SSS - Servicing Stop Shenanigans

[mercedade]

Servicing Stop ('as seen on Dragon's Den', no less)

You book online via the website (currently offering a 50% January sale – MOT for £24) who then outsource the work to a ‘local’ garage. The price includes free collection and delivery, which works out great for me. I expected the car to fail, but a £24 MOT is cheaper than an hour long ‘inspection’ by a garage so I figured I’d use it to find out what work needed doing. I am geared up for spurious fails, but it is a useful way of pulling out the legit jobs too - and who knows, I may get lucky and swing a pass?

I book and, after booking, receive notification that the work was being done by a garage over 20 miles away. That doesn’t strike me as particularly sensible (or economical), but you don’t get to choose your garage and anyway, what does it matter to me? As long as it gets done, right?

On the day, the car was collected on the back of a Transit recovery truck – again seems an expensive way of doing it, but saves me petrol.

MOT done, and I receive the call from Servicing Stop (I never speak to the actual garage all day – all correspondence is through SS) telling me it’s failed. They run through the failures (nothing catastrophic – result! CV boot, balljoint, handbrake) and ask if I want the work done. I say no, I’ll just have the car back and get the work done myself. No problem, they say, and they send me the details to pay (their system is that you pay once your work is complete to ‘release’ the car – this gives you the option to authorise work as you go and then pay at the end). I follow the link and pay my £24.

Then it starts.

I get a phone call from SS three minutes after I’ve paid, with the caller telling me that ‘actually, the garage have said that the balljoint is in such a dangerous condition, that they won’t be able to deliver the car back.’ They are 'not prepared to put their drivers at risk' so I can either collect the car myself or PAY to have it recovered home. Well, perhaps I really have been driving around in a deathtrap, who knows? I’m not going to argue with them over that, and I’m not going to insist that a driver puts his life in danger for the sake of getting my car back to me, but luckily they have a recovery truck – I know this, because that’s how they collected the car in the morning.

Me: "It was collected on a truck this morning, so just get them to drop it off that way. And I’m glad they spotted the balljoint, thanks "

SS: "They're saying they'd need to charge for that because of the dangerous condition of the car. Is there any way you could collect it?"

"No"

"What about..."

"No. You assigned the job to a garage 20 miles away in Bolton. I'm in south Manchester."

".....Oh.....ok. Let me speak to my manager and I'll call you back".

“Great!â€

After a few hours, I haven’t heard anything so I call back and after *call centre nonsense* eventually speak to the ‘service manager’ at SS. Service Manager comes on the phone and says that they are ‘not obliged’ to deliver a car if they consider it is dangerous. I say that this leaves us in a rather difficult position then – they’ve taken my car 20 miles away, I’ve paid for the work, but now they say I can’t have it back unless I fork out for recovery or a 20 mile taxi?

“You certainly do have an obligation to return my car. Try againâ€.

So then Service Manager says that the garage have now offered to come and pick me up so I can collect the car myself and drive home. Well, that’s OK I say, except that I have to pick my one year old up from nursery and do the usual dinner/bath/bed routine, so it’ll have to be after 6.30 when Ms_Mercedade is back.

“They may not want to stay that lateâ€
“Well that’s not really my problemâ€

SS puts me on hold, whilst they speak to the garage. SS come back on the phone, and (verbatim) “Your car will be delivered tonight *click*â€.

 

With that, he’s gone. Not even time for me to ask ‘what time?’ or ‘will your driver be wearing a crash helmet?’.

Car was delivered last night (on the back of the recovery truck), no problems at all. No failure sheet with the car, but I’ve checked online and it’s already on the MOT system – and the failures are legit, so job done. The garage who actually did the work seem decent, but I can’t work out if they were narked at not getting the add-ons they were hoping for because I didn’t get them to do the work, or if SS screwed them over by allocating them work 20 miles from base.

For the purposes of getting an MOT, this worked out well for me (eventually), but you can bet your life I wouldn’t touch them with your bargepole for service work or repairs – checkout their website for a full rundown of an ‘interim’ service (an oil change) or the ‘full’ service (in which spark plugs are extra and you will be charged extra for ‘special oils’ and ‘brake flush’).

TL;DR

SS will only do what they are obliged to do if you are sweetly, pleasantly belligerent. If I was a more gullible, nervous type, I could have easily been conned into paying a recovery fee to get my car back. Beware.

Really TL;DR

‘National servicing chain in attempted rip-off shocker’

[mercedade]

Tits - this is probably more suited to 'Grumpy Old man' rather than a topic in its own right isn't it?

