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Technical Balljoint issue - car coming up to 3yrs old

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Technical Balljoint issue - car coming up to 3yrs old

I get your point. The dealer took you at gunpoint, forced you to buy another car and get your current car repaired in such a short timeframe.

No garage will order parts for a warranty job till the warranty claim is approved, that's the way it works.

move along, nothing to see here.
 
306maxi said:
I get your point. The dealer took you at gunpoint, forced you to buy another car and get your current car repaired in such a short timeframe.

No garage will order parts for a warranty job till the warranty claim is approved, that's the way it works.

move along, nothing to see here.
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No need for the attitude.

If we don't get this sorted this week we don't get the new car until its resolved but it will cost us money as we will have to tax and test the car just to be able to take it over and get the new car.

The fact is - we don't get the car sorted this week my wife has no car through NO fault of her own as it can't be driven after Saturday. That is the issue with the timeframe - not the new car.
 
Just back from the dealers anyway after spending some time with the manager.

He apologised for my expectations being incorrectly set (shouldn't have been told within a day) but also appreciates our frustration at the length of time considering it needs testing this week.

Showed me the audit trail and the claim wasn't submitted until just before closing on Thursday night (after being initially identified Wednesday lunchtime). An additional complication was the system crashed and was down for a day (mm) and had to be resubmitted on Saturday afternoon. They received a request from Fiat for further information this morning and have faxed our details.

He has stated he expects to hear today (and hopefully within the next hour) but can't guarantee this as Fiat do things their own way. The manager has been very good and understands the issue. Said as soon as it is approved/rejected or if Fiat wish to send out an inspector he will be in touch and I've left it with him I'll chase tomorrow worst case.

Also stated that there should be no problem getting this sorted this week as long as the decision is made within the next day or two. Fingers crossed.

Had the same level of information been provided when I went in on Thursday this wouldn't have been as much of an issue as it was this morning although I'd still be pushing just because of the requirement for MOT etc.
 
My punto evo is due its first mot end of September had it serviced this weekend and it needs a turret top bearing (£25 part) and about 45 mins labour.

It's simply not worth the 50 mile round trip to have it in for the day to inspect and them to submit a claim then another 50 mile trip and a day waiting to go pick it up looking at 15 quid in fuel and 2 says off work plus a family member also doing 100 miles round to fetch me home / take me to pick the car up
 
senwar said:
Just back from the dealers anyway after spending some time with the manager.

He apologised for my expectations being incorrectly set (shouldn't have been told within a day) but also appreciates our frustration at the length of time considering it needs testing this week.

Showed me the audit trail and the claim wasn't submitted until just before closing on Thursday night (after being initially identified Wednesday lunchtime). An additional complication was the system crashed and was down for a day (mm) and had to be resubmitted on Saturday afternoon. They received a request from Fiat for further information this morning and have faxed our details.

He has stated he expects to hear today (and hopefully within the next hour) but can't guarantee this as Fiat do things their own way. The manager has been very good and understands the issue. Said as soon as it is approved/rejected or if Fiat wish to send out an inspector he will be in touch and I've left it with him I'll chase tomorrow worst case.

Also stated that there should be no problem getting this sorted this week as long as the decision is made within the next day or two. Fingers crossed.

Had the same level of information been provided when I went in on Thursday this wouldn't have been as much of an issue as it was this morning although I'd still be pushing just because of the requirement for MOT etc.
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Good to hear - glad to see the dealer has held their hands up too on the communication front. Everyone makes mistakes, it's the way you go about sorting them out that matters IMO as it will show whether you genuinely value a customer or not.

Anyway hopefully it will all be sorted to your satisfaction.
 
A balljoint is a consumable really. And after 3 years its entirely possible it's gone. £45 for a wishbone over the counter. I did it a few days ago.

On the topic of labour, if anyone needs a contact for doing general mech work on their 500 at a reasonable price, PM me and I'll shoot you the number of my guy in London. He's done almost all the jobs you'll run into on a 500, he's quick and reliable and doesn't charge like a wounded bull. He did my wishbones and track rod ends for £50 worth of labour last week. Dropped the parts to him at 8am with no warning and he had it done a couple of hours later. For that kind of money and convenience (in London!) it's not worth the trip to a dealer for me.
 
My point was that if you were getting rid and therefore setting yourself a deadline, you should have accounted for something possibly being wrong and needing to get it fixed.

Unfortunately garages don't like to have people sitting around doing nothing, so it can take time to get the car booked in and then more time for the warranty claim to go through and so on.

Sure, the dealer haven't helped, but if you'd done this all earlier then you wouldn't be in this predicament.
 
306maxi said:
My point was that if you were getting rid and therefore setting yourself a deadline, you should have accounted for something possibly being wrong and needing to get it fixed.

Unfortunately garages don't like to have people sitting around doing nothing, so it can take time to get the car booked in and then more time for the warranty claim to go through and so on.

Sure, the dealer haven't helped, but if you'd done this all earlier then you wouldn't be in this predicament.
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I think you're missing my point.

The service was booked on the 23rd July. First available date - 21st August. Not much more we could do for that - and I feel that attempting to book a 3rd service 6 weeks before the car hits its 3rd anniversary is sufficiently early enough. Was surprised the only available date was as late as that, but still thought that would be fine.

When the car was booked in, even when the car was being serviced there was no intention to sell the car - it had never been discussed. The subsequent outcome from Wednesday onwards made the wife's mind up she'd had enough. It was a bank holiday drive around this weekend that took us to a few places and we ended up with a deal. Its because of this issue coupled with previous ones she wants to sell. As I say - it wasn't even on the agenda when this was booked in.

Prior to this weekend she was/is in a position where her 3 year old car cannot be driven from next Sunday onwards. She's done everything correctly, booked the service well in advance. And going back to previous points - the fault was reported to us at 12:30 on Wednesday and a warranty claim was not submitted fully until Saturday afternoon. 3 full days later.
 
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senwar said:
I think you're missing my point.

The service was booked on the 23rd July. First available date - 21st August. Not much more we could do for that - and I feel that attempting to book a 3rd service 6 weeks before the car hits its 3rd anniversary is sufficiently early enough. Was surprised the only available date was as late as that, but still thought that would be fine.

When the car was booked in, even when the car was being serviced there was no intention to sell the car - it had never been discussed. The subsequent outcome from Wednesday onwards made the wife's mind up she'd had enough. It was a bank holiday drive around this weekend that took us to a few places and we ended up with a deal. Its because of this issue coupled with previous ones she wants to sell. As I say - it wasn't even on the agenda when this was booked in.

Prior to this weekend she was/is in a position where her 3 year old car cannot be driven from next Sunday onwards. She's done everything correctly, booked the service well in advance. And going back to previous points - the fault was reported to us at 12:30 on Wednesday and a warranty claim was not submitted fully until Saturday afternoon. 3 full days later.
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Why did you simply not go to another dealer who could have seen your car earlier? In the end it was you who chose the dealer to service the car, not the other way around and it most certainly is not the only Fiat dealer in the country!
 
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ahmett said:
Why did you simply not go to another dealer who could have seen your car earlier? In the end it was you who chose the dealer to service the car, not the other way around and it most certainly is not the only Fiat dealer in the country!
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Er. I didn't expect taking it in on the 21st August would be so much of an issue in the first place. The reason this dealer was used is because its where the car was bought from (although they have now been taken over) and is in walking distance of my wife's office. The closest one other than that is 20+ miles away. Would you have done things differently?

Hindsight (a wonderful thing) we would have had it in a week earlier at least but as I say, we didn't expect to have an issue that would take so long to resolve. So do you book in with your local dealer, the location you bought the car from and is walkable and have it in 10 days before the expiration of the warranty or do you have it with another dealer who is a significant distance away (they may offer pickup and collect but don't know and its not a thing we needed to know).

Likewise, when this issue was raised on Wednesday post service, they stated they didn't have a part in stock so we stated we would take it to the other (20+ miles away) dealer as they did have a stock part. However, the place we dealt with stated we wouldn't be able to as they had submitted the warranty claim and therefore the other dealer wouldn't be able to do so. Again, hindsight, but that wasn't an honest response as they hadn't submitted the claim at that time and had I known it would take them 3 days to submit the claim we'd have just taken it to the other dealer to sort out hopefully a lot quicker.

But thanks for your comment....
 
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senwar said:
I'm Sorry? What an odd response.

I didn't expect taking it in on the 21st August would be so much of an issue in the first place. The reason this dealer was used is because its where the car was bought from (although they have now been taken over) and is in walking distance of my wife's office. The closest one other than that is 20+ miles away. Would you have done things differently?

Hindsight (a wonderful thing) we would have had it in a week earlier at least but as I say, we didn't expect to have an issue that would take so long to resolve. So do you book in with your local dealer, the location you bought the car from and is walkable and have it in 10 days before the expiration of the warranty or do you have it with another dealer who is a significant distance away (they may offer pickup and collect but don't know and its not a thing we needed to know).

Likewise, when this issue was raised on Wednesday post service, they stated they didn't have a part in stock so we stated we would take it to the other (20+ miles away) dealer as they did have a stock part. However, the place we dealt with stated we wouldn't be able to as they had submitted the warranty claim and therefore the other dealer wouldn't be able to do so. Again, hindsight, but that wasn't an honest response as they hadn't submitted the claim at that time and had I known it would take them 3 days to submit the claim we'd have just taken it to the other dealer to sort out hopefully a lot quicker.

But thanks for your comment....
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I see your frustration but personally I would never wait for a month to service my car if I wanted it serviced and with the warranty expiring so close and knowing Fiat and car manufacturers in general, I would have avoided all this hassle that you are going through and serviced the car a month before warranty expiry which would have given time to see if anything needed to be fixed before the warranty expired.

You can blame Fiat all you want, but you should have been more organized in the first place and would have avoided this situation. Prevention is better than cure and always expect the worst from everyone!

