[Closed] Garage may have taken things during service?

We lost a satnav and a spare wheel when my wife's car went in for a service.

they parked the car on the public road at one point and swore blind it wasn't them and they'd locked it.

We just left it and didn't use them again.

A Ford dealership once removed the body coloured wing wirror trims from my car when it was in for a service and put them on a car that was going out for delivery to a customer.

When I picked my car up and noticed they were missing, they denied all knowledge initially but eventually confessed and apologised.

Had to wait a week for replacements.

A work friend had a fairly new impreza years ago. took it to the local premium independent garage/sales for a service. came back. something wasnt right insode the car.

After about a month they realised what it was. The car went in with grey seat belts and came back with black ones! Random. They had pics of when they got the car and yep, they had been changed.

Garage denied it. She got solicitors invloved.

A year ago i drove passed and police were raiding the place.

is there anything I can do if I suspect the garage has taken them?

I had a similar incident when our car was under warranty and went into the local dealers for a repair. A neoprene cd holder full of cd's that was in the glove box disappeared.

Phoned the garage to ask if it had been taken out for any reason as didn't want to accuse them of theft, of course denied all knowledge of its existence. Didn't go back there again.

live and learn - lost a satnav and a fuel card left in car taken in for accident repair - in theory the fuel card couldn't be used as supposed to check reg' - my employer slow to put stop on and surprise surprise used a few times at filling station near the body repair shop as I got the statement to sign off - i pointed out the satnav was missing when picking up the car - all I got was a shrug and a "maybe ask the towtruck company"

A year ago i drove passed and police were raiding the place.

bit excessive to get your mats back.....

A good few years ago the old boy went to get his car back from a main BMW dealer only to find that they'd actually given the entire car away to another customer.

Ok, what has actually happened is that the other guy had sent someone from his office to pick it up. He was handed the wrong key but didn't know any better, so just drove off. The conversation was apparently quite awkward for a while

After a service at a local garage, someone from the garage nicked £4000 off my credit card.

I take everything out of my car and only ever hand over the ignition key for the above reasons. Often thought I was paranoid but clearly not!

Jeez, so pleased my brother is in the trade.. although I still remove valuables from the car when it goes in!

My engine cover disappeared after a repair once. I didn't find out until a month later when topping up the washer fluid. I phoned them up and they had no knowledge as to it's whereabouts and anyway I didn't need it as there was no benefit in having one. 😕 yeah thanks, so you know better than VW?!

" no mate, it was like that when it came in"
Never leave anything in the car and always do a walk round with one of the staff.
It's generally the cleaner. They don't last long and rarely give a shit.
We caught one of ours stealing a pram.

so you know better than VW?!

but there is no benefit in having a plastic engine cover.....

It's generally the cleaner. They don't last long and rarely give a shit.

Yeh those poor folks in 'menial' jobs just can't be trusted 🙄

[i]but there is no benefit in having a plastic engine cover..... [/i]

helps with drive by noise tests because it's a part of the engine encapsulation?

I guess the cooling system/airflow is designed around it being there too?

I guess the VW engine cover was on a 1.6tdi engine?, they are pretty much purely cosmetic but can help prevent road grime from covering the top of the engine.

i'm up. 😀

Last car came back from valet with a CD of hard trance.

This car came back from service with 3 car mats that it didn't go in with.

My car was stolen once (well, it was stolen 4 times but on one occasion...).

they left a cassette and a tobacco tin with their stash in it behind when they dumped the car.

My Aunt's engine was stolen during the first service of her ford mondeo a few years ago.

Full story was that the garage had a high spec nearly new car that had an engine failure so ford had said to take the engine out of a low spec, low mileage car they had on their forecourt. Turns out it was a silver car of the same age as my aunts! (although amusingly a different sized engine)

They offered to source another engine as they had already fitted her engine to the other car and it had been collected by the customer. They couldn't find anything as low mileage as hers and ford main office refused to help but finally after 6 months and lots of angry conversations, a shiny top spec mondeo was delivered with only 3k on the clock.

We never worked out if the garage confessed they had fitted a 1.8L instead of a 2L engine to the other car...

DezB - Member

Jeez, so pleased my brother is in the trade.. although I still remove valuables from the car when it goes in!

Can he get me some new sunnies?

Mine 'lost' a quarter of a tank of diesel last time it was in the main dealers

They offered to source another engine as they had already fitted her engine to the other car and it had been collected by the customer. They couldn't find anything as low mileage as hers and ford main office refused to help but finally after 6 months and lots of angry conversation

Wtf? How is it even possible that they are not breaking the law by doing that?

Does sound a bit of a tale. She had no car for 6 months because the garage took the engine out to put in another car, a main dealer and ford head office didn't act is that right? 🙂 Why didn't she call the police?

Wtf? How is it even possible that they are not breaking the law by doing that? 6 months? I'd have been camped out at the dealership making everyone aware of what kind of service they could expect.

