To all that have been stung....

I have just thought that most people are not going to send their names and addresses to me for very good security reasons.

Please, Please... write a statement of your experience/complaint and send to
Mr Piara S Khabra,
MP Ealing Southall,
House of Commons,
London,
SW1A OAA

Probably best to title it Rogue Trader in Southall!!!

Please write that they are now called Hallmead Services (Trading as Heathrow Engine Center)

It is the only way something effective might be done to these scamsters.
I am writing the same to all I have found on the net who have been stung by these people.

Cheers

David

Have you contacted trading standards in ealing nd your local mp and watch dog! ive done all of that i still have the car i cant drive and the money lost as the law protects the criminals!!!

If you want me to pass over contact details like emil to watch daog please feel free to pm your details here!

It honestly won't do any good and you would be wasting your time.

We contacted TS and they got involved and were well aware of Rivermead Engineering and all other names they had previously gone by, but there is nothing they can do. We even had the police involved who had a huge file on them.

All they are going to keep doing is closing down and opening up under a new name. I think the best you can do is write to them and demand a refund as we did.

If you are troubled and concerned write to the following person at Ealing Trading Standards

Warren Glendinning
Senior Enforcement Officer
Environmental Health & Trading Standards
Ealing Council
Perceval House
14/16 Uxbridge Road
London
W5 2HL

Don't let the buggers get you down!!!

I have done all of that i have now issued County Court Summons!

Lets see what happens, nothing probably!

http://heathrowengines.blogspot.com/

Contacted local mp tradins standards no than a choclate fire guard, issued a court summons, they are defending the claim:

im taking them to court to get my money back under the distance selling act- supply of goods act etc they there defence they sold me a reconditioned unit and the price reflects that?


well ive got to pay out another £100 but im not letting it lie there.... i have three independent inspection reports and email stating the y changed the engine then later that they hadnt my cusin went down and also got details of an engine that was supposed to be put into the car, too..... they say recon but i was told new and my engine was not salvageable according to the local land rover specialist hence why he told me to get a new engine in the first place....... what a nightmare!!!1

being charged for new heads at £375 surcharge how can they justify that, skim them down and put them back in again....? plus parts of the engine were changed before they collected it and they see fit to charge me again for changing it again yeah right!.....

ill keep you posted on what happens from here , please leave some ffedbak on my blog spot!

I have now had the car independently inspected and ...voila... what a bodge job
The engine has been set up to run 'for a while' by means of over-injecting fuel into the chambers... therefore seems to run well when you pick it up but gradually gets worse.
That aside the rest of the stuff is worse than cowboyish... which falls in with my previous thoughts i.e. they do enough to get it driving out of the workshop knowing it will breakdown but also knowing that alot or most customers will not want to return which invalidates the warranty and probably any claim.
We are talking wrong positioning of vital parts of the engine... what can only be considered maliscious damage to parts of the engine... wires snipped of including vital sensing wires.... oil leaks.... pipes positioned incorrectly which would eventually melt... major gaskets missing which would mean removing the whole engine to replace... the wrong bolts used and cross-threaded bolts used.... ALL THIS AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN TAKEN THE HEAD OFF YET.... that should be fun!!!
To all my fellow beleagured customers .... just keep plugging away.... don't give up and contact Mr Warren Glendinning (Senior Trading Standards Officer) at Ealing Trading Standards (address previously posted).

Cheers

Big Daddy

Many months on and they are still ripping people off. I have just fallen victim to Hallmead Services Ltd Trading as Heathrow Engine Center. Exactly as happened to everyone else, wonderful customer rapport until they get your money, then the cost spirals because other jobs become apparent. That in itself is bad enough but then to have the car back for less than 24 hours before it breaks down again is sickening. I don't understand why they can't just charge for the work and then do the work and earn an honest living.
I paid out over £4,000, fortunately for me I paid for it on credit cards, I have spoken to the bank today who were very helpful and I hope to get a refund from them while they pursue the garage for the money. But in the meantime I don't have a car and am relying on lifts from friends and colleagues to get me to and from work, as my job is in sales I have also had to hire cars during this period which has been a real strain on finances. I am disgusted that people can get away with treating customers this way and will be doing all I can to warn other people about them.

