Shoddy practice or sharp practice?

[DSM10000]

IIRC if a leak is suspected [ drop in refrigerant level? ] its recommended practice to renew the drier cartridge in the car as well as replacing the gas. One posssible scenario would be that enough water had got into the system to block the system by partially freezing at the expansion valve prior to the regassing and this problem had not been adequately addressed on regassing and it froze again Usually these regassing stations recycle the same refrigerant after cleaning drying and filtering it unless of course the regassing station filters weren't too hot either - Second time they appear to have done it better- time will tell. That's my guess anyway.

Useful guide however it does not explain why they drained the system and handed it back U/S with no explanation and without the owners knowledge or consent as to what had happened.

 

[DSM10000]

Just to update and close this thread:

The company concerned did respond quickly. They apologised and assured us that the Regional Manager would be visiting the branch to look at procedures and to ensure that this could not happen again.

As "compensation" the company initially offered 20% off a service!

Our neighbour (who has a very dry wit) asked me to inform them that he did not have a lawn mower that was in need of service and he would not trust them with anything else!

I suggested to the company that this was scant recompense for the inconvenience they had caused and he was very unlikely to require them to service his car, They then relented and have sent him cheque for £100. Our neighbour is happy with this outcome and, as is his way, has donated it to Help for Hero's.

 

[DSM10000]

Addendum:

I thought we had heard the last from the Company in question but no!

After a considerable gap in communication another Email arrived explaining how they were sorry that their original explanation was not thought suitable in terms of laying out how the events had unfolded, how they were again ensuring such an event would not happen again by training etc and completely refuting my / our assertion that they had attempted to extract monies for unnecessary work from someone they saw as vulnerable and easily manipulated.

Their reasoning for the latter was because "We do not carry out any form of repairs to Air conditioning systems"

Being the naturally suspicious type and also having some inside knowledge I decided to call the branch in question where I suggested that I may have a problem with my A/C system, surprisingly they were very happy to book it in for an evaluation and repair despite Head Office categorically telling me that they did not offer this service(let us pass over the fact that I have an invoice from them for carrying out an A/C repair on one of our cars in the not distant past), on informing the Head Office of this another email appeared telling me that a "Special Technician" occasionally travelled to branches to carry out A/C repairs.

Now I leave it to others to decide if this is just bare faced lying, incompetence or both!

 

[littleowl]

Garages lying and incompetent?? Surely not

 

[Deletedmember130310]

I’d report back to the head office - but I am a wind up merchant.

 

[DSM10000]

I’d report back to the head office - but I am a wind up merchant.

The emails are coming from the head office!

 

[E55BOF]

The evidence suggests they employ fibbers. Bare-faced fibbers...

 

[Deletedmember130310]

The emails are coming from the head office!

I meant tell HQ that your local outlet is quoting for work that HQ says they shouldn’t be doing....

 

[DSM10000]

I meant tell HQ that your local outlet is quoting for work that HQ says they shouldn’t be doing....

They know.

After calling the branch and being told that they can repair A/C systems I emailed the HQ to tell them.

The person at HQ then clearly had to think of something plausible and said that a technician occasionally travels there to repair systems.

 

[Joderest]

These sort of outlets use non trained, vehicle part changers and give the most basic training on machines like air con. They are correct what they say, the machine does all the important work, however, some one has to determine what the machine is saying when it comes up with a problem.
I would suggest that the refrigerant was low in the first place, no fault, and the "user" did not understand more had to go back in, so left it empty instead of recharging, perhaps that is company policy.

 

[DSM10000]

These sort of outlets use non trained, vehicle part changers and give the most basic training on machines like air con. They are correct what they say, the machine does all the important work, however, some one has to determine what the machine is saying when it comes up with a problem.
I would suggest that the refrigerant was low in the first place, no fault, and the "user" did not understand more had to go back in, so left it empty instead of recharging, perhaps that is company policy.

If you read the first post then you will see that they said that the refrigerant level was correct when checked, that it was emptied and re-filled but with no change in the temperature.

 

[Joderest]

I understand what you say, but wonder if the "user" just did not understand. The fact that on a return they recharged, and it worked perfectly sort of points towards user error.
My ML had very poor cold air, the air con worked as cleared screen very fast, but on cold it was only just below outside temp. When i had it checked, it had refrigerant but very low, when recharged, its now so cold i turn it off.
That sort of sounds like the car you are talking about.

 

[DSM10000]

I understand what you say, but wonder if the "user" just did not understand. The fact that on a return they recharged, and it worked perfectly sort of points towards user error.
My ML had very poor cold air, the air con worked as cleared screen very fast, but on cold it was only just below outside temp. When i had it checked, it had refrigerant but very low, when recharged, its now so cold i turn it off.
That sort of sounds like the car you are talking about.

The systems used to recharge A/C are, as the garage kept claiming andrepeating, automatic, the only thing the user has to do is connect the system to the vehicle, enter the vehicle details and follow the prompts.

There was no user error, the Technician eventually admitted that he deliberately emptied the system after, according to him, two recharges had failed to improve things and because he assumed a fault existed and to get it repaired would require the system to be drained of refrigerant and he did so without discussion with or the permission of the owner.

The incontrovertible fact is that after our return and "discussion" and a regas by the same Technician using the same system the A/C started working and has continued to do so.

 

[Joderest]

Ok