somebody edit this !!

[SGHOM]

before I send it off to mitsy. doe's it sound right ??

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you regarding an issue I have with Gordon Lamb's [ Mitsubishi ] Sheffield.

Around September last year, I noticed I had ATF leaking from my gearbox, so I booked the car in to Gordon Lambs for them to investigate. I received a phone call from them saying that there was no leak. I reminded them that the car had consumed 6 litres of ATF on a journey from Dorset back to Sheffield, & that there certainly was a leak. Also that as I was a member of the VR4 owners club, I was made aware the some other members had also had a problem with leaking gearbox's, & the most likely cause was the engine/gearbox seal/torque seal.
They then took another look at the car, & said It's the sump seal ?? That was resealed with liquid gasket, at a cost of £190.27.
A few months later, after another long journey, I noticed that the car was still leaking ATF, from the same place. Again I booked the car in, & mentioned that the problem may be the torque seal. The car was inspected, & they reported that the sump had a hairline crack in it, & had to be replaced at a cost to me of £200.
When the work was completed, I asked for the old sump back, & I sent it away for testing. No leak was found in the sump.
Again, more recently, on another journey, the leak was still apparent. So much so, that the whole underside of the car, & indeed the rear door of the car, [ as has always been the case ] was covered in ATF. I again booked the car in, & reminded them again of the most likely cause of this leak. 2 hours later I received a phone call saying that it was the torque converter seal leaking !!
I booked the car in for repair on the 20th July, & spoke at length to Richard in the service department, who said that if it was their fault in not finding the original leak, which I had indicated it may be on 3 occasions, then they would stand to the cost of the repair.
At 4.00 PM on the 19th July, I received a phone call from Richard saying that there would be a charge for this work, & to ring him back.
When I took the car in on the 20th, I questioned as to why there would be a charge for the work, & was told they just wanted to cover the cost of the work they had already done.
The work they had already done has cost me nearly £400, & still no nearer curing the leak from the area of the gearbox I indicated it may be.
As you will understand, I was not happy with this situation, I mentioned this to Richard. His reply was "we are only here to make money". ??

I was quoted £376 to replace the gearbox/torque seal. I have already paid Mitsubishi £390.27 for work which has not cured the original problem, & now you want another £300 to do the work you should have done in the 1st instance. Do you think this is fair ?? I dont.
I await your response in this matter.


Yours sincerely,


Mr D Tew.

[Wodjno]

before I send it off to mitsy. doe's it sound right ??

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you regarding an issue I have with Gordon Lamb's [ Mitsubishi ] Sheffield.

Around September last year, I noticed I had ATF leaking from my gearbox, so I booked the car in to Gordon Lambs for them to investigate. I received a phone call from them saying that there was no leak. I reminded them that the car had consumed 6 litres of ATF on a journey from Dorset back to Sheffield, & that there certainly was a leak. Also that as I was a member of the VR4 owners club, I was made aware the some other members had also had a problem with leaking gearbox's, & the most likely cause was the engine/gearbox seal/torque seal.
They then took another look at the car, & said It's the sump seal ?? That was resealed with liquid gasket, at a cost of £190.27.
A few months later, after another long journey, I noticed that the car was still leaking ATF, from the same place. Again I booked the car in, & mentioned that the problem may be the torque seal. The car was inspected, & they reported that the sump had a hairline crack in it, & had to be replaced at a cost to me of £200.
When the work was completed, I asked for the old sump back, & I sent it away for testing. No leak was found in the sump.
Again, more recently, on another journey, the leak was still apparent. So much so, that the whole underside of the car, & indeed the rear door of the car, [ as has always been the case ] was covered in ATF. I again booked the car in, & reminded them again of the most likely cause of this leak. 2 hours later I received a phone call saying that it was the torque converter seal leaking !!
I booked the car in for repair on the 20th July, & spoke at length to Richard in the service department, who said that if it was their fault in not finding the original leak, which I had indicated it may be on 3 occasions, then they would stand to the cost of the repair.
At 4.00 PM on the 19th July, I received a phone call from Richard saying that there would be a charge for this work, & to ring him back.
When I took the car in on the 20th, I questioned as to why there would be a charge for the work, & was told they just wanted to cover the cost of the work they had already done.
The work they had already done has cost me nearly £400, & still no nearer curing the leak from the area of the gearbox I indicated it may be.
As you will understand, I was not happy with this situation, I mentioned this to Richard. His reply was "we are only here to make money". ??

I was quoted £376 to replace the gearbox/torque seal. I have already paid Mitsubishi £390.27 for work which has not cured the original problem, & now you want another £300 to do the work you should have done in the 1st instance. Do you think this is fair ?? I dont.
I await your response in this matter.


Yours sincerely,


Mr D Tew.

sounds good to me Derek .. But maybe a few Expletives and some of our nasty looking smilies .. :wtf: :gun1: :gun3: :nono: :Scream1: :grrr: :arse:

[Kieran]

I've just pasted into word and printed it off.

