Scammers On Aca Tonight.

Jamies460 · 06-04-2010, 03:55 PM

Well it will be interesting to see who gets caught out tonight on A Current Affair $14 safety check ( NSW veiwers ) I wonder who it will be this time, a few years back it was Midas getting caught for charging for 4 undersize brake rotors when they were perfectly fine, It just seems a shame that these companys take some people for a ride-especialy women, what they should do is give them a hefty fine, but i think being exposed as shonks will be bad enough for now on national tv....................Stay Tuned !

4.0i_SiX · 06-04-2010, 04:29 PM

because everything that appears on ACA or TT is 100% accurate, true and fair :P

platinumXR · 06-04-2010, 04:33 PM

Not sure I can do it again; last time I watched A Current Affair the right side of my face dropped and I couldn't tie my shoes for a week.

Fev · 06-04-2010, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by platinumXR

Not sure I can do it again; last time I watched A Current Affair the right side of my face dropped and I couldn't tie my shoes for a week.

Yeah i've been known to tie my shoes together in double knots after those driving related episodes - nearly broke my neck!

left · 06-04-2010, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamies460

Well it will be interesting to see who gets caught out tonight on A Current Affair $14 safety check ( NSW veiwers ) I wonder who it will be this time, a few years back it was Midas getting caught for charging for 4 undersize brake rotors when they were perfectly fine, It just seems a shame that these companys take some people for a ride-especialy women, what they should do is give them a hefty fine, but i think being exposed as shonks will be bad enough for now on national tv....................Stay Tuned !

I *believe* it may actually be a forum sponsor so Im not sure how long this thread will last if that's correct...

I have had a negative personal experience with the <insert forum sponsor's name here> safety check just recently and it left a very bad taste in my mouth. Especially so since I was able to get a RWC on the car (it's for sale) after being told I needed $3k of work done to it asap. Pays to get a couple of different opinions. All up I spent less than $100 going to a few places...was happy that 2 out of 3 said the car was in, quote, excellent condition and well looked after.

XR8GRL · 06-04-2010, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by platinumXR

Not sure I can do it again; last time I watched A Current Affair the right side of my face dropped and I couldn't tie my shoes for a week.

haha reminds me of..

platinumXR · 06-04-2010, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR8GRL

haha reminds me of..

You got a hidden canera in my loungeroom!

oh jeez...I can't stop laughing...

4.0i_SiX · 06-04-2010, 05:08 PM

its the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine haha

Jamies460 · 06-04-2010, 06:14 PM

It will be very interesting to see the outcome of ACA tonight, There are many honest mechanics out there but its the odd shonky one that leaves a very bitter taste in your mouth for years to come..... years back i put a landcruiser in for a service as was using lots of fuel.... there so-called mechanic of the year gave it a service...eg- plugs, air filter, fuel filter, next day i decided to check if spark plugs had been changed, when i pulled the 3rd plug it was the old one still IN THERE ! you pay good money so you should get what u pay for unless you like throwing money away....

302 XC · 06-04-2010, 06:41 PM

its just a glorified subject for the lounge lizards
shonky work,shonky road worthies are still being done even at the highest levels
and yes so called mechanics try to pull the swifty on woman all the time
i wonder if they ever do follow up tests on these shonkies,or do they only do 1 test ,then bag them out
and wat sort of test would u get for $14 ????
do they just walk around the car ???
safety test in qld cost $50 and upwards

prydey · 06-04-2010, 06:55 PM

its on in s.a. as well and they are using a picture of a pedders franchise in the promo piece. whether this means its a pedders franchise investigated or not, i guess we'll find out.

the problem is, these places are all franchises but it only takes one poorly run store to sour the whole brand.

geckoGT · 06-04-2010, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prydey

its on in s.a. as well and they are using a picture of a pedders franchise in the promo piece. whether this means its a pedders franchise investigated or not, i guess we'll find out.

the problem is, these places are all franchises but it only takes one poorly run store to sour the whole brand.

Except that it was 3 franchises in QLD that were featured. It would have been interesting if they had of said which store RACQ agreed with as the car requiring safety work. RACQ did agree on one car, I think it may have been the one done at Pedders Kedron as I do not remember them interviewing the staff there.

mick457 · 06-04-2010, 07:08 PM

pedders lol

bodes-sh · 06-04-2010, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by left

I *believe* it may actually be a forum sponsor so Im not sure how long this thread will last if that's correct...

