Prime
Be mindful of the garage you take your car for repair
Prof George W. Kanyeihamba
What you need to know:
Old tyres. In the morning while I was having breakfast, my driver informed me that one of the new tyres they had substituted with the old ones had a puncture and was totally flat. When I finished my breakfast, I went to investigate myself, and low and behold, another of the ‘new’ ones was also flat!
If you go to well established garages, you will find that they too operate separate spare part stores on the side. When spare parts are required for your car, they inform you that they can get them from their side establishment and give you a pro forma to sign. It is as if you have bought them from another spare parts shop in town.
They allow you the freedom to choose between their own parts or those from another shop. You have a right and opportunity to compare the two. The reason is that many parts may be labelled the same, but in reality they are made by different companies correspondingly while they may look alike, some parts being genuine and original, depending on where they were made.
To give a typical example, I recently took my vehicle to a well-known garage where majority of its customers are government and institutional vehicles. My vehicle arrived in the morning for replacing of old, worn out tyres which were Dunlop and my instructions were that they be replaced with the same tyre.
The garage did not telephone me again until 5:30pm when they usually close their workshop. The gentleman said they had been searching for the necessary parts from the store but failed to get them.
I corrected him and said I only need tyres replaced, not parts. He responded rather sharply, “Judge, those are parts” and laughed.
I then asked when my driver would collect the vehicle.
“I will bring it tonight,” he said.
The driver returned my car to my residence at around 8:30pm, giving me no opportunity to examine whether they had replaced the tyres. They were to replace four of them with brand new ones and select one of the removed ones and keep it as a spare tyre.
In the morning while I was having breakfast, my driver informed me that one of the new tyres they had substituted with the old ones had a puncture and was totally flat.
When I finished my breakfast, I went to investigate myself, and lo and behold, another of the ‘new’ ones was also flat!
I could not believe that this was shear negligence. When my driver, bodyguard and I investigated further, we discovered that the five tyres were retreads made in the Philippines.
I was not only shocked but angry with the proprietor of the garage who even today is my friend.
He cursed his dishonest mechanics and promised to send a carrier to fetch my car back to the garage so that I get genuine new tyres of my choice.
Meanwhile, his accountant sent me a bill, claiming it was what the tyres and labour had cost.
I became very suspicious of the way they were pricing their tyres and labour. We discovered that the tyres were rotten but they were over charging me by Shs1.9 million.
I called my friend and asked him how he could cheat someone who regards him as his friend. I am now looking for another service station, hopefully honest and transparent.
Prof Kanyeihamba is a retired Supreme Court judge.
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