Sheared water pump bolt saga. end story.

[tringy]

I finally can complete the frustrating story from my original post of sheared water pump bolt by Spanish fiat professional garage ( that’s a joke) . This garage sheared this bolt while replacing the cambelt. The out come is that the engine was not removed to do the repair and was repaired in situ but I still had to pay for the privilege of there incompetence the sum of 502 euros and not the 2500 originally quoted. We complained to fiat but no joy because the age of the vehicle was over 6years. The repair took took 10 days but after a call to say we could collect it we had a second call to saying they had reversed a car into the back of the motorhome in the garage and damaged the rear and it would be sent to the body shop for repair. Another week until it was completed, what a saga and a load of stress. We payed for the cambelt replacement and under duress paid separately for the cost of the bolt extraction,we was glad just to get the motorhome back. The repair to the rear damage was not brilliant but we decided to take it up with fiat when we returned home, ( big mistake) . I again contacted fiat customer services and after many weeks of back and forth with fiat the story is the garage will not respond to fiat by call or email and eventually have given me a 250 pound voucher for servicing as a good will gesture out of embarrassment. Fiat told me they have NO control over any Fiat professional garage once the vehicle is outside the warranty period and the garage deals with you on a not retail basis. But they have more say if the vehicle is in the country of registration.so the case is that Fiat Professional garages mean nothing if its outside the warranty ,so it’s worthless to pay the extra premium to those garages as fiat have on control over what they do or charge. Needless to say I will not be having any work done anywhere abroad unless it’s a emergency. Lessons learnt. Fiat customer services were good given the that they had to deal it from English to Italian to Spanish. And of cause whenever we asked a question direct to the garage they used the language barrier as an excuse. Thanks for all the original advice and help with my original post especially nick euroserv. Regards to all Tringy.

[Derek Uzzell]

The background to this can be read here

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Sheared-bolt-problem-engine-removal-at-Fiat-professional-garage-Advice-please-/58870/

[Ninian]

Hi, I have had a long running problem and still do with my Motorhome and I found that my local FIAT PROFESSIONAL garage to be totally UNPROFESSIONAL and useless. They seemed to have no interest in fixing the van because they didn't sell it and FIAT CUSTOMER CARE wouldn't accept that the dealer had made no attempt to carry out a repair. The dealer faffed about until it was out of warranty and then it was a case of only come back if your going to PAY us.

 

I found their attitude to be totally disgraceful. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

(Please don't 'name and shame', otherwise the posting will be removed in its entirety - Derek Uzzell)