pantherZ4LFC
New member
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly = Z Shed
The Good
Got a Z4 2006 that needed a replacement soft top, booked in with Mike at the Zshed.
Absolutely amazing job, sourced a near new replacement top and installed it in a day.
Brilliant price, superb service 10 /10 no question.
While it was in having the replacement top, Mike diagnosed that the car had an issue with the crank sensor, and this was the reason why on the odd occasion the car didn't start on the first turn of the key, always did on the second, but very infrequently.
He said the part and labor would cost about £100 but the repair was no desperate rush and I should bring it back whenever I had a free hour or so.
So six months and 5000 miles later I decided to book it in for the replacement sensor.
The Bad
Booked for 11am, arrived on time, Mike orders the part which arrived about an hour later.
A very difficult place to carry out a repair, right at the bottom of the engine bay, clearly a pain in the arse to do and he was clearly struggling replacing the part, which is one screw and one electrical connection from the loom.
He confirms it is done but car now won't start. Now I'm no engineer but given the car now won’t start at all, that is an indication that whatever has just been done hasn’t worked, that's pretty obvious, so he's back under the bonnet and is now saying that it's the electrical connector that is broken, even though it wasn't broken before.
So a replacement connector is salvaged from a spare engine he has in the workshop and “crimp connected” to the loom, no insulation tape, no shrink wrap covers to make it watertight, shoddy.
Car starts but runs like crap. Mike tells me to take it for a run around the estate. Which I do, absolutely horrendous, so back in it goes.
By this time Mike has three other people to sort out and my 30 min job has turned into an hour, he's clearly under pressure.
Mike plugs it in, clears some faults and deems it sorted and ready to go, a good run will sort it he says and sends me on my way.
By the time I got on the M62 it was running like a battered tractor, cutting a long story short Mike had the car two more times and failed to sort the problem.
The car was undrivable and unroadworthy and I tried to contract him by phone, WhatsApp, email and social medial and got no response, this car went in with an intermittent fault and came out undrivable and now he ignores my requests to put it right, I don't think that's asking too much.
Now really pissed off I message Mike on WhatsApp asking what's going on, when can he sort this problem, he had caused and why he had fucked me off, because that's exactly what he had done.
His reply was
Erm, the fault is completely different. There are no fault codes for the replaced parts. I'm on my own this week as well you know, and saw you on a Saturday to diagnose.
And I don't appreciate being sworn at by text either.
Anyone that knows mike, he swears like any other bloke in a garage.
I point out that the car is unroadworthy and undrivable and that I have tried many times to get in touch with him by WhatsApp, email etc
His reply was:
And that's called harassment.
I don't just have your car to deal with. Like i said there are no faults for the newly fitted crank position sensor.
Your car has developed another fault.
Followed by
I'm not at your beck and call.
Feel free to take it elsewhere to have the new issue resolved.
So basically, fucking me off and washing his hands of the problem he had created. Nice.
So, what do I do, I contact another garage who came out to assess the problem and arrange to recover the vehicle back to their premises. (Both chargeable)
A day or so later I get a call from the garage confirming that the crank position sensor was broken, had been fitted incorrectly and not aligned and that the wiring was appalling.
The workmanship was put right and the car was running fine again as it was before Mike cocked it up.
I sent Mike the copy of The Bosch printout and some photos and explanation on what he had done wrong and requesting a refund of the £117 I had paid him for the work, Mike ignored my request.
This was sent by email, WhatsApp and by letter, all were ignored.
The principle of the matter is Mike made a mistake and I wanted a refund for the shoddy workmanship, yes he was under pressure, but that's not my fault, you pay for a service you want it done right or refund me. I didn't even request the callout fee or the recovery charge, just what I had paid and I was sending him the part back so he could get a refund on that, so he would only be losing £30 for the fitting.
No response even when sent by recorded delivery, so I told him I would not let this go and its the principle not the money and informed him that I would take this through the small claims if needed and the call out, recovery and court fees would be added to the £117
Again, completely ignored.
So, court papers were filed, and papers need to be in by a certain date, and no surprise Mike asks for an extension.
Next is an opportunity for mediation to avoid this going to court, and no surprise Mike doesn't even bother to attend, the time and date arranged by himself.
Next is court and the date is set and papers for defence and claimant need to be submitted to each other and to the court.
I send mine to the court and to Mike and get this reply from Mike
Received – Will forward a copy of counterclaim when lodged, at our normal costs of £75+vat per hour for dealing with the matter.
So, Mike was fully aware that the court hearing was impending but now tries to say he was not aware of the hearing as his post box is inadequate.
How can you postpone a court hearing that you apparently know nothing about as you hadn't received the paperwork, you can't postpone something you don't know about?
So, I go to court on the arranged date, Mikes not there but he has contacted the court to postpone the hearing that he knew nothing about.
The case goes ahead in his absence, and I win, Mike argues that I've won nothing as he had not filled a defence, what defence did you have Mike?
