My girlfriend’s Ford Focus air conditioning stopped working, so like most people, we thought a routine re-gas would solve the problem. We booked it into P.K. Automotives for the work.
About an hour later, we were told the car was ready. We paid the bill at reception, and nothing was mentioned about any issues, so naturally we assumed everything had been fixed.
As we walked back to the car, one of the technicians approached us and asked if we were aware that the re-gas hadn’t solved the problem and that the air conditioning still wasn’t working. He was very helpful, but I honestly feel the receptionist should have told us this before taking our payment. That’s basic customer service.
The technician advised us to book the car back in for further diagnosis, which we did.
We dropped the car off first thing on Thursday morning, working around our jobs so they had the entire day to investigate the fault. We heard absolutely nothing. Late that afternoon, we had to ring them ourselves, only to be told they needed another two hours of diagnostic time. I appreciate these things can take time, but why couldn’t someone have picked up the phone and told us that? We authorised the extra work and agreed to leave the car for Friday.
Friday came and went. Again, no phone call.
On Saturday, we rang them ourselves and were told they had actually meant to contact us to authorise yet another two hours of diagnostics.
To be clear, I’m not complaining that diagnosing an intermittent fault takes time. What I’m complaining about is the complete lack of communication. If I’m paying £99 per hour for labour, I don’t expect to have to chase the garage every single time they reach the end of an authorised diagnostic period. A simple phone call takes two minutes.
We agreed to leave the car until Tuesday because my girlfriend needed it back for work. Monday passed with no update. Tuesday passed with no update. Once again, I had to ring them, only to be told the technician was off sick.
I understand people get ill, but by this point our patience had completely run out.
In the end, after the garage had our car for nearly a week, we got it back with two invoices:
* £120 for the air conditioning re-gas.
* £360 for diagnostics.
The fault still hadn’t been identified, and the air conditioning still didn’t work.
Their solution? Book it back in again two weeks later for even more diagnostics.
I’m sorry, but I can’t justify giving this garage another penny. Nearly £500 spent, almost a week without the car, endless chasing for updates, poor communication throughout, and we’re no closer to having working air conditioning than when we started.
Very disappointing. I would not recommend this garage based on our experience.