Getting our car back

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In June 2007 we took our Volvo estate to a local garage as it had an oil leak. They gave us a devis of €360 and we agreed and expected the job to take 2/3 days. Seven months later we still don't have the car back , and we believe that it has been to 2 Volvo franchises to be re-calibrated (albeit unsuccesfully). The local garage who were supposed to have done the original job have been abusive, arrogant and downright unhelpful when we have asked why this job has taken so long. All we want is an answer to that question. We are now , supposedly going to get the car back tomorrow (24th) and we are expecting that it will be fit to drive. We are also scared of being given a rather larger bill than the original devis[6]. If this is the case where do we stand? We have only the one original devis, but it is possible (through various interpreters) that a new gearbox may have been fitted which would obviously cost more than €360.

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[raindog]

7 months to fix an oil leak - must've been some leak....

[Nick Trollope]

A devis is a devis and is all you can be expected to pay. If they want to charge you more and are refusing to return the car, visit the Gendarmes...

What happened BTW?

[Bones]

Taking the pee out of you, as I'm sure you've already worked out.

There's a garage where we lived in the UK that used to do similar stuff. My mate took his works van in for a minor braking problem, they said they'd take a look at it, he returned later that afternoon and the entire front end was in bits - they handed him a ridiculous quote for a huge amount of work. He told them they had an hour to get it put back together, which they did!

All depends on how you deal with them, there's a lot of hard faced rip off artists out there, it's just sad.

You really need to see the police and/or a solicitor and if you've got anything to say to them in future make sure you send it in writing - registered post - otherwise it's just your word against theirs.