Crystal Autos

Well… I’m not even sure where to begin with this review. I went to Crystal Auto’s as a new customer as it was a convenient location for me while my car under went a MOT. Unfortunately I had the dreaded phone call to say it had failed and needed some welding, adjustment to handbrake and rear brakes, they quoted me £456. I had to collect the car and then return it a week later to have the work done. I couldn’t believe my eyes to see a gaping hole down the outside/bottom of trim/door panel (rocker panel). It’s as if they had stabbed it with a screwdriver. Nevertheless, I needed the car so had to go ahead with the repairs. When I dropped the car off the following week the receptionist had said that the car probably wouldn’t be ready that day as they were short of mechanics due to doctors/hospital appointment’s, I said that was fine and could I expect it the following day, she said she wasn’t sure. Almost a week went by and I’d heard nothing so I called them, only to be told they were unable to weld it themselves and needed a specialist welder to complete the work. I had asked if she could inform me and keep me up to date on the situation as I was obviously without a car. I then got a call some few days later to say that it had now failed the retest on brake shoes, wheel cylinder and brake drums and 3 hours labour totalling another £438. I could believe what I was hearing how could it fail a retest, surely they are testing what they’ve carried out?! How had they missed these big jobs in the initial MOT? Nothing made any sense. So I contacted DVSA and explained the situation, I got an almost immediate reply about my MOT appeal, to say the garage should not have failed the car on the above and needed to ask them to re test vehicle and pass it. I forwarded the email to Crystal Autos, who responded with an email that was trying to buy them more time and basically a fob off. A day or two later I had a phone call from them to say they had spoken to DVSA and that Crystal Auto’s had in fact used the ring terminology in their quote to me and the work would need carrying out to have a successful MOT. The gentleman on the phone had offered to deduct one hours labour £55 from my bill as a good will gesture for lack of communication and all the confusion etc throughout this process. I had no other option than to give them the go ahead to carry out the rest of the work. 2 days later I get the call to say my car is ready, I ran through both quotes with the receptionist, whom again had got the figures wrong so I had to inform her of the hours labour reduction I was granted. I went along to collect the car and believe it or not, one of the invoices will still wrong and I was overcharge by £3, I couldn’t be bothered to argue the point as I just wanted to get my car and go… and then the last straw was, I get into my car and it’s bloody filthy, it’s like all the doors had been left open and a dust truck had driven back and forth around it. It was thick with dust and grime and had a pungent smell. Absolutely disgusting!! I will never be going back to this garage again, the customer service was terrible and the whole fiasco from start to finish has been a nightmare!