Cleckheaton Gearbox & Clutch Centre Hot

They took my car in, agreed to fit a new reconditioned gearbox for £650 to fix difficult/seizing gear selection. Handed it back after rushing the repairs on the last day with the gearbox in exactly the same condition. They had not replaced the original gearbox with a new reconditioned unit as promised but had simply overhauled it. They claimed they fixed some other problem I was unaware of and that the poor gear selection/seizing was normal for this car and would have been like that since new so there was no need to fix it. I pointed out it had been fine the 2 years before I brought it to them and that they had accepted to correct the problem, but they claimed I was wrong. As far as I can see the only proof that they had done anything to the gearbox was an incorrectly refitted cylinder which leaked oil over my clutch costing me the removal of the gearbox again to have their shoddy work repaired elsewhere.

These people do not do the work they agree to and are paid for. They would rather do a quickie botch job and then spend their time wasting yours by lying to your face and ignoring your phone calls. I saw them doing this to other customers phoning in while I was waiting in their office. They do not do work to a specialist or even basic standard and take no pride in their work. Gearbox and clutch repairs are expensive enough without having to pay someone again to redo Cleckheaton Gearbox’s work again properly, as I am now having to do.

Dear Sir,
Here are the facts of the matter.
1. You offered me a recon gear box for £380 plus VAT plus carriage. I said I wasn't interested in VAT you said pay the Vat and I will stand the delivery cost.
I agreed and said I wanted it delivered to D & M Motors Monday, the latest Tuesday of this week. You agreed I then ,with a debit card I paid you £456.00

When it did not appear on Monday I thought Tuesday. Late Tuesday I phoned and spoke to Dave he told me you were on a phone in another room. He told me that the gear box was picked up on Monday and that he would contact the firm and get back to me within a few minutes. Forty minutes later i tried to phone again. ( But Clever Dave had the answer machine on )
So I phoned your other number ( not so clever Dave answered the phone I once again asked for you but you had moved to another garage and were under a gear box working, He said the firm had not yet phoned and assured me that he would phone as soon as they had ) Needless to say he did not phone back.

You phoned Wednesday and said you had not been to work because of a neighbours misfortune.( funny I thought you were on the phone or working on a gear box ) you told my wife it would be delivered Wednesday if not on Thursday.
Now I'll tell you what i think and what I have done.

First I think that - 1. You did not have a gear box.
2. This is how you operate first, get an order then get a cheap box if you can. You Just keep stalling and telling lies until you
do get a box. I expect the 2 year guarantee was about as good as your word. You did say you would post it to my address for Monday paperwork and a written 2 year warranty. That of course never happened.

Now this is what I have done. First I have been to the Garage, they informed that I had stood for it. They said that Saturday
the Tax and Mot ran out so the vehicle could no longer be kept on the road. If I wanted it towed somewhere they could give me a price. If not they would put it in their pound at a cost of £20 per day. Or they would find a genuine dealer and get a box
for the same money as I Paid you.

Now I know that to get you to refund my money quickly I would need some legal help. So to cut a long story short I went to the citizens advice . They have a lot of time for old age pensioner's like me. They made me a free half hour appointment with a local firm who operate a no win no fee system they claim their expense's from you. The man I saw told me that you had broken most of the far sell laws that have just come into play. He told me that I had to contact you and give you a deadline.
He suggest that if the gearbox had not been delivered by 4pm Friday I was to let you know that the order was cancelled.
He also said that I must impress on you that a refund was to be made in full on Friday at 6pm.

We do on line banking so we can check at 6pm if this has happened. If no refund had been made by this time I was to let him know Saturday Morning I said I would call in anyway as I only live 500 yds away from his office. He said If that was the case I could sign the papers Saturday and he would proceed.
When I asked what this would involve he said, Its very simple these days, I will get a summons issued through the small claims court in Northampton. This will cost approx £100 We will claim £1000 + vat for our fee plus £456 + interest at 15% per day
plus £20 per day pound fees, On top of that the bank will place a charge of £25 to supply a statement showing the day time
and amount you took. The garage will be asked for a statement to prove that you said the box would be delivered Monday 0r Tuesday then again on Wednesday or Thursday.If this firm wants to go to court, we can get transcripts of every phone call. This cost would be £35 per call. Plus we would get you a barrister they cost upwards of £1000 per day.

I hope it does not come to this but unlike you I'm as good as my word I will be in their office Saturday and once i sign their contract it makes no difference if you refund me, because by dinner time he will have asked and paid for the summons to be issued.
It would of course mean that you had to pay me 1 weeks interest plus some pound fee's plus their expense's.
A hard copy of this email is now with my Solicitor. ( Just to prove that I have emailed you )

The pity is that i trusted your word. I should have checked like the Solicitor's man did in about 5 minutes he dug up 17 bad ratings most of them telling the same if not exact story. At that point in time I decided to do what I was advised to do.

I tried to phone you several times today but you had once again decided not to answer your phone.

F.Ward

ps. I waited untill the garage closed at 5pm before sending this email


Their sales email did not work email was not delivered.
printed hard copy changed deadline and posted Saturday Morning.

Monday received call from Paul asked for card details to enable refund, with many misgivings these were given. Arefund was given. cleared by my bank two days later.

Avoid this firm at all costs, and do what I should have done. Look them up on the net befor transaction

Cleckheaton Gearbox undertook analysis & repair on my faulty Gearbox.

Other specialists I had approached attempted to mislead me/rip me of by quoting for a complete gearbox rebuild costing 2000 quid of my hard earned cash, BUT Cleckheaton took the time to investigate & found the gearbox only required a part replacing. Total cost 220 quid.
Bad reviews below cannot be real. This company could have ripped me off but did not.

Cleckheaton overcharged me off & wrote off my car
I have recently got my Volvo XC90 back after nearly 2 years off the road thanks to Cleckheaton. They quoted me £1850 to repair/recondition my automatic gearbox by email. After they recovered it to their premises they kept it for months despite my telephone calls. Finally they they tried to charge me £5400 to replace it as they couldnt fix it. When I said no they said I had to pay them £800 to get it back or I couldnt pick it up! After I had paid I found they had kept my Torque Converter and returned me the broken bits of a few other XC90 gearboxes they had previously had through their work shop. This was confirmed by a reputable repairer. It’s taken this long to source a third party replacement and still cost me £3500 plus the cost of buying another car in the interim. DON’T USE THIS COMPANY THEY OVERCHARGE AND TRY TO INTIMIDATE YOU IF YOU ARGUE. IMHO, DYOR