Warranty Diagnostic Fee

[andrew_ww]

Hi,

Phoned my local service centre today to book my car in for an issue only to be told some nonsense that if I want it looked at I will have to pay a diagnostic fee of £80. If they concluded that it is warranty issue they will refund you.

Completely enraged by this I phoned SEAT who promptly barked at me that's it's always been the case and I have no choice but to pay.

What a complete con. So basically it's 80 quid if you are worried about an intermittent fault.

They didn't mention the hassle of how the refunds work, or how they return a decision of its warranty or not.

I have round 2 today. Good job the health service have more brains and scruples than this lot, sorry you'll have to pay a fee if you prove not to have some life threatening illness.

Anybody else been bitten by this?

 

[CR59OSS]

Hi,

Phoned my local service centre today to book my car in for an issue only to be told some nonsense that if I want it looked at I will have to pay a diagnostic fee of £80. If they concluded that it is warranty issue they will refund you.

Completely enraged by this I phoned SEAT who promptly barked at me that's it's always been the case and I have no choice but to pay.

What a complete con. So basically it's 80 quid if you are worried about an intermittent fault.

They didn't mention the hassle of how the refunds work, or how they return a decision of its warranty or not.

I have round 2 today. Good job the health service have more brains and scruples than this lot, sorry you'll have to pay a fee if you prove not to have some life threatening illness.

Anybody else been bitten by this?

This sounds like a load of rubbish. I had an issue with my hands free (which was resolved yesterday by changing the mic) and took it to my local seat dealer who ran diagnostics on it and claimed no fault found. I then took it back Monday and showed them the fault and they fixed it. I even got a free courtesy car and I wasn't charged a penny for any of this.

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[Winder123]

Hi,

Phoned my local service centre today to book my car in for an issue only to be told some nonsense that if I want it looked at I will have to pay a diagnostic fee of £80. If they concluded that it is warranty issue they will refund you.

Completely enraged by this I phoned SEAT who promptly barked at me that's it's always been the case and I have no choice but to pay.

What a complete con. So basically it's 80 quid if you are worried about an intermittent fault.

They didn't mention the hassle of how the refunds work, or how they return a decision of its warranty or not.

I have round 2 today. Good job the health service have more brains and scruples than this lot, sorry you'll have to pay a fee if you prove not to have some life threatening illness.

Anybody else been bitten by this?

I've never had this at all, I have been to my dealer multiple times for Intermittent issues and persistent issues and have never paid a penny. What area is your dealer in and have you tried another one?

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[ESS]

I had a stop start issue that was intermittent i wasnt charged a fee.

I did show them a photo of it on my dash though.

Im booked in soon for my screen not responding when pressed.

Video proof will be shown.


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[marty_34]

I had a stop start issue that was intermittent i wasnt charged a fee.

I did show them a photo of it on my dash though.

Im booked in soon for my screen not responding when pressed.

Video proof will be shown.


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Good luck with the screen one, I went in with video evidence and had 4/5 months battling


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[philmots]

Hi,

Phoned my local service centre today to book my car in for an issue only to be told some nonsense that if I want it looked at I will have to pay a diagnostic fee of £80. If they concluded that it is warranty issue they will refund you.

Completely enraged by this I phoned SEAT who promptly barked at me that's it's always been the case and I have no choice but to pay.

What a complete con. So basically it's 80 quid if you are worried about an intermittent fault.

They didn't mention the hassle of how the refunds work, or how they return a decision of its warranty or not.

I have round 2 today. Good job the health service have more brains and scruples than this lot, sorry you'll have to pay a fee if you prove not to have some life threatening illness.

Anybody else been bitten by this?

How old is your car?

 

[andrew_ww]

It's a 63 plate, but it has a 5 year warranty.

 

[marty_34]

In that case I'd be saying I'm not paying


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[KoNG]

Pay for diagnostic £80 wtf? That is taking piss. Car is still under warranty it doesn't matter if its standard or extended.

