Okay im in a serious tight spot at the moment and im not sure which way to proceed.
Its a complicated story so please read if you have the time and hopefully someone could offer me some useful advice.
Approximately a month ago i lost the starter on my 2008 RS Clio 197 Cup, owned since new ( that being it wouldnt turn over ). Having only 2 months warranty left and it never being serviced at Renault i knew they'd never uphold any warranty work so bit the bullet and ordered a starter at £270.
A week later the starter arrived and i fitted it myself at work, however this failed to cure the non-starting issues, all the obvious things were checked, interior fusebox, relays, supply wires to solenoid and starter etc etc.
In the end i threw the towell in and took it down to my local Renault dealer, Toomey Southend. They charged me £40 to scan the ECU for faults and have a quick look over the car.
An hour later they come back and inform there are NO faults on the ECU and its likely to be an ECM control unit needing changing, but they'll have to keep it a week to perform more diagnostics. I was quoted approximately £1000 upwards for the work!
Obviously i nearly passed out when they said this so i gratefully paid the £40 for the scan and left no better off.
Rang a few specialist companies from the forum until i spoke to Track-Group ( formerly TDF ) who said they'd be happy to have a look and were confident they could find the fault and rectify it much cheaper, they even offered to stay open late whilst i made the 2 hour journey.
When i arrived the first thing they did was scan the ECU. To my suprise there was 3 logged faults on there! One for ABS sensors ( which i assume was from a rolling road session a few months back ), o2 sensor fault from the decat and a knock sensor fault from nitrous use. They were all logged faults and not active. When i told Matt that Renault didnt inform me of these faults they suggested Renault didnt even bother scanning it?
So they began to look at the car, i was expecting bad news from the pros and would have to leave my car there but to my amazement within 5 minutes ( literally ) the car fired up to life. Turned out to be a FUSE in a hidden/sealed fusebox under the battery tray. The repair was made free of charge.
Okay so although i was grateful of the car being repaired i was angry at Renault on two counts. Firstly they either didnt bother doing the scan and charged me for it, or failed to inform me of the faults on there, including a brake system fault. Very serious stuff. And secondly tried to have me over for £1000+ for what effectively would have been a fuse change! Bad enough to accept that they either couldnt diagnose a simple fuse in an hour or were clearly trying their luck.
So i called Renault UK to make a complaint ( 3 weeks ago ) and spoke to a chap called Adrian. He agreed this was unaccecptable and said he'd get back to me after speaking to the dealer. The next day he calls back to inform me he's secured me a refund and the service manager at the dealers will be getting in touch. After a couple days i hear nothing so ring Adrian back, he was confused that i hadnt heard anything and agreed to get on their case. This same routine then recycled on for 2 weeks, me hearing nothing, complaining and then being assured i'll hear something. After 2 weeks i ring the dealer direct, but can never seem to catch the service manager avaliable and he refuses to return my calls, even after several attempts.
So today i think enough is enough. I phone Adrian back at Renault UK and he then informs me Toomey Southend have decided to withdraw the refund and are claiming they have done nothing wrong. I spend the next hour arguing on the phone but he assures me because they are a franchise he has 'limited power' over them and has tried his best for me. So i said i'd take the complaint direct to Toomey Southend so i asked for the name and contact number of the head manager at the dealership. He then said the most rediculous thing, and i quote 'I dont know, we dont have that information avaliable to us'. I then asked how me managed to contact them then and he stuttered and just added 'I appreciate your frustration but this matter is closed'.
I said i wanted to take the complaint further and he informed me i couldnt and this is as far as the matter would go no matter how much i persisted, even though the dealer has clearly cheated me out of £40 and tried for another £1000. He refused me to give me any contact details for the dealer then eventually hung up.
Okay thanks for reading if you've kept with me
Firstly i need to know how do i take this complaint further with Renault? i'm not happy to leave it at that. I attempted to contact the dealer again today but got the same old 'he's not avaliable but will call you back asap'. I heard nothing.
If thats as far as it will go with RENUK surely i must have some sort of rights as to the service they have supplied opposed to what they have charged for? At the very least there must be some governing body i can report the fact to that they allowed the vehicle to leave the workshop without even advising me of a braking fault logged on the ECU?
