Independent should be insured against such eventualities anyway. They should be repairing it now Skoda have said jog on. 

Fish Bros Skoda in Swindon who from what I have seen, look like a place I would never use due to their totally intransigent attitude, will be returning my car to my garage so that it can be fixed at THEIR expense. The are trying to negotiate a better price on the parts which seems fair really and I have given them until the end of the month to get it fixed. That would see me without my car for a month, and relying on friends and using the wife's car occasionally when I am on nights. 

Been an ordeal and Skoda have been dreadful, utterly dreadful. 

Customer service is one thing they don't do. 

I really don't think you can blame skoda for saying not our problem when they are presented with a 10 year old car with a major issue that wasn't of their doing and quite frankly if you really needed the car back and fixed your issue was with the garage that did the work and allowing it to be passed to a skoda dealer on the very remote chance they would swallow the repair was wishful thinking in the extreme.

Seems like the Indy garages deflection tactic has worked like a dream.

 

Skoda wont be winning any prizes for customer service but you are not even their customer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Techie, do you really believe that an independant garage working on all makes and all ages of cars could buy an insurance to cover their customers costs for a new engine on a 10 year old car 5000 miles and 8 months after they fitted a fanbelt?

 

Were such an animal to exist can you imagine what the cost would be?

 

Maybe someone has created an affordable one that simply serves as a deflection for the garage, "sorry but the insurers have said no" just like "sorry but Skoda has said no"

Edited 15 September, 20196 yr by J.R.

J.R, I beg to differ. I am a customer of Skoda, in fact the VW group. Parts sourced from TPS a VW UK company so yes I am a customer of Skoda. Fair enough my car is 10 years old, but the auxiliary belt was fitted by a former VW master Tech and lasted 5,000 miles.

What if then, I had my car done at a Skoda stealers, and it failed. Would they help me out. I dare say it would be the same outcome. 

 

36 minutes ago, Kebab10 said:

J.R, I beg to differ. I am a customer of Skoda, in fact the VW group. Parts sourced from TPS a VW UK company so yes I am a customer of Skoda. Fair enough my car is 10 years old, but the auxiliary belt was fitted by a former VW master Tech and lasted 5,000 miles.

What if then, I had my car done at a Skoda stealers, and it failed. Would they help me out. I dare say it would be the same outcome. 

 

They would help you out of a lot more money

 

Are you saying that you bought the belt and then paid someone to fit it? If you are then yes you are the customer but then have no comeback against the fitter if the parts were subsequently proved to be faulty.

 

The fact that it lasted 5000 miles and 7 months works against any theoretical right to claim that you might imagine you have not for it, if it had happened while driving home you might have some chance.

 

Here in France a customer put a nearly new BMW X5 into the main BMW dealer because of a broken auxiliary drive belt,  they ended up dropping a valve and destroying the engine I think they may have convinced him to have the cambelt done at the same time, it was deestroyed when they were working on it, he got a phone call and was told he had to pay another €12k to have the engine replaced.

 

Eventually his legal cover on his household insurance appointed an expert who proved that they did not own or use a certain timing/cam locking tool and they had not bought certain parts (long time ago and second hand info but it was collets of some kind) which should have been used or replaced during the job nor had they ever purchased them, I think they had to eat the cost but it took over 2 years during which time he was without the vehicle.

1 hour ago, Kebab10 said:

J.R, I beg to differ. I am a customer of Skoda, in fact the VW group. Parts sourced from TPS a VW UK company so yes I am a customer of Skoda. Fair enough my car is 10 years old, but the auxiliary belt was fitted by a former VW master Tech and lasted 5,000 miles.

What if then, I had my car done at a Skoda stealers, and it failed. Would they help me out. I dare say it would be the same outcome. 

 

 

If I got a train ticket with virgin trains it would be a bit strange to expect virgin Atlantic airline to sort out any problems I had but that seems to be what you are expecting  

I agree with some other posters - you are a customer of the Indy not skoda and it is the Indy that you need to pursue to fix the problem.

