elphantasmo
New member
Alarm remotes, easily taken for granted until they fail....
mine went on my Coupe while i was on holiday, my friend pressed it till it went click... the click was something breaking inside it.
so i got in and used the override key to turn the alarm off.
when i got home i decided to get another key fob as i couldn't be bothered to drive to my parents to get my backup one and i knew i would be selling the coupe soon so would be nice and give the new owner 2 key fobs.
as i live only a few miles away, i decided to go and talk to Cleveland Cars in Ash - a fiat main dealer who've been talked highly of on this forum.
believe it or not, they had one in stock, so i paid their astronomical £75+vat only to then be told that i'd need to bring it in to be coded into the system which costs £31+vat.
so i bite the bullet and book it in for friday (last friday) figuring that a new alarm will cost a fair bit more.
friday comes around and i take the coupe to the garage along with all keys, codes, everything. i wait for an hour and three quarters after wich iam informed that it's all done and that will be £31+vat. so i pay, take my keys and leave, only to get to the car and find that pressing the new keyfob does nothing......
i go back in. Bill (the head service bloke) sends an engineer out with me to see what's up. the engineer has about 10 goes at programming in the new remote (it's quite a simple proceedure) and manages eventually to make it work the central locking, but not the alarm and now the alarm override switch no longer turns.
he tells me to bring the car back in this week and they will attach a diagnostic unit to the alarm to see what the matter is free of charge and if i could have a look at the override switch over the weekend they'd appreciate it. so i go back and see Bill and book it in for tuesday first thing (this morning).
saturday i look at the switch, it's just siezed, so i whip the glove box off and free it up.
today rolls around.
the current state of play is that the alarm is turned off and i have 2 remotes that activate the central locking.
after 1.5 hours, they tell to me that my alarm is broken and in coding the new remote in, the old remote nolonger works and won't code back in. yet they also tell me that according to the diagnostic box, my alarm is fine and so is the reciever unit, but water has probably got into the alarm and that's why it's not working.
they very nicely offer to fit a new alarm for me, it will only be £200+vat for the alarm, £98+vat for the reciever + labour at £62+vat per hour, but nothing can be done for mine.
well i don't know about you, but i find £423 a bit steep for an alarm....
so i decline politely and ask for my money back.
they refund the brand new keyfob no problem, but refuse to refund the £36.43 for 'fitting'. they say they've "now spent over 3 hours investigating the problem" and that "£36 is a small prce to pay for 3 hours labour"
they just don't seem to understand that until i brought it into them there was no problem.
the state of play now is that i now have no working keyfobs and no working alarm, and i'm £36 out of pocket for the priveledge....
needless to say i'm not happy [
!]
mine went on my Coupe while i was on holiday, my friend pressed it till it went click... the click was something breaking inside it.
so i got in and used the override key to turn the alarm off.
when i got home i decided to get another key fob as i couldn't be bothered to drive to my parents to get my backup one and i knew i would be selling the coupe soon so would be nice and give the new owner 2 key fobs.
as i live only a few miles away, i decided to go and talk to Cleveland Cars in Ash - a fiat main dealer who've been talked highly of on this forum.
believe it or not, they had one in stock, so i paid their astronomical £75+vat only to then be told that i'd need to bring it in to be coded into the system which costs £31+vat.
so i bite the bullet and book it in for friday (last friday) figuring that a new alarm will cost a fair bit more.
friday comes around and i take the coupe to the garage along with all keys, codes, everything. i wait for an hour and three quarters after wich iam informed that it's all done and that will be £31+vat. so i pay, take my keys and leave, only to get to the car and find that pressing the new keyfob does nothing......
i go back in. Bill (the head service bloke) sends an engineer out with me to see what's up. the engineer has about 10 goes at programming in the new remote (it's quite a simple proceedure) and manages eventually to make it work the central locking, but not the alarm and now the alarm override switch no longer turns.
he tells me to bring the car back in this week and they will attach a diagnostic unit to the alarm to see what the matter is free of charge and if i could have a look at the override switch over the weekend they'd appreciate it. so i go back and see Bill and book it in for tuesday first thing (this morning).
saturday i look at the switch, it's just siezed, so i whip the glove box off and free it up.
today rolls around.
the current state of play is that the alarm is turned off and i have 2 remotes that activate the central locking.
after 1.5 hours, they tell to me that my alarm is broken and in coding the new remote in, the old remote nolonger works and won't code back in. yet they also tell me that according to the diagnostic box, my alarm is fine and so is the reciever unit, but water has probably got into the alarm and that's why it's not working.
they very nicely offer to fit a new alarm for me, it will only be £200+vat for the alarm, £98+vat for the reciever + labour at £62+vat per hour, but nothing can be done for mine.
well i don't know about you, but i find £423 a bit steep for an alarm....
so i decline politely and ask for my money back.
they refund the brand new keyfob no problem, but refuse to refund the £36.43 for 'fitting'. they say they've "now spent over 3 hours investigating the problem" and that "£36 is a small prce to pay for 3 hours labour"
they just don't seem to understand that until i brought it into them there was no problem.
the state of play now is that i now have no working keyfobs and no working alarm, and i'm £36 out of pocket for the priveledge....
needless to say i'm not happy [
!]