Yeah, it's very sickening.

Luckily you will get your money back as you did pay by credit card. Unfortunately that won't help you too much in the mean time.

They'll get their comeuppance one day...

We hope....

I thought these guys should be in jail already serving some time and been banned from similar businesses. Felt sorry for the victims...that's lot's of money especially when you convert that into US $.

Thats what really winds me up - Garages like that give DECENT garages a bad name.

I have days when some customers just look at you and think you are trying to rip them off - its mainly the new ones though as we survive on repeat custom and recommendations.

I can assure you that NOT all garages are the same, the one I work at in Peterborough would NEVER do that to a customer and its just up the road from the Peterborough Renault agent.

Hope you get this sorted.

It wasn't a broken timing (cam) belt by any chance?

These particular guys, will, unfortunately, spend their lives ripping people off. Trading Standards know of them, as do the police, yet, every time they get into trouble they just change their name and they get away with it.

We were one of the very lucky ones and got our money back. Sadly, others haven't and won't.

I agree though they do give garages a bad name in general, however, we have 2 here in Peterborough that we trust VERY much. We love them actually and they guys are fantastic at both! I'd never use anyone but them!

I cant believe that Heathrow Engine Center are still in business, i have taken all youradvice reagrding thsi ive spoken to trading standards and the local mp all of who have come up with nothing im really not sure where to go from here on in, ive paid out over £550 in court costs and several amounts of time preparing doucmnets and getting witness statements, they are at it again......... i finally got a court date for Jan 2008' and the car ,....... is still sat on the driveway where its been sat since May....... they are defending the claim saying that the enigine ..lol .............i know that it isnt new...its the same engine in there........ when paying over 4k you'd expect it to be a new engine since i was originally quoted 1595 + vat...... arrrrrh! The TS, MP, Police etc at this moment in time isnt doing much to help me out! How can they be in business!!!!

Right, sick and tired of hearing about this company. My friend has just been done by them. She put her car in to have an engine replaced and paid them £2500 (after being originally quoted £1500 but told extra work needed doing). Went to pick it up the day her and her famiily (3 kids) were going on holiday and were told money hadn't cleared (paid by first direct card, which they claim they accept on their website). Bloke printed off a statement when she arrived showing money hadn't cleared. After calling head of credit services at first direct who spoke to the guy and reassured him the money had ben paid and that there is no way of reclaiming the payment, he still refused to give them their car, saying that they needed to bring in £2,500 in cash (and then he'd refund the car -yeah right). When she called the police he ripped up the bank statement and when she challenged him he lost it and was on the verge of hitting her. He verbally abused her infront of her children and when she returned from her holiday 2 weeks later (when the money was bound to have cleared) still refused to the return the car unless she turned up with the cash.

Have spoken at length to CID who claim they have arrested him on a number of occasions, but 'he knows the grey area of the law'. Her only option is to pay £75 and fill out a civil claims form. CID reckon he's never gone to court, so should settle if she does this.

What the hell is going on? Why is this allowed to happen? CID suggested she contact Watchdog. Why is it that the only way we can nail this arsehole is through the media? but don't worry, we will. We are contacting every newspaper and internet site that advertises this company. I've just spoken to one, Kent Marketing, who went to visit them after the watchdog prog six months ago and were assured that everything is OK because they've been to visit them and they were told that it was just a case of 'the customer is a nutter'.

CID advised my friend that she needs to get everyone together who have been done over by this company. All you out here, please help. There is something fishy going on here.

I have a car up at Heathrow Engine Center which they are refusing to return to me unless I pay them £1950 in cash, this depsite the fact that I have paid them all this money on a credit card. They have had my car for 13 weeks. They have realised that if you pay on a credit card and then complain to the Credit Card Company that you have not recieved a proper service the credit card company reclaims the money from them. Their ploy is to try and recredit your card so that you have not paid and then have to pay cash. I have refused to do this and am now being charged £10 a day storage by them. I have instructed a solicitor and would be happy to hear from anyone else who is having trouble with them.

how did you go about getting your money back, cos i just been had this week 1 nov 2007 , just came from thier offices

ARRRRRRRRRRR just been had and i am fuming like crazy. If only i read these post before i sent my car to them.

