Complaint about a repair on the car
Car repairs are often expensive. You can therefore expect the workshop to work properly and eliminate errors and damage. If you still have reason to complain, you should know your rights.
If you are the motor vehicleworkshop If you place an order for the repair of the car, you conclude a contract for work and services. In the event of a complaint or complaint, the law on contracts for work and services in the German Civil Code contains rules that you must take into account when making a complaint.
Only a faultless repair of the car justifies wages
- Usually the mechanic will drive your car for a test to see if the problem has been eliminated. If it has not already done so, a decent auto mechanic should continue his troubleshooting efforts on his own.
- In the case of a work contract, the vehicle repair shop owes a certain work result, so that it is not enough if it only tries to correct the error. If you want to be absolutely sure, you have to test your vehicle yourself and see whether the fault on the car has actually been eliminated. The moment you pick up your car and pay the bill, you declare the formal acceptance.
If possible, present the complaint before acceptance
- With the acceptance, the burden of proof is transferred to you. You now have to prove that the order was not carried out properly and in accordance with the order. Until the acceptance, the vehicle workshop is obliged to realize a defect-free work also by new production. After the acceptance, only the warranty claims are at your side. They can no longer ask for a new production.
- If, for example, the workshop has installed new but faulty brake pads, you can request that completely new brake pads be used before the inspection. After acceptance, the workshop only needs to rework the defective but reworkable brake pads.
- If your complaint is justified due to an error, you can first request supplementary performance before acceptance. Subsequent performance means that the workshop can use a different spare part or repair the spare part that has already been used. The workshop has the right to vote.
How do you write a complaint?
It happens again and again that purchased items do not ...
Resignation only after unsuccessful improvement
- If the supplementary performance fails or is refused, you can withdraw from the order or reduce the wages. The workshop must bear all expenses incurred in connection with the repair of the car. The number of repair attempts to which the workshop is entitled depends in each individual case on the difficulty of the repair. As a rule, you must allow the workshop to attempt at least two repairs.
- If the rework is finally missing, you can withdraw from your order and go to another workshop commission, provided that you have given the first commissioned workshop a reasonable deadline for rectification to have. You can then demand that the previous workshop reimburse you for the subsequent expenses. In difficult cases you will not be able to avoid an expert opinion that would have to determine cause and effect. However, the prerequisite is always that the deficiency is significant.
- Otherwise you can reduce the wages and only have to pay what the repair is really worth.
- Disputes of this kind are difficult to decide, especially because you as a layperson can only judge the situation to a limited extent. The workshop also has a right of retention on your car as long as you refuse to pay the bill. Even if you are in the right and can justify your refusal to pay by pointing out the faulty repair, you are in a worse situation.
- If necessary, call the Arbitration Board of the automotive trade and ask for mediation.
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