Anyone purchased a car service deal?

OK so this is probably why females get ripped off by car mechanics but look I really don't know anything about cars :).

I bought this deal ($59 for 4 car services) http://www.scoopon.com.au/deals/2164/just-59-for-the-ultimat… 2 months ago and made a booking today to bring my car in. Except the guy tells me that there will be another $130 on top and that the $59 doesn't cover labour. OK… I thought. I looked at the voucher later and it said that the $59 doesn't cover parts!

So what the hell DOES it cover? At $59 + $130, that's not a deal at all! My last service was cheaper!

Anyone else had a similar experience?

PS. I'm getting my boyfriend to call them up tomorrow to ask about it - wondering if they'll tell a guy something different…. either way I will complain to Scoopon that the deal was misleading!

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  • Except the guy tells me that there will be another $130 on top and that the $59 doesn't cover labour.

    Doesn't mention anything about not including labour? The listing only mentioned parts & oil being excluded. Or is the $130 for oil/filters? If so, that's way too expensive for a standard service.

    • He made it sound like the $130 was for labour :(. Does that mean I'm going to get stung for parts as well?? Should I back out while I can? But then I'll lose $59 :(.

      • If $130 is for labour, then like you said, it doesn't make sense since you're paying $59 for nothing.

        I'd go with the plan involving your boyfriend. If it seems like a scam, then perhaps contact Scoopon about it and demand a refund. Or last resort, lodge a complaint with consumer affairs in your state. I guess complaining to the authorities may help.

  • +2

    I think thats a lesson learnt, most of these auto service ones I would stay away from as they end up charging you more on the parts like oil etc. Then they find something wrong with the car which needs to be fixed and make their money back.

  • +1

    i bought one from ABS at summer park in Brisbane awhile ago that promised free labour and free diagnostics. They stung me for $600+ in fluids they used to service the car….

  • i bought one from ABS at summer park in Brisbane awhile ago that promised free labour and free diagnostics. They stung me for $600+ in fluids they used to service the car….

    • Ouch!!!

      Do you think I can tell them upfront that I don't want them putting anything that expensive in my car?? Or in fact, touch anything at all that will incur extra cost…

      Oh dear, you are all making me feel like I should just cancel the booking and lose $59 for the greater good….

  • I would stay away from the following:

    Car repairs
    House cleaning
    House service (gutter cleaning, sparkys, plumbing, handyman, carpaet cleaning, etc)
    Papmper services that purport to take more than two hours
    Deals which have sold thousands and who have limited availability and short expiry
    lawyers and legal services
    plastic surgery
    Car service

  • i got service deal from suttons arncliffe few months back. they rang saying CV joint need replacing $700-$800, to find exact location of leak from cv shaft they need to do a steam clean $160, $140 for power steering fluid plus another $60 for oil change. so over $1000++. i told them i was student and don't have that money. service manager automatically says ill knock $100 bucks off for you, as if they were doing me a favour. I went to my local CV shaft place. $200 fitted with 12 months warranty!! got power steer fluid for $20 from super cheap auto and topped up myself after advice from local mechanic. i def think these car service deals def try to find a way to sting you!!

    • The difference between you and me? You sound like you know something about cars :). Point taken though. Good thing you didn't get shafted.

      • The service centre will most likely scare you in believing that your car is not road worthy unless you fork out $xxxx amount for repair. They'll probably give the safety speech and what not.

        The thing is, you're the consumer and you have the right to refuse any repairs. Just tell them you just want the regular service for that the voucher is entitled for and nothing more. If you feel convinced that it's not road worthy, you can always get it inspected elsewhere.

        • I read on some other thread that the service place refused to do the service until the "repairs" were done.

  • Yes, I have. It's a very long and frustrating stroy which ended up costing me thousands of dollars. I am extremely unhappy with the service I recieved. All I want to say for now is STAY AWAY FROM ULTRATUNE MARRICKVILLE. I have never dealt with anyone so unprofessional and dishonest in my entire life.

    • I purchased one for Midas in Essendon. So far had no problems with redeeming it as per the voucher terms and conditions.
      The manager even allowed me to extend the voucher to an infinite period even though the deal said it would expire in a year.
      I recently purchased the car and i knew there wasn;t really anything wrong with it except for a loose drive belt.
      They serviced promptly and identified that the drive belt was indeed loose and didnt charge me anything additional on top of the regular service.
      Seeing that i was going to service my car there in the first place i think on my part it was a bargain.

    • Would you mind sharing your experience?

      I have also been scammed by these bastards for $400 when I did service of my car using voucher.

      • long story, pm me if you want to know more.

  • Hi katie1701 how did you go with it? Curious about what they said when your boyfriend call them

  • Hi all, just an update:

    My boyfriend called them up and they told him about the same thing but $10 less. It wasn't enough for me to bother squibbling about and anyhow I'd bought the voucher and made the appointment so I went through with it and took my car in last week. They seemed quite nice, even though the man was telling me that the voucher said no PARTS included but MATERIALS was different. And labour, who knows where that went. At this point in time, if he was going to charge me $130 on top of the voucher and no more than I didn't have to energy to argue over terminology (parts vs. materials, what?) as that cost would still be cheaper than my last service.

    So I left it there in the morning with express instructions not to do anything beyond the $130 and came back after work to get the car. Unfortunately sometime in the 8 hours I had been gone, someone had come along and hit my car while it was in the shop. So now there's a massive scrape down the side. The guys there were good about it, they took down the driver's full details and offered to take my car to their "mates" down the road to get it fixed (on insurance, of course). It also all sounds really dodgy!

    And then I realised that they had done exactly as I'd asked them to - a 30k service. Unfortunately when I checked my logbook apparently that service had been done a while back and I was supposed to up to the 50k or whatever. I'm a numbskull about my services but every other mechanic was smart enough to realise this and do the next one due in the book. Now I've got a 30k service done twice. Yay!

    All in all, I've decided for the next one its time to take it back to the dealer for some TLC. At $130+ on top of the $59 for a minor service, I don't think it ended up that much cheaper and now I've got to get the scrape repaired too!

    • Wow, I'll stay away from car service vouchers on Scoopon.

    • Hi katie1701,

      Have you been in contact with our support team via [email protected] ?

      If you have already sent an email, can you please advise your ticket ID (ex: ABC-123456), so that we can ask our support crew to review your query and get back to you asap if your concerns have not already been resolved.

      Kind Regards,
      Team Scoopon.

      • +1

        Why don't you just answer it now instead of getting her more trouble than its worth. Others who unfortunately bought your coupon might also like to know?

  • I'm pretty happy with my group buy car service. I bought a coupon for servicing at allcar auto service centre for $39, the parts were $74. The guy was friendly and honest (didn't say this and that needed changing). I was skeptical at first because I've had bad experience with scoopon n I know nothin about cars so I was fearing i'd get ripped off, but I guess there r good deals sometimes.

  • It was a misleading conduct not includes labour and essential parts when advertising the car service. Simply ask a few person pass-by, do you think you need to pay extra for labour and parts in addition to the car service you have already prepaid?

  • I saw them and a was very tempted but since they always say parts and oils not included I knew its a big risk of being ripped off, not that all r rip offs unfortunately it's the portion that u dont know that keeps me away from those group buys

  • At the end of the day, if you're going to take your car into a service centre don't go in with the expectation of being ripped off. Set the expectation when you arrive. Tell them that if any additional services outside of what's requested is needed that they are to provide a written quote BEFORE conducting any repairs. If they provide a quote, tell them that you're going to shop it to other service centres in the local area before making a decision to proceed, then watch them squirm.

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