 

I'm not moving it now, I can't afford the cost of the virtual beavertail.

[Tamworthbay]

As always, find nice old school mot place with guy who likes/ understands old cars, job done.

[D Spares & Tyres]

  On 26/01/2016 at 10:35, mercedade said:

Tits - this is probably more suited to 'Grumpy Old man' rather than a topic in its own right isn't it?

 

I'm not moving it now, I can't afford the cost of the virtual beavertail.

Jack it up yourself and give the wheel a wiggle. I'm sure you will be able to tell if its safe to drive a couple of miles.

[Richard]

  On 26/01/2016 at 10:42, dodgytom said:

Jack it up yourself and give the wheel a wiggle. I'm sure you will be able to tell if its safe to drive a couple of miles.

I think he meant the thread, not the car.

[mrbenn]

Yikes. Well worth knowing, thanks.

 

If you need the number of a decent garage in the area (Knutsford) let me know. They're not the cheapest around but they're bloody ace, I'd trust them with anything and I usually hate leaving my car with garages. They won't collect/deliver your car though I don't think.

[Dave_Q]

+1 for a local friendly place.

 

I pay £50 for MOTs but I get a fair game, the chap knows full well that 95% of the time I'll be doing the work myself and doesn't try any upsell shite.

 

I'm all for a cash saving but avoiding all that time spent on the phone and aggro has got to be worth a few $$$.

[panhard65]

I used servicing stop for an mot last year. Groupon did a voucher deal of 18 quid for an mot. My hearse was due so I thought why not give it a try. The hearse was sign written so the garage would know they were not going to get any work out of it. (I run a garage). I booked it in no problem and a bloke came and picked it up. I didn't get any phone calls except to tell me he was bringing it back. I spoke to the bloke and he isn't even an mot garage he takes them to another garage for the mot. I asked him how the hell he makes any money out of it and apparently servicing stop pay him more than I paid for the job. I can't see servicing stop being in business for long if they are doing everything as a loss leader. Make sure you leave them a bad review as trying to hold your car for ransom is not good.

[djimbob]

I use central Motors in Leeds for all my MOT's, they only do MOT's and nothing else, so are completely fair and if anything will put in new bulbs etc if that is all the car has failed on, as they don't want to retest for free!

 

I have no connection with them aside from the fact I have used them a load of times for all sorts of oddities, never a problem.

 

Moral of the tale, find a garage who have no vested interest in selling and fitting new parts to you, or they might well do that, whether you need them or not

[PiperCub]

I can see why people these days who don't want a load of hassle with cars (& invariably aren't 'car-types') and expect something for nothing may be attracted by this. But personally I'd rather pay more, even the full rate and use the place (actually a small Vauxhall main stealers) about half a mile away as they have been really straight with me in the several years I've used them. Plus as a bonus, they do an on-line booking deal for £40 plus I can wait for it and drink their coffee. 

[BavarianRetro]

You can take your car - I'm pretty sure not 100â„… but pretty sure - to any licensed MoT station, so the likes of council workshops, Police workshops etc. places that MoT their own fleet, but don't generally deal with the public. I believe that if they're licensed, they must arrange to test your vehicle if you ask them to. Full fee, but a guarantee of a genuine test with no incentive to fail it on something that might earn them cash.

[gordonbennet]

Same here, we use a busy friendly and fair family owned garage in the town, we've put increasing work their way between us and they've never tried to upsell or do any work that didn't need doing.

Think they charge £40 for an MOT, they do it properly and if they can they sort minor stuff out there and then, and are reasonably priced should it need something more doing.

The Benz i get my MB indy to get it MOT'd whilst its in with him for its annual service and check over, its been going to the same Rushden MOT centre for donkeys years who know the car inside out.

 

Don't think i'd want to get involved with third party's like the SS   ta all the same.

 

 

[Andrew353w]

This company are just another example of what's bad about some parts of the internet. Effectively they act as a "middleman" between the garage who actually do the work and you, creaming a wedge in the process. Trivago, confused.com and all the rest of these sites are precisely the same. If you make the effort to ring around yourself you'll always get a better deal that the middlemen offer. I've even heard now that there's a hotel price comparison website that compares OTHER hotel price comparison websites-mad!

 

The internet does have its uses, but I don't see this as being one of its greatest achievements.....