Just like every one else about 2 weeks ago contacted them about a new engine for my car which i was told no worries price would be £1,200 with a guarantee for 5 years or 60,000 miles which i though was a great deal. They picked up my car and 2 days later got a call that ohhhhh they had now stripped my engine down and a few other things needed doing and toom the price to £1,700.

Dammmm i though i aint paying that , ok i dont want to do it any more and they said they would still charge me £350 for work done already. Against my better judgment i said ok do they work as though getting a new engine with guarantee for 5 years was a great deal. They gave me a about 5days would be ready but that they needed to collect the money in full for documentation purposes. Was only able to give them £1000 as did not have rest, , They have tried to bully me on the phone about paying them the rest of the money which i refused to do. cut a long story short

I have not had my car back and been called by 3 -4 different poeple that i need to pay the rest of my money or car would not be ready and also got a call from their offices that they only reason my car not ready is cos of a part.

[color="#FF0000"][/color]i had enough i went to the offices today with a friend and asked to find out wat was going on , was given a few run around and also wanted to get access to my car which i was told i could not due to no insurance for me to be on the shop floor. I have now been told that ontop of the resty amount owning i would need to pay some more extra money as these things were not mentioned to me before when was quoted a new MUCH HIGHER PRICE. They ahev now said someone will call me 2moro to tell me what excatly is going on with my car and think they were a bit worried when i went there in person as i am not a small lad pretty with with a even bigger mate ,.. So there were very nice to me and acted like they did not know why my car was not ready but will get some one onto it as soon as. But still have nearly a £1000 left,


I need somew advice what you think i should do as i waas thinking of giving them the rest of the money and getting mya car back , but from ready all your stories i shall not be handing over any more money . But how do i get my car and money back .

I am willing to take out a full page ad in a national paper to really expose them , ok maybe a half page add, , people lets take matter into our hands and put these guys out of business!!!!!!!!! c any other ideas lets dicuss

It'll achieve nothing. They have already been exposed on Watchdog which millions of viewers tuned into.

We have to keep hassling the police. My friend was dealing with a DS Denham at Acton CID. He's lazy and incompetent, but the more people who call, the better. This man is committing a crime. He has the money and won't release the vehicle. I can't believe this company have got away with this for so long. we are also launching a campaign to contact every local newspaper in the surrounding area to tell them about it - it's a good story. I've also contacted Kent Internet Marketing who are currently advertising them on their website. talked to Md who said he visited them and was told that they have just experienced the odd mad customer and that online complaints were made by only 4 customers! I tried to pull some clout (i'm a Dr and my husband is a fraud lawyer) and he said he would talk to his partner and get back to me next week. Come on, let's get together and bombard anyone and everyone.

Lucky you, what did you do?

don't pay them any more money, they're criminals who are getting info from somewhere about how to work the system. My friend was advised by the police to not give them a penny more!

Thanks for that, i have been on the phone again today with them they still telling me a hundred and one different reasons my car is not ready and that i need to pay the rest £650 before they finish my car also that from the 6th of this month if i do not pay they will start charging me a £10 storage fee till they dispose of my car can you belive the cheek.

I spoke to Trading standard who advised me to tell them to put in writing what has been currently been done to my car ? how much they spent? what else needs to get done and also the warrente for 5 years i was told that i would get? They has done no such thing as of now, I am going to go to the police first thing in the morning. People for real lets shut these people down!!!

Hi i am ready to go forward as we need to stop these guys , who do we speak to ?

