Concessionaires ripping clients off for servicing

[NormanH]

Le Figaro reports a survey from the Consumer Association Que Choisir which shows that the main concessionaires are ripping people off in their servicing charges, as well as giving a false impression of what might invalidate a guarantee to discourage going to independent garages:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/conso/2012/09/25/05007-20120925ARTFIG00577-les-garages-peugeot-et-renault-facturent-au-prix-fort.php

The survey should be here:

http://image.quechoisir.org/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/c7580de76ce4d2caf3d2390705abcb0e.pdf

[elamessa]

Nothing surprises me any more and I don't know how these main concessionaires are getting away with it.

I have just had an oil and filter change on my car dealer wanted €130 + parts (-: Got it done by local independent for €47 all in using genuine part (filter).

Also had a quote from Fiat for cambelt/water pump change on camper at an amazing €892 got the job done again by independent for half that price.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Not everyone knows an independant though

I asked a french friend about why things cost so much and he said that they charge it because they can, and there is still a monopoly on spare parts so the costs can be quite high. They don't have the same independant motor-factor infrastructure that the UK has which is rather frustrating at times.

FeuVert tried to charge us 84€ for 2 wheel nuts (but that did include 30€ delivery) so don't think it is just the main Peugot-Renault-Citroen dealers that are trying to profit from the punter (10€ ... 3 day delivery from the UK) . I always thought it was TVA - Tax Valeur Anglais - that put the price up so I'm happy to see the that it's the french consumer as well.

[idun]

We were ripped off from day one in France, when we bought our first Ford. Services were always 600ff and more. IF we could we would get them done in the UK when we were back at a Ford agents near friends and it never cost more than £25. Then when this car that was serviced as per Ford instructions went wrong......... they told us to 'go away'!

Silly really, I would never ever buy from them again in my life, ......... and haven't. I wouldn't ever say anything good about a company that stitched us up for a lot of money and dumped us.

 We were young then, why alienate a youngish couple, butthey did and it cost us a lot of money we could ill afford at the time to put it right.

 

Still going on, well yes, ofcourse it is. We ended up with Citroen as there were two franchise near us that were not too expensive, although dear enough and did a good and honest job on our cars.

[Gardengirl]

When we had a Saab, we took it in to the main dealer at Nimes for a service. I'd booked it in by phone, telling them it was a .....km service, and all seemed fine. When we arrived we were asked what we wanted doing for the service; well, whatever is normally done for that service - it's in the book! They didn't seem clear afterwards what they had done, even though we waited around for ages. The bill wasn't over-much especially for a mains service, but we began to get cold feet and suspected that several things had been omitted, so on arrival back in UK we took the car in for a 'proper' service and of course had to pay for everything again. We adjusted services according to our visits to France from then on.

The welcome at the French garage was very pleasant, all was clean and it had lots of comfortable seating, and many staff in nice clean overalls were around. But we definitely preferred our normal British garages, whether main dealers or the mad-keen Saab specialist a few villages away, where the place was a right mess, but he could produce thousands of used parts from his array of shelves at very cheap prices. It was sad when we had to let the Saab go to the breakers due to extreme old age and concerns about important parts needed in the near future, when we had long journeys to and from France.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

[quote user="idun"]

 We ended up with Citroen as there were two franchise near us that were not too expensive, although dear enough and did a good and honest job on our cars.

[/quote]

A franchise is exactly what it says on the tin. I won't darken the doors of our local Citroen franchise again. They scammed around 600€ from us trying to fix our car, and eventually a local garage fixed it, 8€ battery lead was replaced.

It was a shame as it's just been taken over by someone who is only interested in money. The previous owners were fantastic. Kind, friendly and happy to get the job done.

Capitalism .... in the wrong hands .... not something you want the french to get their teeth into!

[idun]

I think that we were lucky really with both, as I said, they did a good and honest job and didn't charge the earth, not cheap, it's France and a certain price always has to be paid, but we found them reasonable, and we had paid far far more in the past. I do understand, there are plenty of garages in my old region that I think that should be banned from trading.