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S L B Cars Ltd

Camm Street
Crewe, Cheshire
CW2 7DN, United Kingdom

info@slbcarsales.co.uk

I bought a Citroen Saxo vtr from SLB Cars Ltd Camm St Crewe CW2 7DN on 1/03/08 a cost of £1300 which was paid for by a trade in of £400 and credit card. The salesman agreed to give the car a service fix the Arial and fix the door locks as the central locking wasn’t working and the boot was locked and couldn’t be opened. He put this in writing on the sales receipt.

I picked the car up 5days later and none of the jobs had been done I expected it to all be fixed and ready to go. I took it in the next day and they had it all afternoon. They fixed the Arial and the radio but could not fix the central locking even after fitting a new unit to the drivers door. If you put the key in the near side door the car tried to lock but after fitting the part it was dead. They left the car with no inside lights and clock not working as they had blown the main F8 fuse.

I took it back on Wednesday and they had it all day Wednesday and Thursday when I got it back the radio didn’t work the alarm was left dangling so the passenger caught it with their feet. The central locking and the boot still hadn’t been fixed. This means the car isn’t fit for its purpose as I can not go shopping as I cant open the boot, in the event of a flat tyre I cant change it as the tools are in the boot. When they open the boot trying to fix it there was a very thick red exposed wire flapping about which I believe could be live and therefore a fire risk. The service still hasn’t been done

Wednesday the 19th and the car was once again taken in for 8 days every day I ring up and they say it will be done soon ring back later. When I ring back later they say they have just gone to the scrap yard to get some bits for it the implications being that the parts are from scrap cars and therefore not new parts. I don't expect my car to be repaired with old  bits from a scrap yard which may break at any moment. I bought the car in good faith with a guarantee and would expect any part that are needed to be brand new car part bought from a scrap yard are form scrap cars and as such the parts may only last a few weeks or could go on for years. They said the problem has been that the first mechanic had blown all the door activators and also the main central locking unit. What is most frustrating is ringing up sometimes 4 time a day only to be told it will be done tomorrow, the idea of customer service is you ring the customer and keep them updated not for the customer to waste money ringing you.

They did lend us a 4*4 to use but as my son or wife found it to big to drive it was useless the fact that the tax disc was 12 months out of date and therefore breaking the law failing to display a road fund licence. The mechanic told us he hadn't been working on it all the time as he had been doing other jobs MORE IMPORTANT THAN OURS so over the days he may only have worked on it for an hour a day leaving us without a car. Having Arthritis this means I have been unable to get out and do things like shopping.

So the big day arrived after not seeing the car for 8 days it was finally fixed so I went to collect it. The first thing I noticed was a strange smell like polish, I thought they must of cleaned  it for me but as there was muck everywhere that wasn't it. I then noticed the lights hanging down from the roof which had not been put back. A short drive and I noticed there was no sound from the rear speakers and the fancy break light strip wasn't working either. I  reached home and got out to check the speakers in the boot before I got to open the boot the central locking slammed shut leaving me locked out with the engine still running and the keys in the car. We had to call out an expert to get us back in the car.

Having got the car open we then looked in the boot and was shocked to find it covered in blood, had it been used to carry a dead body? We soon realized the blood was pouring from my wife's hand as a result of cutting it badly on glass that was everywhere. Things now made sense as the expert pointed out the rear window had been replaced due to it being smashed and the smell was sealer used to put the window in. SLB Cars hadn't told us they had smashed the window and they hadn't bothered to clean up the broken glass which was everywhere. The rear brake lights wires were totally missing so we could see why it didn't work, it had worked fine when it went in. The speakers wires were floating about and had been disconnected for some reason. We closed the boot and locked it with the key only to find it didn't lock it took ten mins of locking and unlocking in order to get it to work. If you unlock the car boot the central locking doesn't unlock any other door. Having had it in the garage for so long we cant understand why the garage wouldn't check that every door operates the central locking correctly. The jack which was supposed to be in the boot is missing so if we get a flat tyre we are stuffed.

We rang SLB Cars and asked to speak to someone in charge and told them what had happened they said they would investigate and get back to us in an hour, needless to say we are still waiting.  Since we have bough the car the garage have had it longer than we had they have had it for over 10 1/2 days during that time we have been paying insurance on the car and not being able to use it. When we did have the car it wasn't fit for its purpose as we couldn't go shopping in it as the boot didn't open. Our 1 month warranty is now nearly up and we have not had time to try the car properly yet. We have a car with what may be old dodgy parts in it from a scrap yard with a rear window which isn't properly sealed no rear brake light and a boot that locks sometimes the rear window wiper doesn't clean anything and is useless. As my son and myself use it for work to carry £10,00 of computer equipment about to customers sites locking of the boot is essential for the insurance.

What we would expect a reasonable deal to now do.

