One of my first prosecutions as an ambitious Trading Standards Officer revolved around a local garage who charged an ‘old age pensioner’ a pretty penny for a service they didn’t perform.
Unfortunately for the garage the complainant was an ex-car mechanic who only stopped servicing his own car when he started to suffer from arthritis, so needless to say he knew when the work hadn’t been carried out…
I took a mate’s car into the same garage for a service, and they also thought that I didn’t know my arse from my engine block so again no work done but a whopping bill followed..
I’ll spare you the gory details but a trip to the local magistrates court ensued for the garage owner, a substantial fine and a front page ‘splash’ in the local paper had a detrimental effect on his bottom line.
So why this trip down memory lane?
Fast forward 20 years and my most recent car service was video recorded and emailed to me. John from Stockport talked me through the whole process, I didn’t watch it to the end I didn’t need to….
From a regulatory perspective trust & transparency is key, if you’ve nothing to hide advertise the fact…
DM me if you’d like to understand how you can use your regulatory efforts to increase trust in your products/services…
