Kimme]

When I was buying my GSi, the guy was friends with the Ultratune mechanic next to his work. They did a pinkslip on the car. Didn't think much of it at all, until I got familiar with the car, and realised they must have just gone crazy ticking things and not checking them.

For instance, they said that both the tyres and seatbelts were fine. When in fact the front 2 tyres are nearly bald, and the drivers side pre-tensioner is borked.

The guy fixing my car atm.. (although he's an asshole, he's good at what he does) says all ultratunes are dodgy.

[btm]

sounds like ultratune is getting a pretty bad rap here...

[tmov81]

hahaha midas are knobs... never had anywork done by them but when i was looking at exhaust, just cat back, they said because the calibra was a rare car they would have to do a custom setup and it would probably cost around $1800...

I ended up paying around $700 and most of that ($350) was for the magnaflow muffler (for the $1800 midas quoted maybe they were planning on fitting an 18ct gold exhaust?).

[tmov81]

What a joke extended warranties really are !

I bought an Astra SRi in September 2002 and was enticed to take up the extended warranty which would take the warranty up until September 2008.

I have just sold the car, and when I advertised the car I included that the car was under warranty until Sept 2008. It wan't until when I checked with the dealer about selling the car and transferring the warranty that I was informed that the warranty was void once I sold the car.

Not bad, 2 1/2 years remaining on the warranty that is not worth the paper that it is printed on.
extended warranties are rubbish...

I would never buy one... and I am tempted to drive to melbourne and pay a little visit to the offices of Australian Dealer Insurance and jam my old synchros down the throats of each and every a$$hole working in that building.

in short the warranties are full of loopholes and pretty much leave repairs at their discretion...

[JohnBu]

What a joke extended warranties really are !

I bought an Astra SRi in September 2002 and was enticed to take up the extended warranty which would take the warranty up until September 2008.

I have just sold the car, and when I advertised the car I included that the car was under warranty until Sept 2008. It wan't until when I checked with the dealer about selling the car and transferring the warranty that I was informed that the warranty was void once I sold the car.

Not bad, 2 1/2 years remaining on the warranty that is not worth the paper that it is printed on.

well it is worth alittle.. just tell the next buyer that the car has no problems, becauses its still under warantee and if any problems have arisen they would have been fixed. i.e. not selling car because its having problems

[JohnBu]

extended warranties are rubbish...

I would never buy one... and I am tempted to drive to melbourne and pay a little visit to the offices of Australian Dealer Insurance and jam my old synchros down the throats of each and every a$$hole working in that building.

in short the warranties are full of loopholes and pretty much leave repairs at their discretion...

bad experience?

[lowey22]

haven't had a bad experience yet. I have used 3 differnent Ultra Tunes and they were all great. I don't think you can really say a whole company is bad, there are dodgy mechanics everywhere, just got to try to avoid them...

[beep beep sri]

hmm me thinks maybe 1 in every 100 ultra tunes are ok and 1 in every 30000 midas stores are ok. just going on what people have been saying on here

[tmov81]

i bought my cally with extended warranty which should have carried me to january 07...

i send all the stuff in... they say they will process it (this is in Oct 05)...
After about 2-3 phone calls a week and constantly being told their computer system is down, by Jan 06 they tell me they cant process it without service history. So I fax that and send it off. They tell me in late Feb 06 that they wont cover it because it was serviced at Shell Autoserv and not a Holden Dealer.

I wrote an extensive letter telling them that Holden does not make the car, and mentioned about previous bad experiences, overcharging etc etc. I also mentioned that when I phoned initially and enquired as to what it meant in the book when it stated "duly authorised repairer" and if they had a list of these people. I was told there was no such thing and anyone who was a licensed mechanic with a workshop was okay.

I didnt hear back so contacted consumer affairs. They told consumer affairs it wasnt because I had it serviced at Shell but because the previous owner made a claim, and warranty transfer is at the discretion of ADI.

Consumer affairs did nothing because the extended warranty wasnt worth the paper it was written on.


So I got stuck footing the bill for $3500 worth of gearbox and $500 worth of crank angle sensor...

This is why i would take much pleasure in filleting the mother f$%kers from ADI alive

[oneightoo]

i would say, yes, thats a bad experience..

[JohnBu]

i bought my cally with extended warranty which should have carried me to january 07...

i send all the stuff in... they say they will process it (this is in Oct 05)...
After about 2-3 phone calls a week and constantly being told their computer system is down, by Jan 06 they tell me they cant process it without service history. So I fax that and send it off. They tell me in late Feb 06 that they wont cover it because it was serviced at Shell Autoserv and not a Holden Dealer.

I wrote an extensive letter telling them that Holden does not make the car, and mentioned about previous bad experiences, overcharging etc etc. I also mentioned that when I phoned initially and enquired as to what it meant in the book when it stated "duly authorised repairer" and if they had a list of these people. I was told there was no such thing and anyone who was a licensed mechanic with a workshop was okay.

