Yeah, the only way you can get the shonky welder to pay for the new repairs, if you and your family are going to stand up to his threats, but don't worry, soon it will be time to /b/ him Now, this new welder... tell us you have detailed written quotes? And better yet, you also have some decent reccomendations?
Have you considered contacting Watchdog or the consumer advisor (his name escapes me) on The One Show? I'd say they would be very interested in your story and could do something to make sure you get your money back or at least that the cowboy doesn't do dodgy work for anyone else in the future.
Recommendations? Yes. He's a moderator on theminiforum.co.uk who won 'welder of the year 2009' and has several threads up detailing welding rebuilds he was involved in. I will get a written and detailed quote. Also, payment is structured as such: £200 up front, £200 half way through (and I can go check up on his work if I want to), then £200 at delivery after inspection. Also, he will post progress reports and pictures in my build diary on the forum as he has done for others. Hopefully I've left nothing to chance! I'm not sure that will help, if something like that kicked off he'd be sure to be hassling us again straight away! For the sake of 'a quiet life' I'll suck it up and move on. Expensive lesson learned.
I'm not sure it's possible to be more detailed about it than that - sounds like a good bloke to go and see. As far as pickup/delivery goes, can you not drive it over to his place and get the train/a lift back?
Well let's not hold it against him for being a moderator, but since this guy is going to give you detailed written quotes before he starts any work, and he's recently won "welder of the year", I think you should be fine +1 drive it there and back - around here you can get a temporary permit from the registration office to drive an unregistered car, and they are usually issued specifically for cars that need repair work done to pass RWC (oz version of MOT)
I can't drive it there as it's not MOTd or taxed. I've not heard of any temporary measures over here! Otherwise I'd obviously drive it, any excuse to get back behind the wheel.
You can drive it as long as it's on the way to be repaired for an MOT at a booked appointment, if it has no MOT (don't think it needs to be taxed either). But it *does* have to be insured. Otherwise it's a chicken or egg situation!
Yes, but it isn't going for an MOT, it's going for a repair, then coming back, being finished and then going for an MOT. I think that's too tenuous a link!
That's also against the rules, a car without tax and MOT cannot be towed unless both front wheels are off the ground. And don't suggest I pull a wheelie all the way there!
Ask him if he'd be willing to make a few notes about the issues with the welding, acting as a sort of expert witness.
Im sorry to hear about your bad luck mate. It may cheer you up to hear about a recent study that's shown that Karma can now be bottled and even purchased from Halfords. The label reads DOT 4
If your looking for karma, I can recommend a certain way of buying it - I call it the Ultimate Revenge...
Yes you can, I did a lot of research on this as was in a similar situation with a dead Hilux - you can drive with no MOT as long as you're going to a pre-booked MOT or a pre-booked event to repair the car FOR an MOT, and back to your house again.
Very sorry to hear what has happened to you mate. Goes to show that there are some propper d***heads in this world, who think that they can bully their way through life. I can understand why you don't want to take it any further, but hopefully he'll come up against someone he shouldn't have messed with at some stage and get what he deserves. Going the small claims rute is all well and good, but at the end of the day, it won't guarantee him paying up. My dad found this out the hard way years ago when a customer refused to pay her increadibly large milk bill (he used to own a milkround), not quite sure how he allowed her to run up a bill going into the thousands, but there we go. Took her to court, won, but still couldn't get any money out of her. From what I understand, you can drive a car without MOT to an MOT test centre (as long as there's an appointment booked), if it fails, you are again allowed to drive it to a garage to get the reasons for failure sorted out (again so long as it's been pre booked so the police can check that's where you were really going), and finally you can drive it back to the MOT test centre for a re-test (booking bla bla bla). I'm not sure about any time limits, not seen anything about them (other than MOT centres usually have a 10day period for a free re-test). Look into it, as there's no point wasting another £2-300.
