Long story cut very short.

Son has a Seat Ibiza Sport. 1.9TDi 130bhp.

Car was all over the road when power on/off. The rear bushes of the front wishbones completely shot.

These rear bushes area a complete pain to replace. They had been replaced before the car was bought about 5 months ago, but had been fitted incorrectly. Hence they were knackered again. (they have voids that must be correctly orientated in their housing).

So rather than having a go myself, or risking the job to a back street garage for them to botch, I phoned a main Seat dealer and asked for a price to replace the front wishbone bushes. Was quoted £145. I asked if Ibiza Cupra bushes could be fitted instead - no problem, £150. (The Cupra bushes are a standard "mod" and are "voidless" bushes.)

Thought the price was reasonable enough and car booked in for the following week. Son takes car to dealer and they have no record of booking! After a lot of arguing they decide to fit it in that day. So far so good.

On the way home, son complains that car is improved but still wandering under power on/off.

Receipt shows only 2 bushes changed. Telephone conversation with dealer ensues. Apparently only the rear bushes ever give trouble. The fronts aren't available separately and require the complete wishbone replaced. But they'll meet me have way with the labour charge, so will only charge me £200!!!! Remember, this is the wishbones that they had out just last week to replace the rear bushes.

Now to be fair to them, the rear bushes aren't fitted to the wishbones. They mount into a carrier on the car, and then the rear of the wishbone pushes into them. But the wishbones do, at the very least, need the front mounting dropped from the car.

So, I tell them I'll think about it. Decided to have another look tonight. Have a look at the pictures to see what I found...

So much for taking to a main dealer to avoid a botch job.

It looks to me that the front of the wishbone has been hit with a sledge hammer to get the bone into place on the rear bush. The flange has been pushed back level with the other edges. All quite shiny metal, apart from a little bit of new rust.

The LH wishbone looks fine. Just the RHS that's damaged. And this bush is clearly where the movement is (approx 3 to 5mm just by turning the steering)

Now what would you do?

Ibiza Wishbone1

Wishbone 2

Main dealers make me sooo angry. God help poor Joe Public. What chance do they have?

[Edited on 2/8/10 by lotustwincam]

Forward the Service Manager the pictures, and copy in the regional / national manager having rung Seat UK head office first???

Get some advive from Trading Standards 1st.

But don't expect to get very far, the garage can just say they were like that, and the burdon of proof to the contrary is your's.

Friggin annoying but, unless there are many complaints against the garage, or they just admit liability, thye cost of pursuing further than a tradng standards letter is going to be prohibitive.

As above but also say that if the problem cannot be resolved to your satisfaction then you feel it would only be prudent to inform the local area of their shoddy work in the local and possibly national press, and that you may seek legal advice for work that was carelessly carried out and not properly tested on the road before returning the car to the customer.
The wishbones will need replaced anyway whichever course of action you take. The damage is absolutely ridiculous and you do have the upper hand as you have the receipts/documents confirming they did the work.

ETA that I would also want a full 4 wheel alignment carried out as well.

regarding the post below the burden off proof etc
Well they are a main dealer and why the hell did they not advise you of the damaged wishbones when you sent the car in to them. IMHO it is a lot of damage and may or may not contribute to your problem/safety

[Edited on 2/8/10 by omega 24 v6]

I'd be getting in touch with Seat's customer service , rather than trying to get it sorted at the dealer .
Many years ago I had some damage done (by a skilled technician , at a main dealers....) , so after being shouted at by their workshop manager I wrote a proper letter to the managing director ...................... the problem was then put right , at no cost to me , by a very apologetic workshop manager

Cant be much different to the golf Gti that I'm about to do .......price of bushes 29 quid
The complete wish bone from partco is about 110 quid and that includes the ball joints

[Edited on 2-8-10 by mangogrooveworkshop]

mmm is the ibiza not the same floor pan as the fabia and polo??

