The grumpy thread

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, ruffgeezer said:

Do you have any recommendations @beko1987?  

Every generation of tub after the vax 2000 had a pump. Can tell by the black connector that sits up top in roughly the same place it sits on the 121.

Doesnt help if you don't know what one looks like I admit but their cheap and plentiful. You still near Spalding/Boston ? I'll have a look

[High Jetter]

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Christ I'd forgotten what a bloody horrible place to drive in Oxford is.  Hopefully that's my one visit for the next couple of years done so I don't need to venture that way again any time soon.

Nowhere near as bad as London, but still sodding unpleasant.  I always forget as well how outright suicidal a lot of the cyclists there are too.

Yup, we stayed on the outskirts then walked or used the bus. As a pedestrian, the cyclists were...problematic!

[RoverFolkUs]

On 9/27/2022 at 7:31 AM, Split_Pin said:

My dad was ripped off by a main dealer today (no surprise but wait until you hear this right old load of tripe).

He had his 2017 Volvo V40 cross country into John Clark Volvo in Edinburgh for a service and MOT. He's 74 now and hates the long and busy drive in from Linlithgow so they always collected it and dropped it back off which is brilliant.

They delivered it back to him and said that there were some rusty screws on the undertray and they broke it whilst trying to remove it. 

And charged him £400 for a new one (which took 3 days as the wrong part arrived initially)

It also needed a new front damper which was £160 for the part.

For a service, MOT, parts and labour, they charged him TWELVE HUNDERED POUNDS.

I'm below amateur and even I have removed an undertray which has had rusty fixings without breaking the thing. Cutting the bolt and making do with the no doubt countless other fixings would surely have sufficed.

Obviously he is going to complain but I'm beyond words how a main dealer can do this to someone. They obviously saw he was a pensioner who lived in a nice house and just took the piss. 

I'm really angry about it.

The undertray price is a total pisstake, if they did not speak to your dad before going ahead with it. I'd be livid too.

£160 for a shock (even for the part only) does not surprise me at a main dealer. Shocks are not cheap for newer cars. Looking at ECP it seems they're £155 each for a 2017 V40. But of course there lies the question was there actually anything wrong with it. Main dealers are ridiculously anal and what I may deem as a minor weep of fluid around a shock, a main stealer is likely to fail as a serious leak. 

On 9/27/2022 at 10:00 AM, juular said:

For the £400 I suspect almost anyone would say, fine, ditch the undertray.  Or cable tie it back on (which is easier in the long run to deal with).

A phonecall would have sorted all of this out.

£400 for an undertray and £160 for a shock isn't incompetence unfortunately, it's blatant profiteering out of people that don't have mechanical knowledge.

Undertray, yes profiteering I agree. The shock? I'm not so sure. £160 doesnt surprise me for a 2017 car from the dealer. As above they're £155 even from ECP

On 9/27/2022 at 10:12 AM, Talbot said:

Really?

If they find corroded fixings or some other issue that means the job takes longer, they just charge per hour labour to do the job.

In the event of corroded fixings on an undertray (which is a shit design in the first place.. they should be able to last longer than 5 years) even if the mechanic had to grind them off and then use new fixings with penny washers, that might be another 1/2hr labour and a few quid for fixings.

This is a classic case of a Main Stealer living up to the stereotype.

Main dealers run off book times. Mechanics are usually paid flat rate rather than hourly. They might be paid for example 0.8 hours for an oil change. The oil change might take 0.8 hours if the undertray comes off without difficulty. If they have to spend an hour faffing around with the undertray to try and save it, they won't be paid for it. And that hour they spend is lost when it could be used to do another job. 

That's why the main dealer approach is to replace not repair. There's no book time to repair undertray fixings and secure it with cable ties, so they can't charge the customer, can't pay the mechanic so they can't offer the job

However what is absolutely inexcusable is the fact @Split_Pin's dad was charged for the new undertray without being consulted. That is absolutely unacceptable

On 9/27/2022 at 10:41 AM, andyberg said:

Surely if they broke the undertray then they should replace at their cost??????

There's a difference between a mechanic breaking a part due to their negligence (e.g dropping it or installing or removing it incorrectly) and a part that would become damaged no matter who touched it next, which is normally the case with seized or corroded fittings.

If the fittings were seized there's not a lot that can be done and it's not their responsibility to pay for it.  But it's also not acceptable to charge the customer £400 for a poxy bit of plastic without their say so. I completely sympathize with that

On 9/27/2022 at 2:55 PM, DavieW said:

The thing I've found with main dealers of all colours is they don't "repair" parts, it's replacement. I've seem hubs with broken studs replaced as they can't or won't remove the broken stud. Same with sumps, replace because the sump plug snapped. As with the injector above, they won't entertain repair, same as the undertray,  whereas a non franchise garage will happily repair.

