Holden Dealer Problem your opinion wanted

[LES2010]

G'day guys, here is something I don't like to do but I'm looking for opinions as to what to do, my son took his VS into the local Holden dealers(name withheld because I don't know if I am allowed to name them here), he asked for the following to be done, Clutch Cable replaced, Starter motor replaced, Crank angle sensor replaced, Read all errors as the engine light remains on. Here is what we got back, Starter motor replaced, clutch cable replaced, crank angle sensor replaced, so far so good, now the bits we didn't want, error codes not read but cleared and car still has engine light on, reverse lights no longer work, speedo no longer working, manual pedal box is cracked and must be replaced, I picked up the car with my son and when he saw the problems we stopped and I took it straight back and asked them (politely), why the speedo and reverse lights were not working, I was told that they did not have to go anywhere near those items to make the repairs we requested and that they must have been faulty before we bought them in (wrong items were working before it went to Holdens), we know the ex service manager for this dealership and as for the pedal box being cracked he can attribute it to an apprentice that works there, this jerkoff like to testdrive the cars and he has a habit of smashing his foot repeatedly on the clutch to do burnouts in customers cars, we can't prove that so we are stuffed in that regard, now, should I report the other items to the ACCC or to Holdens direct or do I, like so many others before me, just bend over and take it up the tailpipe. A little note, this is a conversion to 5 speed, the reverse lights are connected under the shifter panel as per instructions on this forum, when we got it back the shifter boot was not on correctly and the panel was not fitted correctly, if they don't need to go into certain areas for the work requested then why have the gone into that area it certainly has nothing to do with the job requested.
Cheers
Les

[VrWagz1]

somthing sounds odd there, unfortunatly i cant offer any advice though some others here might. Only advice i can offer is you should have used your usual trusted mechanic to do that work as opposed to taking it to holden. Actually with minimal tools you could have done the clutch cable and starter very easily yourself.

[centy]

get a few affacavits done by people who saw the car just before going in for the work.
Then go see the dealer principal and talk to him, from there you can either keep complaining,
accc, mtaq, holden transport department or proceed to small claims.
They would have insurance to cover this.
Years ago i had a eh getting work done at a local servo and some chrome got knocked off.
They told me just to go to the shop and get it and put it on their account.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

The problem you are facing is being able to prove your claims.

You can go to the service manager and complain loudly, or even call the DP, but I can see this going no where. It would come down to their customer relations whether they wanted to fix the problems or not. If you are a regular customer, they are more likely to out of good will, but if this is a one off, I'm afraid you may have very little chance.

[shanhsv]

Holden dealerships are the most dodgy place to take your car to get anything done(im sure may not be the case for every dealer in the country). Dont take this kinda crap from them,they'll tell you rubbish and make it sound like it was your fault. Department of Fair Trading may also be another mob worth taking to. I bought my VS berlina from a holden dealer and i kept taking it back to get fixed for the whole 3 months of warrenty i got with it with motor and other problems,yet i still had to replace the motor and diff in the 3 years i've had the car. I seen them advertise a oil change for $90,and that was on special. Even sum1 who has never done that before can do it in about 30min and $60-70 less.

[tt460]

Since its a dealership your first port of call should be the dealer principal. He is the person who runs the show and they used to be holden approved still might be not sure.

If you get no luck from him perhaps the MTA

[5.7senator]

G'day guys, here is something I don't like to do but I'm looking for opinions as to what to do, my son took his VS into the local Holden dealers(name withheld because I don't know if I am allowed to name them here), he asked for the following to be done, Clutch Cable replaced, Starter motor replaced, Crank angle sensor replaced, Read all errors as the engine light remains on. Here is what we got back, Starter motor replaced, clutch cable replaced, crank angle sensor replaced, so far so good, now the bits we didn't want, error codes not read but cleared and car still has engine light on, reverse lights no longer work, speedo no longer working, manual pedal box is cracked and must be replaced, I picked up the car with my son and when he saw the problems we stopped and I took it straight back and asked them (politely), why the speedo and reverse lights were not working, I was told that they did not have to go anywhere near those items to make the repairs we requested and that they must have been faulty before we bought them in (wrong items were working before it went to Holdens), we know the ex service manager for this dealership and as for the pedal box being cracked he can attribute it to an apprentice that works there, this jerkoff like to testdrive the cars and he has a habit of smashing his foot repeatedly on the clutch to do burnouts in customers cars, we can't prove that so we are stuffed in that regard, now, should I report the other items to the ACCC or to Holdens direct or do I, like so many others before me, just bend over and take it up the tailpipe. A little note, this is a conversion to 5 speed, the reverse lights are connected under the shifter panel as per instructions on this forum, when we got it back the shifter boot was not on correctly and the panel was not fitted correctly, if they don't need to go into certain areas for the work requested then why have the gone into that area it certainly has nothing to do with the job requested.
Cheers
Les

