Hi I am not sure if you can help me, but I have been having a few problems with my Skoda Fabia VRs. I have had the car from new (June 2005) and it has always been serviced at a main dealer and has now covered nearly 60,000 miles. It has now got to the point where my car has been off the road for over 180 days since August 2009 and is still not fixed. I am also faced with a bill for new ECU which is not guaranteed to cure the problem. Skoda have offered to pay 50% but I still need to pay over £525+vat for something which I feel should not fail after 4 years. Below is a list of the events so far, the latest being that the car requires a new radiator before I can collect it from the garage. I apologise for the length of this e-mail but I have just been writing things down as they happen.

Thanking you in anticipation

Kind regards Elena Kent-Brown

Log of events

The engine management warning light came on 19th Aug 2009 whilst in Loughborough, resulting in reduced engine power. I contacted Mount Sorrel Skoda Garage and was quoted £35 for a diagnostics. My husband took the car to the garage and when he returned the warning light was still on and no official diagnosis. The invoice stated that there may be a relay issue. I was shocked to see that I had been charged £71.30 for this non diagnosis, not the price I was quoted (my husband was at the garage the whole time and not consulted about this) I booked my car in with Farmer Skoda, Leicester (5th Sept 2009 was the earliest available appointment) as Mount Sorrel had been so unhelpful. I paid a further £80.21 for diagnostics again (Farmer Skoda did contact Mount Sorrel to try to ascertain the results of their diagnostic report to avoid me paying again, but Mount Sorrel were UNABLE to provide this- there was no printout and no evidence of a diagnostic report ever being carried out) Farmer Skoda sent me home with the car saying they could not identify a specific fault and I should return if the light came back on. The light came back on about a week later- I advised the garage but was unable to book the car back in due to work commitments over the next couple of months as they could not provide me with a courtesy car I was sent an invoice on 24th December 2009 to pay £234.75 saying “payment overdue, please pay asap” on it (I had not received an invoice prior to this) I spoke to Steve Allen (Service Manager at Farmer Skoda) re this invoice and he agreed the car had not been fixed and I should ignore this. He would advise the accounts department/credit control (I was sent a further statement with the £234.75 on it in April 2010, and then received the same invoice AGAIN on 24th May 2010 saying “This invoice is now overdue for payment” on it –at this point and at the point of writing this, my car is still in the garage unfixed!) On Friday 22nd Jan I dropped off my car at Farmer Skoda as arranged as I was on holiday from 23rd Jan-29th Jan and thought this would give the garage a suitable amount of time to diagnose a fault without having to provide me with a courtesy car. I phoned the garage to collect my car on January 29th as we had arranged, but was told it had not been looked at yet- I reluctantly re- arranged collection for 4th Feb as this is as long as I could be without a car On Thurs 11th Feb I called Farmer Skoda to inform them that since pulling off the forecourt, the ‘bulb’ warning light had come on and stayed on for the last week, regardless of no bulbs being out. I was concerned this was either linked to the main fault, or something caused by whatever work the garage had carried out on the car, as it had literally come on as I had pulled off their premises. I was advised that this was nothing to do with the work carried out on the car, and I should change every bulb on the car as it may be a loose connection... Myself, my dad and my brother thoroughly checked all bulbs and changed several. We all agreed the advise I was given was unreasonable, and the warning light remained on. This has not been mentioned by the garage since. I was advised by Steve Allen that I should call the garage on 22nd March for courtesy car details for my insurance (this was the first opportunity to have a courtesy car). I was told Steve would not have asked me to do this as he was on holiday this particular week which had been booked for a long time....after some insistence, Holly provided me with details of a courtesy car. I agreed to insure the courtesy car from 23rd March (I was to drop my car off the next morning) and insure it until Friday 26th March when I would return it to collect my car. On Friday March 26th I travelled to the garage to return the courtesy car and collect my car as agreed. I was kept waiting for some time and then told to go back home as nothing had changed. They “didn’t expect me to turn up today”!! I had closed my business for half a day as my last journey to the garage had taken us nearly 2 hours due to traffic... Monday 3rd May I realised the courtesy car had an out of date tax disc on it! (expiring 31st March!) A further courtesy car was dropped off on the morning of 4th may Thurs 13th May was our last contact from Farmer Skoda. After being told several weeks ago they were waiting for a car to come in to transplant the ECU out of to see if this was the problem (as we suspected all along!) my husband received a call from Steve Allen stating they thought it was probably the ECU...!!!. NO official