[Andrew353w]

  On 26/01/2016 at 13:25, BavarianRetro said:

You can take your car - I'm pretty sure not 100â„… but pretty sure - to any licensed MoT station, so the likes of council workshops, Police workshops etc. places that MoT their own fleet, but don't generally deal with the public. I believe that if they're licensed, they must arrange to test your vehicle if you ask them to. Full fee, but a guarantee of a genuine test with no incentive to fail it on something that might earn them cash.

Our local council garage in Barnet used to do MOTs and were scrupulously fair. They had no axe to grind either way and just did the tests fiar and square. I used to use them a lot a few years ago. I quite like the idea of a Police garage doing my M.O.T. though.... "reason for failure: blues and twos not functioning correctly"

[PiperCub]

  On 26/01/2016 at 13:25, BavarianRetro said:

You can take your car - I'm pretty sure not 100â„… but pretty sure - to any licensed MoT station, so the likes of council workshops, Police workshops etc. places that MoT their own fleet, but don't generally deal with the public. I believe that if they're licensed, they must arrange to test your vehicle if you ask them to. Full fee, but a guarantee of a genuine test with no incentive to fail it on something that might earn them cash.

 

This is true, the only reason I've not used this method is that they always seem to be many miles away from where I live! But you are quite right, they do not do work on vehicles so have nothing to gain by failing it. 

They are quite often 'disguised' by the fact it looks like they only deal with commericals as that's what they do the most of and they are frequently co-located at HGV/PSV driving test centres too but are open to the public for cars and vans (don't think they do bikes or three-wheelers though). 

[BavarianRetro]

It's the best system and the one used in Northern Ireland. There, MoT testing stations are MoT testers and only test the vehicle. No repairs.

 

It's the way it should be here too.

[barefoot]

Over many years I have found that the best way to have my cars tested is to take them to garages that don't actually do mots and who consequently take them to a second garage. Both the Porsche specialist & the T2 specialists I use take my cars to the same tester. I have found that the cars don't get failed for the sake of it, a lot of stuff is passed 'on the nod'.

As an example, my newly motd t2 had manky wipers which were stuck to the screen, these were simply pointed out to me as I drove away. The van doesn't get used in the rain but they were fixed within the week. It's a trust thing.

I am happy knowing that if there's anything wrong I'll fail, but I won't fail because chap is having a shit day.

[Bren]

The world is full of middlemen.

 

And there is a shortage of people to do the work.

 

Too many people want to be the middleman. Not many want to do the work.

 

Here endeth the lesson.

[Alan_Green]

Big fan of borough council testing stations. Been going to the one in Guildford for years. You pay full fee and full retest fee but no incentive to fail and if it does fail the super-friendly and knowledgeable guys there tell you the best place in town to go to for non rip-off repairs. Plus they've first time passed some right old tat of mine, much to my amazement. Exhibit A:

(P.S. PM me for a great welder in GU1)

[mercedade]

Yep yep yep *MEGA ENDORSE* - I've used council places before with great success, especially for cars that I'm pretty confident will pass, although when they say 'no repairs' they really mean it. Not even a headlight adjustment on my W124, but fair enough - it did also need a patch welding on the jacking point (surprise surprise).

 

To be honest, I was taking advantage of what I was effectively treating as a £24 pre-test checkover - I expected to be able to filter out the that-won't-really-fail-if-I-take-it-somewhere-reliable 'faults'. I wasn't expecting to have to fight to get my car back!

 

  On 26/01/2016 at 12:17, panhard65 said:

apparently servicing stop pay him more than I paid for the job. I can't see servicing stop being in business for long if they are doing everything as a loss leader. Make sure you leave them a bad review as trying to hold your car for ransom is not good.

 

This must be the case. I can't believe that this garage would have even considered the hour round trip to collect, hour to test, another hour to return the car, all for the sake of less than the £24 I paid with the distant hope I might authorise £100s worth of work on a £900 C-Max.

[DodgyBastard]

The panda that I bought last April had been taken to a local garage in Dunfermline where it had failed on a lot of things and the owner had been given a quote of over £700 to get it through the test. He decided to scrap it, I bought it from the scrapyard and put it in for an mot at another place who don't repair cars and it failed on a lot less than before.

 

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[michael1703]

  On 26/01/2016 at 10:35, mercedade said:

Tits - this is probably more suited to 'Grumpy Old man' rather than a topic in its own right isn't it?

GR9 Fred, worthy of its own,would recommend AAAAA++++++++

 

I keep getting pestered by this company called "click mechanic" or something similar.