Any luck with you case, please fill me in as i am about having an ongoing issue with them and they have my car and a £1000 of my money but refuse to give them the rest and now thye want to charge me £10 a day for storage,

I have not got my money back yet and they still have my car, going through some leagl processes now , but it seems all so long , they were a bit on easy when i went to their offices, with a friend .

i have not had any dealings with this company,but my friend has,he had his mondeo done there the head was wroped but we new this as he had a major overheat and being an ally head there was a sur charge of 275 and sunderys where extra,we also knew this as its states on the begining of there website.The problem iam having is understanding your complants,iam i missing something because what you are saying thay have done at the begining of there website it clearly states that this is
the way it works and sur charges will apply ect.ect.so what have thay actuctly done,please advise me,also there was another post along these lines why was this deleted?????. Important Customer Information

Heathrow Engine Center re-manufactures engines at their own on-site facilities. All of their advertised prices are based on the assumption that your existing engine is serviceable and can be re-machined by them to use again. You will notice that the vast majority of advertisements for engines the phrase “based on a serviceable exchange or surcharges will apply” or “prices are subject to units being reserviceable” is printed somewhere in the advertisement.

What does this mean?

The advertised price is for a bare engine only and consists of the cylinder head, block, sump and all internal components.

The advertised price does not include VAT, fitting, engine oil, oil filter, fitting gaskets and ‘ancillary’ parts such as (where applicable), timing belt, spark plugs, antifreeze, water pump, clutch, drive belts and pulleys, hoses, distributor, HT leads, electronic sensors, starter motor, alternator etc. All of these items will be transferred from your existing engine to the replacement unit.

The following components of your existing engine must be free of cracks and or damage and capable of being re-machined to use again.

1) The cylinder head casting including camshaft, lifters and valve guides.
2) The cylinder block casting.
3) The crankshaft.
4) The connecting rods.

Yes, you're missing the fact that they are rip off merchants. They don't put companies on Watchdog for no reason, you know?

The prices that people have been quoted have been quoted for the FULL price of an engine. WE were supplied with an engine that wasn't even for the car that we had at the time (a Renault Scenic - we were given a Renault Clio engine) for a start.

They wouldn't give us the car back when we told them we didn't want them to continue with the work, even though we had paid over £2500 PLUS they then charged my card without my knowledge for a couple of thousand of pounds.

They're a bad company and that's all there is to it. If they weren't then this thread wouldn't be here and there wouldn't be so many people complaining about them.

Your friend was just lucky.. I guess.

In Reply to suechat, most of their quotes are on the phone and seem plausible given the "free fitting offer".
The bottom line is whether or not they disclaim all their sales pitch on a website they are MISREPRESENTING the price you will pay by basically lying to get you on the hook. Once your vehicle is with them then you have very little bargaining power and either stump up their revised price, pay for the "work" already carried out or lose the car!
It is a despicable trading method perpetrated by people with no conscience only a greed motivation.
The directors should be banned from running any company for at least 10 years and they should have their credit licence revoked.
The fact that trading standards/watchdog and police can't stop them from carrying on trading in this manner is criminal. Something has to be changed in the law to stop repetitive offenders from re-naming a business to carry on the same operation of scamming the public.
All these poor people who have had the trauma of dealing with this company should contact CONSUMER DIRECT (Trading Standards) and register their complaints with them. Then, just maybe, the weight of complainants may tip the scale for a full-scale prosecution by the authorities instead of individuals having to go through all the heartache and stress of dealing with these charlatans directly.
Power to the people, we pay for the trading standards, we elect the councilors and MP's lobby them to get the results!

Just thought - if these people are able to charge your credit cards, they must have a merchant account. Have any of you tried contacting Visa/Mastercard directly to inform them of what's going on?

It isn't just the fact they inflate their prices; regardless of their Terms of Service, it's the very way they do business.

They promise you a low price. They collect your car. The price mysteriously doubles. If you're lucky you get the car back with a badly fitted incorrect engine often spray painted to look new. If you're very lucky your car will have a few dents added for free.

In our case it was the incorrect engine for the car and was full of glass. They had also broken the original car's computer. It cost us a minor fortune to put right.

In addition, they are rude, unhelpful and very aggressive. I had numerous phone conversations with some of their staff which had them rapidly descend into four letter words. They wouldn't even tell us where they had the car (they told us it was with a local dealer).

