SHOCKINGLY DISAPPOINTING!
So today i went to “INDIGO GT” or their new company name “YSTRAD SERVICE CENTRE”
So i had adjustable rear arms fitted by a garage and then i needed to have 4 wheel alignment. So i thought being very local and knowing of the company since it opened its doors where better to go than “INDIGO GT”.
After ringing them up and having a chat about what i had fitted they said they can do exactly what i am after and 4 wheel alignment is £99. Since normal garages charge around £60 i thought its a pretty hefty price but they are known for working with perfomance cars so it will be ideal.
I then drop the car off to them and have a chat with the staff which were great and very helpful and couldn’t of asked for any more.
As i make my way to collect the car i get a call saying the car is not finished and will need more work to free off a nut so as any normal customer would say i say no problem i will collect it the following day.
A short while after i ring the company up to ask what time the following day it will be done and to confirm the price was £99 as told.
AND THEN THE SCAM STARTED!
I was then told that the price will be a shocking £219 for a job that i was told will be £99. I then explained i simply cant afford that as i was only expecting to pay the £99 I WAS TOLD IT WOULD COST.
Their shocking response to this was tracking is £99 for a 1.5 hour window and it currently was at 2.5 hours and they still haven’t finished the job. THEY SAID ITS IN THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS which you can only see on a small website link and after you search through their website for the precise terms and conditions. Theres no explanation or nothing in person and its all hidden away
After being a qualified heavy good mechanic and working in garaged for many past years i know that every garage and most companies out there have to contact the customer if a job is going to exceed their quoted price. But i simply did not. Not a email, call not evan a simple text.
I then went straight there to collect my car before i was scammed any further!
IT DOESN’T END THERE!
Once i am there explaining to a member of staff i was told it will cost me £99, not over double that and you didn’t evan contact me to see if i wanted to go ahead with the further work. I then walk into the reception and here a women saying she had her car in for a job which was £100 and laughs worryingly that its now £700 and just like me was not evan contacted or informed in any way.
I then had to fork out a whopping £219 just for the rear alignment and passenger side front and there was no apology or sympathy what so ever it was just THATS THE PRICE AND THATS THAT attitude towards both customers.
All that money then wanting further time to work on my car to free off 1 nut. I totally understand being an ex fitter that problems come ahead but what a JOKE!
I then collect my car and go to the nearest quiet car park where i wont be a disturbance and have a friend come with some simple tools (a trolley jack, some spanners, a hammer and a small blowtorch from halfords)
We simply jacked up the car held the blowtorch on the nut for 5-10 minutes and bam the nuts free and we temporarily had my tracking straight by eye.
To be told all that to spend 25-30 minutes on the floor.
This company is a complete scam and an utter disappointment to be associated withing the Caerphilly County Borough and shout be closed down for a 2nd time (after some research)
IF YOU ARE TO USE THIS COMPANY WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT!!
PLEASE FOR YOUR OWN SAKE
- Stay there until the job you requested is finished and don't leave it there
- Get your watch out and time every minute they are working on your vehicle as breaks and fart arsing about should not be at your expense
- Be very aware of what they are charging you and make sure to state if its costing any more to be contacted.
GOOD LUCK
Reply from Indigo Gt
Thomas,
I’m disappointed you feel you didn’t have a great experience but you’ve made a number of claims that are simply inaccurate and it’s only fair that we respond.
Our alignment service is priced from £99 including VAT, that includes up to an hour of labour, any additional time required is charged based on our hourly labour rate, if it takes our technicians an hour and half to align a car because some of the bolts are seized or the car has a different aftermarket suspension setup then we’d charge £99 plus half hour of labour which is £40 making the total £139 including VAT.
You’ve claimed that you had to search through our terms and conditions for this information suggesting we’ve hidden it in the small print which is untrue. Whilst this information is included in our terms and conditions, it’s also clearly stated in the pricing section on our alignment pages, if you book alignment online it’s listed once again on the booking page and more importantly, when you booked your vehicle in with us you were sent a text message which serves as booking confirmation and which included a message saying “for more information about your booking including our terms and conditions visit…” with a direct link to our customer service website, one of the first sections on that webpage states “if you've booked wheel alignment, please note these packages are priced to include set periods of labour (30 minutes for front wheel alignment and 60 minutes for four wheel alignment), any additional labour will be charged based on our hourly labour rate”, we’ve done our very best to sign post this information to all our customers.
Alignment is not fixed priced product, it’s a service, it’s essentially labour plus the use of our Hunter system which cost us a little under £30,000 with everything required, that’s not an exaggeration, that’s what it cost, it’s on a completely different level to garages that use £1,500 laser tracking gauges, there are also ongoing costs for an engineer to come out a couple of times a year and complete software updates, service the system and check its calibration. We know that 99% of the time, alignment takes around an hour to complete so our price is based on one hour of labour (£66.67 + VAT) plus use of the Hunter system (£15.83 + VAT).
On rare occasions alignment can take more time which is what happened with your vehicle, but let’s be reasonable here, your vehicle is 22 years old, corrosion is an obvious issue but the main difficulty was the aftermarket parts you’d fitted, it meant it was far beyond normal alignment work, it was incredibly complicated and required much more time to make the necessary adjustments. The only reason we hadn’t finished the front as well you know is because we ran out of blowtorch gas, due to the time of day, we couldn’t get any more until the following morning, you chose to take your vehicle from us unfinished.
We understand that repair bills can come at a difficult time, which is why (as you’re aware) we offer finance from Payment Assist to help customers out, it’s interest free which means that we have to cover the cost of the interest but we’re happy to do that as it helps customers.
With regards to you eavesdropping on a conversation between a colleague and another customer, firstly that’s a pretty inappropriate way to behave but your claim that a customer was quoted £100 then given a £700 bill is demonstrably false, if you’d heard the full conversation you’d have known the customer was enquiring about the cost of a replacement timing chain and had asked my colleague would it cost around £100 to which my colleague correctly replied it would more than likely cost around £700.
Alignment is one of our most popular services, I couldn’t begin to count the number of vehicles we’ve aligned over the years, as I stated at the beginning I’m disappointed you feel you didn’t have a great experience but we’ve acted fairly and appropriately, we don’t hide our pricing, it’s clearly explained, our other customers don’t have an issue understanding this, expecting us to spend hours working on your car for free is just unreasonable, in future you should consider using a garage which better suits your budget and at the very least, read the information that’s presented to you.