I don't know the full story, just short sections in parts over the years. Not sure it was/is legal but my aunt and uncle are VERY laid back and likely didn't do much for the first few months. 12-15 years on they still have the car so might ask next time I see them. They live in the highlands and I have a feeling they said they had left the car at the dealership for at least 3-4 weeks which is why the mechanic assumed it was the donor car.

EDIT: Just for background, this is the same family that left/forgot their 13yo and 15yo kids in a french service station when driving out to go skiing, using the excuse "they don't normally travel with us".

A Lexus dealer once billed mw for a bottle of spare oil they hadn't given me, and for a "safety check" where they didin't notice a rear light was out (and I had told them).

A subaru dealer kindly left an extra part of their socket set loose under the bonnet, and were very keen to replace unworn brake discs...

They're called main-stealers for a reason...

Garage fixing my brothers golf took out a newly fitted by my brother heating fan and swapped it for a shagged one. My brother picks car up, turns on heater and fan makes horrible grinding noise like the one he replaced a month earlier. Takes out fan to find it's not the one he fitted, drives to garage to see one of the mechanics has the same age Golf as he had.

There was a very heated exchange at the garage where they accused him of being on drugs. Some weeks later the large window at the front of the garage got smashed.

I had about £30 quid in change taken out of the small under steering wheel compartment at my local Beemer dealer.. until I complained. Seemed it was a common "problem",,I was given the money back..

Remove everything from your car before it goes in. Make sure you know what your spare wheel and tyre look like as they often get swapped out for something with a bald tyre from one of the "technicians" cars.

Early years of motorhome ownership dictated that the engine service was carried out by the main stealer. Noticed the bonnet slightly open once I got it back home (it's not obvious) but decided to look underneath prior to closing it up. Everything was covered in engine oil. There was oil dripping out from underneath onto the drive. The oil level was actually OK but it turns out it was a big spillage that simply hadn't been cleaned up or reported. On closer inspection, the oil filter, air filter & diesel filted hadn't been changed but I had the invoice stating I'd been charged for the parts. Turns out that the mechanic had booked out all the service parts and simply nicked them. He got the boot but it begs the question how much of this went on un-noticed.

Sounds like I got off lightly today. Got to the garage early and dropped the keys into the post box before I realised it, (the car) was still unlocked. And left my house keys in it. 🙄

I suppose they did OK by lifting £290 out of my bank account though. Big service!

The only useful car tip I ever got from my dad- leaving some visible change in your car when someone else is using it or working on it is a very cheap trust test.

I don't worry about this, my mechanic's trustworthy but I know that's a luxury...

On the complete opposite, when I picked up my car after a service they had left a Snap-on tool under the bonnet. A bit dodgy still, it could have fallen from the engine bay and into the road but it was only plastic.

If have no idea what it is (some kind of levering tool) but kept it anyway!

Mrs Trout took our car to kwik fit with a puncture and they told hernit was unsafe to repair and sold her our new spare tyre and put and old one on the spare .

we didnt find out until we had a flat about a year later .

the oil filter, air filter & diesel filted hadn't been changed but I had the invoice stating I'd been charged for the parts.

Goes on more than you think.

Did my parents 2012 evoque now it's out of warrenty earlier this year.

It's has a full town and county service history.

It was sluggish as hell... the oil and air filters both hand written dated 2012 and manket. It's like a different car now with a fresh set of filters on.

They also tried to charge them on occasion for a screenwash change. Only it was filled up in the morning before it was sent in. - that one got removed from the bill but the car won't be going back to them and nor will they receive any further custom

It's pretty much the reason i do my own maintainance ....If anyone's going to **** it up it'll be me

This doesn't surprise me. I'm naturally a sceptical barsteward. Never leave anything in my car when it goes for work.
A couple of years ago the garage had cleaned my car for me picking it up, this had involved removing the paint from the door handles, I despise incompetent jet wash operation.

They denied it but capitulated. Never been back.

once got charged for a hydraulic hose on a boat

problem was the "old" one had the date of installation engraved on it

The look on his face when he realised was priceless though - got a great deal as he had charged it and itemised it on a written bill and i just stood there going lets call trading standards and what is the association you belong to etc

I have also benefited from free tools after a service. Checked under the bonnet when I got home and found a huge screwdriver left by the side of the engine cover. It is a decent screwdriver and is still in my tool box. I always empty anything of value out of the car before it goes in for a service, I also have a dashcam, so if I can be bothered I can check what has happened to the car while they have had it - to be fair every time I have checked the garages have always been very professional.

When I had a VW I was always impressed with the dealer as they would leave a full bottle of screen wash in the car if they hadn't had to top up the screen wash when it went in for a fixed price service.

And never get a free valet when the car goes in for a service, a great way to ruin your paint work.

Let's roll....

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I thankful I have a garage I can trust. On first name terms with the owner and his wife, who happen to live next door to my mate. Living in a small town can have it's upsides.

Have had my pants pulled down by a Drive Vauxhall dealer in the past. They had supposedly done work on the brakes, and it later turned out they hadn't been touched.

