Cost of Citroen Work

Hi Guys,

I recently took my wifes C3 to Freeborn Group Citroen in Southampton, as the Ventilation system was rather erratic (randomly working at different speeds or not at all on all the different settings).

The initial cost was gonig to be nearly £50 for the investigation, after the investigation they said the ventilation controls needed repllacing and also a wiring harness due to it burning out. the cost was going to be nearly £800.

I said this was really steep for controls and harness, and as they couldn't provide a courtesy car then they should put it back together and i would get it sorted else where, they then said it shouldn't really be driven as it could catch alight at any time. They said they would see what they could do.

After 30 minutes they called back and said they had found a courtesy car and if i left it with them to do the work i wouldn't have to pay for the investigation as they wouldn't need to take apart and put back together a second time for the job, the cost then came down to £712 for the lot, i still said that was steep but thought i had better get it done.

So a week later i get the car back and pay the £712 bill then drive home, the vent is all working fine; once home i check through the invoice and there are three items on it, i was only expecting two and a labour charge, the items were:

9675400280, CONTROL @ £214.35 + VAT
6436H3, HEATER HARNESS @ £43.64 + VAT
9675400180, DS3 HEATER CONTROLS @ £213.66 + VAT

as the Control and Heater Controls sounded similar i checked on the internet, and they came up with the attached images.

The DS3 control is the one fitted in my car so they were charging me for another set of controls also.

After ringing the garage, the came back ans said they would pay me back the £214.35, i then had to tell them that VAT needed adding to this and they said oh yeah, so i got back about £260.

After thinking about it i realised if they had been called something not quite so similar, i probably would not have investigated and ended up out of pocket even more that the cost of the job. So i contacted Citroen to say they should check this ou, but got back an email saying that Freeborn is a franchise and it is up to them how they manage work.

Having worked in engineering for years, i find it hard to believe that this is a simple error, firstly they quoted £712 at the start of the job so must have put both controls onto the bill from the start, secondly the final invoice should have been checked and signed off.

So i find myself being unable to trust Citroen again either for service issues or if i was going to buy a car from them i would think twice as they really don't seem to care what their franchises do.

Not sure if any of you guys have any similar stories, but i wonder for every one person who queries how many never check and how much extra does this earn the garage.

Any thoughts/experiences please reply.

Regards

Stu

Hi stulish, good job you checked your bill.

The heater controls loom and control itself have been melting from the 2002 model

I wonder if they checked the pollen filter and the blower motor too?

Wires and controls just don't melt for no reason, there will be an underlying cause for this.

stulish wrote:So i find myself being unable to trust Citroen again either for service issues or if i was going to buy a car from them i would think twice as they really don't seem to care what their franchises do.

Good point, independents can work on Citroen cars and you could pay a lower hourly rate and possibly get a better level of customer service?