When we did track the car down, we spoke to a guy in the local dealership who knew of the garage and when they took a car from them for diagnostics checking they traced the owner through DVLA and contacted them to try and persuade them to collect their cars before Rivermead could get them back.

The majority of the complaints against them are not something that can be explained away by quoting text from their website.

Rikki - there's no point. They 'phoenix' the company when they get into trouble. They pack up and sometimes move to a new unit and take a new name with a new director. It's always the same people who actually run it.

Did you have any paperwork etc. from them to use or was it all done over the telephone? Isn't this a verbal contract anyway and therefore binding in law? Surely if you pay for the work on a credit card they can't insist on a change of payment type.

My solicitor has been dealing with the legals regarding what this company believe they can and cannot do and once i have recovered my car i will be doing what i can to ensure that no-one else has to go through the same. However im sure those lovely chaps at Heathrow Engine Center read with delight these messages so watch this space

hi guys,,we too have just fallen fowl of this god forsaken company, in exactly the same manner as everyone else has, after we searched on the internet for an engine for our car using a variety of specialist search engines for carparts we were contacted via email by them, with a price for a second hand supply only engine, or a "remanufactured" one for few hudred pounds more,,and if we went for the latter one they would fit it for free and included the "5yr guarantee" (yes the email did say both offers included them recieving our engine in exchange) and had a direct telephone number to contact them,

so contact them we did, most polite was GARY when he answered the phone, we confirmed it was the correct engine and they could even pick our car up the following day for the "remanufactured" one to be fitted.

all was goood untill we recieved a phone call from the garage manager informing us that they had removed our old engine and had stripped it down and that he had some bad news for us, the engine could not be used as an exchange as it wasnt servicable, i replied i already knew the engine was mashed hence why we needed a new engine.
his reply well sir,, did you read the "information" (basicaly their "terms and condtions on thier website) as all engines used as exchange are on a servicable exchange for us to be able to sell on later!!

uuuuumm no i replied if my engine was servicable why the hell would i be paying for a replacement engine?? and this is the first time someone from your company has quoted that,, even your email only says exchange not "servicable exchange" and no i didnt look at your website as the email you sent had all the info i needed to contact you, which i did, and not even Gary said it had to be servicable when we first contacted you on the phone


well sir unless you pay for the parts to rebuild your engine we cant sell it on, thus we can either stop working on it and you can pay us for the removal of the engine and recovery costs and you can pick up your vehicle with your old engine in the boot.or pay and extra £600 pounds and we will fix your car.

now feeling like they had me by the short and curlies i asked for the manager,, the pursuing conversation with him was like talking to a brick wall, all they had to say,was well its in the information on our website

well as you can imagine a few heated words were exchanged, when i asked if i paid the extra how long my car would take to have the "remanufactured engine" installed the reply was,, well we will have to order the parts which will take a few days,,

hang on a minute, why do you need to order parts if you have the engine there?? hmm are you actualy telling me that you basicaly are going to rebuild my own engine? well thats not what we agreed, you told me you had a replacement engine thats why i came to you,, if thats the case, why the hell do i now not only have to pay for the original engine price you quoted but now i have to pay extra money to rebuild my own engine??.. ah well sir,,didnt you read the "information" on the website,, we reserve the right to rebuild the customers own engine


foolishly as they now had our car in bits,, and we lived over 200 miles away we reluctantly decided to get the car fixed by them as they said they would definately be fitting a remanufactued engine, still thinking well atleast the engine came with a 5yr guarantee

within 2minutes of the conversation on the phone ending they had applied to have the full amount taken off our credit card, (just a coincidence that my wife was doing some online banking at the time)

with that we searched online about the company,we only wish we had done so before, because when we found this forum our hearts sank.
to see so many people getting shafted by this company beggers belief and what makes it worse is after reading this forum they will continue doing so in one way or another...