I have had a negative personal experience with the <insert forum sponsor's name here> safety check just recently and it left a very bad taste in my mouth. Especially so since I was able to get a RWC on the car (it's for sale) after being told I needed $3k of work done to it asap. Pays to get a couple of different opinions. All up I spent less than $100 going to a few places...was happy that 2 out of 3 said the car was in, quote, excellent condition and well looked after.

i seriously reckon you could take a brand new car, straight off the showroom floor, to the "unnamed place" and they would tell you it needed all new suspension...

no bull, i guess it depends what kind of bull they are talking about

Rodp · 06-04-2010, 07:31 PM

I'd think the real scammers are ACA masquerading as an informative and reliable source.

XR8GRL · 06-04-2010, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by platinumXR

You got a hidden canera in my loungeroom!

oh jeez...I can't stop laughing...

dannyhilton · 06-04-2010, 07:40 PM

Like every industory, there are the good the bad and the ugly. Today Tonight and ACA are the lowest form of media, it's sensationalised, overly biased, trailer trash TV for people who want something to winge about. Neither show should be taken seriously, watch it with a grain of salt. They are probably right in regards to those shonky mecanics, but so many of them are legit, hard working Aussies who care about their customers, and neither show portrays this image very well. I think the 7PM Project is a better source of news, at least they don't take themselves too seriously and offer various points of the argument. At the end of the day though, everything is biased, you have to pick the sprinkles out of the crap....

StrokedXT · 06-04-2010, 07:52 PM

Recorded it so i could just watch that segment and it was as expected and what most people already know.

To be a fair report though id like to see the independent verify if the parts were worn at all ie. were pedders being honest that the part wasnt 100% as the suggestion was some stuff was wrong but it would be ok if you fixed it eventually with your normal servicing that suggests it was slightly warn.

**TUF_302** · 06-04-2010, 08:10 PM

I think "they" have good aftermarket parts, but i to have some concerns over the amount they seem to find on every car that goes in for a 14 point check, my brother went in a few years back and came out with a $600 bill, after getting a few other mechanics to look over it, only cost him about $250 in the end, im sure its not always like that though

prydey · 06-04-2010, 08:13 PM

its a bit hard to read anything into the story. the '2nd opinion' they used was the RACQ, which, if they are anything like RAA, i wouldn't be taking too much notice of their opinion either.

prydey · 06-04-2010, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeep_by_ford

Recorded it so i could just watch that segment and it was as expected and what most people already know.

To be a fair report though id like to see the independent verify if the parts were worn at all ie. were pedders being honest that the part wasnt 100% as the suggestion was some stuff was wrong but it would be ok if you fixed it eventually with your normal servicing that suggests it was slightly warn.

this is why they are known as sensationalists. pedders will quote on any part that is not 100%, which is perfectly fine to do. the independant (RACQ) mechanic said that the cars were perfectly safe 'as long as' items were looked at in due course as part of the normal servicing.

pedders could mark things as urgent through to non urgent (they may do already), but they also have to cover themselves, because if someone does get a safety check done, and gets told the car is fine and then they fall off the road, there's a good chance the owner would point the finger at the pedders franchise. damned if they do, damned if they don't.

vztrt · 06-04-2010, 08:21 PM

Thought ACA were the scammers....like TT. Oh did they do an ad segment after the hard hitting journalism?

**TUF_302** · 06-04-2010, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prydey

its a bit hard to read anything into the story. the '2nd opinion' they used was the RACQ, which, if they are anything like RAA, i wouldn't be taking too much notice of their opinion either.

Thats a very good point, down here we had my mums merc inspected by RACT, and they found a few problems but after taking it to a merc guru he was like those blokes have no idea, it all depends on who you are willing to trust these days

geckoGT · 06-04-2010, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prydey

pedders could mark things as urgent through to non urgent (they may do already), but they also have to cover themselves, because if someone does get a safety check done, and gets told the car is fine and then they fall off the road, there's a good chance the owner would point the finger at the pedders franchise. damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Do you suggest that RACQ are not subject to that exact same responsibility?

paule11 · 06-04-2010, 09:01 PM

I went to a few places once after gettinng new tyres was told I needed to get some
frontend work . the first 2 places told me absolute crap saying that parts that had 10000km on them and less then a year old where worn out. Both those places had no idea went to an independant guy and he picked wwhat was actually wrong the big chains didnt seem to know

XDV800 · 06-04-2010, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prydey

this is why they are known as sensationalists. pedders will quote on any part that is not 100%, which is perfectly fine to do. the independant (RACQ) mechanic said that the cars were perfectly safe 'as long as' items were looked at in due course as part of the normal servicing.

pedders could mark things as urgent through to non urgent (they may do already), but they also have to cover themselves, because if someone does get a safety check done, and gets told the car is fine and then they fall off the road, there's a good chance the owner would point the finger at the pedders franchise. damned if they do, damned if they don't.

