MOT damage

I wonder what people think is the best approach to take here. Having done an engine swap and been off road for a while, I took my 110 to be MOT'd at one of the big tyre and exhaust group type places (which I normaly avoid, but needed it done today) - I knew there were some things needed doing, but wanted the complete list so that I could get to work then take it back in a couple of days knowing I'd done everything required. Anyway, When I get there, the tester is an old grumpy bloke complete with cloth cap and he immediately actually has a go at me for having undersealed my chassis! Yes really, he complained that underseal (I waxoyled the chassis inside and out about a month ago) makes it hard to see things. I was surprised at his manner as you might guess, and it was pretty obvious at that point that I was in for a nitpicking MOT!
Anyway, 2 hours later he finishes, and along with the things I knew needed doing, I see he has failed also it because there is no anti roll bar, that it has a fuel leak, and the drivers door won't open from inside. Oh, and an indicator is "the wrong colour" - presumably they are not supposed to be orange any more?
Now, it's a fact that it has no anti-roll bar - my understanding is that it does not have to. My mate's hasn't and goes through the test every time as does one of my neighbours Disco. The drivers door was completely working when I left the vehicle there and had nver given any problem- I'd swear that it was working when I left it on my childs life! I also did not have a fuel leak. When I got it back home, sure enough, it's now dripping diesel from somethere around the tank (driving back it's blown all over and it's getting dark here now so I'll have to take a closer look in the morning to see why. But if you look where I had the landy parked before I went for the MOT and where I parked it in thier car park, there is no diesel on the ground. So it's plain as day that the leak has been caused there. I've been under the landy on and off for the last week, and have not had one drop of diesel. So it's clear that the door and the leak have been caused at the MOT station. I dread to think what else I'm going to find now.
My point is that if I complain, it's just my word against his, and obviously they are going to believe the tester as presumbly he'll just say I'm p****d off becuase it failed - which is not true, I expected it to fail, but not for it to get damaged. Obviously there is no point in me taking it back for the retest as it's pretty obvious he'll never pass it - I wondered if it's because it's not an nice easy modern car - I can't think of any other reason as I was as ever polite and friendly to the guys. But although I'll now have to mend the damage and go pay for a proper MOT test by someone without a strop on, there must be some way i can try and stop this guy doing this to other people. Anyone any ideas?

I learnt the hard way too...never leave the vehicle, go with the tester as much as possible, if he doesn't allow it, go somewhere else.

Also use a station that knows landy's, some of their quirks could be seen as a failure whereas if you know the vehicle you could have it passed.

I understand you needed it there n then, perhaps you can document the extra faults and take some pictures and make a complaint officially via their office, not just coming across as a disgruntled customer so to speak.

you need to complain in writing both to the manager at the branch and their head office, if someone else has complained about the same tester they might think you have a point.... or they might beleive the next bloke who complains.... even if they admit nothing management will tell him theres been an allegation which may stop it happening to someone else. you loose nothing by complaining and coud well gt some offer of compensation. if you get a dickhead response copy everyhing to vosa it might give them some hassle

that's rubbish

where in Northumberland are u? I can highly recommend Tony Thompson & sons in Morpeth - really very good and wouldn't let anyone else test my K series midget. did the landy as well - he's tough but fair - failed it the first time 'cos of it's brakes, but didn't fail it for oil on the clutch (was so bad you could hardly drive it...)

it sounds like you just got a git of a tester - though getting it back worse is not on - I'd write some well worded letters to people, including MOT place and VOSA - just so's everyone knows what's going on

Funnily enough I am in Morpeth too - but I went to a place on the industrial estate. My father uses Thompson's and they've been absolutely first class with him too. I do 90% of my own stuff but otherwise use a local 1 man garage up there who is scrupulously honest (I've come back to find a bill less than half of what he'd thought it was going to be for example) but unfortunately he does not do MOT's. It's quite right to fail it on certain items, but I have no idea why the guy had an attitude from the start as I'm always pleasant to people (as long as they are pleasant back of course), and ALWAYS especially to 3 types: people who are about to make food for me out of sight, my dentist, and MOT testers . The more I think about the damage the more annoyed I'm getting - if he had not had the attitude, I might stretch to the damage being accidental, but the more I think about his attitude before the test, the fact he took 2 hours (which since it was on an offer price puts it at less than £20 an hour, so surely the company does not expect them to be doing it for 2 hours) the more I wonder just what went on! As for why I'm truly at a loss.
I will be writing to head office and VOSA, even though it won't help me and they'll just deny it all. My landy is still dripping diesel and to I'm going to have to take the inside of the door off to try and repair what he's done (I suspect he's just heaved on it until the mechanism has bent from first impressions).

Can you not complain to trading standards? If it's serious damage it could be worth taking him to court.