 

[ayster]

I called the dealer in Manchester the other day to book in for a service and they mentioned the £80 diagnostic charge would be charged if the fault was not covered under warranty. I want them to change the hazard warning light switch as it sticks in the on position, hopefully that is covered as its done it from new!

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[mty12345]

How can they justify £80 just to push a plug into the OBD2 port!?!?!?!?!?

I'd go in there and cockslap the manager until either he agreed that there's no charge, or the old bill turned up and tasered me!

 

[kazand]

Yeah I've heard the 'diagnostic fee' mentioned a couple of times both by Seat and VW. Another scam. Currently having a row with VW dealer over sat nav issues, they did mention the fee but as car is not a year old yet and is a company motor in any case so just ignored them.

 

[ben4012]

This is not unusual in my experience. Once a warranty fault is found Seat will cover all costs; courtesy car etc.

It's in the garage's interest to do it as a warranty job is a good earner for them, if they can make £80 upfront as well...

 

[perkman1969]

I called the dealer in Manchester the other day to book in for a service and they mentioned the £80 diagnostic charge would be charged if the fault was not covered under warranty. I want them to change the hazard warning light switch as it sticks in the on position, hopefully that is covered as its done it from new!

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The sticking hazard switch is a known problem Ayster - mine was fixed under warranty.

Also never been told about a charge to diagnose problems - just had my car in for rear light replacement (common condensation issue) and a problem with my sat nav which they error checked.
Car came back glistening and had been health checked while in, all for nothing. Even got a video emailed to me by the technician with bits from the health check being done!

 

[seatgraham]

The sticking hazard switch is a known problem Ayster - mine was fixed under warranty.

Also never been told about a charge to diagnose problems - just had my car in for rear light replacement (common condensation issue) and a problem with my sat nav which they error checked.
Car came back glistening and had been health checked while in, all for nothing. Even got a video emailed to me by the technician with bits from the health check being done!

Sounds like Arnold Clark...?

 

[martin j.]

Seen this a lot of times, a lot of workshop time is wasted doing diagnostics that are nothing to do with warranty, so your car is checked and a warranty fault is found no charge this time is included in the warranty bill, repair carried out under warranty, or, car checked and if no fault found that is warranty related the techs time has to be billed, and minimum charge is normally an hour, i.e. £70/£80 an hour, many marques are the same but not all dealers will charge so ask around before you book.

 

[perkman1969]

Sounds like Arnold Clark...?

Bristol Street Motors - have found them to be really good and reliable

 

[Fmxvxx]

This is slowly becoming standard amongst all garages not just vw group and it boils down to customers refusing to pay if the fault is deemed non warranty. then the garage is down an hours diagnostics the tech loses an hours billable time, if you read your warranty and this goes for all cars it will say all diagnosis is down to the customer to authorise until a material or manufacturing defect is found at this point authority goes over to the dealer/warranty department

Few examples from my time in the workshop

Customer complaint rattle from the rear.

(golf ball under the spare wheel) time taken to locate 30 mins with before and after test drive.

Customer refused to pay as it was booked in as warranty investigation bar legal battle 30 mins bonus gone and £45 in billable time.


Second case

Eml on rough running

Brought car in read codes p0300 (random multiple missfire) carrying out basic checks find coil pack wiring damaged and some off brand coil packs fitted non warranty customer disagreed and left (down 20 mins) car shows up next day at sister branch and go through the same process again.


As much as dealers can be dicks trust me customers are worse lol.

 

[Briant566]

Good luck with the screen one, I went in with video evidence and had 4/5 months battling


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I had the same issue with stop start turned out to be a rear brake light drawing to much current plus screen froze all replacement under warranty

 

[ESS]

My stop start issue was due to me overfilling with fuel as i had a fault logged.
Was told to only go to first click off when filling.
Stop start works fine now.


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