If so then
http://www.vwspares.co.uk/fabiasuspension.php

As Claire says, take it up with SEAT Head Office rather than the dealers. I had a "bit of an issue" with a local Vauxhall dealers and the standard of their work a few years back. I was getting absolutely nowhere with the dealer so I wrote to Vauxhall Customer Care at Head Office and the matter was resolved within a week.

+1 for SEAT Head Office


my dad had similar issues with a certain edinburgh landrover dealer....

ERG valves mainly, but also they couldn't even do an oil change right

it only got sorted out when he went to 'landrover assist' (customer services at the head office) who fairly quickly told the dealer to sort it properly


[Edited on 2/8/2010 by mcerd1]

[Edited on 2/8/2010 by mcerd1]

+2

A mate down the road changed his job (commute to London) so bought a new Golf TDI.
Three months later the air con packed up so he took it back to the main dealer. (July)
They said they were busy, and anyway it would take 8 weeks to get the parts.

He phoned VW customer care, I think in Milton Keynes, and two days later they picked up his car
from outside his London office at 9am and brought it back at 4.30pm, fixed.

He still has the car and now gets it serviced at the local non dealer garage.
I use this same garage myself, if fact my Passat goes in for a service next Monday.

Cheers
Paul G

1 letter to garage stating sort it within the week or you will be writing 1 or 2

2 letter to franchise owner ( jct600 or who ever ) ( With Photo's ) and proof that the work was done by main dealer.

3 letter to seat ( With Photo's ) and proof that the work was done by main dealer.

regards

Agriv8

quote:

---

Originally posted by r1_pete
But don't expect to get very far, the garage can just say they were like that, and the burdon of proof to the contrary is your's.

---

Like most have said try to sort out the initial problem with the dealer in question. If that fails go straight to SEAT customer care. Keep a note of all phone calls- times -dates-contacts etc as this will help your cause when they investigate.

Having worked for various marques over the years, it was always common practice for the technicians to point out any defect before any work was commenced. This was either done by logging the fault on the job card and getting it counter signed by the service manager or nowadays by a picture being taken and kept on file.

Best of luck.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Phoned the dealer up this morning. I didn't get into any deep conversation with them. Just made my point about the wishbone being damaged.

As I expected they want to see the car before commenting. So booked in for this Thurs morning.

I will keep you informed.

Thanks again.

Drew

Well, car left into dealer this morning.

Got the phone call several hours later. Straight off they acknowledge some hammer marks to the wishbone. Apparently due to the fact that I had requested Cupra bushes which were an exceptionally tighter fit than standard bushes! (So it looks like its my fault now!)

Anyhow, as soon as they had acknowledged that they had caused the damage I was quite happy as then I had them over a barrel. According to them, the damage was only minor and of no great concern. "You'll not mind putting that in writing please, that the component that you damaged is mechanically sound and perfectly safe?" I never did get a reply to that.

There then followed a bit of a discussion about the technician not being able to see any movement in the front bush and that maybe I would like to call in so that we can look at it together on the ramp. When I declined the offer he asked what I wanted to do. "Make good the damage that you caused." After 30 seconds on hold, he comes back to me and says that they'll replace the wishone. Needless to say they will have to order it in.

So another vist to the dealer scheduled for next week again.

Now here's the final rub. Son collected the car and whilst driving home, after about 5 miles he notices it pulling progressively worse to the left. There are very low profile tyres on the car, and when he looked he didn't think he had a puncture, so drove on. But punctured it was, with damage to the inside tyre wall. Not that I could possibly suggest that the damage was anything other than accidental. But it sure is an awful big coincidence don't you think?

So provided they stick to their word, I won't have to resort to any of the suggestions above. However, I did have one other line of defence that I'm surpised no one mentioned above. I paid the initial bill by Credit Card. Under the Consumer Credit Act, that makes the credit card company jointly responsible for the service provided.

Thanks again for everyone's contribution.