I was just saying I wished I had taken someone with me as they could have provided a statement that those things were not damaged when I left the landy with him - as the more I think about it, the more believe this is actually criminal damage rather than just a civil offence - it makes no sense for both things to be "accidents" (and combined with his strange attitude), but for the life of me I can't think why it's been done - it was going to fail anyway and I'd arranged for it to go there next morning for the exhaust to be done, planning to fix the things I knew about and any minors I did not overnight then get it MOT's straight after they'd done the new exhaust - but since they don't mend doors or fit fuel pipes or tanks there, (I haven't found yet where the damage is thats causing the leak - could be pipes or tank- I will look in daylight) there's no financial reason for him to do it that I can see - but as soon as he had the thing up on the lift he was extremely grumpy to me about the fact I'd waxoyled the chassis (over a month ago) from the very first, saying it made things harder for him etc - which I thought was odd at the time as after all, it only has a normal amount on, and last time I looked people do have a right to rustproof their own vehicle's chassis, - and it's hardly an unusual thing to do, but he had a real strop on about it and went on about it.... but it still does not explain why he's done what he's done.

What ever you do, complain to the manager first thing tomorrow, even take the truck back down with you. Give them the chance to put things right first, you may be pleasantly surprised, and if your not it will serve to underline you case in writing to their head office etc with bad customer service too. 2 hrs on a MOT is excessive and smacks of tech dragging his ass because its, old and heavy etc. Would deffo reiterate other peps suggestions of taking it somewhere that knows landys, even if it is the Main stealers, I always do mine there, not just because I used to work there but the fee is set and regardless of opinion they do know their own product and normally jump through hoops to get positive customer survey responses even if its just and MOT.

Some Mot places wont touch the car if its covered in waxoyl underneath. They dunt like getting dirty. As regards your fuel leak was the car muddy underneath? The bloke might have removed some and that was sealing the leak. Check the back of your fuel tank to make sure it aint rusted through.

Nah, tank is just over 2 years old and in immaculate nick as it too is waxoyled all round! Also I had the tank off 2 months ago to do the rear X member and it was in really good nick. I suspect the pipes have been pulled or something but won't be able to check properly until daylight tomorrow.

I would fix all the faults he found and take it back. You'll have an MOT and get one up on him.

I feel your pain... took my mondeo to similar type of place... in good working order, running well, but expected some failure on the brakes.

Go to collect it, engine is mis-firing to hell... find one of the ceramics on the sparks is all ****ed and long and short of it in the end had to scrap the car. (well park it up on the front garden to be looked at in the future)

Can't proove jack **** that they ****ed it... but... they had a load of 'apprentices' in that day on their 'intro' day - like 6 of um... Can only assume, somehow, one of them did something.

Took my derv 306 in many yrs ago cost 800 notes!!! Took it the nxt yr 980... (this was put against the farm books in the end... I told my dad bollox to em the rest of it's nots it flew through no probs maybe a trackrod here or a balljoint there etc etc, my gti has flown every single mot, dad takes his range rove costs him 1200 to tell him it's ****ed, but he never learns so what can ya do

back in the mists of time i had a company cortina estate, went in to ford main dealer for its thousand mile service... drove it home (friday eve) vibration was so bad i couldnt see anything in the mirrors.... id been reading the handbook which was full of the engine mods for the new auto choke carb and how the ignition timing had been changed fron 6 to 12 degrees.. (or the other way was a long time ago)... anyway sat morning i got the timing light out and checked the timing, yes it had been reset to the old value..... i set the timing by turning the dizzy for sweetest idle, then checked with light , it was spot on the new setting. i
even main stealers can balls it up.

Took it to another MOT place - surprise surprise, it failed on the 4 items I expected and knew needed to be done.... and none of the things on the other 3 pages guy no1. had claimed! When I pointed out (after I had the certificate in my mitts!) to the new tester that my chassis was allegedly "cracked" in 4 places and that it MUST have an anti-roll bar he said, and i quote; "that's a load of sh**".
Trouble is, if I complain to VOSA guy 1 will claim he did not do the damage (though how he'd explain the dissapearing "cracks" I don't know) and I guess they could even make things unpleasant then for the decent one who tested it properly as it will be word against word and no1. will have to claim that no.2 ignored faults - even though he hasn't. Maybe I just have to take it as a £30 lesson and tell all my mates and family to avoid a certain place!

If you complain to vosa now about cracked chassis and the likes they will retest your car....

If seen 2 of them take 3 hours to retest a car (they used our mot station) taking much notes and maybe 20 photos, but youll know you have a proper mot The question is....do you chance it? or stick with the new MOT you have?

Me, Id stick with the one you have rather than let 2 ministery men crawl all over my car.

Absolutely - and without doubt, if you looked hard enough and are determined enough you could fail a brand new car straight out of the factory if you wanted to, so that's another reason for me not to report him to VOSA. Shame that this guy's probably doing it to others though (we all know it goes on, but this is the most extreme case I've been involved in personaly) as I guess 90% of motorists are not like the folks who use this forum - I know guys at work who have never even checked thier oil in their entire lives for example, and frankly you could tell them anything needed replacing and they'd know no different .

Once upon a time, i used to follow the tester around and under the car, he was friendly enough to point out stuff that needed doing but not a fail, stuff that was a fail and so-on.

We had a peugeot boxer motor home, the tester said he disagreed with ragging on the engine just for the emissions test and only ever gave it a couple of blips, he was another decent guy.

Now i have to leave it there or am forced to sit in a little cupboard with a crap coffee machine while i wait due to health and safety reasons of course.

How do i find a sympathetic test station for my aging landy??