A ‘stealer’ (Chippenham, Wilts) living up to its name!

[SmartInBlack]

(Sorry this is bit of an essay but bear with me…)

I hold up my hand straight away and say I realise that I made a mistake by taking my LCR to a local ‘stealer’ for its MOT. They could do it on a Saturday morning (the next day), which was convenient, and also I was tempted by the £39.99 ‘deal’, free inspection service (wash, vac, top-ups etc) and 25% discount on labour – I know, I know, I fell for the marketing ploy…

They didn’t bother to do the inspection service and the MOT was failed on the following:
1. Rear exhaust mounting not supporting exhaust system
2. NSR tyre with a “lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure”
3. NSF and OSF headlamp aim too high.

The total estimate from the stealer for the repairs etc was £620!! (This included an erroneous amount for a 2nd tyre (option) instead of only 1). After pointing this out and getting my 25% discount, this reduced to approx £500. Still OTT so I got the tyre replaced, exhaust fixing welded and the lights re-aligned at re-test. I had to pay for another MOT test fee but the total was ‘only’ £200 which is a considerable saving from the stealer.

The stealer’s telephone customer service was also poor…first time cut-off, second time put on hold for over 5 mins before realising that I was on the line to another customer who was also waiting , third time I got through although, given the story above, perhaps it would have been better if I hadn’t!

Btw, the stealer isn’t just Seat but also Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Rover, Kia. This is not the first time I’ve found their estimates to be higher than others and I’ll be avoiding them in the future. Any locals to Chippenham, you have been warned…

 

[steffers]

hiya.

firstly where abouts in the magnificant town of chippenham are you??

secondly where abouts is this garage as i dont really know many of the garages around? i went to avoid as best as possible

in the spotted section there is a thread about people from chippenham and surronding area's. possible meet

 

[SmartInBlack]

Hi,

I'm in Seend...I posted reply on thread re: people in Chipps area...

The stealer is on Bumpers Farm Industrial Estate (probably not good form to mention specific names, I think?). I usually go to Swindon dealer where I bought my LCR from new...

 

[Squintstream]

What's the likely hood of that...

My LCR has just failed its MOT for exactly the same reasons, except the tyres which were changed before the test:

Rear exhaust mounting not supporting exhaust system - Needed welding.
NSF and OSF headlamp aim too high - Needed adjusting.

Total cost was about £90 (including the test).

 

[SmartInBlack]

What a coincidence...must be common faults with 5-ish yr old Seats, or just LCRs?
Excluding the new tyre (£123), it cost £77 (weld, light re-alignment and new test at a different garage), although I had already spent £40 on the first test. I think I'll need to replace the rear exhaust sometime before the next MOT because the support bracket is now mostly weld!

 

[nicksxjr]

not lcr specific! i popped mine on the ramp for some tracking and noticed the rear exhaust mount had vanished on my lc
ive been working in dealers as a mechanic and in sales for years.
everything is about keeping the costs down these days it can have a real negative effect on the "specialists"

 

[steffers]

thanks for telling me where the place is so i can stay away!

 

[mark smith]

( sorry, another long one !) i've also had a few problems with the said garage, i took our lcr over due to the centre seatbelt not retracting correctly ( still under warranty ) so 20 mile round trip so they could check the belt. another trip to have belt fitted, to then be told it hadn't turned up. (could they not've rung me ?) girlfriend takes it for trip number 3, belt is now in stock (hooray) unfortunatly the technican proceeded to remove the passenger front belt and only realised the mistake when it was removed, proceeded to reassemble the car and remove the correct belt. i come home from work go to check the "quality" of work to find a dirty foot print in the centre of the boot carpet, foam pieces everywhere and the head rest locaters mangled ( possible removed with teeth!), 4th trip ( now getting a tad miffed ) to show the garage their superb work, for some reason he couldn't explain the foot print but did offer to clean the car, fat chance of that ! they ordered the head rest guides so i needed to take a 5th trip to have those fitted. needless to say that was the only time if been there. so what i thought should've been a fairly simple job turned into a bleedin' disaster and 100 miles on the clock !

 

[Bobby.Gee]

That is an absoloubt joke!

 

[gogs]

Do some places charge for re-alignment?

I've needed it done in the past but there has never been a charge