18-09-2015, 08:08 AM
Now the saga is over I'll tell the story.
At the start of July I had my cracked windscreen replaced. My insurers are linked to Auto Windscreens so I called them up and in due course they did the job. I know it wasn't urgent (needed to be done bfore MOT) but the delay was about a week. Agree to have it done at the garage that services my car so it could be MOT'd immediately afterwards.
During the replacement the fitter damaged a wiper arm and glued it back together. This was spotted by the mechanics at my garage. The AW fittter didn't own up to it. Not impressed by AW. Phoned up AW and they agreed to repalce the wiper and this is where the fun really starts.
A week or so later a fitter turns up with a pair of front wiper arms and fits them. Unfortuantely he doesn't do up the nut tightly enough on one of them so on a wet day a couple of weeks later it starts slipping on the drive shaft. Luckily I had a spanner in the car and was able to keep going. I decided to let AW take responsibility for their work and they sent out another guy to tighten it properly. He seemed competent but it slipped again after a week or so. Now I was given a run around by AW who seemed perfectly pleasant anfd apologetic but utterly incapable of arranging the proverbial booze up in a brewery. A couple of times a fitter was sent out without another replacement wiper.
Eventually AW agreed that I could take it to my garage and they would pay the bill. Last Saturday I went to the garage. The chief mechanic unscrewed the wiper arm and found the problem immediately. The arm is made of aluminium, the drive shaft is tapered and splined steel. The idea is that the splines dig into the ali and gives a good grip when the nut is tightened. Unfortuantely all the slipping had ground off bits of ali and clogged the splines. Took a few moments to clean them out and re-fit the wiper. I reckon it's fixed.
AW have just paid me an appropriate amount, including refunding the £65 excess to compensate me for the aggro.
Finally a good result but a lot of wasted effort all round. Glad it's all over.
At the start of July I had my cracked windscreen replaced. My insurers are linked to Auto Windscreens so I called them up and in due course they did the job. I know it wasn't urgent (needed to be done bfore MOT) but the delay was about a week. Agree to have it done at the garage that services my car so it could be MOT'd immediately afterwards.
During the replacement the fitter damaged a wiper arm and glued it back together. This was spotted by the mechanics at my garage. The AW fittter didn't own up to it. Not impressed by AW. Phoned up AW and they agreed to repalce the wiper and this is where the fun really starts.
A week or so later a fitter turns up with a pair of front wiper arms and fits them. Unfortuantely he doesn't do up the nut tightly enough on one of them so on a wet day a couple of weeks later it starts slipping on the drive shaft. Luckily I had a spanner in the car and was able to keep going. I decided to let AW take responsibility for their work and they sent out another guy to tighten it properly. He seemed competent but it slipped again after a week or so. Now I was given a run around by AW who seemed perfectly pleasant anfd apologetic but utterly incapable of arranging the proverbial booze up in a brewery. A couple of times a fitter was sent out without another replacement wiper.
Eventually AW agreed that I could take it to my garage and they would pay the bill. Last Saturday I went to the garage. The chief mechanic unscrewed the wiper arm and found the problem immediately. The arm is made of aluminium, the drive shaft is tapered and splined steel. The idea is that the splines dig into the ali and gives a good grip when the nut is tightened. Unfortuantely all the slipping had ground off bits of ali and clogged the splines. Took a few moments to clean them out and re-fit the wiper. I reckon it's fixed.
AW have just paid me an appropriate amount, including refunding the £65 excess to compensate me for the aggro.
Finally a good result but a lot of wasted effort all round. Glad it's all over.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv