Turbo Repairs Blackpool - a bad experience

I recently used a company called turbo repairs, based in BlackPool Lancashire, however the experience was not a pleasant one, and neither was the level of service received. This blog tells of the fiasco which followed as a result of using turbo repairs, and why I would never use them again, nor recommend them to anybody who wants a turbo repaired.

Basically, I had a turbo on a VW which was having problems with a sticking wastegate (a common VW tdi problem) and found turborepairs.com via the internet. I contacted them with a description of the problem and they agreed a price to strip down and clean the sticking VNT and agreed to turn it around the very same day Which to be fair at the time, I thought was an excellent level of service.

In order to save time, I decided to have a mobile mechanic (A VW independant) to remove the turbo from my vehicle and then I would take and drop off the turbo at turborepairs personally, and then spend the day in Blackpool whilst it was being fixed, intending to collect it later the same day and then have my mechanic return to refit it to the van the following Morning.

This seemed to go okay, upon arriving at 3pm I was told that the cleaning had been done and handed a turbo back - I paid for it and returned home.

The following day, my mechanic comes out to refit the turbo and immediately finds that it is a completely different turbo - i.e its not the one that he removed the day before, and this is obvious because whilst to the layman it looks the same, it doesn't align up with the mating fitments on the engine and is a little too large to fit - it also looks much older and more worn - of course he has to charge me £50 for coming out to fit the turbo and now he cannot complete the job. Thanks a bunch turbo repairs!.

A call to turborepairs brought an explaination / admission from them that they probably have screwed up and had given me back the wrong turbo and that I should return to their company address in Blackpool ASAP and they'd do a swap. I'm still not sure how this happened as the company is run by a sole trader, and it was exactly the same person who took the turbo, who worked on it and then took my money when they handed it back!, how this one person can lose track of which turbo belongs to which customer in the space of a few hours is a complete mystery.

So to sum up:-

I took my existing turbo over to turborepairs in Blackpool (a turbo specialist) and paid him to fix MY turbo (i have a receipt). However it was not MY turbo which I was given back when I called to collect, it was another turbo entirely, which was found by a qualified VW mechanic to be older and in a much worse condition (wear & tear) than mine, and best of all it didn't even fit my vehicle!!.

So I had to make a trip back to Blackpool straight after work with the sole purpose of returning this incorrect turbo and to collect my own, upon arrival the guy is apologetic and hands me back another turbo with the lines "I think this one is yours". I am astounded as it seems that he still isn't 100% sure himself that he's given me my original turbo even now, despite already sending me away once with a completely wrong unit!. Seat of your pants turbo repairs?, or perhaps the great turbo tombola?.

Due to this incompetence i'm already seriously out of pocket as I've already paid a mechanic to travel out to fit the turbo which was found to be the wrong type and won't fit the vehicle, and whose time and fuel expenses I now still have to pay for as it was a wasted trip, i've also got to consider my own expenses in order to make the 130 mile / 2 hr 45 'round trip to rectify a mistake which wasn't mine to make.

Quite frankly it probably would have been less hassle to just buy a remanufactured / exchange turbo off the shelf, or take my chances with Ebay or a salvage yard. I've also been advised on another forum, to mark any item sent away for reconditioning with some marking or even my postcode. Sound advice if you are considering reconditioning any part of your car.

The UK is in the middle of a recession and yet some businesses treat their customers poorly and then when a company does make a mistake they seem to think that its down to the customer to work towards rectifying the situation and for footing the bill - perhaps as a punishment for trusting the business to do the job in the first place?.

Other than an apology, i've had no offers of a partial goodwill refund and neither was there any intention to even cover my fuel expenditure, even an offer to meet me at the M6 services or any other location halfway, to save me the needless time and expense would have been a goodwill gesture!. After all, its not about the mistake which a business may make, its all about how they rectify it, and turbo repairs, did nothing at all to try and compensate for their mistakes.

I'm also currently left with a turbo which nobody can say for sure is the original one that I took to them for repair!. I'm not sure how this could be construed as either reasonable or professional, and certainly NOT the level of service or professionalism which their website boasts and in my personal opinion - saying and actually doing are two entirely different entities.

What concerns me the most though, is that my own original turbo, despite having a sticking wastegate (a common minor problem) was otherwise in good condition (bearings etc) as it had only covered 37k miles, so at the back of my mind now is the possibility that I could have still have been given a turbo which has covered more miles than mine and is in worse condition that the one I took to them which could also have problems as yet unknown and that there is a risk that another client could possibly be now driving around with my low mileage turbo! . After all, Turborepairs, gave me the incorrect turbo once, who is to say that they haven't handed me an incorrect turbo the second time around?, remember their reply......"I Think this is your turbo"

I'm still smouldering at the incompetence of turborepairs.com and how unprofessional they have acted, I mean the reply of "I think this is your turbo" is just unbeliveable and doesn't exactly inspire confidence, what if ANY quality procedures are in place, and what about traceability?? - thats a laugh.

So I really cannot recommend Turbo Repairs of Blackpool

Instead I would suggest that if you are looking for turbo repairs, or have a VW with a sticking vnt wastegate that you perhaps consider using one of the following companies.

http://www.turbotechnics.com/docs/index.htm
http://www.small-engine.co.uk/