This is going to be a bit of a 'Nathan' post so I apologise in advance - I'll try for long story short but I doubt it....

Last year, my sisters car broke down and it turned out that she needed a new engine. The car is a Renault Megane Scenic.

We found a company who could supply and fit a re-conditioned engine for £1295. We thought that this was a fantastic price and the reason it was as cheap was simply because the company had a "Special Offer" at the time where they didn't charge for labour. Better still - the car would be ready within 3-4 days. I paid the initial £500 deposit over the telephone.

Great!!

So, the car was picked up from Peterborough some time in early October and taken to their garage in Twickenham. My card was then charged £967 before the work started (£967 that was not authorised by me!)

After a LOT of phonecalls, it was found that there was a problem with the car, and it had to be taken to another garage. I will spare you the details, but, 3 weeks later - the car was still not fixed AND they didn't know where it was!!!

Anyway, the outcome was that we had to get the car back from the garage, unfixed. We had paid them £2567 in total by this point. They had taken £1567 from my bank without authorisation and we had suffered verbal abuse over the telephone from them. They also added £100 on to our bill for the sake of it because, and I quote, "we were a f**king waste of time"

The car was delivered back (after 3 days of promises) to a Renault dealer in Peterborough, where they inspected the car and found that the engine that had been supplied was not for a Scenic, but for a Clio. The engine had been spray painted and was full of glass. It was quite clear that the engine was not by any means reconditioned, but had been picked up from a salvage yard (probably for around £50) and was never going to work!

We had to have a new ECU fitted (car computer) which cost £500 as the company had blown the original but the Renault dealer eventually admitted defeat and decided that a brand new engine was in order. This one just wasn't going to be fixed.

Another £2300 later, the car was delivered back to my sisters house by Matt and I, fixed.

It wasn't until in the middle of all of this that we found out that this company are complete rip off merchants, who not only have been done for ABH and drugs and emplying illegal immigrants, but a garage close by that was servicing cars for them was actually taking the cars in, thenn calling the customers and telling them to come and get their cars immediately as he knew they were a no good company.

We contacted the police, who at first, had no interest in any of this, but who are now VERY interested and also Trading Standards (who are well aware of them), along with Watchdog.

Watchdog were extremely interested in the story and decided to pay this company a visit and as a result, on tonights show (BBC 1, 7:00pm) the company will be exposed and they will be talking to other customers who have been ripped off by them too.

My sisters case was the strongest and Watchdog were due to come to her house last week and interview her and her fiance, but then unfortunately decided that the others they were interviewing were closer (in distance) to the BBC so they would not come to Peterborough.

Either way, this company is going to be exposed on National TV tonight and I am SO pleased about it. I have been excited about tonight's programme for a week!

So, if you have a spare half hour tonight - be sure to watch!

Name and shame time - the company in question is:

RIVERMEAD ENGINEERING also known as "Engines Direct" (Google search "replacement engine") http://www.enginesdirect.com/index.shtml

I suggest that if anyone here ever needs a new engine that you do NOT use them. They are the worst company that I have ever known in my llife. It has cost us almost £6000 to get a new engine in this car and it shoud have cost £1300.

Needless to say - we're not done with them. We gave them 14 days to provide us with a full refund 2 weeks ago before we commence court action. We have heard nothing so we will be filing a court case within the next few days against them to recover all of our costs.

Wish us luck and be sure to watch tonight!

Watchdog
BBC 1 @ 7pm

LOL, if it isn't aired tonight, I think I might cry!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/ - waiting for this to be updated, although it isn't usually until during/after the show!

If you paid over the phone I assume you used a credit card, couldn't you claim it back from your bank?

No, it was a VISA debit card which is not the same as a VISA credit card. We have been down every route possible with this Rikki, the only thing left is court. We have explored every other avenue.

I even signed the slips "Paid Under Protest" so that when the bank got them I would be able to claim it back but since they were signed, there was nothing they could do. The bank REALLY tried for us too.

Ah damn then... That's annoying.

Yup

Will definately try and watch tonight. And good luck with the court case...

Will watch.

Good luck.

Thanks for that Debbie I'll make sure I definitely watch.

I hope you get the money back, it annoys me when people run a company when they aren't going to run it properly.

Debbie, I think it might be on now...

Edit: Perhaps not - but a similar story.

Just saw it, what on earth made you go with them?

Just watched it and I was shocked.