Mrs took her then new car to the main agent for it's first service. Picked up next morning, 100 miles had been added, big dent where something had been dropped on the top of the front wing, and also heard a weird rolling sound every time you accelerated or braked - eventually found a massive screwdriver on the plastic sump cover inside. Shrug from the service desk so went to their MD and did get an apology, all put right, tank of fuel and no charge for service. Don't know what happened to the person who did the service.

Years ago my car wouldn't start so called out Green Flag.

Local mechanic turns up and offers to take it to his garage.

It's in for over a week, tells me how they had to interior out and it was a dodgy piece of loom.

They knock a fair chunk off the bill for taking so long IIRC it was about £300.

I get the car back and strip out the interior for a sound system install, going by the amount of crap and loose change trapped in the seat rails to interior had never been out.

The ****s.

9ltrs of oil added to th engine after an oil change instead of 4.5ltrs. Bang . Core plugs ejected .
Loose wheel nuts on our company van last week also wasnt the garages fault. Apparently someone wanted to steal the wheel, only they forgot a jack .

Ouch, some worrying stories on this thread. I always take valuables/loose change out of the car but never thought to check the spare wheel afterwards!

Never had anything taken, but I did end up with an extra roller boot cover thing after a service once. It was from a Porsche. I took it back to the garage and they denied all knowledge. Which was weird.

If a garage is so un-trustworthy you have to remove all valuables from the car, would you really want to give them any repeat business, or trust them/be wanting to work on your car?

So I've looked and things aren't in the house and I'm waiting for the service manager to get back to me.

But no, my car won't be going back there. If I can't trust them to the point where I need to remove things from my car I can't trust them to actually do the work properly either.

If I'm convinced it went missing while in their care is it worth involving the police? They are part of a chain so I will be making a phone call to their head office.

[i]If a garage is so un-trustworthy...[/i]

It ain't the garage. It's the people who work there.

This kind of sh1T is why I do all my own servicing and maintenance.

I guess you may as well contact the police, not sure if they'd investigate though as you can't be 100% sure it went missing in the garage's care and doesn't sound like there are any witnesses. But worth recording it at least, maybe they'd have previous complaints or it's there if someone else in future reports something stolen during a service at that garage.

Other side of things here. Worked in a Ford dealership in the late 90's and would often look into cars to see what CDs were lying around. I'd take them home, copy to Minidisc and put the CDs back in the car first thing the following morning.
Never actually kept anything though.

So I eventually got to talk to the garage manager (big chain so took a while). They say they have checked CCTV and nothing is shown. However, I'm not sure how you can say this as they needed to go through the car to service it - particularly the glove box where the service manual is.

I've reported it to the chains head office and the police. Realistically at this point have I got any hope or should I just suck it up, find a new garage and move on. What I would like is a refund n the items taken and on the sevice plan I bought as a minimum (since this is now worthless to me).

I assume I've got little to no chance going through small claims court. It isn't worth going through the insurance as they will only cover the items taken.

Do a tweet

I'd suggest don't even leave the car itself unattended for too long...
Was doing some checking on a scrap yard a few years ago to discover a report of a car theft related to the yard owner. Turns out that he'd driven past a car that had been sat in the same place on a street near the yard for over a week, so he headed out with the truck & hoisted it. Neighbour spotted the lift and phoned the local police, who located the car already tucked away in the de-polluting shed, beginning its journey into a heap of bits.

My RS4 was returned to me with the front offside wheel assembly detached. My colleague had a RS6 that was being given it's first service, we worked next to the garage on the top floor. He saw it going past at warp factor 9. mounting pavement and hitting a rubbish bin. All captured on CCTV. When he went in not that long later 'to collect it' there was some issue they had found which meant they needed to keep it in blah blah. He summonsed the owner, showed him the footage and suggested that they had a new car and so would he thanks. Which they eventually did.
Never trust garages, ever.

My car's in for it's service today, will remember to check the spare wheel!

Nothing of value left in it, never have done. No point in putting temptation in the mechanic's mind.

Cars being 'tested' isn't surprisingl. I worked for a large Japanese dealership for a while and the servicing team always seemed to be borrowing cars - especially over the w/e. I used to do the drop-offs until someone twigged that as a 20year old I probably wasn't [s](definitely wasn't)[/s] insured for the cars I was [s]ragging[/s] driving back to customers houses.

My dad left his large Merc company car at the dealership for a service - was told that he'd not be able to collect on the Friday due to some spurious reason, could he collect Monday? He picked it up on the Monday as required, slung his works boots, paperwork and golf clubs in the boot. Carried on his day. Finished early, got to the clubhouse and on removing his golf clubs discovered that someone had left a baggy of Bolivian marching powder in the boot.

To say he was unimpressed was an understatement. The dealership denied all knowledge - apparently, it had categorically NOT been borrowed over the w/e. The police confirmed it was coke, took it away but nothing came of it.

I expect my car to be 'tested' any time it goes to the garage. However, it's got journey tracking via an app that shows the speeds, route, etc. The dealer cannot turn this off. When I drop it off I make a point of casually noting with the service manager what a great function it is for tracking my mileage and doing expenses. The look on their face the first time was classic.