Hey,

I have been ripped off by a garage based in Farnham Common, Slough, UK. My cars a Volvo S60 T5 right and the turbo seemed to be having problems. To try and cut a very long story short:

1. Car kept going into "limp mode", a mode whereby engine performance is reduced to avoid over running it.
2. Garage took on the spot look, could not diagnose, booked in 1 week later.
3. They put the car into "diagnosis", I pressured them to give me some estimated timings for diagnosis, they refused, I asked them not to spend more than £150 worth of time (around 2 hours) "looking" at the car.
4. They eventually spent over 3 hours "looking" at it and charged me £220. They found a cracked air pipe which they replaced for an additional £100.
5. Called to say car was ready for collection. Collected car, within 10 seconds car was spluttering around all over the place, problem NOT fixed.
6. Went back to them. They advised me to take it to a main Volvo dealer as they are only an independent specialist. In Farnham Common.
7. Main dealer took in car, spent 1 hour on vehicle, found 1 trapped vacuum pipe, released it, renewed it (£6) and my car was then back to 100% health for £150.

I wrote to the Independent Volvo Specialist in Farnham Common and advised them that according to the Main Dealer, this was a very simple problem to spot and rectify. I even have an email from the main dealer confirming this. I explained that I was unhappy that they (the Independent Volvo Specialist in Farnham Common) had been vague with me regarding times, ignored my price cap and then failed to spot this obvious problem, only to spend twice as long as they needed to in diagnosis, and then charged me twice the price of a main dealer for the pleasure. I was expecting back either an apology or some kind of gesture of goodwill, as they do seem at face value to be a small, customer focused business. Instead the owner of the firm says "We'll have to agree to differ".

I wondered if anyone knew of any avenues I could explore to bring these cowboys to rights. IMO, they used "diagnosis" as a license to print money. They take your car in, sit it there for 3 and a bit hours then charge you £320 and the problem wasn't even fixed. They also failed, by admission, to road test the car so when I collected it, you could argue it was dangerous to drive. Their work actually made the car worse.

The main dealer was open, honest and agreed a max diagnosis fee with me prior to work starting. They kept their word and fixed the problem for £6 plus one hours labour. Their findings prove to me that the independent Volvo specialist in Farnham Common did not exercise due diligence, failed to spot an obvious cause of problem, didn't fix the car yet still charged full price for it. Mix in some questionable customer service and a dismissive, arrogant owner and you find yourself, as a consumer, bent over a barrel and shafted for £320.

I want cowboys like these exposed and brought to task. Does anyone have any suggestions at all as to how I can approach this? PM if needs be.

Thanks!

Trading standardswould be your best bet mate..Farnham you say it wouldnt happen to be PJI Farnham the independant?..i have heard similar horror stories on other volvo sites too...they are already in trouble as it is..i refuse to use anybody but a maindealer due to these reasons rather pay more for better service.