they are very clever at misrepresenting what they actualy wont or will do

we have read evidence

of engine work being carried out and them not even changing the timing belts, which is common practice to do so when an engine is taken apart,

incorrect engines being fitted,,

shoddy workmanship

and worse still it seems that"remanufactured engines" doesnt mean anything,, in some cases we have read that all they have done is obtain an engine from a scrap yard and paint it

for those that decided not to have thier cars fixed then their carshave been damaged or vandalised

and it seems that even freefitting only means the physical engine is fitted for free, all oil, plugs filters etc are extra,,but they dont tell you that as first contact

or that you will end up paying for your old engine to be removed as they will find something wrong with your engine which means it wont comply with their"servicable exchange" criteria

lets face it if your engine had an head gasket problem, piston rings or similar problem most of us would get it repaired, physicaly changing your engine is because your engine is knackered and its more economical to do so, their criteria on what they view as servicable can only mean that in one way or other they will always be able to charge you for removing your engine or contributing towards rebuilding it to sell on to the next gullable victim and the whole cycle starts again

we have contacted trading standards only to get through and be told that someone will be in touch within five working days, as we are waiting to hear from them we have contacted our credit card and put a stop on the payment, in the meantime if anyone has any advice to offer we would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

why is it 13 years later the problem of "remanufactured " engines still exist in this country?

http://www.motortrader.com/6449/THREE-dire...athrow-En.ehtml

statement from the above website

THREE directors of Heathrow Engine Centre have been charged with VAT fraud alleged to be in the region of œ7m, it emerged last week.

Click here to view printer friendly version of article
17 October 1994

Michael Rowan, Karmal Bhullar and Melvyn Frankal, directors of Nationwide Engine and Gearbox Distributors Limited trading as Heathrow Engine Centre, were charged in June, said a Customs and Excise spokesman.


Rowan, Bhullar and Frankal are free on bail awaiting a committal hearing likely to be held on 3 December.
Heathrow Engine Centre ceased trading on 30 September and is being prepared for liquidation according to engineering director Bhullar (see Motor Trader 10 October page 1).
The future of the business is unclear, as it is not known whether the firm will be sold or liquidated. "I'll let the receivers sort that out," Bhullar told Motor Trader.
Company accountant Dinish Shah told Motor Trader that receivers are expected to be appointed shortly.
¾ Calls to implement a draft British Standard to guide engine remanufacturers are being intensified in the wake of the investigation into Heathrow Engine Centre.
"We've been campaigning long and hard for a standard," said Federation of Engine Remanufacturers director David Gardener.
The draft standard, put out in July and open to comment until mid-November, could be in place by the end of next year.
It describes techniques to be followed and tasks to completed when reconditioning or remanufacturing petrol or diesel engines from 0.5- to 2-litre capacity.
Terms such as remanufactured, reconditioned, short and long engine, rebuilt, repaired and factory are also defined.
THREE directors of Heathrow Engine Centre have been charged with VAT fraud alleged to be in the region of œ7m, it emerged last week.exclusive by DAN THISDELLAlleged œ7m VAT fraud emerges at Heathrow Engine CentreHEATHROW TRIO FACE VAT PROBE


although it may not be the same people involved, the same company name appears to giving customers the same problems

Firstly I am in no way sticking up for this company - Garages like this make my life hard!

But just because your engine is knacked to you doesn't mean it is beyond repair to a "engine re-builder" there are quite a lot of parts you can buy now-a-days that are "service exchange" which carry a surcharge.

Do you know what they found wrong with your engine? For example: if the crankshaft is excessively damaged they may not be able to grind it or buy shells for it. - But given they rebuild engines they must be able to make some good units from all the excessively damaged ones.

