C & D Services

«We’ll be collecting your car between 13:00 and 16:00 on Tuesday» … 4pm rolls around before they even call to let me know that they won’t be by until after 5.
The original estimate quoted 8 business days. On that basis, I should have had my car returned to me on 2 October. It was only when I called on 2 October that I was told it was going to be at least one more week, but they’d try to see if they could get it to me any earlier. The original excuse was unplanned staff absences, but they didn’t feel any need to warn me of that in advance.
On Friday 9 October, I found out that unlike in the rest of the world where 1 more week means 7 days, in this case a week was going to be another 9 or 10 days and I would not have the car back until the following Wednesday.
Apparently they left me a voicemail to that effect (and no further communications, despite having my landline, my mobile number and my e-​mail address) earlier in the week. I got multiple messages from other people, but I’m sure I must have just missed that one. I’d be sure that it’s my fault as their manager said, except for the fact that since they’ve failed to deliver on absolutely any other thing they said that they would, I’m starting to believe that maybe I didn’t miss that voicemail… Maybe it will be left within ‘8 business days’ so it’s still due at some point in the future.
Instead of 8 business days crossing one weekend, it’s looking more like 16 business days crossing 3 weekends that I’ll be without my car. The loan car is nowhere near my current car, missing things like remote locking, climate control, and crucially, the the terms and conditions apparently mean that I cannot use it to transport my pets. Not that I can see anything about that on the actual terms and conditions that I signed when accepting the car.
When challenged on the multiple delays, the repeated failure to deliver and the lack of features on the loan vehicle, the service manager became agressive. Quote of that conversation «The damage to your car was signficant and I don’t know why anyone thought that could be fixed in 8 days».
Well, firstly, there was no structural damage to my car, so I thought that 2 dents and 9 scratches actually could be fixed within 8 business days. Mostly because the estimator from C & D said «Hmm — we should be able to turn this around in about 8 business days.»
But more importantly, if 8 days isn’t reasonable, then why on earth did C & D services send me a written estimate saying that it would take (wait for it … Wait for it …) EIGHT BUSINESS DAYS to repair the vehicle? It’s not like I made that number up — I’m a software engineer — I’m not trusted to pick numbers for estimates!
Between the fact that they’ve not met their original estimate, claimed terms and conditions that I never agreed to, failed to keep me up to date and generally been quite unhelpful, I can’t recommend C&D.