 

its the same as if you buy a Sony tv from Currys and it goes wrong - you get Currys to sort it out not Sony

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, J.R. said:

 

Techie, do you really believe that an independant garage working on all makes and all ages of cars could buy an insurance to cover their customers costs for a new engine on a 10 year old car

 

Err yeah it’s called liability insurance. 

 

As a business you have to have it. 

I am guessing that you are not in business Techie, correct me if I am wrong.

 

Never in a million years would an obligatory public liability insurance cover let alone pay out for this kind of alleged loss.

 

The misconception is propagated by people who steal from sites or in other ways take money from businesses saying "Oh their insurance will cover that" I have heard is said so many times over the years I guess some are going to believe it when it suits them.

 

If said garage left a brake bleed nipple loose and the car had an accident the P.L. insurance would eventually pay for the people injured and possibly the car (probably not as its already insured) but only after a lot of trying to duck out of it, if said garage left the oil drain plug loose, it came out and the engine siezed, no question in this scenario of their liability the P.L. insurance would not pay out a penny.

 

If they did every garage that did a bad job, misdiagnosed and did repairs but the fault remains etc would just shunt it off to their insurers.

 

I do have a sneaking admiration for how this indy garage have sucessfully deflected any blame from themselves at the cost of Skoda.

Having set up and run an independent garage myself I can say I was in the business. However maybe I used the wrong term. I know we paid a not unsubstantial sum annually to cover us for the above scenario but also should an engine fail etc. The excess was pretty high but if a repair bill had got into the 10s of thousands it would have bankrupted us and the customers car wouldn’t be repaired. 

OK, I know exactly where you are coming from, I could have subscribed to similar insurance in my business but the premiums would have been crippling and any liability would still fall on my shoulders if they did what insurers usually do and not pay out, you end up fighting 2 battles. And yes, it was an add on to the compulsory P.L. insurance.

 

Bet your insurer would have laughed off this claim though.

 

In fact it might be the next deflection tactic of the independant to shove the matter to their insurers to refuse.

 

I really dont see that the OP has any possible claim after 7 months and 5000 miles, any more than if a tyre the garage fitted  blew out on a motorway after the same time and mileage caused the vehicle to crash.

 

If forensic examination of the belt showed it had a manufacturing defect or if the tensioner was replaced and has failed then liability could be established, getting any more than the cost of the parts is altogether another thing.

 

 

Edited 15 September, 20196 yr by J.R.

On 15/09/2019 at 12:25, Kebab10 said:

J.R, I beg to differ. I am a customer of Skoda, in fact the VW group. Parts sourced from TPS a VW UK company so yes I am a customer of Skoda.

 

Rather than complaining to Skoda UK Customer Services, have you, or better still the garage who fitted the part, tried contacting TPS to ask their opinion?

 

 

 

I’d of thought that if the parts are genuine Skoda parts with a receipt from the dealership etc and parts fitted by independent Specailist etc who are VAT registered then there shouldn’t in theory be a problem if it’s found that it’s the parts at fault that failed. 

 I have the same with Skoda Rochdale and Bolton who do the cam belts on our RRVs Octavia scouts (paramedic responce ambulance car) but if they don’t have the time slot available soon enough I do them myself AND Skoda stand the warranty if they fail regardless of who fitted them etc etc... 

 now that’s all very well and good BUT that just maybe because it’s the emergancy services??? 

Good news at last. Skoda will HAVE to fix it. A Dekra report was commissioned and the damage to the engine WAS down to auxiliary belt failure. They have to fix it as it was there genuine part fitted correctly that failed. Once its done I shall be after an apology from a Customer Service agent at Fish Bros Swindon who kept saying it was fitted wrongly and blaming a former VW Master Tech and his competence.

3 hours ago, Kebab10 said:

Good news at last. Skoda will HAVE to fix it. A Dekra report was commissioned and the damage to the engine WAS down to auxiliary belt failure.