This IS pretty much the regarded philosophy of at least one of the major chains, possibly others.

Ruling out shonky $$$ grubber outlets, the problem comes down to what is lost in translation between customer/service provider.
What the service provider actually informs the customer of, generally gets blurred when price comes into it, or they are too gormless to understand what is being explained to them, so the customers perception is skewed towards 'my god they want to rip me off'.
The above philosophy has been put in place because the worst case scenario issues have arisen in the past and people have died because of misdiagnosed/faulty components. Dead set.

But then the customer is always right, eh.

I lost respect for ACAs opinions yonks ago, they rarely pick up both sides of the story.

micky4433 · 06-04-2010, 09:40 PM

back in jan / feb this year, i wanted every suspension part & steering part replaced in my 97 NL fairlane. i went straight to pedders. got quotes on the exact same parts from different stores all over australia, including the rockhampton store. prices were all the same, only the labour charge changed. prior to having the work done, i took the lane into the rockhampton store for the $14 safety check. turned out only a couple of front bushes were worn and the brake pads / front discs needed attention. as the lane was already booked in to have the major work done, there was no $14 charge. as far as im concerned they did a great job and were very honest. in every industry, no matter what industry it is, there are shonky people. its pretty much a fact of life these days, as fkd as that is. extremely wrong of ACA to brand pedders as they did, it was 2 stores that "may have been" shonky, not all pedders stores are like that. and how could ACA get the RACQ to carry out the same or similar safety inspections, whinge about how much pedders charge when the RACQ charge far worse than a wounded bull??? that commodore they had up on the hoist, pretty filthy near the rack end boot and looked like freshish oil & the boot seemed to have alot more than normal movement. thats normal is it?? doubt it. at days end comes down to the individual to shop around, disregard what ACA & TT say and make ya own mind up.
thats my 35 bobs worth

micky4433 · 06-04-2010, 09:43 PM

i must correct you yzfr101, ACA NEVER get both sides of the story. they are, always have been & always will be one sided.

prydey · 06-04-2010, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geckoGT

Do you suggest that RACQ are not subject to that exact same responsibility?

sorry, i wasn't meaning it like that at all. in the segment, not once did the '2nd opinion' say that the pedders shops were quoting on stuff that wasn't worn or didn't need fixing. they just said that the car would be o.k. as long as some things were addressed in line with normal servicing. i'd also go out on a limb and say the RACQ answers were 'led' by the journalists.

the quotes were always going to be different. pedders will quote using there own parts, naturally, whereas the RACQ can quote using any brand and these will more often than not be a lot cheaper. it would be interesting to see how different the quotes were if they disregarded the dollar value and just looked at the worn components.

pedders were critisized for the lack of time the cars spent on the hoist, but in fairness to pedders, these guys specialise in suspension, so you could assume they could pick all they need to within the 10-15min. it doesn't take too much to be wrong to clock up in excess of $1000.

MAV50L · 06-04-2010, 10:07 PM

Ah 3 things I hate in this world.
ACA , TT and Pedders. Yep I agree they are franchises and not all are the same. I have been burnt by 2 of their stores now and will never set foot in one of their places again.
Its always the same with franchises. A couple of rogues cast a bad light on everyone. You would think the main company selling the franchises off would keep a check on it and weed the dodgy operators out. After all the WHOLE brand gets tarnised by one or two bad stores. Can't do much for the future sale values of franchises can it?
Maybe the larger franchises would be better off leasing the name to a franchise operator for a nominal sum and a % of yearly profit. That way if an operator was a shonk the main company could pull the name from them protecting their asset (being the name and goodwill) and also protecting their other operators from the fallout that occurs from stuff like tonight.
The 2 stores I was touched by can burn in hell but even though I wont use them ever again , its not fair that the operators doing a good , honest job (if there are any that are) are tarred with the same brush as the shonks.