With one bloke on the film he had paid over £2000 and they didn't do anything to the engine but made him pay there on the day even though he could see they had done nothing because they said they would scrap it if he didn't pay so he didn't want to lose his car.

One woman had her car back with oil poured all through it, smashed windows, parts all over the place and all because she said she didn't want the work done after all.

Quotes going up in price, people needing to pay extra just to get their cars back what a terrible company.

And now on is a story about a company based in my town.

Sounds like a bad bad company. I really don't see how people like this can get away with this sort of stuff.

This is not only just a bad company, I would venture to call them scam artists. It's clear that they were doing nothing, and trying to make people pay up for it. Not that you knew, of course, but it seems that they never had any intention of doing anything. They only wanted the money.

If this had happened in my state, our attourney general would be in an uproar. He has a reputation of making companies pay for their mistakes, or trying to do so, anyway.

Well, what made us go with them is clear from my first post (price, speed of work etc) Hindsight is a wonderful thing... had we known what they were like, we would never have contacted them.

From the Watchdog website:



Arse! I feel mega peeved now!

Debbie, you make it sound like not appearing on Watchdog was worse than what actually happened.

Trust me - I'm not bothered about not being on Watchdog - I'm bothered about these people getting away with this sort of thing!!!!!!!

You go Girl!!

I feel defeated tonight after seeing it on TV. It's quite saddening.

Wow..thats awful.
You know if I was an evil person I'd probably replace their site index page with the report from the TV show...but I'm not evil....not really..

I have plans....

That's terrible, and they've gotten away with this for so long. Hopefully it will come to an end now, they will be prosecuted, and you will get your money back.

Rivermead Engineering

Hopefully it'll end up right at the top of Google by the time I'm finished!

tut tut tut

I watched my dog all night, it didn't do anything

I'd call a vet in that case.

Unless it's stuffed.

I saw that report on Watchdog. it just makes you wonder what people do these days just to get money!

You won't believe this but my sister just got a cheque through the post from Rivermead Engineering for £1967.09 - the full price we paid for the engine.

I am in shock!!!!

Just got to wait and see if it actually clears now!!!

*Fingers crossed please*

That is lucky, you would have thought they would do everything possible to keep that money. Wasn't expecting them to just hand it all back.

Me neither. We are all very shocked. Just need to wait and see if it clears now. Hopefully it will.

I also got done by them. £1963.

The car is a Toyota Mr2. It's always pricy to have work done on them, because for one thing everything is hard to get at (mid-engine) and for another, Japanese car parts are normally expensive.

In December I needed a new engine. I got a quote for a fully recon engine at £1100 including collection and fitting (special offer they said). Seemed like a reputable business from their Website and they seemed alright on the phone. After they collected it, I was told there was loads more wrong with it and it would cost me £1963 to sort it out. I paid, being gullable, and a week later I was told it was ready for collection. I got it delivered back to me for £100 as I live in Essex and didn't want to take time off work to go and collect it. 500 miles and 2 weeks later I took it for a service and saw what a dump their workshop is. I didn't get much of a smile out of the bloke on the counter, and paid £110 for the service, plus £3 for a Tesco's fry-up while I waited.

4/5 days later, going 60mph on the A12 and it starts overheating. No warning light came on so I didn't realise until cold air was coming through the vents. After further inspection, the radiator was leaking.

Shortly thereafter, the WatchDog report was aired. On another forum, someone told me that they had taken their car there, and the same thing had happened. He suggested that they created the hole in the rad, put a bit of Mastic on that would hold for a while and disconnected the warning light on both occasions.

It is possible that they did this to mine when it was serviced as that would be about how long the Mastic would hold out.

If anyone has had an engine from them, I would recommend taking it to another garage asap to check it.

If you are looking for an engine, I would not recommend them.

I am so deeply sorry that you too have been caught out by these horrible people. We have been lucky and are still in shock that we have received a cheque from them. We are just waiting to see if it actually clears.

When did you have your car in the garage? Is your car now running?

The best piece of advice I could offer would be to have an independent report done on your engine by someone like Car Checkers. They will send someone to look at your engine and do a full report on it. It usually costs around £150 but the report is excellent. We had one done and it basically said that engine was knackered (as we knew as we had to pay £2300 for a second engine after they fitted their "recon" engine)

We then sent a letter to Rivermead advising that if they didn't refund us in full that we would be taking them to court. I personally think it was the independent report that made them realise we were serious. (Also the fact that we had been to Watchdog etc)

Anyway, good luck and please, let me know if you manage to get anything back from them and of course - spread the word that they should not be used by ANYONE! No-one deserves this.