In any case I hope you sort out your issues and let us know if it all works out in the end.
 
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ahmett said:
I see your frustration but personally I would never wait for a month to service my car if I wanted it serviced and with the warranty expiring so close and knowing Fiat and car manufacturers in general, I would have avoided all this hassle that you are going through and serviced the car a month before warranty expiry which would have given time to see if anything needed to be fixed before the warranty expired.

You can blame Fiat all you want, but you should have been more organized in the first place and would have avoided this situation. Prevention is better than cure!
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Jaysus Ahmett, I completely agree. Similar situation for me last year, warranty expired in July and I took it in April for a service and to have work done.
 
Oh and you guys in the UK, consider yourselves lucky to have a third year warranty in the first place!

Fiats in Greece only have a 2 year warranty and no third year dealer warranty. So I will only ever go to a Fiat dealer if I specifically need some spare parts that can ONLY be bought in a Fiat dealer.
 
ahmett said:
I see your frustration but personally I would never wait for a month to service my car if I wanted it serviced and with the warranty expiring so close and knowing Fiat and car manufacturers in general, I would have avoided all this hassle that you are going through and serviced the car a month before warranty expiry which would have given time to see if anything needed to be fixed before the warranty expired.

You can blame Fiat all you want, but you should have been more organized in the first place and would have avoided this situation. Prevention is better than cure!
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I think booking a service in 6 weeks before is significantly well organised.

Having had numerous cars myself I am well averse to the process. In fact when this particular car has been taken in previously and had warranty work identified and carried out from a service, it has all been completed either on the day the car was in or within the following 5 days.
 
senwar said:
I think booking a service in 6 weeks before is significantly well organised.

Having had numerous cars myself I am well averse to the process. In fact when this particular car has been taken in previously and had warranty work identified and carried out from a service, it has all been completed either on the day the car was in or within the following 5 days.
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Yes but there is a HUGE difference between booking a service 6 weeks in advance and actually having a service 6 weeks in advance.

If you booked the service 6 weeks in advance, but wait a month for the service to actually take place what good is that?

In fact I may take it too far, but I went to a Fiat dealer who told me that they cant see my car for a week, so I basically said fine i'll go elsewhere, which I did and basically just drove in and had the service next day, and in cases where my Fiat broke down due to unreliability literally drove in or towed into the service center and told them to fix it as in what is this my car is new and is broken and i spent all this money on a new car, you guys have to look after me!
So they did sort me out with a courtesy car the next day after I said I would call Fiat if they didn't comply.
Mind you, I may have been a bit too aggressive as the courtesy car was a Panda, perhaps if I was more considerate I would have gotten at least a Fiat 500 as a courtesy car not some 2009 1.2 orange panda!
 
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ahmett said:
Yes but there is a HUGE difference between booking a service 6 weeks in advance and actually having a service 6 weeks in advance.

If you booked the service 6 weeks in advance, but wait a month for the service to actually take place what good is that?
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Going round in circles here - but again, if its within the warranty period, it should be fine. And who's to say we'd have been able to get it in elsewhere in a quicker time anyway? Chances are we would - but no guarantee.

Things go wrong on a car, no doubt about it and things will need to be sorted. I can accept the odd niggle here and there - a worn ball joint at this mileage and age, nah sorry.
 
senwar said:
Going round in circles here - but again, if its within the warranty period, it should be fine. And who's to say we'd have been able to get it in elsewhere in a quicker time anyway? Chances are we would - but no guarantee.

Things go wrong on a car, no doubt about it and things will need to be sorted. I can accept the odd niggle here and there - a worn ball joint at this mileage and age, nah sorry.
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What do you expect in the modern world? Everything is mass manufactured to be as cheap as possible, so nothing really lasts more than 3 years these days!
That can include, laptops, mobile phones, clothing and of course cars.
With most of the UK doing three year plans who has an incentive to build long lasting things when they make more money selling people cars who change them every 3 years with finance?
 
senwar said:
Going round in circles here - but again, if its within the warranty period, it should be fine. And who's to say we'd have been able to get it in elsewhere in a quicker time anyway? Chances are we would - but no guarantee.

Things go wrong on a car, no doubt about it and things will need to be sorted. I can accept the odd niggle here and there - a worn ball joint at this mileage and age, nah sorry.
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As stated, it is most likely not a "worn" ball joint (from loads of wear and tear), but a ripped gaiter on the suspension arm and this has allowed the joint to become contaminated. As you state, these sort of things happen.

Again we've got a case of someone having a minor issue with their car, getting it fixed and then selling it on, just don't get it myself!
 
306maxi said:
As stated, it is most likely not a "worn" ball joint (from loads of wear and tear), but a ripped gaiter on the suspension arm and this has allowed the joint to become contaminated. As you state, these sort of things happen.

Again we've got a case of someone having a minor issue with their car, getting it fixed and then selling it on, just don't get it myself!
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Nope - you don't. As I've stated previously - this is in theory a final straw issue. Not a single one. The sum of all parts etc.

Anyway, lets leave it at that
 
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