Thread: More sloppy work

Hi All

My run of horrible luck continues.

I put my car into a local four-wheel drive accessories shop the other day to have a bull bar, steering guard, long range tank and tow bar fitted. I believed they had a decent reputation, but the outcome wasn't what I hoped for.

They ended up having the car for two full days (alarm bells ringing) and despite my asking if there were any problems, I was told all was well, it was just a little time consuming, although they told me they'd had to alter the brackets on the tank to fit the holes in the chassis. As far as I know, the tank bolts straight onto the chassis fore and aft through a couple of large brackets/flanges on the ends of the tank...

Anyway, I picked the car up at the end of day two and apart from a few greasy marks and hand prints on the exterior, everything looked okay on the face of it.

I drove home and en-route realised that there was grime smudged all over the front seat covers, including, as it transpires, a perfect print of someone's filthy mitt across the back of the passenger head restraint. Yes, they're intended to protect the seats from accidental damage and wear, but at $700 landed in Australia and three months old, the fact that this probably won't wash out is hard to swallow.

Once home, I set about wiping the greasy hand prints off the bull bar and discovered that there was drying paint on one end of the bar; I looked closer and realised it was dented, scraped and had been painted over. I presume this happened in transit or they dropped it in the workshop and probably accounts for why they had the car for two days. I wasn't impressed that they hadn't owned up to it.

I've also noted some faint scuffs and a couple of chips in the powder coat on the uprights, suggesting the bar has been laid on the workshop floor with nothing underneath it to protect the finish. As you'll all have worked out by now, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but this is indicative of the level of care taken; that and the bar having been fitted off the square and rubbing the grille on one side.

I decided to have a closer look at everything else after making these discoveries. The steering guard has a couple of chunks of powder coat missing off the brackets, although it's hopefully plated in some way to avoid corrosion. Similarly they've rubbed the paint off the edges of a couple of openings on the rear crossmember. The tow bar and tank seem to be okay apart from a couple of minor scuffs, but the trailer electrics look like they were installed by Stevie Wonder!

When I ordered everything there was some debate over whether an ECU was needed for the trailer electrics and I advised them of the harness behind the right-hand taillights. However, Hayman Reese confirmed that an ECU was needed on the 110 and the staff at the shop obviously forgot about the harness. The result is wiring that is all over the place, with some of it stretched over the top of the fuel tank and other parts patched into the left-hand taillights and strung tightly, thanks to a few zip ties, across the rear left-hand wheel well, right in the line of fire from the rear tyre and immediately above the exhaust. The ECU is attached with double-sided tape to the left-hand chassis rail, right behind the rear spring hanger.

I took it back the next day and they've offered to 're-plate' the end of the bar and have it repainted/coated (although only the end section) and fix the trailer electrics. They said to let me know how I get on washing the seat covers and we'll go from there. Hopefully they get it right this time around, but it should have been right first time. There's even a bootprint on one of the rear mudflaps, where it's obviously been removed and just tossed on the workshop floor and trod on.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I think that if you trust your car to someone for them to work on it, it's not unreasonable for to expect them to take care with it.

On top of all of that, I've still got a set of side rails, which were damaged in transit to WA, lying on the garage floor with the matter unresolved, and the tint still needs redoing after the bodge job that was done originally.

I apologise for this essay, which may have degenerated into a semi-coherent rant, but I'm absolutely sickened with the apparent lack of care, competence and customer service offered nowadays.

Actually, that's not fair, I picked up my Rijidij wheel carrier from the courier's depot today and although I haven't completely unpacked it yet, everything appears to be in perfect condition. Murray has been an absolute pleasure to deal with and he knows how to pack a parcel!

Thanks for the input and advice everyone. We'll see how things go. I washed my seat covers and I'm waiting for them to dry to see how they look.

loneranger, I'm on the south coast, so way, way SOR! I hope I haven't put too many members into panic mode with this thread, but rest assured that the work was not done in the Metro area. If anyone wants the name of the outfit so you can avoid them, just drop me a PM.

Cheers.