Lightcliffe Skoda - Warrington

[FabiaNigel]

Picked up the car yesterday after changing the automatic to a manual a couple of weeks back. Lightcliffe changed the order with no trouble at all.

John gave us a good introduction to the car, my wife especially liking the DAB radio and telephone link system. I was impressed by the free Skoda umbrella in the back 

Lightcliffe have just started an 8 week total refurb and I got the impression they would be doing some good deals during that time, as they are having to work out of portacabins during the refurb!

Looking forward to putting some miles on, including a trip down to London in a couple of weeks.

[Mike97]

Got my vrs from lightclifffe 4 weeks ago no problems with the purchase and part ex all ok. Took the car back yesterday as one of the locking wheel nuts had been over tightened and the chocolate key would not get it off. All the mechanics were on dinner but reception said they would try and fit me in took them an hour to get the bolt out as it had been over tightened gave me a new bolt and key. Can't complain as i had not rang them i just turned up.

 

 

Mike

[SimonD316]

I tried my local dealer before calling in at Lightcliffe on chance on the way back from Ikea. They were good throughout, gave me a good price for my part exchange, and a much better deal than I was able to get elsewhere. Recommended dealer.

[ItHurtsWhenIP]

I had a bad experience having my new company car serviced in 2017 at Skoda Lightcliff, on the first service they gave my car back, I drove some miles when oil warnings came on...

 

turns out there was little to no oil in the car (pic attached) no oil leak anywhere. This was when we had a very bad cold spell where the temp was -5 and I was in the middle of nowhere, it took AA over 6hrs to come due to them being busy... after checking over the car, AA said there was no oil leak anywhere and proceeded to phone the closest Skoda garage which I think was near Cheshire Oaks, when they found out my car had no oil in it after a service, they refused to let the AA tow me there as they didn’t want to deal with a potential Engine issues due to no oil. I had to be towed back to Lightcliff Warringtön.

 

ironically, while I was freezing in my car, I got a courtesy call from their service department. I said I was broken down as the car had no oil in it, the service guys words where “I wasn’t expecting that as a answer” and didn’t know how to proceed with the call. They didn’t actually to help in any way.

 

i got a phone call the next day from a lady stating they have checked the car and confirmed no damaged had been done to the engine. However, she proceeded to tell me that the reason there was no oil in the car was because they fitted a new oil filter which soaked up all the oil. 
 

I asked if they wanted to change the cause or if they were sticking with the oil filter soaked up litres of oil, needless to say I made sure the lease company lodged a complaint.

[WolfyWesty]

I've used Warrington Skoda for both my cars, and I've had mixed results.

 

The first was for a 1.6 TDI 11 plate Fabia which developed EGR valve problems and ended up going through 3 valves in the space of 9 months - Lightcliffe would only ever replace it and never seemed to find the fault that was causing them to clog up. At first, I found Lightcliffe very difficult to deal with when the car first went there (through the AA Garage cover, worth it's weight in gold) but the further 2 visits they were very helpful. Through the AA cover I never paid a penny for the work originally, and the Skoda warranty on parts/labour meant the other visits were free as well, no offer of a courtesy car though.

 

Before all that, I got the same car serviced and MOT'd there and it came back to be with a nice dent (3/4cm long, 2cm wide) in the passenger wing, which I complained about to Lightcliffe and never got anywhere. Always take photos of the outside my car when I drop it off for servcing so showed them the dent wasn't there before. They just weren't interested.

 

Took my Rapid there last year for it's MOT and service without issue, customer service was great but going elsewhere this year.

 

[Guest]

On 30/06/2020 at 11:03, WolfyWesty said:

Before all that, I got the same car serviced and MOT'd there and it came back to be with a nice dent (3/4cm long, 2cm wide) in the passenger wing, which I complained about to Lightcliffe and never got anywhere. Always take photos of the outside my car when I drop it off for servcing so showed them the dent wasn't there before. They just weren't interested.

 

I'm struggling to understand the logic here. What was the outcome?   If you're going to say the garage weren't interested, then what's the point of taking photos in the first place if you're not going to do anything about it? 

[WolfyWesty]

On 04/07/2020 at 20:36, Scot5 said:

 

I'm struggling to understand the logic here. What was the outcome?   If you're going to say the garage weren't interested, then what's the point of taking photos in the first place if you're not going to do anything about it? 