The only work done on the car was to replace the sensor you had cocked up, nothing else, unless you're going to try and blame something else, with a shady false print out.
Even your original diagnosis was wrong, some weeks after your cockup was fixed the car started misstarting again and it turns out it was the ignition and nothing to do with the crank sensor in the first place, you just created an entirely new problem, well done.
And in addition to this you charged me for a Siemans Crank sensor, which is a better quality aftermarket part, yet fitted a Herth & Buss which is a cheaper alternative, that's not nice.
I'm retired now and have been for two years, but I was in business for almost 40 years and I learned very early on that if you make a mistake you hold your head up and deal with that problem and do all you can to ensure that customer is happy in the end, bad news travels a lot faster than good and in this day of TrustPilot and Google reviews a business can suffer badly with shoddy workmanship.
Do I want your business to suffer, no certainly not, you may think you're a brilliant engineer and some think the sun shines out your arse but your communication and dealing with issues is absolutely shocking and I really hope that you learn from this and being pig headed and burying your head in the sand will not make a problem go away, and if you had just replaced the part or even refunded the £117 all this could have been avoided.
How you respond to this will answer a lot of questions for people.
Just admit when you make a mistake it's as simple as that.
The Ugly
Last email sent by Mike before the bailiffs were sent in.
Payment made, as I do not have the time to waste, and do not see the point in paying a fee to the court of £300. My time is worth more than the money lost in attending court.
You do however need to remember, that this judgement was made in the absence of a defence, due to the notification of hearing not being received via Royal Mail. You have achieved nothing and hope you do not live to regret what you have actually done.
I hope it was worth it.
Your emails will now be blocked.
Regret, so wanting a job done correctly or your money back for crap workmanship is wrong and I should regret it, grow up Mike and own up to your mistake.
Don't you think I've got better things to be doing than spending hours getting paperwork ready for court or this, all this wasted time is down to you, if anyone should carry regret it's you, what have I done other than got the money back that you owed me, any costs on top of the £117 are all down do you.
By the way, I had no intention on posting anything negative until I got your email yesterday.
Happy to remove this post if you want to hold your hands up and say you made a mistake, after all we can all make mistakes, its being the bigger person to admit it.
Anyone that would like to read the court transcripts can request them at St Helens County Court Case Number 568MC692
This will explain why the judge proceeded with the case without a defence and why an adjournment was not considered.
I still could have lost on the day and the judge was very thorough.
And now veiled threats by text from the Burtonwood Mafia, Classy company.
The Good
Got a Z4 2006 that needed a replacement soft top, booked in with Mike at the Zshed.
Absolutely amazing job, sourced a near new replacement top and installed it in a day.
Brilliant price, superb service 10 /10 no question.
While it was in having the replacement top, Mike diagnosed that the car had an issue with the crank sensor, and this was the reason why on the odd occasion the car didn't start on the first turn of the key, always did on the second, but very infrequently.
He said the part and labor would cost about £100 but the repair was no desperate rush and I should bring it back whenever I had a free hour or so.
So six months and 5000 miles later I decided to book it in for the replacement sensor.
The Bad
Booked for 11am, arrived on time, Mike orders the part which arrived about an hour later.
A very difficult place to carry out a repair, right at the bottom of the engine bay, clearly a pain in the arse to do and he was clearly struggling replacing the part, which is one screw and one electrical connection from the loom.
He confirms it is done but car now won't start. Now I'm no engineer but given the car now won’t start at all, that is an indication that whatever has just been done hasn’t worked, that's pretty obvious, so he's back under the bonnet and is now saying that it's the electrical connector that is broken, even though it wasn't broken before.
So a replacement connector is salvaged from a spare engine he has in the workshop and “crimp connected” to the loom, no insulation tape, no shrink wrap covers to make it watertight, shoddy.
Car starts but runs like crap. Mike tells me to take it for a run around the estate. Which I do, absolutely horrendous, so back in it goes.
By this time Mike has three other people to sort out and my 30 min job has turned into an hour, he's clearly under pressure.
Mike plugs it in, clears some faults and deems it sorted and ready to go, a good run will sort it he says and sends me on my way.
By the time I got on the M62 it was running like a battered tractor, cutting a long story short Mike had the car two more times and failed to sort the problem.
The car was undrivable and unroadworthy and I tried to contract him by phone, WhatsApp, email and social medial and got no response, this car went in with an intermittent fault and came out undrivable and now he ignores my requests to put it right, I don't think that's asking too much.
Now really pissed off I message Mike on WhatsApp asking what's going on, when can he sort this problem, he had caused and why he had fucked me off, because that's exactly what he had done.
His reply was
Erm, the fault is completely different. There are no fault codes for the replaced parts. I'm on my own this week as well you know, and saw you on a Saturday to diagnose.
And I don't appreciate being sworn at by text either.
Anyone that knows mike, he swears like any other bloke in a garage.