Once again this company is bad news for my trade and I am in no way sticking up for them.

i appreciate your comments and yes this isnt fair on legitimate businesses but if no one complains on situations like this then they will continue robbing people blind,

you dont get anything for free in life, but i certainly wasnt contemplating paying for the cost of two engines when they 1st contacted me, what they send in an email isnt what they say on their website

our engine had over 190000 miles on it, basicaly the crank is knackered, and as the engine had been rebuilt previously we decided to look for a 2nd hand engine rather than get it rebuilt again, when this company offered us a 2nd hand engine or a remanufactured one with free fitting, we thought why bother getting our hands dirty changing an engine when they could do it and have the guarantee of a remanufactured engine, hence why we choose to go with them, we wouldnt have had a problem with this company if they were upfront with things from the very begining when they contact you, they never enquired about our engine, never implied they would have been stripping ours down and inspecting it before they installed another engine. and if faults were found with our old engine we would be expected to pay towards the rebuild of that and still pay for the engine they supply, if they had of done i would have said,, mate theres no point me using you then and would have just purchased a second hand engine elsewhere

every company has a get out small print somewhere down the line, but this companies starts the moment they get your car keys it seems to be a no win situation

Hi , yes my son has been had by these scumbags Heathrow Motors or whatever they are calling themselvs these days. He paid them 12 hundred and 45 pounds for his engine to be reconditioned, they arranged for TNT to pick it up because it was already out of the car but TNT couldnt get it onto thier van so to cut a long story short my son cancelled the order 24 hours later. he was told the money would be paid back into his account ( He Paid by Debit Card ) now that was ELEVEN MONTHS AGO and after dozens of phone calls, debt collectors , solictors letters AND bailiffs going down there only to be told they are not Heathrow Motors anymore , he hasent received a penny back. These people may change thier name but they are still at the SAME address which is Brent Road ,Southall Middlesex. I hope they get what is coming to them it seems they have got a license to rip people off as there is nothing the courts or police can do. I have also written to trading standards ( a complete waste of time ) the only way we could get some justice is to put peoples cases onto Youtube at least it may stop other people falling prey to these scumbags. Name and shame them with thier address.

I have been waiting over 10 months for a court date and we wonder why they have time to change there names and ignore letters and baliffs they are having a laugh at our expense.

If we didnt pay our council tax we would be in court within a few weeks so why dont we get support when we are being ripped off as consumers? I aid on my debit card so im not covered i might as well have given 3700 to charity instead of letting heathrow take my car and keep ot for over 8 week swith threating phone calls and abusive tauts!

Im really not sure well get anything back now but having paid the above and then over 400 in court fees ill be well peeved if the law sticks up! There is plenty of eveidence to prove that this company is on the take and has no clear objectives of fixing people cars and having a customer and business relationship, but they are in it for the take and thats all money money money!!! thgey not bothered if we tae them to court etc they ll do it all over again!!!

As you should be aware im taking the company to court, after all the stress i have had with them. [ Verbal abuse, itimidation, blackmail etc etc.......you all know the drill!

If any of you would like to add a statement of your experiences to my file you are more than welcome as i have to send all documentation to the court in about a weeks time.

Im hoping that the justice system works for us? I really want to expose Heathrow Engines for what they really are: CON merchants!!!! This company has brought everything my way this year financial stress as well as emotional stress!

Only time will tell if we can belive in our own justice system in the UK, to back the right person , or is the justice system really on the side of the criminals?

If i can kill to birds with one stone and expose the company for what they really are at the same time that would be FANTASTIC!

If we put together for the AD in national paper im sure it will be worth it, this company should not be allowed to keep trading and ripping people off, i thought i was the only one after having the work done and them taking my car...its made me think about anything i have done from now on.....check, check and double check! I dont trust anyone anymore. I really wished id have used the internet to research the company! [Hind side is a wonderful thing!] Lets hope this madness stops. This site has been a fab resource many thanks to all who have posted on here and goodluck with your claims against Heathrow, lets hope we get to them before they take the easy option and go bankrupt and open up a new business down the road under a new name.

I'll subscribe to your court case, post your solicitors contact details, and notify them that cynical shopper will contact them in support of your action and I'll be in touch with them directly. Best of luck.