With the check engine light you could obtain the fault code yourself, very easy to do , no tools required and see what fault is causing it, then take it from there,
Its a shame the dealer didnt have a quick look into the cause of the new faults,perhaps you could take it to some one you trust and they tell you what has caused the new faults , if it was related to the work just done or something else.

[hako]

As your car is modified and you (probably) didn't give the details of all modfications to them when you dropped the car off - they can argue that whatever complaints you have are due to the non-standard mods done to the car by the owner....and that is very hard to argue against. The pedal box is a fairly common fault and really you cannot blame the apprentice on someones say-so. When they disconnected the battery to work on the car the codes would have been automatically wiped. No problems there as they were following normal workshop practice i.e. if working with electrics first disconnect the battery.
The speedo and rev light problems they will argue are due to happenings beyond their control...it's a modified car.
I can understand that you are not happy but I really think you've just got to wear it.
My opinions only which is what you requested.
Good Luck.

[LES2010]

I have did the check for engine faults before the car went in, that's why we had the CAS changed, as for them checking it again, according to the service manager they only have one bloke who can use the code reader and he's just gone on holidays, sounds like a load of bullsh*t to me, i'm just going to let it slide and fix the thing ourselves, does anyone have a direct link to the member who makes up the cable kit to read errors, we have a VR, VS and a VT and that should come in handy, thanks guys, I learn more in 5 minutes of reading here than 1 hour of listening to the so called Holden service team qualified professionals.

[accentstencil]

I have did the check for engine faults before the car went in, that's why we had the CAS changed, as for them checking it again, according to the service manager they only have one bloke who can use the code reader and he's just gone on holidays, sounds like a load of bullsh*t to me, i'm just going to let it slide and fix the thing ourselves, does anyone have a direct link to the member who makes up the cable kit to read errors, we have a VR, VS and a VT and that should come in handy, thanks guys, I learn more in 5 minutes of reading here than 1 hour of listening to the so called Holden service team qualified professionals.

Here is a link to a thread by the guy who you are looking for.
DIY: ECU Scantools/Data Cables

[Cobez]

What i wanna know, is HOW MUCH they charged you for all of that work? That would have cost you a pretty penny getting those highway robbers to do that on your son's car. I wouldn't let a Holden dealership wash my wheels.

[VR comme]

Probably not much help to you but I had a mate that worked for holden a few years ago as an apprentice and I know for a fact that he took cars out and done burnouts, thrashed customers cars. ie on one occasion he done a service on a car, rotated tyres using a rattle gun to put the rims back on. The customers wife was driving and got a flat and was unable to get the wheel nuts off and the customer attempted himself to get them off and was unsuccessful ( apparently he was a big guy) So he complained to holden dealership and the problem was fix and my mate got reemed for it. My mate told me thats how he was taught. They dont supervice the apprentices they just teech them and then send them out on there own. I aslo know when he was an apprentice they had a limited time to do the job so if he or she was to take something off that they shouldnt have, they quickly try to put it back on regardless of if its done proply.

Again its no help to you but I would stick to doing it yourself and if you arent sure take it to your trusted mechanic not holden dealership.

Goodluck with everything, hope all goes well

[LES2010]

He got charged $663 that included parts, I think that's not bad but the principal of the thing is you give them the car broke and they fix it, not give them a broke car and it's more broke when you get it back, still the boy just said f**k 'em, we downloaded all the relevent info from here and he changed his pedal box in 2 1/2 hours, not bad for a motorcycle apprentice. Like I said in my previous post, learn more here in 5 minutes than 3 days of holdens bullsh*t.
Thanks for link will contact him and try an buy one from him, I take it he's the guy selling on Evilbay.