A few weeks ago I posted a Question about the Items on an Astra Service, and had replies from a chap called Philip and also from Alan, I promised to let the group know how the service went, we are a family who have several forms of experience, Electrical Mechanical, Heating, Building etc, and it has to be said that the only time we ever have problems, is when so called professionals are called in, EG a corgi registered fitter did a crap job on a gas pipe on our fire, a firm of installers used by B&Q spent 8 Months fitting and then putting right all their work on a one week job, etc ,etc . So as we had to have a service on the Astra to keep the warranty going ( the car was bought from and service done by nation wide firm ) and fully aware that good service in anything these days is very scarce, I first checked all the items on the service list in the car handbook, then as the pressure in the spare tyre was specifically mentioned in the Vauxhall service book ( car was not serviced by a Vauxhall Garage ) I reduced the pressure in the spare to 17lbs, and then placed a large leaf on the carpet above the spare wheel compartment, to see if it was disturbed during the service, the result was as follows, wife took car to service centre, was given a courtesy car, wife drove courtesy car noticed it was a poor ride etc ,found car had a flat tyre,12 lbs ,,,, inflated it at nearby garage, on taking courtesy car back wife told girl at service counter she had been given a car with a flat tyre,,, the reply was that it had only just come back late the night before,,,,no apology ,,, no thought of the consequences of an accident caused by their defective car,,Wife collected Astra,, at home I checked oil, oil filter, etc etc OK, then I open the boot and the Leaf is still in the same position as placed before, checked pressure in spare,,,YES 17 lbs, never even had mat up or checked the tread depth. So we phone the service desk, tell them what we found,,,and are told by the service manager that they don't check tyre pressures, obviously not a thinking man, far better to say OH dear very sorry we missed that, etc. no the idiot actually said they didn't check tyre pressures. So I very calmly phoned the manager and told him what had happened, he was very sorry and said he could not understand why we were told that pressures were not checked, I suggested to him that the reason was that the service department did not check pressures, in spite of the fact that, he and I, and more to the point the Vauxhall service guide say it should be done, I then asked him what he was going to do about all the recent customers who had not had their spare tyre checked for tread or pressure, it went very quiet, he said he would have a word with the service department, ( Very good of him ) I told him about the service department giving the wife a defective/dangerous car with a flat tyre, ( It's a good job this is not the USA ) because his scandalous reply was that, yes, if it came in late the night before, there would have been no time to check it, for oil etc. I asked him if it was worth the chap who drove the car out of their pound taking 20 seconds to walk around the car and give the tyres a visual. I got all the claptrap that you would expect from a firm who have no answers to the mess they get themselves in when the only thing they want, is our money, and the product or service is flawed. I was assured that the next service will be better. That's nice.