As every time it goes into their own garage they take weeks to fix it and break more things than they fix. We would expect them to pay for a main dealer to fix the car to Citroens standards and replace the parts from the scrap yard with new ones after all when we bought it the boot and passenger central locking worked and it WAS THEIR MECHANIC WHO BLEW THE PARTS  so we shouldn't have to pay for their mistakes. We would expect the alarm to be ripped out and replaced with a new one that work 100%. We would expect a courtesy car similar to ours while this is done and to satisfy us that the car is now safe a full 12 months MOT and compensation for lose of the car while we have had it in their garage. The other alternative is to refund some of our money so we can take it to another garage to get it repaired.

We pass no comment on SLB cars we have presented our readers with the facts only and its up to the reader to decided if this is the sort of garage they want to buy a car from. We have reported SLB Cars to Trading Standards and various consumer help lines and are waiting for developments. Let us have your comments or tell us your experiences with this company.

We spoke to the company who say its their policy to replace car repairs with part from the scrap yard as they are replacing old part on a second hand car with OLD PARTS customers should be aware of this if they take their cars in under guarantee. A new part would be guaranteed but a part from a scrap yard wouldn't be guaranteed safe. SLB claim there is a 3 month guarantee on part from the scrap yard were as a OEM part may have 12 months, They offered to repair the car but as they have had it over 18 days and not managed to be able to repair it the credit card company said its reasonable to now insist on an independent garage to do the repairs. As the car was bought via credit card they are now taking out a dispute with them. SLB claim there isnt a fault with central locking and the alarm locking you out with the engine running its a anti hijack device and they say Audi and BMW have this same feature. We spoke to a Audi employ who had work for them for many years and they say this is rubbish no Audi will lock the doors if the engine is running and leave you locked out. They did have that fault on one car and the customer was given a brand new car and the faulty one was sent to Germany for testing. We spoke to alarm specialist who are VSIB registered and they both say the central locking is fault and the alarm wants ripping out and a new one fitting  the possible  cause is the unit may have been damage when they blew the CLU as its connected to the alarm. These people are specialist and Home Office approved installers they estimate the cost to be £300.

We have had problems with the fuse blowing which has been traced to SLB Cars leaving bare wires when they smashed the rear window and pulled out the working brake light. The result is when the bare wire from the break light touched earth and you put your foot on the brake it shorted straight to earth. We have found that the alarm doesn't work any more since they messed with the central locking which will effect our insurance.

SLB cars did offer to take the car in and fix it again but as every time it goes in it comes out with something else broke we declined Visa believe under the circumstances that and independent garage should carry out  any repair work as SLB have had over 18 days to fix the problem and clearly shown they cant fix it. We are waiting for them to supply us with a new brake light for the one they smashed.

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General Medical Council Press Office released these details for the surgeon from Leighton Hospital.

After a 5 day hearing the surgeon admitted to or they found proven a series of charges but the case has been adjourned until April 28th.

The further five days is to allow the Panel time to deliberate on the evidence they have heard and make factual findings on the remaining allegations. The Panel will then hear submissions from both parties on impairment. If the doctor is found to be impaired, then they will consider sanction.

Patient A alleges that she specifically denied them the right to remove her knickers and give a suppository during the operation. Totally against her wishes and without consent her knickers were removed and she was also give a suppository.  The case is being investigated by the Ombudsman and lawyers and its anticipated that those who did this will face assault and battery /sexual assault or assault by penetration charges. These charges will be dealt with by the relevant governing body. If those who did this and keep searching these pages for their name want to email us with their side of the story we may be able to conclude the case quicker and innocent people can be eliminated.

Send your comments by email   Click here

Full details of the case can be found on these pages Day one   Day 3 Day 5

Mr Arjuna Panchkori Ram Aluwihare

From : 14 January 2008   To : 18 January 2008

Category : Fitness to Practise Hearings

Info :

Fitness to Practise Panel
Planned dates: 14 – 18 January 2008
St James’s Building, 79 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6FQ

The Fitness to Practise Panel will meet at St James’s Building, 79 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6FQ to consider a new case of impairment by reason of misconduct.


Name: Mr Arjuna Panchkori Ram Aluwihare
GMC Reference Number: 1208603

Area of practice: Leighton Hospital

The Panel will inquire into the allegation that Mr Aluwihare, a General Surgeon, did not consult with a Consultant Anaesthetist as to the appropriate method of anaesthesia which should be given to Patient A, during a hernia operation. It is further alleged that he allowed a Pre-Registration House Office, under his instruction, to administer sedation and analgesia intravenously when there was no anaesthetist or person present who was experienced in administering sedatives. It is alleged that his actions or omissions were inappropriate, inadequate, not in the best interests of Patient A and below the standards which could reasonably be expected of a competent general surgeon.
 

Abbey Nation Cash Machine Warning

I have been a customer of Abbey National in Crewe for many years. On the 14^th December I entered the bank and used one of their cash machines to withdraw £20. The machine just sat there doing nothing so I asked the girl on the desk what was wrong. As she looked it  rebooted into OS/2 without giving me my money. I went to the next machine to get the money out and found that the other  machine had taken £20 from my account. I immediately told the girl behind the counter who I made sign a statement to say she was a witness. She said it would be corrected at the end of the day. The next day I undertook a 2 mile walk to the branch to find out that the money hadn’t been returned. I spoke to another member of staff who said come back on Monday as if I had nothing better to do.

