Mystery Shopping Exercise Shows Up Faults

More than half of garages across the UK deliver low standards of service to customers, according to new research published recently. Key car industry figures have met with Consumer Minister Melanie Johnson and Industry Minister Alan Johnson to discuss the problem. The Ministers welcomed a pledge from the industry to sign up in principle to develop a ‘Good Garage’ scheme to tackle the low standards.

A recent government-sponsored mystery shopping survey found that 51 per cent of garages missed one or more safety-related defects in cars or items that should have been picked up in a regular servicing. The survey also revealed that, only five per cent of garages sampled carried out a thorough service against the manufacturer’s schedule and were judged to be ‘very good’,· 86 per cent of garages missed at least one introduced fault· 40 per cent of garages missed at least one service item; 51 per cent if the customer was female, 33 per cent if the customer was male; and· 27 per cent of fast fit centres recommended unnecessary replacement of parts..