Wow, what a week it’s been for me. You’ll have to excuse the length of this post, there is quite a lot to say.

Anyone who knows me and has me on Facebook will have been following this (or perhaps not, maybe I annoyed you so much you blocked my statuses, who knows!). This has been the worst week of my life so far this year. Doesn’t sound bad really but for me it’s been a royal pain in the arse and a huge let down and disappointment.

So that new car I got just over a month ago? Well on Monday I hit a dirty great pothole which managed to snap one of my suspension springs. Sure these things happen and we get over it. Well, we usually do. This time for me however the garage has severely let me down. Let me explain…

Monday

On the way to work this morning I took the route as I normally do. I was minding my own business and navigating a round about as you do, when suddenly *BANG*. What the hell was that?! The car was still moving, I still had engine power and there were no odd noises coming from it. Then it clicked. That noise was the sound of a suspension spring snapping. It wasn’t a bang as such, more of a twang instead. I pulled over to investigate, but upon inspection I couldn’t see anything obvious. Regardless I took it easy all the way to work just in case. It might not have been a snapped spring. It could have just been dirty great big stone.

When I got to work’s car park, turning the corners I heard some rattling. That was the dead give away that it was the suspension spring. With that, I sent an e-mail to the place I bought the car asking them to book it in for repair. Later that day they told me to take it to the garage in the morning. I arranged with a guy at work to pick me up from the garage and get me to work.

Tuesday

After a careful journey home yesterday I had to make the same careful journey back towards work but diverting off to the garage. I made it in one piece anyway.

The garage called later in the day to confirm it was a broken spring and said they would order the part, but it wouldn’t arrive until the next day. That was fine, and I arranged a lift home with one of the guys at work for the cost of fuel. It also stated that their main mechanics wife had gone into labour so he would be on maternity leave for a week now. This left only a single mechanic to do the work which meant delays were possible.

Wednesday

The next day at about 2pm I got an e-mail to say the part was delayed and had not turned up in that days delivery, so it would now be the next day before it turned up. I was a little annoyed but there wasn’t much I could do at this point. I did however receive the news that my air conditioning was now repaired. Brilliant! With the weather heading towards summer temperatures shortly it’ll come in handy.

Thursday

By Thursday I was getting pretty impatient. They’d had the car 2 days now and it still wasn’t fixed. At about 11am I got an e-mail to say the car should be ready today as the part had arrived. Brilliant! I was feeling pretty happy by that point.

3.30pm came around and I received an e-mail to say I would not be getting the car back that day, but there was no explanation as to why. I was very annoyed now as I had been told it would be back today. Very annoyed, I accepted the fact and looked forward to the next day.

Friday

Finally the end of a very long and irritating week. Well, in 8 hours it would be anyway. I was looking forward to the long weekend getting out and going places again given I couldn’t go any great distance all week. 10am I received an e-mail stating that the garage promised I would get it back today. The owner of the garage had even said so (the guy who was off on maternity leave) and that it would be prioritised.

At lunch time my Mum messaged me asking for a lift out that evening, to which I said not to rely on me as I may not have the car back. Yes I’d been promised but some how I knew that was going to go wrong.

3pm

I got an e-mail saying it would be ready to collect at 5.30pm. Brilliant!

4pm

I got another e-mail saying it now would NOT be ready by 5.30pm. WHAT?! By this point I was absolutely livid. I went and made a phone call to the garage to try and find out what was going on because this was turning into one huge piss take.

I was on the phone for about 5 minutes in total. The words that were spoken were very concerning. I was told that the guy doing the work didn’t like anyone who worked there, and nobody liked him either. He had no regard for his work, didn’t stick to deadlines and generally couldn’t give a crap. Woah, stop. That is NOT the kind of person I want working on my car at all.

I asked what they were going to do. I was told it might be done tomorrow, it might not be. Not good enough. They’d had the car 4 WORKING days now. That’s 36 WORKING hours for a 2 hour job to replace a spring! I told them to make sure the car was in a condition where it could be given (i.e. not in bits) and I would collect that evening and take it somewhere else to be repaired. They agreed.

5pm

5pm came around and I got to the garage to collect the car. My friend who gave me the lift stayed with me to make sure I got it alright. While we were there he asked how long the 2 cars inside the garage had been there. The guy in the garage asked what he was getting at. Why are those two cars in there and not mine was basically what he meant. He replied saying they’d been in there hours, and that any work they do is, and get this…

Work is prioritised by the amount of money they will make!!!

I was shocked at hearing that. I couldn’t even speak to him any more so I left and headed to the place I bought the car. I had an air conditioning repair report to pick up and a conversation to have with them.

When I got there I was greeted with apologies, even though it wasn’t their fault. I told him exactly what he’d said and he was as shocked as I was. He said they would likely fall out over this issue, and to be honest it’s probably doing them a favour as well. After some general conversation he advised me to go to another garage to have the repair done, to which I agreed and had already decided to do anyway if they would not choose another garage themselves. I was paying for the repair anyway so it didn’t really matter that much since it wasn’t a warranty job.

The guy phoned the garage to advise them to give me the spring so I could take it to another garage and get them to repair it, that way it saves time ordering the part. However when he called, he was greeted with “I’m busy call back later” and then he hung up. He tried again from another phone and got the same again. He was obviously pissed off, with a customer, or both. He told me to go there anyway and ask, and tell them to put it on their bill for now. I’d pay them when the spring was fitted. I agreed, we left and I picked the spring up without incident.

I thanked the guy from work for his help all week. He’d been a life saver to be fair! He was totally OK with it and said he didn’t mind if I needed help again, which was good to know. But despite the offer I didn’t want to rely on his help, it’s not fair.

6pm

On the way home, driving slow like a granny, I went to the garage I intended to use for the repair. When I got there I explained the situation and they were dumbfounded by the whole ordeal. Anyway I got the car booked in for Tuesday afternoon straight after the bank holiday, which was fantastic. However, when I mentioned the fact I had the part, his face dropped and he shook his head. He told me they can’t use customer supplied parts because of insurance reasons. Alright, I was OK with that as I had heard a few other places do the same. I hadn’t paid for the new spring anyway so it didn’t matter. I asked them to order it and I’d bring the car in for repair.

It would cost me a bit more but at the end of the day if you need a job doing properly and in good time (and that was practically “same day” service if it wasn’t for the long weekend), then you do pay for it. Anyway, that’s where we stand at the moment.

Oh, I almost forgot, I had to let my Mum down as well. She was disappointed but it wasn’t a big issue. She got her husband to drive them there and they had to leave the car and get a taxi back, and then pick it up again the next day.

Well, this is the longest full text post I’ve made so far I think. I think I’ve been very patient waiting all week for this very simple job to be done. Any other garage would have had it done in no more than half that time even with the delay on getting the part. Still, we live and learn, and I will definitely not be using that garage that’s for damn sure.