Monday came and still no money returned and another 2 mile walk to the bank this time I was told it would take 10 days and they would fill in a form for me and let me know. A few days later and yet another trip to the bank and they were not interested so I rang the helpdesk who said we will sort it for you and ring you back. 5 Days later and no one had contacted me so I rang again they not say it can be 6 WEEKS to get my money back.

I was lucky I have money in the bank and this is only a small amount but what happens if you only have £200 and you have to live on that for 2 weeks and when you go to the machine you don’t get your money you could die of starvation or have your gas cut off. It should be a simple matter to do an audit of the machine and find its got £20 to much.

People should be told about this as they deserve to know of the disgraceful situation were a pensioner has to walk miles to try and get his money back. Good customer service means someone owns the problem at the bank and keeps in touch with the customer not for the customer to have to chase the bank to get their own money back. Dick Turpin wore a mask Abbey should as well.  

More fun at Abbey

I took out the new Abbey Credit Card as I thought it would be great easy to pay from an Abbey Account. I went on Abbeys Internet banking site set up the payment and sure enough the money came out of my account dead simple I even got a letter from Abbey saying I had setup an new payment. The next thing I know is Abbey Credit card are on the phone wanting to know why I hadn't paid and charging £12 interest for missed payment. I told them not to be so stupid it had been paid in plenty of time and the money had gone out of my bank. They checked the account and yes the money had gone out but then 4 days latter it had been put back in so they said I must goto the branch ad sort it out and get a refund from them.

At the branch I explained what had happened and they spoke to me like a idiot saying I hadn't put the account number in on the Internet banking. I explained there is no way that you can proceed if you don't put it in. the women then started getting stroppy saying I didn't understand and got the under manager who also spoke to me like I was an idiot telling me  I hadn't put the account number in. I again explained you cant proceed if you don't put the number in and that the money had gone from the account so it must have gone somewhere and I also pointed out I had received a letter from Abbey saying it had been setup ok. She just tried to dismiss me as I wasn't listening to her. I tried explaining I had 18 years IT experience and worked for Barclay Bank she just said that's nothing to do with it. Getting nowhere I went away and sent in a complaint with a screen shot which showed if you don't put a account number it give a big error. I had a reply and they said they would let me know in 4 weeks.

Abbeys customers service is at an all time low and the  branch service is a joke. I few months ago they  changed my name on my account and when I visited the bank to get it sorted out no one wanted to own the problem they expected an old man to walk 2 miles to the branch several time with documents to prove I was who I said I was. Again they were in error and broke the Data Protection Act as they  must keep data secure and accurate your system for some reason suddenly decided to change my name which wasn’t my fault. The main problem is the staff they didn’t want to know.  It again took weeks to sort out and all my DD bounced or queried a new name. At know point had I changed my name or tried to change it Abbeys system one day just decided it would give me a new name

Core Utilities Corporate vandals

Core utilities have been doing some work in West St Crewe 27th October they are a Health and Safety nightmare they put up road sign to block the road and for the traffic lights but they put these very large signs on the pavement. The signs are so big that pedestrians are having to walk on the road as there is no room left on the pavement. Add to that the fact that the cables for the lights are thrown across the pavement were people can trip over them.

But then they struck there is an alley between Oxford St and Underwood Lane which is private property but with public right of way. On one side is a Special Mother and Baby Unit who own 3 foot of the land. These Corporate vandals entered a private road way with big heavy wagons and proceed to rip up concrete post out of the ground and then backed there heavy lorries down the alley and dumped tons of earth and gravel. If this was young lads they would be locked up for criminal damage immediately. They used their heavy crane on the back of the wagon to remove the massive post and frightening people in the baby unit wondering what was going on 2 feet from the unit.

Click on the picture for full size

The area is made up mostly of old people and the mother and baby unit and this alley is their main route. many of the residents are in wheel chairs and of coarse the mother have prams. You can see from the picture that they now cant walk down this alley for the hard core and soil dumped on there. You can clearly see the post they have ripped up and the surface of the path is now destroyed so old people can walk on it anyway. The alley is unlit and as such anyone walking down there at night can break there necks.

We rang Core utilities on Friday who promised to get it sorted straight away but all that has happened is they have been in and out all day dumping more stuff and causing more damage. They then decided they would dump more hard core on private property belonging to the factory and letting it spill onto the pavement.

Its horrifying that these people can come along and commit criminal damage in this way and we will be pressing for them to put right the damage they have caused which means replacing the post as they are now cracked anyway and making the surface of the alley safe for pensioners to walk on.

This site is about Crewe in Cheshire UK also known as Railtown as in the past it was one of the biggest railway works in Britain. The site highlights some of the problems of Crewe as well as the good points. I have included pictures of the area as there is some wonderful countryside in the area along with some rare buildings.

The site also has a Buy and Sell page were people can buy and sell anything legal in the area.