 

MOBILE mechanics join and this company uses the reg number to work out the hours and parts needed to do the job, they'll pay £45 and hour etc etc.

 

So, it's for mobile mechanics and I'm not mobile but they keep pestering me, I spoke to the guy from the company and said they quoted something like "supply and fit clutch on a new VW golf £400odd" so I said to the guy "who in their right mind would have a mechanic come around and change a clutch on their driveway" he reckoned it happened all the time which I called bullshit on, they had prices for mots as well where somehow the mobile mechanic picked the car up, delivered it to the test station,waited around an hour and delivered it back for under £60

[strangeangel]

This is definitely worth it's own thread. I, for one, had never heard of this lot. It certainly sounds like a case of 'same shit, different wrapper' though, and far more hassle than I could cope with for a cheap MOT.

[PiperCub]

  On 26/01/2016 at 15:52, Bren said:

The world is full of middlemen.

 

And there is a shortage of people to do the work.

 

Too many people want to be the middleman. Not many want to do the work.

 

Here endeth the lesson.

 

And full of people who want to 'Be in charge' - and boss others about and get them to do the work.

[HillmanImp]

  On 26/01/2016 at 12:55, djimbob said:

I use central Motors in Leeds

Been using them for a few years for all my cars.

[cms206]

When I moved job in 2013 I used a garage in the next town for MOTs for a couple of years until they...

 

1) passed the Montego. I sold it on and it failed the next year 'cos the inner sills, rear inner arches and A-pillars were all fibreglass, meaning the car had the structural integrity of damp cabbage.

 

2) failed my old 940 saloon on "a couple of hundred quid's worth of work, fuel tank strap, front discs and some wee odds and sods" and then didn't have the bill ready. This was a common occurrance, but after phoning every Friday for THIRTEEN WEEKS the bill arrived by post for £538.

 

 

In 2014 I moved back to my previous employer and have gone back to using a fella who works next door to do my MOTs; he checks them over, presents them and brings them back. Think the Kia went through for 20 quids worth of welding on a sill, and came back with flying colours. The Council Estate will get a checkover when I get back from honeymoon then it'll go for test too.

 

My man is known as a cowboy but I've never actually known someone more thorough.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

This thing sounds like complete bollocks that can only make money out of folks laziness or gullibility.

[New POD]

So what is the Business Model ? Cheap MOT, gets a garage, you the customer wouldn't ever have dealt with, a new happy customer for the essential repair work, and a percentage cut to the Service Stop.

Most punters DON'T do their own repairs, and if service stop gets themselves a better reputation, then dealing with a trusted middle man, who will deal with the nasty grease monkey on your behalf, is probably what the majority of customers want.

 

They need to understand that a proportion of people will not let just anyone do any repair work, and with a small percentage of jobs they therefore make a loss. But if 90 people net them £100 each (say 20% of a £500 bill) and 10 people cost them £20 each, you only have to do the maths.

 

I was once bitten by the lure of a cheap MOT and they attempted and succeeded to shaft me on the emissions of a 1.6 mk2 Cavalier by doing the full test with the engine cold and the heater on Full blast to keep the choke working. Now I pay full price and only fail on things that might kill me if left.  

[New POD]

  On 26/01/2016 at 14:56, BavarianRetro said:

It's the best system and the one used in Northern Ireland. There, MoT testing stations are MoT testers and only test the vehicle. No repairs.

 

It's the way it should be here too.

 

I understand that they have a shortage and booking weeks in advance is needed ?

[mercedade]

  On 27/01/2016 at 20:43, New POD said:

 

Most punters DON'T do their own repairs, and if service stop gets themselves a better reputation, then dealing with a trusted middle man, who will deal with the nasty grease monkey on your behalf, is probably what the majority of customers want.

 

This is the bit where I could see a future for them. I reckon there probably is a gap to be filled by an outfit who focus on customer service - and I'll be honest, the lure of free pick up and delivery was appealing for me, even if it meant I couldn't be there to be shown the problems which is what I normally ask.

 

It could have worked so well, that's the irritating thing  - they were so close to getting a good review. The prices quoted for the work weren't extortionate (not cheap, but not wild - £90 for the CV boot, £180 for the bottom arm), so had I been so inclined, given the green light for the work, and acted like a Normal rather than a shiter who was taking advantage of a cheap inspection, chances are I'd have had a positive experience.

 

But SS's attitude stunk, let alone the hostage situation, and I'd be really concerned about anyone who doesn't have a bit of 'car sense' using them. It could really cost them big.