I didnt hear back so contacted consumer affairs. They told consumer affairs it wasnt because I had it serviced at Shell but because the previous owner made a claim, and warranty transfer is at the discretion of ADI.

Consumer affairs did nothing because the extended warranty wasnt worth the paper it was written on.


So I got stuck footing the bill for $3500 worth of gearbox and $500 worth of crank angle sensor...

This is why i would take much pleasure in filleting the mother f$%kers from ADI alive

oic..

but did you personally pay for the extended warantee? i.e. they take your money?

[tmov81]

the seller used the warranty as leverage on the price, so i paid more for the car based on the assumption that it came with it...

they didnt take my money though to transfer it... but it was more the issue they were telling me that I would be covered and 'just get the work done, and when we get the system up and running send in your receipts' for about 6 months before they decided that they wouldnt

[cyclonic]

Seeing that we're on the subject...

I bought my Barina from Brian Gardner Motors in Cannington. Had the car for 8 months when the rear tailights stopped working. Ended up calling out Roadside Assistance who opened up the tailights to show blown globes.

They'd MELTED onto the tailight surrounds! Ok, so this was a warranty issue. Called up the dealer who advised that I should make an appointment with the Service Department to have the tailights replaced. They said they'd have the parts ready for me, and to be there as early as possible.

So I made an appointment for a few days later, giving the dealer plenty of time to get organised. Rocked up at the dealer at 7:30am (after working an evening shift - I was stuffed!) thinking i'd be there for 30 minutes and i'd be able to go back home and get some sleep before starting my shift at work.

Well the Service department had no clue I was coming. I told them i'd made an appointment! So they asked me to wait whilst they tried to get the parts for me. An hour later...

I was informed that they'd have to get the parts from another part of the city - can I wait a bit longer? By now I was getting pretty pissed off.

Another 30 minutes pass and they inform me that i'll have to come back later, the parts won't be there for another 2 hours. So home I went and came back two hours later. By this time I had to call in sick to work as I was going to miss my start time. I had no sickies due so bye bye a days wages!

Get back to the dealer and waited another hour and a half! Finally, the lights were fitted... Then the service rep had the audacity to ask me if i'd left the lights on! You can't do that in a Barina; they turn themselves off, as well as sounding a loud chime to warn you. Whats worse, the rep was constantly rude to me as well.

Needless to say I called the service department as well as Holden a few days later and lodged a complaint. Then the dealer calls me last week to see if the cars going ok! The poor person was told in no uncertain terms that i'd NEVER be going back to Brian Gardner Motors ever again. Not after that episode. Its now due for its 15 000kms service.

If they can't organise parts right, imagine what getting a service would be like?

[MatsHolden]

The lights on the Barina don't automatically turn off. But him asking if you'd left them on is rediculous, wouldn't matter if you had left them on, they aren't supposed to melt.

Anyway I havn't really had any problems with my dealer. I hit a pot hole and bent the control arm and broke the strut and buckled my alloy wheel; got it towed to my dealer and they got the parts in and had it fixed in 4 days, so was pretty happy. Only thing though, they forgot to do a wheel allignment after the repairs so I ended up scrubbing out the front right tyre, but they replaced it and did the wheel allignment.

[cyclonic]

Just e-mailed the service department with an ameded version of my description. Ok, well i've NEVER left the lights on anyway - the only thing I can think of is that the globes were sitting too close to the tailight surrounds in the first place.

I already upset because I had to pay the Roadside Assistance guy for replacement globes.

*sigh*

[cyclonic]

Well this is interesting...

The Service Manager from Brian Gardner Motors just called and offered to do the 15 000k service for $80! (less than half price). He apologised for what they'd put me through.

So, i'll give them a chance and see how it goes. I'll let you all know, ok?

Goes to show that the customer does have the power (its just a matter of not abusing it).

[PaulyJ]

Yeah, just make sure that before you pay, make sure yourself that everything was done. Only when you're satisfied, then pay.

[JohnBu]

Yeah, just make sure that before you pay, make sure yourself that everything was done. Only when you're satisfied, then pay.

good point, but the 15,000km service is what, an oil & filter change!

[PaulyJ]

Depends on what else they do i guess.

[dodgyblue]

when i bought my first car (nissan pulsar N13series2 - 1989 with the Holden Family 2 engine ) from President Ford in Melbourne second-hand, i stupidly (but luckily) ticked the extended warranty box for 3 years.
2 years down the track, my mechanic told me the clutch was acting up. Took it back to President Ford and they said they'll fix it and it'll take a day. Book for an appointment dropped the car off. Called up in the afternoon and they have the nerve to tell me that because its a Nissan, it's engine & transmission is from overseas, it'll take 2 weeks to get parts. Naturally I crack the sh*ts at them and told them they could get the parts off Holden.) Anyway, they got the parts and got it fixed by the next day. Yep, them are shoddy idjits..

[Amazer]

Interesting to see the customer's point of view with there dealing's

I am a parts interperter at a car dealership

I'm glad I have a good mechanic to service my car's and get my parts cheap

can't remember the last time I payed for retail for anything automotive

Rob