Just as an update - the cheque cleared Friday

Good!

Who's responsible for the defacing?

It irritates me greatly that there is greater protection on a credit card seemingly purely because it is 'their' (the banks) money. Or am I wrong?

Seems that way, although, the bank really did their best to help me at the time.

There's greater protection due to the fact it's written in law - they have no choice but to care more because under the law, you're allowed to sue them for your money. I'm sure if they had it their way they would care just as little as they do if it was with a debit card

Well, either way. We got our money back and that's all I care about right now.

they have had me too , i didnt see any of this info so hinside would have been great , but they cleaned my bank of 3.5k and they havent done the car refused access to my vehicle, was rude abrupt and even threating me over the phone and then took the money from my account after giving them my details once for a deposit as requested at point of sale!

I now have a car that dosent work and its in the same condition as it was before it went to that garage!

Im now getting quote to get it fixed as garages know who they are they are all quoting me fore new engines, so im in the process of chasing the company for the money / refund! but its looking unlikely as they want me to take the car back to them , i dont think sooo!

quotes are coming in at 3,900 i havent got the money anymore so my car is stuck on the drive!

also i got the car from a trader so im chasing that at the minute too looks like that is going to court and that he will get prosecuted by the police - under crimnal investigations i just want my money back, so ive had a double wanni coasting me over 10k......arrrrh! any advice would be great!

as i pasi by debit card there nothing i can do with the banks!!!!! but if id has paid by Credit card i would have got my money back the law stinks! they protect the criminals....

I have replied to your personal message. I am sorry this is still happening to other people

Hi looks like I,ve been caught out by this reconditioned engine scam original quote £1445 now £3500
but it seems they are now trading under yet another name of Heathrow engine center
havnt paid anything yet have contacted watchdog any other advice ?

Yep... I've been had by Rivermead Engineering who changed their name to Heathrow Motor Services and then again to Hallmead Services Ltd (Trading as Heathrow Engine Center).... I have no doubt when the work drys up because of the bad press/internet reports they just move on. I'm presently down £2100.00 and eight weeks without my vehicle... oh I did get it back but it broke down after 45 miles... surprise surprise!

I have done my legal homework and what a scam this is... (1) get your vehicle on a 'low/good/quick' quote (2) Inflate the price and apply the pressure with the inspection/recovery cost (but still low enough to be feasible i.e. based on the current book price of the car) (3) Get the ful cost of the work up front... he who has the money is king of the castle!!! (4)
Do some shoddy suspect work and spend as little money as possible on it (5) Keep the customer hanging around for 3/4 weeks so if it breaks down they will probably not want to bring it back in fear it might take another four weeks (6) If it does come back all the better as a new charge for 'something...anything....in my case a 're-inspection' will produce some more cash (7) If the customer doesn't pay... quids in!!! We've got the money and the car!!!!

Believe it or not.... and those who have been stung believe it..... nobody can touch them... trading standards wait untill they have sufficient cases amalgamated before attempting a case. As for us 'pawns'... well we can go to a 'small claims court' and probalby win the judgement and then Heathrow Engine Center will ignore it outright.. and geuss what... they can and nobody can do a thing. . Or..... sue Heathrow Engine Center and win the judgement and hey geuss what... yep they ignore everything and of course you could get the bailiffs in at your own cost (they do not come cheap)... and what will they take of them?.... some old banged up engines and some crap computers... not to mention some black-eyes and stuff.

This really happens in the UK.... I hear somebody is going to put up a website so that if you search 'reconditioned engines' you will see the HEATHROW ENGINE CENTER SCAM site... I'll bet they take that person to court!!!!

But don't worry folks... what comes round goes round... we reap what we sow... you can't escape karma...

Get in touch with Watchdog again so they can do an update on them to warn other people. I did as much as I possibly could internet wise when this happened to us. My sister contacted Watchdog along with many others.

All I can say is good luck in getting what you are owed. I just can't believe they are continuously allowed to get away with this

If they took that money without your knowledge then it can be considered theft and your best bet is to contact your local police.

We contacted the police and they were very helpful but couldn't do much as they only took the amounts they quoted (even though they inflated the quote several times).

Credit cards > debit cards