 

 

They are just told to replace things and are usually paid the book time to do it. And they're often on a bonus for whatever they manage to upsell. Eg reporting discs and pads that are 50% worn...

Their speciality is warranty or recall work. They'll be paid 1.2 hours by the manufacturer to replace a door latch or something on a certain model day in, day out

[RoverFolkUs]

On 9/27/2022 at 5:18 PM, twosmoke300 said:

A decent independent would have greased the bolts on the previous service so the undertray came off easily . 
 

Just sayin

Or just do away with it entirely!

I've got a stack of undertrays waiting to go in the skip 😆

No point keeping them when all the fixings are broken and they're all cracked and held on with about seven cable ties all looped round the subframe in weird positions

I'm talking about 15 year old cars here. No need for 'em whatsoever!

[Yoss]

The undertrays on my Favorits and Felicia are metal. They don't break. Just saying. 

[artdjones]

9 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Or just do away with it entirely!

I've got a stack of undertrays waiting to go in the skip 😆

No point keeping them when all the fixings are broken and they're all cracked and held on with about seven cable ties all looped round the subframe in weird positions

I'm talking about 15 year old cars here. No need for 'em whatsoever!

The trouble with a lot of newer ones is that the undertray ties a load of other plastic bits together, so if it's missing the whole front end and bumper will flap about. So it's not really an option to throw it away. If one of those other plastic pieces comes loose and cuts a tyre, causing a blowout, the garage that left everything flapping about will be liable.

The dealer should have phoned the owner, but spending three hours saving the undertray would probably cost £300 anyway at main dealer rates.

I had a quick look at the V40 parts catalogue and the seems to be an alternative factory part made of metal. Who knows what that costs though.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

On 9/27/2022 at 7:41 PM, wuvvum said:

Me.

'Cos I'm tight, I hate pissing about with suspension and unless I'm trying to beat my PB round the Nurburgring I'm unlikely to notice the difference in handling.

When I first read this , I thought “ Fuck me he’s  bought a Cresta” then I realised what PB meant.

Oh, and me. I replaced one spring on the Boxster recently too.

[sierraman]

On 9/27/2022 at 5:35 PM, twosmoke300 said:

I’m sure there is somewhere . 
Also - who changes one damper ? 
 

I don’t know but I saw an advert yesterday for a car ‘fitted 3 new tyres’. 

[Low Horatio gearbox]

[barefoot]

Nice cars off road & tucked away under the carport for winter. I'm battening down the whatsisnames ready for the shit weather & the long nights. Fuck me, I've even given up drinking until the xmas month.

[Wack]

Bought a pair of Dr martens shoes , the right one rubs my heel like fuck  , yesterday I saw a new pair of hotter shoes in a charity shop,  the fucking left one rubs my heel the same 

So I can either wear odd shoes and be comfortable or if I pick them the wrong way round be in agony 

Is this what it's come to , a life in slippers 

[Stanky]

1 minute ago, Wack said:

a life in slippers 

...shuffling around supermarkets, trolley broadside across the aisle blocking everyone while you scour the chiller unit, squinting through your 'wrong' glasses, looking for the ultimately smooth yoghurt

 

[Wack]

16 minutes ago, Stanky said:

...shuffling around supermarkets, trolley broadside across the aisle blocking everyone while you scour the chiller unit, squinting through your 'wrong' glasses, looking for the ultimately smooth yoghurt

 

Have you got a live feed to my life , you forgot the yellow stickers 

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

When I first read this , I thought “ Fuck me he’s  bought a Cresta” then I realised what PB meant.

I did use to have one.

Never took it round the 'Ring though.

[BorniteIdentity]

6 hours ago, Stanky said:

...shuffling around supermarkets, trolley broadside across the aisle blocking everyone while you scour the chiller unit, squinting through your 'wrong' glasses, looking for the ultimately smooth yoghurt

 

Have you been spying on me? Creep. 😉 

[artdjones]

6 hours ago, Stanky said:

...shuffling around supermarkets, trolley broadside across the aisle blocking everyone while you scour the chiller unit, squinting through your 'wrong' glasses, looking for the ultimately smooth yoghurt

 

They block the Complan shelf as well.

