After a series of complaints, the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI) is to carry out a survey into standards of car servicing and repair work in both franchise and non-franchise dealerships.
The association said that it gets in excess of one complaint a week currently from consumers unhappy with the standard of work carried out on their vehicles. As a result, this summer it will carry out a "mystery shop" on a number of garages which will be asked to repair or service vehicles which have deliberate faults. Standards and costs of work will then be compared. Garages will not know that they are part of the survey.
The CAI survey follows news that the London-based National Consumer Council (NCC) has threatened the British motor industry with a "supercomplaint" that it intends to take up with the British government over "shoddy service and rip-off charges".
With its sister Scottish and Welsh councils, the NCC has written to the trade bodies representing the British vehicle repair and service industry accusing them of "inaction" in dealing with customers' problems.
The three consumer councils say the industry is failing to regulate itself effectively despite 11 attempts to raise standards over the past 30 years. As a result, the NCC confirmed that it is considering issuing the supercomplaint, which is allowed for under Britain's 2002 Enterprise Act if consumers' interests are being "significantly harmed".
Despite poor practices in Britain, the Irish situation is not comparable, says Cyril McHugh, chief executive of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI). "There is a general tendency to assume that if something is wrong in Britain, it must also be amiss in Ireland," he says. "However, customer satisfaction with both sales and service has been to the fore in Ireland for the past decade. SIMI has an investigation and complaints service which it and its members take very seriously."
Practically all complaints are satisfactorily resolved by member garages, says McHugh, and those that are not resolved are referred to the SIMI's standards tribunal and the decision of the tribunal is binding on the SIMI member. The industry constantly monitors customer satisfaction and he would be "very surprised if a survey in Ireland didn't produce much better results than that in Britain".
The CAI, however, says there is a problem with the standard of work by some garages and it aims to identify them in its first-ever survey into repairs and servicing.
"We get complaints about the standards of work carried out in garages," says Dermott Jewell, the association's chief executive. "There is an unwillingness in the industry to accept the fact that there is a recurring problem."
Consumers often feel at a disadvantage because they don't understand mechanical aspects of their vehicle. This, says Jewell, is sometimes used to intimidate consumers, a view shared by his British counterparts.
"Owning and running a car is expensive," says Britain's NCC. "The equivalent of about a third of the purchase price goes on servicing and repairs during its lifetime. Most consumers aren't mechanics - they don't know what needs doing, whether it's been done properly or whether they've got value for money."
Jewell advises consumers with a problem to first approach the garage concerned and explain that, under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, the garage is obliged to ensure its work is carried out to the satisfaction of the consumer.
"Motorists should make sure they have a fully documented record of work carried out, which should contain a description of all the parts that have been replaced," he explains. "In addition, consumers should keep all receipts. Unrecorded cash payments unfortunately provide little means of comeback."
If approaching the garage directly fails, Jewell advises that consumers take the matter up with the SIMI, provided the garage involved is a member. The SIMI require its members to observe a code of ethics which states that they work in accordance with the highest standards of ethical conduct and meet customers' needs in a professional manner.
The SIMI also has an independent arbitration service to help resolve problems between its members and their customers.