I point out that the car is unroadworthy and undrivable and that I have tried many times to get in touch with him by WhatsApp, email etc
His reply was:
And that's called harassment.
I don't just have your car to deal with. Like i said there are no faults for the newly fitted crank position sensor.
Your car has developed another fault.
Followed by
I'm not at your beck and call.
Feel free to take it elsewhere to have the new issue resolved.
So basically, fucking me off and washing his hands of the problem he had created. Nice.
So, what do I do, I contact another garage who came out to assess the problem and arrange to recover the vehicle back to their premises. (Both chargeable)
A day or so later I get a call from the garage confirming that the crank position sensor was broken, had been fitted incorrectly and not aligned and that the wiring was appalling.
The workmanship was put right and the car was running fine again as it was before Mike cocked it up.
I sent Mike the copy of The Bosch printout and some photos and explanation on what he had done wrong and requesting a refund of the £117 I had paid him for the work, Mike ignored my request.
This was sent by email, WhatsApp and by letter, all were ignored.
The principle of the matter is Mike made a mistake and I wanted a refund for the shoddy workmanship, yes he was under pressure, but that's not my fault, you pay for a service you want it done right or refund me. I didn't even request the callout fee or the recovery charge, just what I had paid and I was sending him the part back so he could get a refund on that, so he would only be losing £30 for the fitting.
No response even when sent by recorded delivery, so I told him I would not let this go and its the principle not the money and informed him that I would take this through the small claims if needed and the call out, recovery and court fees would be added to the £117
Again, completely ignored.
So, court papers were filed, and papers need to be in by a certain date, and no surprise Mike asks for an extension.
Next is an opportunity for mediation to avoid this going to court, and no surprise Mike doesn't even bother to attend, the time and date arranged by himself.
Next is court and the date is set and papers for defence and claimant need to be submitted to each other and to the court.
I send mine to the court and to Mike and get this reply from Mike
Received – Will forward a copy of counterclaim when lodged, at our normal costs of £75+vat per hour for dealing with the matter.
So, Mike was fully aware that the court hearing was impending but now tries to say he was not aware of the hearing as his post box is inadequate.
How can you postpone a court hearing that you apparently know nothing about as you hadn't received the paperwork, you can't postpone something you don't know about?
So, I go to court on the arranged date, Mikes not there but he has contacted the court to postpone the hearing that he knew nothing about.
The case goes ahead in his absence, and I win, Mike argues that I've won nothing as he had not filled a defence, what defence did you have Mike?
The only work done on the car was to replace the sensor you had cocked up, nothing else, unless you're going to try and blame something else, with a shady false print out.
Even your original diagnosis was wrong, some weeks after your cockup was fixed the car started misstarting again and it turns out it was the ignition and nothing to do with the crank sensor in the first place, you just created an entirely new problem, well done.
And in addition to this you charged me for a Siemans Crank sensor, which is a better quality aftermarket part, yet fitted a Herth & Buss which is a cheaper alternative, that's not nice.
I'm retired now and have been for two years, but I was in business for almost 40 years and I learned very early on that if you make a mistake you hold your head up and deal with that problem and do all you can to ensure that customer is happy in the end, bad news travels a lot faster than good and in this day of TrustPilot and Google reviews a business can suffer badly with shoddy workmanship.
Do I want your business to suffer, no certainly not, you may think you're a brilliant engineer and some think the sun shines out your arse but your communication and dealing with issues is absolutely shocking and I really hope that you learn from this and being pig headed and burying your head in the sand will not make a problem go away, and if you had just replaced the part or even refunded the £117 all this could have been avoided.
How you respond to this will answer a lot of questions for people.
Just admit when you make a mistake it's as simple as that.
The Ugly
Last email sent by Mike before the bailiffs were sent in.
Payment made, as I do not have the time to waste, and do not see the point in paying a fee to the court of £300. My time is worth more than the money lost in attending court.
You do however need to remember, that this judgement was made in the absence of a defence, due to the notification of hearing not being received via Royal Mail. You have achieved nothing and hope you do not live to regret what you have actually done.
I hope it was worth it.
Your emails will now be blocked.
Regret, so wanting a job done correctly or your money back for crap workmanship is wrong and I should regret it, grow up Mike and own up to your mistake.
Don't you think I've got better things to be doing than spending hours getting paperwork ready for court or this, all this wasted time is down to you, if anyone should carry regret it's you, what have I done other than got the money back that you owed me, any costs on top of the £117 are all down do you.
By the way, I had no intention on posting anything negative until I got your email yesterday.
Happy to remove this post if you want to hold your hands up and say you made a mistake, after all we can all make mistakes, its being the bigger person to admit it.
Anyone that would like to read the court transcripts can request them at St Helens County Court Case Number 568MC692
This will explain why the judge proceeded with the case without a defence and why an adjournment was not considered.
I still could have lost on the day and the judge was very thorough.
And now veiled threats by text from the Burtonwood Mafia, Classy company.
aper: