Bathside Garage

I found their advert in the back of classic ford mag, I needed a gearbox for my car and was having no luck using local breakers and internet car part search sites. They had a gearbox which was suitable for my car, they had a car that was out in a field that they would tow out and get the gearbox from it. I had a car that had no reverse, they said that they could get the gearbox out and send it to me via a courier, but they obviously wanted paying before they started work. I sent a cheque via recorded special delivery (next day). I managed to find a garage back up in Sheffield that were automatic gearbox specialists and arranged to have them fit the gearbox once it arrived. Apparently it took 3 days for the cheque to get to them — lie No 1. They told me I would have the gearbox by the end of the week — lie No 2. Luckily I was on holiday for a week, and instead of going down to Wales as I had intended, decided to stay in Sheffield and await the delivery of the gearbox. By Thursday (Monday was apparently when they cleared the cheque — 4 days), still nothing. I phoned them and they said that they hadn’t been able to drag the donor car out of the field as it had been raining and the field was rather wet. Fair enough I thought, but why didn’t they phone me?! They said they would get on with it first thing — lie No2. I waited a few days again and still nothing. By this time I had gone back to work so was expecting a trip down to the TNT depot to pick up the gearbox. I phoned again and was told that it was on a pallet ready to go so I’d have it soon — lie No 4. By the end of the week, still nothing, I phoned up. I thought maybe TNT had called and something had happened to their calling card. I was then told ‘do I really want the gearbox as it’s still in the car, still in the field’. I said I didn’t and that I didn’t enjoy being messed around. I asked for a refund, they sent me a cheque in the post. It was £5 short so I phoned up again and they seemed a little surprised and agreed to send the rest. They still owe me £5. I can’t be arsed to deal with liars any more, if I’m ever in Essex I’ll be asking for my fiver back.