My dad used to take the car to this crowd, for yearly warrants and servicing.
He was never much with cars.....

There was the time he got a warning light on the dash, to do with catalytic converter and they wanted $500 to fix it.
I insisted he get someone knowledgeable with cars from his church round.
$50 later and the sensor was fixed, no more issues.


Since he died my mum continued, but the bill increased. It is always around $600 she says.
So this time, I heard that 2 of things - after her WOF cost $217 was 1)Windscreen has small chip and needs fixing and 2)Battery needs charging.

I told her 1)AMI does windscreens free, no excess whether it's fix or replace and 2)batteries are recharged when you drive, unless the alternator is stuffed. Was there problems with the battery? Starting etc? No.

In the end one of the church guys went with her and they took the car to the glass place and it was done for free via AMI. Over this car guys protests and nastiness to the friend with her.
The bill was reduced slightly so she tells me she only paid $729 in total.

She isn't going back.
However I have tried to tell them this, mechanics DO take advantage of you if they think you know nothing, especially if you are female, and/or old.

She does very little mileage, a couple of thousand KMs a year....it certainly does not need an oil change every year, never mind the rest of it. It is under 100,000km still, had cambelt done at around 60,000.

I complained to MTA and got this back:



Keith May wrote:
>
> Thank you for sending through the extra information. We have discussed this with First Auto Works who advise they have been looking after this vehicle since 2010. I have attached their reply. I can assure you First Auto Works take your comments very seriously. Please advise on the requirement of any future service reminders.
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>
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> Regards
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> We have looked after this vehicle since it was purchased in 2010. Prior to that we looked after their Honda Orthia.
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> As most car manufactures recommend their cars are serviced every 12 month we send our service reminders at 12 month intervals.
>
> >
> During October, Mrs Xs son, X I think, phoned to advise that they had not received a service reminder. I advised him that as the WOF did not expire until 20.11.17 the reminder would be sent at the beginning of November.
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>
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> The car was brought to us on 14th November for its annual WOF and service, invoice 49061 attached (we had last serviced it in November 2016)
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> There were two items needing attention for the WOF and three recommendations from the service.
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>
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> We test the battery as part of the service. The battery did not test as a “fail” but its CCA (cold crank output) was very low. Modern calcium technology car batteries need to be charged on a multi stage charger to get them up to a fully charged state.
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> Charging the battery did not inconvenience Mrs X as the car sat in our workshop for three days waiting for the windscreen to be repaired.
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> We offer free pickup and delivery of the car to Mrs X’s home and did not charge for the time taken delivering the car to Smith and Smith or the time for two technicians to pick up the car as Smith and Smith refused to deliver it back to us.
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> We have done our best to assist this customer, Mrs X has always seemed to have been happy.
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> If Mrs X requests, First Auto Works will not send a service reminder out in 12 months’ time.
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She also told me they had offered her a free lunch at some place down the road, which she declined. Of course they did! They make a fortune off her!!
Interestingly there are a couple of comments on their facebook page already - one from an ex-staff member.

 

wipe your paws.