 

Apologies if it wasn't clear. 

 

So I always photograph the outside of my car before I drop it off for servicing/MOT/whatever just incase any new damage appears. Always done it as a precaution. 

 

So when I got the car back and saw the new damage, I informed Warrington about it and at first they didn't believe me. So showed them the photos as proof (this was on the day of collecting the car) and they said they'd look into it and said they'd be in touch.

 

A week went by and I heard nothing from them, so I contacted them and got told "We're still looking into what's happened, the guy you serviced your car isn't here/we've been very busy." but again they didn't contact me about it. I rang them up a few more times after that and got told the same excuse. I even took the car back on Saturday morning, the rep came out to have a look and just shrugged saying I'd have to leave it with them to look into.

 

I even contacted Skoda Head Office regarding it, and they said it was up to the garage to sort out. 

 

After a month and a half of chasing them and getting nowhere, I just gave up through frustration and going in circles (rightly or wrongly). With regards to the dent, a local body shop popped it out in the end (turned up to ask about it, and they just did it there and then).

Edited 16 July, 2020 by WolfyWesty

[Guest]

7 hours ago, WolfyWesty said:

 

Apologies if it wasn't clear. 

 

So I always photograph the outside of my car before I drop it off for servicing/MOT/whatever just incase any new damage appears. Always done it as a precaution. 

 

So when I got the car back and saw the new damage, I informed Warrington about it and at first they didn't believe me. So showed them the photos as proof (this was on the day of collecting the car) and they said they'd look into it and said they'd be in touch.

 

A week went by and I heard nothing from them, so I contacted them and got told "We're still looking into what's happened, the guy you serviced your car isn't here/we've been very busy." but again they didn't contact me about it. I rang them up a few more times after that and got told the same excuse. I even took the car back on Saturday morning, the rep came out to have a look and just shrugged saying I'd have to leave it with them to look into.

 

I even contacted Skoda Head Office regarding it, and they said it was up to the garage to sort out. 

 

After a month and a half of chasing them and getting nowhere, I just gave up through frustration and going in circles (rightly or wrongly). With regards to the dent, a local body shop popped it out in the end (turned up to ask about it, and they just did it there and then).

 

That clears that up then.  You're one of the very few to proactively check the car before handing it over to 3rd party, I think that's fantastic - it's really something that all garages should be doing to cover themselves. Wish more folk would do it because whenever I read tales about 3rd parties causing damage, the reality is most owners are never 100% sure the car wasn't already damaged b4 handing it over.

 

I totally see now why you righfully criticise the garage though still stuggle with what's the point of going to all the trouble of appraising your car if your going to give up.  I assume the repair wasn't free?  If I were in your position, I'd present the repair bill to the garage with a note saying they have 14 days to settle it otherwise I'd be claiming the monies via small claims court. Sounds like a stone wall case to me.

 

 

[WolfyWesty]

3 hours ago, Scot5 said:

 

That clears that up then.  You're one of the very few to proactively check the car before handing it over to 3rd party, I think that's fantastic - it's really something that all garages should be doing to cover themselves. Wish more folk would do it because whenever I read tales about 3rd parties causing damage, the reality is most owners are never 100% sure the car wasn't already damaged b4 handing it over.

 

I totally see now why you righfully criticise the garage though still stuggle with what's the point of going to all the trouble of appraising your car if your going to give up.  I assume the repair wasn't free?  If I were in your position, I'd present the repair bill to the garage with a note saying they have 14 days to settle it otherwise I'd be claiming the monies via small claims court. Sounds like a stone wall case to me.

 

 

 

I suppose I wasn't expecting the fight they put up, which just wore me down to the point of stopped caring. You are right, it does sort of defeat the purpose of the photos in the first place but I guess it's all about personal preservience. 

 

Luckily for me, the garage didn't even bother to charge me as they said it was only minor and wasn't even an hour labour, which was very generous of them! I did however get them a box of Celebrations and a case of beer to say thanks. 

[WolfyWesty]

LIghtcliffe have been ringing me a couple of times over the last few weeks, with a very friendly lady telling me my MOT and service are due and asking if I'd like to book it in. Now on my 4th call in so many weeks from the same person. 

 

Which would be great, if the MOT/Service hadn't been due mid July and have since been done. I keep telling them this, but not sure the message is being saved.