Howard Priest

Review of Wessex Garages

I've had a very poor experience with Wessex Garage...

I've had a very poor experience with Wessex Garages and suggest anyone considering doing business with them reads the following factual account first...
As my Nissan Qashqai is still within the Warranty period I took it to Nissan Wessex on the 19th of August 2016 as it had, and still has, a hesitation problem. During the check-in, the Works Manager joined me on a road test and acknowledged the presence of the hesitation fault. After Wessex had carried out their checks I was advised that it would not be possible to repair the car that day as there were a number of fault codes showing which were thought to be caused by the battery not being fully charged, although nothing had occurred to reduce the battery charge.
As arranged, I returned the car on the afternoon of 1st of September to allow Wessex to charge the battery in order that they could carry out a repair the following day. I then had to make an 11 mile journey by taxi and train to get home.

I telephoned Wessex at 14.00 approx. the next day to find out when I could collect the car. I was told that it wouldn t be ready until 15.00 as the battery was being charged because it didn t have a full charge and this was all that was wrong with the vehicle. This response made me believe that it wasn t charged overnight as agreed and my taxi and train journey was unnecessary. As again, nothing had occurred to reduce the battery charge so I requested that the battery be replaced under warranty. Wessex initially refused this request but later did so, perhaps this was because I involved Nissan UK with the dispute? I then made my 11 mile train and taxi journey to Wessex and collected the car. On the return journey it soon became apparent that the hesitation fault was still just the same.
At this point I decided to give Wessex one more try and wrote to them outlining their disappointing performance so far. They responded by asking me to leave the car for an unspecified period and offered me a loan car. I accepted and took my car in at 12.00 midday on Tuesday the 6th of September. Before anyone had looked at the car, the Works Manager said there was no point in leaving the car if there was no fault code showing. This indicates to me that they are unable to repair a car without a fault code, this was not a good start to a last chance. He then looked at the vehicle and stated, with surprise in his voice, that there was a fault code showing, so the car was left as arranged.
I didn t hear from Wessex for 3.5 days, so at 16.00 on Friday I called them and was told that the vehicle was ready for collection but the fault was still present as there was NO FAULT CODE showing! This was not what I was told 3.5 days earlier and why they hadn t had the decency to call me? When I went to collect the car I was greatly dismayed to find that it had suffered bodywork damage on the offside front! So to this point, Wessex had had the car on 3 separate occasions, the 3rd one being for 3.5 days, the fault was still not corrected and the car bodywork had been damaged!
I then had to take the car in again for a bodywork repair which is completely unsatisfactory. The colour of the bumper no longer matches the rest of the vehicle and there was overspray on the windscreen, the bonnet, the front bumper and all four doors. The overspray on the windscreen caused reduced visibility during my journey home.
This is a factual account of my one and only experience of Wessex Garages at Pennywell Road, Bristol and I posted this Review, my first ever on any subject, because I want others to be aware of it.