Okay, so last week I end up getting a puncture in part of the tyre they can’t repair. Obviously my car has 2 back tyres. 1 Tyre is only a year or 2 old, still has about 6mm of useful tread left, the other is nearly 9 years old, has done 91 000 miles and was due for replacement anyway. Yeah, it was the newer tyre that got the damn puncture. But being the smart flea that I am, when I purchased the car, I also purchased a full size spare wheel with it. Not one of those space savers and not one of those piles of bullshit “Tyreweld” things that manufacturers seem hell bent on selling with new cars these days.
I put the spare on, drive to my main job and on my lunch break I make a few calls.
The Vauxhall garage I brought the car from and who are very honest couldn’t do my tyre because their machine was broken and has been waiting a week for a part so I had to go somewhere else. Fortunately there are a few garages near my new workplace so this is not a problem.
Now, I’m a brand-whore. I like branded stuff. Yes, sometimes the off-brand stuff does the job just as well or better but I don’t care. Having said that; my dad uses Michelin tyres on his car. He does like 80 000 miles a year and he finds Michelin get 40 000+ miles which is streets ahead of every other brand. They cost more in the short term but last longer. That’s good enough for me. I’ve got Michelin on the front already so I want them on the back. NOWHERE keeps Michelin in stock because they are like £70 per tyre. I knew I was going to have to order them.
I call around a few places and the best price I found was £120 for 2 tyres, fitted. They would have to order them but they would have them tomorrow. This was a national chain of garages called Hi-Q. I will never use them again.
I take my car in at 08:30 and say I’ll be around at 14:00 (my lunch break) to pick it back up. This is fine except now they want £160 off of me.
I tell them that they quoted me £120 yesterday
They tell me “Impossible. They are £160 fitted”
So I ask them if I can pay on collection instead? Yes. That’s no problem.
I head off to work. It’s not often that I KNOW I’m right but this time I knew. Thankfully, I had made the call off the phone on my desk so I knew the phone system would have recorded the call. All I needed to do was search by phone number, download the file and I could play it back.
That’s what I did. Sure enough; they had told me £120 over the phone. Some of you may be wandering if they had given me a generic price and would have to know tyre size and such like to give me a proper price. Nope. I’d given them all the numbers off the side of the tyres so I had the proper price.
I went back around on my lunch break and we got back into the same argument. So I played him back the call recording off my phone.
Him: Well, I don’t know who it was quoted you that but they shouldn’t have done
Me: Mate, it’s YOUR voice!
Him: Doesn’t matter. It’s £160 or we keep the car until you pay it.
Me: Fine. You keep hold of the car for now. I’ll give trading standards a call right now and arrange a meeting with them. I will then play them back this recording which, Need I remind you starts off with you saying “Hi-Q [location] Mike speaking. Can I help?”. Trading standards will then investigate and no doubt will find in my favour. You will then have to give me the car back after I have paid the price you quoted for the tyres. I will then persue you, through the courts if I need to, to recover any costs I have to pay out for a rental car while you have mine
Him: … let me go and speak to my manager.
Me: You do that.
He wanders off into the back office. I thought the next thing that was going to happen was I was going to have to speak to a manager then ultimately have to make good on my threat of trading standards and hope the local trading standards office aren’t a bunch of twats.
I was pleasantly surprised. The manager apparently said “as a gesture of goodwill” they were going to charge me £120.
I’m never going to use that Hi-Q again.
I put the spare on, drive to my main job and on my lunch break I make a few calls.
The Vauxhall garage I brought the car from and who are very honest couldn’t do my tyre because their machine was broken and has been waiting a week for a part so I had to go somewhere else. Fortunately there are a few garages near my new workplace so this is not a problem.
Now, I’m a brand-whore. I like branded stuff. Yes, sometimes the off-brand stuff does the job just as well or better but I don’t care. Having said that; my dad uses Michelin tyres on his car. He does like 80 000 miles a year and he finds Michelin get 40 000+ miles which is streets ahead of every other brand. They cost more in the short term but last longer. That’s good enough for me. I’ve got Michelin on the front already so I want them on the back. NOWHERE keeps Michelin in stock because they are like £70 per tyre. I knew I was going to have to order them.
I call around a few places and the best price I found was £120 for 2 tyres, fitted. They would have to order them but they would have them tomorrow. This was a national chain of garages called Hi-Q. I will never use them again.
I take my car in at 08:30 and say I’ll be around at 14:00 (my lunch break) to pick it back up. This is fine except now they want £160 off of me.
I tell them that they quoted me £120 yesterday
They tell me “Impossible. They are £160 fitted”
So I ask them if I can pay on collection instead? Yes. That’s no problem.
I head off to work. It’s not often that I KNOW I’m right but this time I knew. Thankfully, I had made the call off the phone on my desk so I knew the phone system would have recorded the call. All I needed to do was search by phone number, download the file and I could play it back.
That’s what I did. Sure enough; they had told me £120 over the phone. Some of you may be wandering if they had given me a generic price and would have to know tyre size and such like to give me a proper price. Nope. I’d given them all the numbers off the side of the tyres so I had the proper price.
I went back around on my lunch break and we got back into the same argument. So I played him back the call recording off my phone.
Him: Well, I don’t know who it was quoted you that but they shouldn’t have done
Me: Mate, it’s YOUR voice!
Him: Doesn’t matter. It’s £160 or we keep the car until you pay it.
Me: Fine. You keep hold of the car for now. I’ll give trading standards a call right now and arrange a meeting with them. I will then play them back this recording which, Need I remind you starts off with you saying “Hi-Q [location] Mike speaking. Can I help?”. Trading standards will then investigate and no doubt will find in my favour. You will then have to give me the car back after I have paid the price you quoted for the tyres. I will then persue you, through the courts if I need to, to recover any costs I have to pay out for a rental car while you have mine
Him: … let me go and speak to my manager.
Me: You do that.
He wanders off into the back office. I thought the next thing that was going to happen was I was going to have to speak to a manager then ultimately have to make good on my threat of trading standards and hope the local trading standards office aren’t a bunch of twats.
I was pleasantly surprised. The manager apparently said “as a gesture of goodwill” they were going to charge me £120.
I’m never going to use that Hi-Q again.
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