I'll PM or MSN you with suggestions

[enigma]

You f***ing thieving bas****S give me my fu****g money back!

[Wodjno]

?? To many of those little STARRY THINGS i think dave ??

[SGHOM]

You f***ing thieving bas****S give me my fu****g money back!

good suggestion, but not sure if it will work. :$ :$

[Spirit]

Derek

I still think you should make a call to your local Trading Standards Office tomorrow first. Explain the above to them and you never know, with a call from the TSO to Gordon Lamb's you may get it resolved tomorrow.

Then (if you have one) make a call to your solicitor and ask him to draft a letter to Gordon Lamb's saying you intend to take them to the small claims court if the TSO has had no joy.

[wirdy]

You're doing the right thing Derek. If you read the advice on the trading standards website your first action is to give the Garage / manufacturer a fair chance to respond to your problem and rectify it to your satisfaction.

The trading standards website have sample letters to download that contain the correct wording, if you need it, but your letter covers all the points very well anyway.

Don't waste your time calling trading standards - they have no teeth. If you don't get a favourable response to your letter, tell the garage you will begin small claims action. It's easy to do and costs £115 which you just add onto the claimed amount. Most companies don't let it get this far as it's not financially worthwhile to have a service manager attend court for a whole morning / afternoon.
It's all about proof though. Hope you kept all your receipts detailing the work done. Pity you didn't get the verbal offer put down in writing on the bottom of the last bill.
The judges are normally very reasonable and see these claims all the time. Go prepared to argue your case and reason will win through.

Hope it works out for you.

[Spirit]

your first action is to give the Garage / manufacturer a fair chance to respond to your problem and rectify it to your satisfaction.

Don't waste your time calling trading standards - they have no teeth.

Would that not be what he has already done by taking the car back 3 times ?

With regards to the TSO, I guess it all depends on your local office - having worked in finance for 10 years I have had a lot of dealings with the TSO regarding issues with cars on HP and my local guy took a dim view to poor garage work and was on the case the same day as a complaint was made. But guess it's your decision Derek

[wirdy]

If the quote that Derek got about 'just here to make money' is anything to go on - this garage wouldn't bat an eyelid to a call from trading standards.

If you're going to pick up the phone then a call to auto express would probably get more action.

How often do we see / hear / read in the media that trading standards 'have been watching this company for some time' when some poor sap gets conned by the same company that's done this time and time again. How many people phone up their local TS office to check out a company before they commision work......hmm..... not many ( I know I don't).

A decent outfit like your company Pete might take an enquiry from TS as an alarm call, but I doubt it with Dereks garage.

[Spirit]

Very true mate, but yet another example of the crap service we seem to get from our local Mitsy dealers. Was funny actually as I had a chat to a mechanic from our local Rover dealer in Plymouth tonight and the same company own the Mitsy dealership and I made some comments about the crap service and he just laughed it off as though it was an everyday occurence

Come on Mitsy - time to start withdrawing some of your licences from these crap garages !!!

[SGHOM]

Any suggestions as to where I should send this letter ?? To the manager of the garage itself ?? to a regional office, ?? or the UK headquarters ??

[Rally205]

Any suggestions as to where I should send this letter ?? To the manager of the garage itself ?? to a regional office, ?? or the UK headquarters ??

I'd send it to the MD of the garage itself and just give him 1st chance to explain himself and if you get no joy go straight to HQ and sod em' :-D

[nick-f1]

I would send it to all of them Derek, I had a similar problem with a 2 grand 3 piece suite, after having 5 different ones all either damaged or the wrong colour I wrote to their head office and got loads of joy, ended up with 75% of my money back. the correct suite and best of all the shop manger got the boot!
He was an evil ba***rd too. so it works sometimes

Nick

[SGHOM]

It's now been 11 days since I posted the above letter to the general manager, of the dealership concerned. I have heard nothing.

1; do I give them a bit longer ?

2; Do I sent a reminder letter advising them not to ignore ?

3; Do I call them, & ask what their response will be?

4; do I send the same letter, with a covering note, to the trading standards office ?

5; Or do I go to them, apologise for my questioning their decision, & let them do It, & pay up ?

[Nick Mann]

Send a reminder stating that if you do not hear from them you will forward the letter to other parties. (Let them guess as to whether you mean a solicitor, trading standards or your uncle!) Include a (realistic) deadline so that they are aware of when they need to respond by.

[Big Ian]

yeah,i agree with Nick.also 2 week's during a holiday period is not long,but you would have thought they'd have sent a letter of response to say that they are looking in to the matter? (even though we all know this type of letter is called "time waste'n") or even a polite phone call from them saying the same.

[ritch_w]

Just send the letter to your solicitors, trading standards etc, the more room for mounourve (?) you give them the more they will take the p1ss.

11 days is plenty of time to provide some sort of response - even it if it is a "were looking in to it" and will do nothing about it response.

time to start playing hardball with them!!!