Home Page › Forums › Discussions › General independent garage chat › Green Flag accuses garages of charging motorists for “unnecessary work”
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Mike Ruff, GW editorKeymaster
Automotive repair company, Green Flag has accused garages of charging motorists £3.4bn annually for unnecessary work and up-sells. The breakdown compa
[See the full post at: Green Flag accuses garages of charging motorists for “unnecessary work”]MazGuestI think Green Flag should concentrate on training their breakdown operatives. I have seen some of their so called technicians misdiagnose faults on cars that have been pulled in to us.
HaroldGuesttar and brush come to mind, what you need to target, are all your good garage type schemes, that needlessly flush every engine, add product’s to fuel systems , generally get listed by using products in every car to keep your listing, with the host company, also the abundance of book online sites that are opening that offering fixed price work, take a chunk of the repair costs regardless as to if the vehicle needs said work
BradGuestGreen flag couldn’t find their arse with both hands and a map, let alone a fault with a vehicle.
So where are the details and evidence for this report?? Oh no, that’s right, we’ll just stick a generalised statement out there that will damage the industry further.
Why not concentrate on the dodgy garages, and bring in some legislation for licencing mechanics. Electricians and gas engineers have to have it, so why not mechanics?
I don’t need to worry about this report at all. Everything is transparent here.stewart duthieGuestWell not bad,car recovered into garage by green flag, fuel pump faulty,so was told by mechanic and customer just fit a fuel pump,thats the fault.
checked and added fuel that cured car fault,just think if we had replaced fuel pump in car.
like some state, keep to your own domain and dont try scoring brownie points by bad mounthing every garage in country.Peter MilesGuestSo changing the brake fluid is “unnecessary work”? Try telling that to someone who’s just come down a long hill and lost any braking because the fluid boiled!
Ridiculous article. If they really know of a garage that’s overcharging and/or doing unneeded work then take your evidence to Trading Standards. That way you can start to stop it!Peter WoodGuestHow very naive of Greenflag. Their spokesperson may have had some vehicle repair businesses in mind when making such statement, or perhaps one of their own operators, much the same way with some builders, some plumbers, some joiners, some lawyers, etc. There are bad apples, out there, that are only in business to make a fast buck.
In my experience the vast majority of vehicle repairers and particularly those that subscribe to the Motor Ombudsman, look after their customers. They work on building that relationship and trust, because they want the repeat business, they want that solid customer base that they can rely on for their businesses growth.
EveGuestThis type of comment really makes my blood boil! The amount of customers that come through the door via recovery with a misdiagnosis and report that the recovery guy didn’t even open the bonnet or know how much wear is left on a brake pad, even had one that told us the auxiliary belt was the fault only to find a ‘cat’ trapped in the engine! (you cant tell me he didn’t see it! The cat did survive its trauma I am pleased to say). What happened to customer care?
We pride ourselves on customer care, that’s why we have 3rd and even 4th generations bring their cars to us…that speaks volumes in itself.
Look after the customer and they keep coming back and recommend you to friends and family.mickGuestI have to say that very broad and generalised statements like these really don’t help the industry to say that brake fluid replacement when due replacement is an unnecessary cost is quite scary really .
DougalGuestI am pleased to see The Motor Ombudsman’s positive comments.
Melvyn scottGuestIt’s seems to me you don’t really know what your talking about . Have you read the manufactures recommendation on brake fluid change , off course you have , so why publicsise this regarding brake fluid , and antifreeze . It means we are servicing vehicles in the correct manor
Paul RumblesGuestIt is hard to see how this report benefits unless you know Green Flag runs Smart service, another company that others customers saving and puts an adviser between the garage and the customer. A practice the RMI have warned its member against.
AndyGuestI agree with Green Flag that there are unscrupulous garages out there, but that’s the same in any walk of life. (I bet there are some dodgy recovery companies too). We’ve had our fair share of cars brought into us with reports of all sorts of things needed that aren’t actually, but in my experience, most garages are honest, value their customers and generally just trying to make a living whilst keeping their customers happy. I can only speak for ourselves, but we endeavour to give our customers an honest opinion of what’s needed and how desperately it’s required.
Green flag should be aware that when you point the finger, the other three point back at you.
Chris AngusGuestYou can’t tar every garage with the same brush, sure there are many that are ripping off customers! We do lots of brake fluid changes during servicing but we always follow the manufactures service schedules. We dont add flushes and fuel treatments either.
Steph SavillGuestGlad I finally caught this. Great and clearly frustrated comments here. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one set of minimum industry standards in place for all garages/dealers so those businesses that tar the industry reputation wouldn’t be able to trade without investing in quality/training/licencing of sorts? Then we could let competition rip re customer services, facilities, specialisations, value and so on. Without compromising motoring safety or ripping off customers with unnecessary add ons.
DavidGuestThe ombudsman service is not fit for purpose, it is not impartial, it has been set up to protect garages from honest hard working people, not the other way round, they look after their paymasters.
The ombudsman service mismanaged my sons case after a main dealer sent out his car out with a damaged head gasket, after 3 months of repeat visits the engine seized. It took the ombudsman service 11 months to find my sons case in favour of the dealer despite the engineers report from DEKRA in my sons favour. my son is £1000 out of pocket for unnecessary repairs no car for a year and a car worth £6000 turned into scrap. -
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