Thanks for reading, hope someone could offer some help
Ben.
Its a complicated story so please read if you have the time and hopefully someone could offer me some useful advice.
Approximately a month ago i lost the starter on my 2008 RS Clio 197 Cup, owned since new ( that being it wouldnt turn over ). Having only 2 months warranty left and it never being serviced at Renault i knew they'd never uphold any warranty work so bit the bullet and ordered a starter at £270.
A week later the starter arrived and i fitted it myself at work, however this failed to cure the non-starting issues, all the obvious things were checked, interior fusebox, relays, supply wires to solenoid and starter etc etc.
In the end i threw the towell in and took it down to my local Renault dealer, Toomey Southend. They charged me £40 to scan the ECU for faults and have a quick look over the car.
An hour later they come back and inform there are NO faults on the ECU and its likely to be an ECM control unit needing changing, but they'll have to keep it a week to perform more diagnostics. I was quoted approximately £1000 upwards for the work!
Obviously i nearly passed out when they said this so i gratefully paid the £40 for the scan and left no better off.
Rang a few specialist companies from the forum until i spoke to Track-Group ( formerly TDF ) who said they'd be happy to have a look and were confident they could find the fault and rectify it much cheaper, they even offered to stay open late whilst i made the 2 hour journey.
When i arrived the first thing they did was scan the ECU. To my suprise there was 3 logged faults on there! One for ABS sensors ( which i assume was from a rolling road session a few months back ), o2 sensor fault from the decat and a knock sensor fault from nitrous use. They were all logged faults and not active. When i told Matt that Renault didnt inform me of these faults they suggested Renault didnt even bother scanning it?
So they began to look at the car, i was expecting bad news from the pros and would have to leave my car there but to my amazement within 5 minutes ( literally ) the car fired up to life. Turned out to be a FUSE in a hidden/sealed fusebox under the battery tray. The repair was made free of charge.
Okay so although i was grateful of the car being repaired i was angry at Renault on two counts. Firstly they either didnt bother doing the scan and charged me for it, or failed to inform me of the faults on there, including a brake system fault. Very serious stuff. And secondly tried to have me over for £1000+ for what effectively would have been a fuse change! Bad enough to accept that they either couldnt diagnose a simple fuse in an hour or were clearly trying their luck.
So i called Renault UK to make a complaint ( 3 weeks ago ) and spoke to a chap called Adrian. He agreed this was unaccecptable and said he'd get back to me after speaking to the dealer. The next day he calls back to inform me he's secured me a refund and the service manager at the dealers will be getting in touch. After a couple days i hear nothing so ring Adrian back, he was confused that i hadnt heard anything and agreed to get on their case. This same routine then recycled on for 2 weeks, me hearing nothing, complaining and then being assured i'll hear something. After 2 weeks i ring the dealer direct, but can never seem to catch the service manager avaliable and he refuses to return my calls, even after several attempts.
So today i think enough is enough. I phone Adrian back at Renault UK and he then informs me Toomey Southend have decided to withdraw the refund and are claiming they have done nothing wrong. I spend the next hour arguing on the phone but he assures me because they are a franchise he has 'limited power' over them and has tried his best for me. So i said i'd take the complaint direct to Toomey Southend so i asked for the name and contact number of the head manager at the dealership. He then said the most rediculous thing, and i quote 'I dont know, we dont have that information avaliable to us'. I then asked how me managed to contact them then and he stuttered and just added 'I appreciate your frustration but this matter is closed'.
I said i wanted to take the complaint further and he informed me i couldnt and this is as far as the matter would go no matter how much i persisted, even though the dealer has clearly cheated me out of £40 and tried for another £1000. He refused me to give me any contact details for the dealer then eventually hung up.
Okay thanks for reading if you've kept with me
Firstly i need to know how do i take this complaint further with Renault? i'm not happy to leave it at that. I attempted to contact the dealer again today but got the same old 'he's not avaliable but will call you back asap'. I heard nothing.If thats as far as it will go with RENUK surely i must have some sort of rights as to the service they have supplied opposed to what they have charged for? At the very least there must be some governing body i can report the fact to that they allowed the vehicle to leave the workshop without even advising me of a braking fault logged on the ECU?
Thanks for reading, hope someone could offer some help
Ben.