This company has caused me a lot of grief and financial misery, they had my Range Rover from the 21st May 2007 to 10th August 2007, at which time I had instructed a solicitor who then went ahead with proceedings to wind them up and send a Bailiff round to pick up my car. At the last minute they released my car to a recovery firm who then inturn delivered it to a land rover dealership in London. I live in east Anglia and when I first contacted them they were very helpful, quoted me £2150.00 to rebuild my engine this was after an original investigation from my local land rover dealership charged me £550.00 to strip the engine and investigate what went wrong, they said I needed a new or reconditioned engine at a cost of £5500.00, I thought was expensive and decided to shop around.

Big mistake, which I now regret. The total cost so far is now in excess of £7400.00, which is made up of HEC costs, land rover costs, solicitors fees, repairs since getting my car back, hire car costs and flight costs and to mention the amount of abuse and threats from their staff. They tried to charge me extra £1500.00 to repair the gear box as the on board system was saying that there was a fault, this was lies and after land rover looked at it they said a wire had been freshly cut.

They also threatened to my engine in the back seat and return car to me if I did not pay them cash, I had already paid on credit card and they were going to credit my credit card (sounds like VAT Fraud to me). They also accused my wife of threatening them and being abusive, she is far from being abusive and threatening. They also upset my solicitor by abusing her verbally.

we are now in December and I'm in the middle of taking them to court once again, they constantly lie, blame land rover for all the damage and fail to respond to any letters and calls.

I want to see this company and their directors brought to justice by what ever means, I will provide details to anyone, form a group, petition, whatever it takes to prevent this from happening to anyone else. I will not let this lie and definately want compensation from them.

hit them where it hurts, financially. they are signed up to Google ads. type in on google search heathrow engine center and press search. this will bring them up. click on them, go to their website and then come out. keep repeating this as many times as you like. each time you click their website it will cost them money. they probably have a daily allowance with google ads which will get used up. this then pushes them off the top, further down the page and less likely to find people like us. this will only work if you follow the above in the order i have put. i know this works because i use google ads and pay £2.50 every time someone has searched my keywords and then hits my website. it costs a fortune as my competitors hit me all the time

the main problem is that you will never be able to recover a car from them whilst you owe them money as they are legally protected. however if once you have paid and they still refuse to return the car its theft, particulary if they then threaten to dispose of the car. it is also a criminal offence to decieve a customer. do a tour of thier premises on thier website. having been there to get my car back, it took me a very tasty ex bouncer mate and 4 police officers, you will not recognise what they advertise. they also keep the cars away from the site on a long stay airport parking site behind them. i saw them pressure washing the engines, through the manifolds and spray painting the engine blocks. i have never seen anyone wash out the internals of an engine like they do. the police are very sympathetic and will go with anyone to recover a car in order to prevent a breach of the peace and will do what they can to recover the car for you. you have to pre-book it first. do not agree to a credit card re-charge as you then have no claim against the credit card company and will be left with the small claims court. trading standards are hopeless. im wating for a reporter to come back to me from the Press Agency who seems interested in the story. like everyone i am so pissed that i got caught like this and want to see them closed down. although my car is back its in another garage as it keeps breaking down . The ECU, another scam they use is ok despite them telling me it was faulty but the engine is not running properly. they is an association of remanufactured engine suppliers but they lack any legal teeth at the moment as the word 'remanufactured' is legally ambiguous. i think the cheapest and most effective approach may be, if it can be achieved a group legal claim as you would do in compensation cases. the criminal route may also be the way forward with group complaints being made to the police. finally i would not advise anyone to go there believing that kicking off with them will be productive. having been there for 4 hours it is obvious they keep an eye on who is around and you would be likely to get a slap before being able to make a hasty retreat. if you keep within the law the police will assist.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I found this forum. My Jag's engine went yesterday - I went on the web and found heathrow engine centre who said they could fit a replacement engine with 60,000 warentee for £2500 incl VAT. Talked to a nice guy called Gary. But on calling around heard a few strange stories about the place - but after reading all this have decided to DEFINITLY not go ahead with the deal!!! Thank you all!!! How do we close the place down eh? I will put my thinking cap on.

Good! At least we saved one! DO NOT be persuaded to go with them under any circumstances. Your car will never be the same again and you will be out of pocket good time.

I say find a local, reputable garage and have them do the work if you can. Good luck