diagnosis, a new ECU had NOT been tried in the car to test this despite promises to the contrary, and it was simply a guess. My husband was told this would cost £700-£800 to fix. As my husband questioned this and said we had no plans to pay for a ‘hunch’ Steve said he would go back to Skoda and ask for some ‘good will’ given the situation. Still no response to (25th May) Letter from Steve Allen dated 28th May (just asking me to call him as he had called my Husbands phone and was aware we were away on holiday) Called and spoke to Steve 1st June 3.30pm. Said Skoda have offered 50% goodwill. Equates to me paying £400 to fit new ECU (parts and labour). Steve/garage is 99% sure it is the ECU based on the fact that most of the wiring has been changed and the ECU is the only item left that could be causing the fault. However, this is not an official diagnosis, just as sure as he feels they can be. I informed Steve of my complaint direct to Skoda on 27th May. He appeared to be unaware of this. On this basis, I said I felt it inappropriate to either accept or decline Skoda’s offer whilst the complaint was in progress- Steve was going to tell Skoda I “said no to the offer”- I had to insist several times I could not comment either way as the complaint is ongoing. He will speak to Skoda re the complaint and where this leaves things. In the meantime I asked for the following in writing: What Skoda’s ‘goodwill’ offer equates to (in terms of percentage of cost and what this covers), what the diagnosis of the fault is and how they have reached that conclusion. Steve said he is off for the next couple of days but would try to get someone to put this in writing for me. If he is unable to call back today, someone should call me back tomorrow. I advised that if I cannot answer, they SHOULD leave a message so that I was able to return the call or at least knew they had attempted contact. I Called Skoda customer service 7th June 2010 as no response yet except for delivery receipt on day email sent. Spoke to female who said it had been received today. Apologised profusely for this as complaints should be dealt with in 48hrs. Answer phone message from Ian? At Skoda- cut off after intro so called customer service on 8th June 2010 Spoke to Julie, Ian had left a message for me saying sent email to quality team. I should get an email from Ian today requesting more info- age of car in months, fsh, dates of services and mileage, if I owned it from new, if it has extended warranty, what outcome I want (lot of stuff that’s already in the email I sent!) 8th June 2010 Called Steve Allen- spoke to him re request for info ‘in writing’. Gave him my email address to send me info today (so I could get things moving with Skoda) Wants to build my car up so I can collect it and return theirs- said I would like mine MOT’d first- he does not see any problems with this and will get this done in the next couple of days before I collect. He feels nothing can happen ‘until I make my decision’. Told him nothing can happen until Skoda make theirs! He is ‘not prepared to buy in an ECU at £600’ until someone is paying for it. Says mine is safe and driveable. Call from ‘Diane’ at farmer Skoda chasing invoice again! Phoned her back and explained the situation. She confirmed Steve Allen “has not” spoken to her about this and she would make sure no –one bothered me about it again. 10th June 2010 No response from Ian Watson at Skoda customer services or Steve Allen at Farmer Skoda. Called Skoda customer service re email to make sure it had been received- spoke with ‘Jane’ who said Ian was unavailable but she would leave him a note to call me to confirm receipt of email or otherwise. Call back from Ian who asked more details re how fault manifests itself etc I informed him of the ‘50%’ offer but told him I wasn’t certain who exactly this as from (not the garage I thought, but as I had nothing in writing despite my request, I couldn’t be certain). He agreed given my catalogue of stresses in my letter I had cause to be upset and he could understand how frustrated I was. Further call back from Ian- he told me 50% offer was from ‘Customer Care’ i.e his dept, and this would not be altered. He was very rude and tried putting words inm y mouth stating’ so KEEPING YOU MOBILE THE WHOLE TIME, that’s what you call bad service is it?’ I tried to argue that there had been much time when I had not had a courtesy car and had had to rely on my husband etc even though I need a car for my job, but he insisted the garage had told him a ‘very different story’ and he would consider my complaint no further. He also said that the diagnosis had come from ‘the factory’ although he didn’t confirm what was meant by this, and so it was a 100% certain diagnosis. I asked for this in writing AGAIN which AGAIN he said would be no problem and he would sort out for me. Whenever I asked about the life of the ECU, and the fact that this was not a ‘good will’ offer but only what I would expect (and more considering the part should not have broken in the first place) he told me he couldn’t answer any of my questions as they were ‘technical’. 18th June 2010 Just had a call from Farmer Skoda saying that they have had to abort the MOT as the radiator needs replacing which they can do for £250.00 and that I should not drive the car, I have advised them to put some RAD weld in and continue the MOT and that I will collect my car on Monday 21st June.