Nobody Wants My Money!, Aren't we in a recession? Options

[stewiegriffin]

It's time to get my car serviced, so I rang around three supposedly reputable local garages today to get some quotes.

Chris Fiddler's told me to call back next week when the boss is back!
Millers Garage told me they'd phone me back and never did. Same story with Rayners.

Now, I distinctly remember being told we were in some sort of double dipping austerity calamity and we're all going to die.

So why can't any of these three be bothered to do something as simple as giving me a price for servicing a car?

Clearly they must all be making so much money that my custom is surplus to their requirements.

So can anyone here recommend a good local garage that might just possibly be willing to let me give them some money? Who have you used that's good? Any suggestions welcome thank you!

[Penelope]

It's time to get my car serviced, so I rang around three supposedly reputable local garages today to get some quotes.

Chris Fiddler's told me to call back next week when the boss is back!
Millers Garage told me they'd phone me back and never did. Same story with Rayners.

Now, I distinctly remember being told we were in some sort of double dipping austerity calamity and we're all going to die.

So why can't any of these three be bothered to do something as simple as giving me a price for servicing a car?

Clearly they must all be making so much money that my custom is surplus to their requirements.

So can anyone here recommend a good local garage that might just possibly be willing to let me give them some money? Who have you used that's good? Any suggestions welcome thank you!

Sharpes in bone lane.

[Penelope]

Sharpes in bone lane.

Or try one stop.

[stewiegriffin]

Never heard of one stop before. Their website looks a bit kwik fit ish. Have you tried them yourself?

[CBW137Y]

The Car Clinic!

http://www.motnewbury.co.uk/

Recently done a few things for me, including an MOT. They came recommended to me, and now I'm just passing the goodwill on.

[Penelope]

Never heard of one stop before. Their website looks a bit kwik fit ish. Have you tried them yourself?

Once or twice, no complaints. Can recommend sharpes highly.

[HJD]

A bit out of town but A & T Motors at Ball Hill are very good.
Or ever thought of doing it yourself ! Service kit's average around £40 - £50 including oil, takes about 1 hour & saves you loads of money.

[Biker1]

I ha the same problem trying to get a new garage door fitted.
Was on my 3rd company before someone actually responded to my order.
Placed an order with the first two and nothing.
Weird!

Recommend Newbury Motors by the way.

[Strafin]

I have used the car clinic a lot and have always felt well looked after. I hate newbury motors, but I never actually got round to having work done with them, they annoyed me long before that!

[Timbo]

Millers are good but sometimes you have to chase them..

Sometimes garages are so busy they can't call you back. it happens?

[NWNREADER]

Sterling Garage has been honest and efficient for my needs over many years.....

[stewiegriffin]

Sometimes garages are so busy they can't call you back. it happens?

Can you imagine trying that line on Alan Sugar? "Sorry, I was too busy to make some more money"

Nobody is ever that busy.

[JeffG]

I ha the same problem trying to get a new garage door fitted.
Was on my 3rd company before someone actually responded to my order.
Placed an order with the first two and nothing.

Do you have two spare doors now?

I had one company come round and decide they couldn't sort mine out (up-and-over type), so I've left it as it is. Please could you PM me with the company you went with?

[spartacus]

Or ever thought of doing it yourself ! Service kit's average around £40 - £50 including oil, takes about 1 hour & saves you loads of money.

You have to have a Mk1 Escort or similar to be able to service your own car these days.

Modern cars are cleverly designed to ensure that you pretty much have to take it back to the dealers if you want to do the smallest of jobs. To replace a bulb on some cars you have to disconnect body panels or if you're lucky (and have the same size hands as a ten year old and the manual dexterity of a professional contortionist) you can sometimes do it yourself (after an hour of groping around blindly in the recesses of the headlamp area)

Lift the bonnet on any vehicle made in the last 5 years and all you'll see is a wall of plastic which has been put there to prevent you getting to the engine. These days a service involves plugging your car into a diagnostics analyser to link to your to engine management system. Most of us don't have acess to one of those in our tool box of spanners........



A good garage I've been using for all my cars for a few years now is Thatcham MOT & Service Centre on Bath Road (the old Q8 garage) The service manager there knows his stuff

[Penelope]

Do you have two spare doors now?

I had one company come round and decide they couldn't sort mine out (up-and-over type), so I've left it as it is. Please could you PM me with the company you went with?

try fix quick, did my old one when the wire snapped, not cheap but cheaper than a new door.

[NORTHENDER]

try fix quick, did my old one when the wire snapped, not cheap but cheaper than a new door.

Little bit off topic I know but ho hum. My up and over garage door wire snapped and I repaired it myself and it only took a few minutes. I sent for a repair kit from this company
www.garagedoor-spares.com it was delivered within a couple of days and it was very cheap.

[JeffG]

Wire? What wire? Mine has two lever arms with massive springs.

[Timbo]

Can you imagine trying that line on Alan Sugar? "Sorry, I was too busy to make some more money"

Nobody is ever that busy.

Fortunately for you, my lord *bows* - It does happen in the real world. If you were actually busy at work you would know what I mean. If you don't work then if you have a busy social life, again you will know what happens. You are busy out and about, see a text and forget to call back...or text back, or whatever social medium you communicate with.. Wifeswapping.

I also happen to know one of Millers top mechanics personally, he's a good friend of mine, Millers themselves I often use anyway and am on good terms with them. I can pretty much walk into the workshop when my car is on the ramps and they don't care.

They are down like 2 mechanics at the moment due to them being on training courses and on holiday - They have like 4 or 5 mechanics in total, so if you think that's basically half their workforce down...everyone has to pick up the slack. They've had to bring on another guy to help work the front desk so of course he needs training up too, the other front desk guy (Glenn) does MOTs occasionally, I think - so he's probably having to work double time as well.

I'm not giving them an excuse, they often do it to me and sometimes it gets annoying. I have personal mechanic mates who do private jobs as I said, so often I'll use them, but sometimes if I need it done in a specific way I will get Millers to do it, I do have to chase them and it can get pretty annoying. But when I get the car back and it's all fixed up, then I don't mind.

I'm not suggesting you forgive everything that all of these garages do to piss you off - I'm suggested you drop your "I AM A CUSTOMER I DEMAND SERVICE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" attitude and consider (shall we say - "understand") that sometimes people are busy, occasionally call backs are forgotten.

[NORTHENDER]

Yes at this house I have the door mechanism is the same as yours, large springs and levers.
At my other house the door has steel wire that runs on cones up and down the door jamb with a massive spring across the top of the door hidden in a channel. many many different designs out there though.

[stewiegriffin]

xjay, sorry, Timbo, I like attempted to read your reply like, but it was like really long so I like gave up very quickly like.

Your application for the next Apprentice series is hereby rejected.