Alhambra 2 Year Service

[italiastar]

I'm just getting ready for my annual (2nd year) service and have been quoted

[seatkid]

please tell me what is included in this service

Crushed sills and a sachet of windscreen fluid...... :angry:

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Gulp

I assume that your Alhambra should be on the same service intervals as the Galaxy - 2 minor services followed by a major every 3 years. So you should only be paying around

[italiastar]

Ivor, the first service last year was

[gazza007]

I agree all overpriced. I would ring round. Even my preferred dealership is getting the shove for my intermediate service.

Incidentelly a work colleague is doing mine today. Left him 4.3 litres of millers XFE/PD oil. He changed brake pads all round last year & charged me about

[italiastar]

With a bit of ringing around, I've got it down to

[italiastar]

Had a great day with dealers today - a ruck with two of them. Firstly Seat, after finding out that the correct price for servicing my Alhambra was around

[seatkid]

hehe :( ...told you so... :P

 

did they top up the windscreen fluid though? ;)

[italiastar]

If you do the job yourself at least you know its been done....

......at least you won't have to pay someone else to do it badly!!! ;)

 

The best part is thae neither car has been serviced yet - the Alhambra hasn't even been booked it. One of the cheapest for the Alhambra is Camberley Service Centre - a service only centre for SEAT and Skoda - not cheap on Skoda though :(

 

http://dealer.seat.co.uk/dealers/home.aspx?id=47.68P

 

When I spoke to SEAT (and Skoda) for that matter, they both said that dealers were allowed to set their own charges, so basically, from my experience, the garages with the highest labour rate take longer to do the job - great eh - we have to pay more for incompetance! Also, the excuse for charging around

[Ivor_E_Tower]

One of the cheapest for the Alhambra is Camberley Service Centre

This place (at its old premises) didn't get such a good report from at last one of our members (Porker) some months back, and for those not in the know, their old premises were demolished some months ago. An advertising board has now sprung up on the site proclaiming it has been aquired for old peoples' homes to be built on behalf of McCarthey and Stone (IIRC). Draw your own conclusions ......

[italiastar]

Ivor, Thanks - I was tempted with them if I brought both cars to them as they were willing to do a deal. I'm probably going to Sidlow near Gatwick or Westerham - has there been any reports about them?

[Masked Marauder]

Also, the excuse for charging around

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Italiastar - not seen any comments about Sidlow.

[tim-spam]

Quote:

 

"Take the tray off yourself before you take the car in?"

 

 

Then at least you'll know that all 6 fasteners are used - when I remove mine, there were only 4. There is no way that the other 2 would have fallen off by themselves, so you can draw your own conclusions about the standards of service at a main agent!

 

By the way, the handbook recommends dealer servicing as the best way of ensuring that the car remains as designed???!!! Does this mean that the car is designed with the wrong oil, missing fasteners, crushed sills, aircon not working, pollen filter incorrectly seated, scuttle drains blocked, oil overfilled, hose clips missing.......

 

My conclusion is that the ONLY way of guaranteeing a reasonable standard of servicing is to do it myself.

 

Tim

[seatkid]

Well said, that man.. :(

[italiastar]

Got my car serviced today - they ripped me off, but were very nice about it.

 

I arrived at 08:35 and they gave me back the car at 09:30. The bill said 1.30 hours labour, when I queried this, he said it was 1.3 hours and not one and a half hours. I then pointed out that they'd only had the car for 55 minutes - assuming they started working on it straight away - his immediate reply was that they had two "technicians" working on it for some of the time.

 

They also charged me for a sump plug washer, even though they went no where near it - I put some mud on one of the undertray bolts and unless they put some back for me, it was still there after the service.

 

They charged me for 5 litres of oil, even though the engine capacity is 4.5 litres. At least they admitted using Quantum and only charged

[italiastar]

Mmmmm - Just opened the hatch to check how easy it is to change the rear bulbs after reading another post on this forum, and found a 5ltr container of Quantum PD oil with 1 litre left in it........................................

[Guest gritrash]

They also charged me for a sump plug washer, even though they went no where near it - I put some mud on one of the undertray bolts and unless they put some back for me, it was still there after the service.

'scuse my ignorance, but how did they get the old oil out? Or did i just completely miss the sarcasm?

[italiastar]

No sacasm, they use a device to suck it out of the dipstick tube - it takes a few minutes, doesn't remove all the oil or sediment and they charge you 45 minutes labour!

[Guest gritrash]

No sacasm, they use a device to suck it out of the dipstick tube - it takes a few minutes, doesn't remove all the oil or sediment and they charge you 45 minutes labour!

so it's an oil change without changing all the oil. And there's me in my naive little world thinking that at least the oil got done when it went the stealers. Less time washing the vehicle and more time under the bonnet would be an improvement in my view.

 

BTW, my gal is booked in for it's second service at the local fraud place. Have been quoted

[seatkid]

Do you have to pay them to talk to them? Sheesh... :ph34r:

[Guest gritrash]

Apparently the 1/4 hour with mechanic is 'free'. But working on the assumption that nothing is given away, I am sure it is rolled up into the overall bill somehow. :ph34r:

[italiastar]

so it's an oil change without changing all the oil

 

Not quite - at least on my Alhambra the new oil is clean - the oil in my wife's Fabia after it's service was not as clean, despite it having half the mileage - it also took half a litre more and the oil cost twice the price.

 

I agree with you, if they spent less time checking things I can check myself, filling up screen wash, putting additives (diesel additive) I didn't ask for and bending sills and spent it instead on what they are supposed to do, we'd all be much better off.

[italiastar]

This is not specifically to do with my Alhambr, but PD oil related.

 

When my wifes Fabia required a service a few weeks ago, the dealer told me that the service was expensive because of the price of the special oil - "only comes in 1 litre bottles sir" as I'm sure we have all been told.

 

I've always suspected this, but I was recently talking to an ex-Audi "technician" at a party and he told me that they did in fact use 1 litre bottles.

 

I had reason to go to my dealer today and took the opportunity to drive into the workshop. To my surprise were several large oil drums, and other large containers of brake fluid, gearbox oil etc etc etc.

 

One oil drum contained Quantum PD oil. When I challanged the service manager he said it was not for PD engines - I questioned this further and he said it was for waste oil, despite there being a large tank next to the drum labelled "waste oil" He finally admitted that this was PD oil and that he was not aware from where it was supplied from. He asked me to believe thim that he was not aware of this drum.

 

I'm not annoyed that they used quantum PD oil, what annoys me is that they *hagged me for the cost of "highly expensive" VW oil and did not invoice or charge me for Quantum. When the Alhambra was serviced recently, they charged me for 5 litres of Quantum PD at just over a fiver per litre and put the container in the car with nearly 1 litre left. Skoda charged me nearly

[seatkid]

Next time, (if there is a next time!), take your own oil, making sure you get them to quote a proper reduction in price first. My Skoda 1.2 -