[andy18s]

Arse,had to choose between a myopic hgv driver who wasn't going to move over,or a decent size collection of potholes

[High Jetter]

Just now, andy18s said:

Arse,had to choose between a myopic hgv driver who wasn't going to move over,or a decent size collection of potholes

If that pothole hasn't been reported to the local authority, you should stand a good chance with a claim. If it's safe, measure the width and depth of that crater to back your claim up.

[wuvvum]

8 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

If that pothole hasn't been reported to the local authority, you should stand a good chance with a claim. If it's safe, measure the width and depth of that crater to back your claim up.

Not sure things work quite the same in that there Bulgaria.

[andy18s]

7 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

If that pothole hasn't been reported to the local authority, you should stand a good chance with a claim. If it's safe, measure the width and depth of that crater to back your claim up.

Unfortunately is doesn't work like that here in Bulgaria.

You hit the hole,it's your fault,end of story.

The roads have improved a lot over the last few years,but got caught out on a strange road.

 

[High Jetter]

In that case, arse indeed.

[Zelandeth]

Christ on a bike, travel insurance has got expensive.  Last time we went to the US in 2018 it was ~£300 for the four of us.  This trip: Just over a bloody grand!  Not like it's something you can just chose not to have and the providers have a captive audience...so just a case of grimacing and dealing with it.  

Definitely more ammunition for me saying I'll just stay home next time I think!

[Dyslexic Viking]

Woke up today at 6 to a terrified and wet cat that ran into my bed and hid under my duvet as the F... feral cat had attacked her again. A little later, I drove up to the post office, which is in a grocery store, to pick up the relay for the Merc and do a week's worth of shopping, but the checkout system was down and they had to close, so it was a 40 km round trip wasted. Hope the rest of the day goes better.

[andy18s]

15 hours ago, High Jetter said:

In that case, arse indeed.

Yep,80lev (£35ish) for a good partworn as the Subaru "demands" all 4 tyres have the same amount of wear,and It's not getting all 4 just yet.

It is possible to buy Tyre Insurance here for this sort of thing.I'll have to look into it before buying any more.

 

[jakebullet]

One of those days today.

Went for my flu / covid jab which was fine, 10 mins wait because they have a sensible system. (Name? DOB? Medical Q's? Stick! Next.) Took Ma for hers (at a different vets) and they are the most clueless incompetent arseholes ever. 1 hour wait, 'cos their system is queue round the building, check in at the desk, and then have 2 peeps sticking, who come out and shout "Gerald Oldbastard". Yes, pretending it's a normal doctor's appointment and you will be seen in appointment time order. Add in it's a load of old farts who can't hear or fight their way instantly thru the crowd and, well, it just doesn't work.

Came home, got an actimel out of the fridge, and instantly noticed it's room temperature. Ma, how long has the fridge been fucked? Ma thinks it's working fine 'cos the light comes on. Of course it's actually impossible to go and buy a fridge anywhere now. Got one coming sometime tomorrow for £30 delivery charge.

Phoned the Mrs, and it's scream scream scream as once again she's put medication somewhere safe*. Doesn't want me to go and find it. Doesn't want me to take spare script she has to a chemist for another lot. Does want to shout a lot about she'll go blind instead.

Annnnnd RELAX! 

[Mally]

23 hours ago, andy18s said:

Unfortunately is doesn't work like that here in Bulgaria.

You hit the hole,it's your fault,end of story.

The roads have improved a lot over the last few years,but got caught out on a strange road.

 

They build concrete access ramps which stick out a good 3 feet into the roadway, and may be hidden by the shadow of a tree at speed.

This can cause propulsion through the air and severe shoulder damage.

Ask me how I know.

[Mally]

On 9/30/2022 at 6:23 PM, artdjones said:

They block the Complan shelf as well.

This is true, but in their defence, I know from personal experience that many are buying for cancer suffering relatives who find it the only nutrient, and beseech  for 'one that tastes different'.

They can all taste the same it seems.

[Zelandeth]

Yes, I hate international travel *precisely* as much as I remember.

Let's never do this again.

[MikeR]

On 01/10/2022 at 01:21, Zelandeth said:

Christ on a bike, travel insurance has got expensive.  Last time we went to the US in 2018 it was ~£300 for the four of us.  This trip: Just over a bloody grand!  Not like it's something you can just chose not to have and the providers have a captive audience...so just a case of grimacing and dealing with it.  

Definitely more ammunition for me saying I'll just stay home next time I think!

I looked at the price of cover last year to go overseas   , it was all tears once I ticked the I have had cancer box ....  saves me looking at hols and then trying to get cover !

[hairnet]

On 9/30/2022 at 12:00 PM, Wack said:

 

Is this what it's come to , a life in slippers 

youre too old to be a hipster no?