 

No. Thats not good news. It's absolutely brilliant news!     

I hope you are right but I would not be counting any chickens till I had the car back fixed, have you taken it to a dealer yet ?  have they seen your report? once they make a decision they dont easily back down you may still need to go to court to get satisfaction.   

Ready for the long haul. I reckon that Skoda UK will use every trick in the book to try and get out of it. Indy garage are being good though, unless the stealers.

Car is finally at Fish Bros Skoda in Swindon for fixing. Although I was told by the service manager that they take DEKRA reports as gospel, he is still reluctant to do the job. Has been told by Skoda UK to do it and they will pay.

Only taken 6 weeks to get here! I feel that apart from fixing my car, I am due some recompense due to poor customer service, timewasting by Fish Bros and being slated by them!

What do Briskodians feel?

You are the customer of the Indy garage with whom you are happy, congratulations on where you have got to, I am going to Google Dekra to see what they are, but I dont see contractually that you have a claim for poor service.

 

Googling done, they are here in France as well! How much did the inspection cost and will VAG pay for it?

Edited 10 October, 20196 yr by J.R.

Indy garage been fantastic. Skoda and Fish Bros ****e. DEKRA are independent vehicle examiners among other things. Poor service from day one on contacting Skoda and franchise garages couldn't care less. There is a reason I don't trust dealers, and Skoda are as poor as Toyota, Ford, Vauxhall and Citroen who I have had experience with. 

Not prepared to put up with poor service.

I wonder how much Fish Bros might feel they are entitled to for being slated publicly  by someone who has never been a customer?

 

I agree with your mistrust of dealers but not with your feeling that a garage that you have had no dealings with owes you any obligation of service because you drive a second hand vehicle of the same make that they sell new.

 

When I fitted burglar alarms in a previous life the bellbox would have my company name & phone number on it, it was good free advertising, however I would get calls in the middle of the night saying that one of your alarms is going off, what are you going to do about it, would they call the Ford Motor Company if an Escort was badly parked and blocking their driveway?

 

I digress, I am really pleased that your persistance has paid off also very surprised and have learned something from it.

I wonder if skoda could even source a new 1.9 engine considering they haven't used them for what nearly 10 years ? I should think they wont rebuild an engine that has had timing failure so what would they do 2nd hand engine ? I suppose skoda only have to put the op back in the position he was before ie a 70k miles engine for a 70k miles engine ?

 

Sorry I thought it was a 1.9 but was a 2.0 l engine but rest still stands would they need to fit a new engine ?

Edited 11 October, 20196 yr by seriesdriver
additional script

Well done for getting someone to fix your engine.

I feel sorry for the dealer getting slagged off on this forum for fixing your car, I can understand their reluctance to help as they didn't damage your engine,  have you mentioned the name of the independent in your thread? If not WHY NOT?

How is the indie fantastic? like it or probably not your engine was damaged by something they did in my limited view 

I have NEVER seen a genuine VWG aux belt fail unless it had been contaminated with diesel during the service, OR  a pulley/tensioner let go (human error not the fault of the belt manufacturer). I have seen numerous small animals caught in the aux belt system which has caused the belt to come off with the obvious messy  consequences, YUK 

I would be thankful, the dealer did not fit the belt, they have no idea if your tensioner let go causing the belt to fail, if diesel contaminated the belt during the service causing premature failure.

If I was them I would check the independent owns the latest version of ELSA if not the claim would be kicked out like it would if the dealer didn't have the latest version or they failed to book out the correct parts as stated in elsa to follow process fully, like a cheap bolt not booked out by the dealer required during the repair can result in a very large warranty claim not being paid out by the factory.

 

@seriesdriver They won't fit second hand stuff.

 

Edited 20 October, 20196 yr by 3T51704x4

The reason I would keep my head down and be thankful are numerous looking at the TPS T&Cs already posted