Consumer Guarantees Act - Services [car repair]

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xlinknz

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#184022 6-Nov-2015 19:58

Most car repairers guarantee their work 12 months...

If an issue occurs with a repair after 12 months, does the CGA apply ?

In my case the issue can be attributed to the repair 2 year ago

Is there a time limit ?

Batman

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#1422604 6-Nov-2015 20:43

I guess if you can prove direct causation it doesn't matter how long.
But who is going to listen other than a civil court? [actual question, I have no idea]

Batman

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#1422607 6-Nov-2015 20:44

Not sure if the CGA has anything to do with workmanship ... ?

scuwp

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#1422617 6-Nov-2015 21:17

Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, any service that you receive must meet guarantees that the service will be:

carried out with reasonable care and skill
fit for any particular purpose that you’ve told the service provider about
carried out within a reasonable time if you haven’t agreed the time for completing the work
charged for at a reasonable price if you haven’t agreed a price for the work.

If the services you receive don’t meet any of these 4 guarantees, you can seek a remedy from the service provider.

I would say 12 months would be a problem if you were talking about a service issue, most cars are due for service in that period again anyway. If it is a part that has failed that may be another story depending on what it is.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

ald

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SimWorks

#1422639 6-Nov-2015 22:16

Car repairs are definitely covered under the CGA: a car repairer is providing the service in trade and you are a consumer.

Section 28 of the Act is your go to for most issues: "where services are supplied to a consumer there is a guarantee that the service will be carried out with reasonable care and skill".

The thing with cars is that they are complicated, they wear out and they can have several things wrong with them at the same time. Reasonable care and skill means just that, its not a guarantee that they will fix something and it will never break again or that something else won't go wrong. If you've encountered an issue but its something that would probably have happened had any other repairer exercising reasonable care and skill had done the job then that wouldn't be a breach of the Act. The Act acknowledges that repairers are human like everyone else, they don't have 20:20 foresight and, ultimately, just because they have done some work on your car doesn't make your car their problem. If they've done something "quick and dirty" however, which they didn't discuss with you first, and its not the way that a repairer exercising reasonable care and skill would have done the repair, then that is something the Act would respond to.

xlinknz

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#1422651 6-Nov-2015 23:14

Thx guys for the replies

In this case a major repair was done by an authorized dealership, it failed 24 months later. The reason it failed wasn't the part but that it was incorrectly done. A different authorized dealership have confirmed the repair was not done properly.

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#1422653 6-Nov-2015 23:26

In that case if the part is expected to last longer than 2 years then you have a case.
Getting someone to listen to the case is the problem. Being an authorised dealer, making them follow a ruling shouldn't be a problem (as you know, ruling bodies have no authority to enforce their rulings).

I think the easiest way is to complain to the Brand manager. Eg Nissan head office etc. THey usually will come to the party and help you.

ald

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#1422659 6-Nov-2015 23:48

Just a heads up, in order to have recourse against a supplier of services under the Act you do need to give them a chance to remedy the issue: section 32.

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xlinknz

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#1422736 7-Nov-2015 09:55

joker97: In that case if the part is expected to last longer than 2 years then you have a case.
Getting someone to listen to the case is the problem. Being an authorised dealer, making them follow a ruling shouldn't be a problem (as you know, ruling bodies have no authority to enforce their rulings).

I think the easiest way is to complain to the Brand manager. Eg Nissan head office etc. THey usually will come to the party and help you.

Yes the issue is with the brand head office, this discussion so I understand the issue in the context of the CGA if they don't come to the party so to speak

ald: Just a heads up, in order to have recourse against a supplier of services under the Act you do need to give them a chance to remedy the issue: section 32.

Good point, note to even diagnose the issue involved $1K+ of work so in this case I felt it was appropriate to get the issue diagnosed independently as I did not want to take the risk that the original dealership who got it wrong 2 years ago would admit that and put it right [at no cost]. By going to an independent dealership ensured no risk of impartially of identifying a [expensive] workmanship issue

ald

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#1422887 7-Nov-2015 16:33

Best of luck getting this sorted out. If the original supplier does not resolve the issue to your satisfaction and you're unable to get any traction through other channels you can lodge a claim with the Disputes Tribunal.

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#1422888 7-Nov-2015 16:37

xlinknz:
joker97: In that case if the part is expected to last longer than 2 years then you have a case.
Getting someone to listen to the case is the problem. Being an authorised dealer, making them follow a ruling shouldn't be a problem (as you know, ruling bodies have no authority to enforce their rulings).

I think the easiest way is to complain to the Brand manager. Eg Nissan head office etc. THey usually will come to the party and help you.

Yes the issue is with the brand head office, this discussion so I understand the issue in the context of the CGA if they don't come to the party so to speak

ald: Just a heads up, in order to have recourse against a supplier of services under the Act you do need to give them a chance to remedy the issue: section 32.

Good point, note to even diagnose the issue involved $1K+ of work so in this case I felt it was appropriate to get the issue diagnosed independently as I did not want to take the risk that the original dealership who got it wrong 2 years ago would admit that and put it right [at no cost]. By going to an independent dealership ensured no risk of impartially of identifying a [expensive] workmanship issue

NO the point is they want to keep their customers happy. Generally. So they will step in where needed. Nothing to do with CGA.

xlinknz

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#1422922 7-Nov-2015 18:28

joker97: NO the point is they want to keep their customers happy. Generally. So they will step in where needed. Nothing to do with CGA.

yes of course I'd like to think the brand/dealership will put it right, the CGA/Disputes tribunal are possible tools if they don't keep the customer happy

Aredwood

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#1427788 13-Nov-2015 23:01

Very curious as to exactly what happened.