Feeling Ripped Off - what should I do?

Hi, we have a Freelander TD4 HSE on a 56 plate. It's done around 130,000 miles with the usual niggles.... A few weeks back we noticed deposits on the ground from some form of leak. The car was also kicking out more black smoke than usual. My wife was driving it back after dropping our son at the airport when she lost all power. A very friendly garage nearby offered to fix the problem which they thought was a fuel pump issue. After an hour of diagnosis, they suggested that it would be much cheaper to fit a reconditioned fuel pump as opposed to a new one. A few days later my wife collected her car and they charged us £600. She did get them to MOT the car as well as the fuel pump issue so we had a few faulty new bits plus £35 for the MOT and a grand total of £58 labour. The invoice also states a sum of £320 plus VAT for "re-con fuel pump". There's no labour charge for fitting. They did call her when they'd fitted the pump to say that they'd tested the vehicle and it was still misfiring and did she want them to carry on finding the fault and fixing it. She declined as we have a local garage and as the car was now drivable she wanted it back. Our local garage have now looked at the car and said that the fuel misfiring issue is costly as it's difficult to get to and really should have been fixed when the area was easy to get to. They also pointed out that the reconditioned fuel pump looked like it had come from a scrapyard as it looked old. My wife then contacted the garage that fitted it and asked them where they acquired the pump. They then said that it was our original pump and they had it reconditioned. They also said that a new one would cost around £750 so this option was much cheaper... It doesn't look like it and our local guy said he'd never seen one fitted in such an unusual way, whatever that means.... We now want to sell the car as it's cost so much money but it's not even firing properly.... I can buy a brand new pump for £325 from Paddock. My question is, have we got some kind of claim against the garage for misrepresentation? Any advice as to what we can do would be gratefully appreciated? Thanks

Does the receipt say the re con pump was supplied?
sadly in these cases where they quote a fix and you agree to it, they back out after saying it was the best of their knowledge and their best suggestion at the time, which you agreed to. They suggest they think... and you agree....
Was the garage local to where it failed or local to you?

re con is subjective. one mans re con may not be the same as another. Believe your wife got taken to the cleaners, with out much recourse for action. Sorry to hear about your misfortune from what sounds like a shady garage

trading standards if in ANY doubt....often informing the garage you are doing so will shock them into action ,but no empty threats !

Thanks for the replies. The receipt simply says re-con fuel pump and the price we paid. We'll try speaking with Trading Standards but my gut feeling is that there is very little that we can do. This is the risk of dealing with a garage not near to where we live..... I wished that we had simply called out the AA and had it towed home for a local repair.

Clarify "fuel pump" - are you talking about the electric fuel pump in the wheelarch or the high pressure injection pump mounted on the engine?

If you paid with credit card get them on the case to refund you.

It's the main high pressure fuel pump in the engine compartment and sadly we paid using a debit card.

So what does your local think is causing misfire?

Also if your pump was recon, it would look shiny and new!

So you've only been ripped off just once on this fault. Shoddy performance. Once you've been ripped off 3 or 4 times for 'fixes' to the same fault then you're up to speed on things.

I think garages often genuinely think they're (trying to) resolve problems but its just guess work with your money.

I'm not familiar with the TD4 HP Pump, but HP pumps are usually (always?) driven from the engine - so I'm not sure what your local garage means by "fitted in such an unusual way". I'd of thought it was either fitted properly or it simply wouldn't work.

I gave up on garages for exactly this type of activity. AA Relay membership and a Halfords socket set (upgraded to a locally purchased Chinese set recently) for me now. My tag name used to be JovialJoe, after burning $1,000s with garages, its now....

Not necessarily shiny and new, but it definitely should have either security seal stickers or paint on the casing bolts and the garage that fitted it should be able to provide a receipt from the refurbisher.

However, as mentioned above, one persons idea of refurbished differs from the next. If I bought a refurbished injection pump I would expect it to have had a full strip, test and rebuild using new internal parts as required, however some people sell "refurbished" pumps that are just second hand units removed from a breakers yard and cleaned externally.

Either way......a failed high pressure pump on a TD4 is a relatively rare occurrence. Fuelling problems are usually down to the electrical lift pump, fuel filter or injectors.

dave21478 said:

Not necessarily shiny and new, but it definitely should have either security seal stickers or paint on the casing bolts and the garage that fitted it should be able to provide a receipt from the refurbisher.

However, as mentioned above, one persons idea of refurbished differs from the next. If I bought a refurbished injection pump I would expect it to have had a full strip, test and rebuild using new internal parts as required, however some people sell "refurbished" pumps that are just second hand units removed from a breakers yard and cleaned externally.

Either way......a failed high pressure pump on a TD4 is a relatively rare occurrence. Fuelling problems are usually down to the electrical lift pump, fuel filter or injectors.

Click to expand...

what if the garage in question says we refurbed it our selves

Yep, you've been ripped off. Don't make the same mistake twice.

Keep the car, fix it properly and learn how to repair it yourself. If you can.

Bon courage!

My point, if it was a good refurb, it does actually get cleaned externally, it does sound like a take off from a scrappy

Didn't rectify it
Read crock of ****

"quote"
It's the main high pressure fuel pump in the engine compartment and sadly we paid using a debit card.
"quote"



Im pretty sure debit card carry just as much punch as credit cards do nower days, get on to your bank

Julian Bray said:

Thanks for the replies. The receipt simply says re-con fuel pump and the price we paid. We'll try speaking with Trading Standards but my gut feeling is that there is very little that we can do. This is the risk of dealing with a garage not near to where we live..... I wished that we had simply called out the AA and had it towed home for a local repair.

Click to expand...

I once advised trading standards of a miss-sold purchase and they came back to me at a later date when investigating multiple complaints. I then gave formal evidence and the chap was convicted in court on multiple counts with a £14k fine. He'd been dodgy for some time and made a lot of money out of it. So it's still worth doing.