Having discovered the fault was still present with the car after about 5 months and given the extremely bad customer service experience, I asked the garage to supply evidence of their work since I doubted they had done anything at all. They did not supply it to me but as I still had the ongoing complaint with my card provider Nationwide and since I had asked them to press the garage for the same evidence, they did finally supply 2 invoices to Nationwide, one for the purchase of the clutch part and another for the actuator serviced by the German company. However, 3D Transmissions had taken the trouble to black out the prices on both invoices. I soon discovered why. I contacted the German company that carried out the reconditioning and it transpired that 3D transmissions paid them less than 鈧?00 for this but charged me some 拢700! Similarly, the clutch, a non-OEM part was purchased from an online supplier for about 拢100 and charged to me at almost 拢400 including VAT. The German supplier advised that it was normal for a garage to add anywhere from 40-60% to their margins for 3rd party goods and services but not 400%.
Note that a separate labour charge of 拢714 was paid to 3D Transmissions.
When I put this to 3D transmissions, they advised as follows:
鈥淲e would like to inform you that we are complete within our rights to retail our clutch with your Car as you are a retail Customer and it is a normal practice to do this.鈥?
鈥淎s for the Actuator, there was additional costs involved including detailed cleaning and installation of the rest of the assembly.鈥?
So apparently it cost less than 鈧?00 for the specialist German company to service/recondition the part, but 拢500 to clean it. I feel an LOL is warranted here!
So, to recap, I paid over 拢1800 for a fault that is still present with the car. I was told it was guaranteed for a year but it wasn鈥檛.
I received, quite possibly the worst customer service experience of my life.
I discovered I鈥檝e possibly been heavily overcharged for work/parts that DID NOT fix the fault and it is questionable as to whether it was necessary at all.
Would I recommend 3D Transmissions to anyone? The answer is a resounding NO.
Would I take my car ever to them for repair again? Absolutely not, never again.
I have sought legal advice and I am considering taking legal action.