Reply To: Opinion: Block Exemption is useless if motorists are unaware of it

[MR PAUL COLGRAVE]

I have owned my business for 25 yrs. We service and maintain dozens of new vehicles every year. We always use dealer filters and oil and carry out services to dealer schedules. It would not be fair to class all dealerships as the same, just as it would not be fair to class all independents as the same. It is common knowledge that dealerships do intimidate customers to gain their work. We serviced a Peugeot RCZ , used dealer filters and oil. A month or so later the management light came on and message emissions fault. Still being in warranty the customer took the car to the nearest dealership who read the ECU and quickly determined the wrong oil had been used and just as quickly blamed us as the independent. The customer called me while still at Peugeot dealership. I told her the car had definitely had the correct oil and was bought from the same dealer. The dealer could be heard in the back ground still insisting it was the wrong oil and basically accusing me of lying , i asked the customer to put him on the phone , repeatedly asking him what the fault was(never answered) and was it definitely the oil that at caused the fault .(to which he replied yes.) In front of me i had the sales invoice, from themselves. I read off the invoice number, i heard him tap a few buttons quickly followed by a very stutter y comment(not apology). He then put down the phone. This is a fine example of what dealerships are telling our customers to avoid any warranty and make us look bad. How ever it was funny at the time to listen to him squirm.