I'm with you on this one, for sure.
Last summer, the main dealer that supplied my Citigo carried out the service and MOT and the cost was £386 for not a lot of parts or indeed labour - oil, oil filter, brake fluid and I had the rear drums 'cleaned and adjusted'. Admittedly, the brakes were transformed after the adjustment but I came away less impressed than I should have been...
It failed its MOT at the first look as both headlamp beams were too low... Then they obviously realised that I have them on the lowest setting as most of my commute is on narrow (slow) back roads so I have them set to illuminate the near road as much as possible.
More worrying was when one of the after sales people came through and said there was a problem with my car as, because I'd smeared copper grease on the wheel bolts (winter/summer tyres so the wheels get swapped), 'the bolts won't tighten - they just keep turning'. I asked to speak to a higher authority and suggested at this point they fit the rear wheels as best they can, drive it out of the workshop and I'll pay for what they've done and tighten the bolts myself. In the end, they allowed me into the workshop to use the spare wheel brace in the boot and hand tighten the bolts.... Then I signed a disclaimer on the paperwork saying I'd tightened the rear wheel bolts myself.
Okay, I get HSE and 'we must adhere to what the workshop manual' says' against potential liability but it gave me no faith in the technician being able to deal with anything slightly 'outside the norm'. I've used copper grease on wheels and bolts for over 40 years without an issue. As a light aircraft engineer by trade , one gets used to having to think about the job you are doing as not everything is in the manual and you certainly can't plug a computer into 95% of them to look for error codes. Most light aircraft labour rates are around £50/hr depending on where you are in the country.
End result, is I won't be taking either the Citigo or my Yeti back there and in fact have spent a couple of days over the Christmas break servicing the Yeti - all in accordance with the servicing requirements from the official Skoda workshop manual. I bought the Yeti one and found the Citigo here.
Strangely, for the first time in years, I wasn't asked to complete a 'how well did we do' survey after the Citigo visit....
What is concerning is the lack of adherence to the intervals for replacing parts in accordance with the intervals specified in the workshop manuals. Even though this dealer knew that Allams had changed the diesel fuel filter on the Yeti (it was in the service record that they printed off), they changed it again after 35k miles when it is due every 56k miles. I wasn't asked if I wanted it done and I assumed that I could trust these people.
The result is that the dealer has lost the business of two cars as whilst I like having a full service history on relatively new cars, I don't think it makes that much difference to the trade in value when the time comes. I'll service both cars myself and have a local garage carry out the MOTs. When the time comes to change car(s) then this dealer will not be on the list. I never had an issue with Allams, by the way.