Richard T

Dishonest or Incompetent

Last week my daughter's Alfa Giulietta developed a problem - it's heater packed up. Booked it into Meridien Milano, Portsmouth, to get a price for repair. They came back to tell us that the heater blower was faulty and that it would cost.......... well over £ 900 for them to fix it. Ouch, not expecting that. Especially when the web describes this 'known problem' and how it can be fixed. Time for a second opinion. When we contacted Meridien Milano to let them know we were not happy about their proposed charge they announced, That's OK, just pay the £ 126 fee for diagnosing the fault and you can take the car. I felt I needed to take issue over this for three reasons. First of all, the chap at Meridien Milano who booked the car in never mentioned an hourly rate of £ 126 to be able to give us an estimate of the cost of repair. It wasn't written anywhere, it was never mentioned, and it was certainly never agreed. Secondly, from a little bit of Googling I found the likely fault and it was not that the heater blower had failed. It was a wiring problem, and at worst a small component would need replacing. Thirdly, the idea that the car was now theirs until their 'bill' was settled was quite unreasonable and untrue. In fact, there is no lawful right to require payment before the car is returned, even if the charge had been incurred with prior agreement unless a lien exists. Small Car Services, Bishop's Waltham were surprised at the size of the repair bill presented by Meridien Milano. One of their experts quickly found the fault - the connections had come loose - and fixed it, IN 5 MINUTES, FREE OF CHARGE.