Just to let you all know....
Abbey Car Breakers (Erith, Kent) were suggested to me for townace parts when I had that alternator problem.
I bought an alternator from them and had it couriered to me (which was a major hassle in itself to get them to do it... they wanted me to go and get it) for about £65.
It was couriered to me. I didn`t open it but just took it to the mechanic.
He exchanged alternators and the same problem occurred. Some of you may remember that it seemed unlikely 2 alternators would have the exact same fault, so the mechanic started checking all the electrics (which you guys helped with).
Anyway, after another month or so of checks I got another alternator from Fox Covert (who are excellent... pity Citylink their couriers aren`t), and it fixed the charging problem.
The Abbey alternator had a 2-month guarantee, but the mechanic didn`t have the receipt. So I paid barclays to print out January`s statement so I could highlight the Abbey Car Breakers purchase.
Off I go to Abbey in Erith, to give them both faulty alternators (as I thought they may be able to do something with them and re-sell them if fixed).
I said here`s my proof of purchase, and I don`t know the exact amount the courier cost (it was about £15 but I didn`t think it would be fair of me to get that refunded), so I said I`d be happy to have a £40 - £45 refund.
THEY FOUGHT LIKE HELL TO NOT GIVE ME ANY MONEY.
They said I didn`t have a receipt, and that they knew I`d bought it from them but they couldn`t find out how much the courier had cost.
They then offered me £30. I said no.
They said have a look at the townace and see if there`s anything you want. I looked and it was a shell... nothing of use at all.
They said they`d offer me £35 as they were being `nice`, and that they didn`t have to give me anything at all.
I said no, that I have proof of purchase and will go to trading standards.
They then offered £40 and I said yes (as I stupidly said I would accept 40 - 45 when I got in there initially).
Just after he gave me the money he had some words about me being petty and other stuff, with another of them saying I`m lucky, as I didn`t have a receipt and they didn`t have to give me anything. I then told them exactly what I thought of that.
So, beware that Abbey are (in my opinion) are (at worst) dodgy bastards and (at best) rip-off merchants with no customer care whatsoever... even for something so little as £40 !!!
I really should have told them to refund the full amount of £65 as it wasn`t my fault they sent out a faulty alternator.
I`ll be writing off to trading standards just to put a complaint in anyway, so they can keep them on record.
- (#1112) Storm, 5 May 05 03:06
When I lived in Souff Lunden, I used Abbey Breakers a lot. They have a huge range of parts. They were allways more expensive, but the bits are off the cars, those of you who have swung 3 cars up removing something will understand the advantage of this!
It has been 9 years since I was last there so things could have changed.....
No excuse for selling duff kit, though there used to be a sign saying no refunds - hence the offer to salvage something else.
My hat off to you for getting something out of them!
- (#1112) Clive (Bristol), 5 May 05 04:24
Oops. I typed 2 months guarantee earlier. It was 3 months gaurantee actually, and I asked them what guarantee it had before I bought the item.
- (#1112) storm, 6 May 05 02:03
I had a simlar problem with Parts Plaza London although they were no way as bad as your experience.
They sent a head which was faulty (Almost as bad as the one I had taken off).
I got in touch and they did not want to know and kept saying they would ring me back.
I got in touch with the trading Standards and they said that it was up to the company that I purchased it off to prove that it was not faulty and not the other way around.
I sent them a letter with a reference to the trading standards being involved (as advised by the trading standards) and suddenly the boss rang me up and wanted to sort it out.
It was also Parts Plaza's responsibility to collect the faulty item (As I could have lost the postage which for a head is quite a lot) as I purchased it off the internet.
If it was me I would get in touch with the trading standards as why should they get away with it.
This is the web address.
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/index.cfm
and maybe this is the right place to start.
http://www.consumercomplaints.org.uk/
- (#1112) Andy, 7 Jun 05 03:45