(This article is an expanded version of the article contained in the August 09 edition of
MOT Testing/Testing Times)
MOT Computer breakdowns – compensation? – Why bother!
This story is about how the owner of a small MOT Testing and car repair business was sent into despair by repeated MOT computer breakdown – only to be told at the end of his traumatic experience that he would not receive any compensation because VOSA/Siemens couldn’t pin-point whose fault it was. We’ve published a brief account in our MOT Testing magazine, but did not have enough room for the full story. Here is that full story.
 |
SB Motors' Steve Boyce, who was driven to despair by repeated and persistent MOT computer problems. After many months of disruption to his business and customers he was eventually offered £400 – not as compensation, but because VOSA hadn't dealt with his complaint properly.
|
Just before we went to press, Jim Punter, editor of our MOT Testing magazine received copies of a series of letters between the proprietor of S & B Motors, Mr Steven Boyce. S & B Motors’ and VOSA. These detail how his MOT computer broke down initially on 30th May 2008 – and then on another 39 days (sometimes more than once a day) until the last breakdown on 14th October 2008. Eventually the computer worked again – and unsurprisingly Steven asked for compensation with this letter to VOSA’s James Body, their executive dealing with the problem:
Mr James Body
VOSA
Compliance Department
Woodlands Court
Ash Ridge Road
Almondsbury Business Park
BRISTOL BS32 4LB
24 October2008
Dear James
Ref No: JB 17664 01
Compensation Claim for severe disruption to
MOT computerisation service from 30.05.08 – 15.10.08
Incident No: 3416141
I refer to our telephone conversation on 10 October 2008 when I advised you that when we eventually got to the bottom of our MOT computer problem I would be making a compensation claim and you advised to address it to you.
As I said on the telephone, we have been having almost daily problems with both MOT computers since 30.05.08 where the computers go into stand alone mode. We have had the base units and modems replaced several times and BT out to check the line at least four times – all with no improvement.
Each time the computers went into stand alone testing, it could take 15-20 minutes to log on or off of an MOT. It got so bad that we had to virtually stop testing on a while-u-wait basis because we were upsetting so many customers. They were expecting to be here for approximately 45-50 minutes and they were often here one and a half to two hours.
Between June and September 2007 we carried out 1085 MOT tests and in October 2007 we did 277. Between June and September 2008 we carried out 911 MOT tests and obviously we do not have a figure for October 2008 yet.
As you can see over a 4 month period we carried out 172 less MOT tests which at £53.10 each equates to £9,133.20 ( we do not discount our MOTs). Also, approximately 40% of our tests fail and we would usually carry out any necessary repairs – how do we equate that?
Even though we are in an economic downturn, people still have to MOT their vehicles so I am blaming our loss of earnings entirely on the problems we have experienced with MOT computerisation and the failure to rectify the fault for so long.
With 5 nominated testers here we used to regularly book 16-18 MOTs per day but now we rarely book in more than 10. If we have a day when the computers seem to be operating okay we might take on more.
Listed below you will find not every incident of our MOT computer problems but all the incidents I have recorded (I cannot be here every hour of every day) :
30.05.08
Went into stand alone mode – unable to carry out retests until following day when details had been uploaded
04.06.08
Went into stand alone mode
10.06.08
Went into stand alone mode intermittently throughout the day.
12.06.08
Went into stand alone mode again – given an incident number 3307111.
13.06.08
Went into stand alone mode again – tested under fallback.
16.06.08
BT came to test line in morning, said it was okay – went into stand alone mode in the afternoon. Helpdesk got hardware team looking into fault – they said they would send another modem to try.
17.06.08
Went into stand alone mode – tested under fallback. Installed new modem – did work but very slowly – 10 minutes per screen.
18.06.08
Cannot use second machine – too slow. Requested an engineer to call.
19.06.08
Engineer came out to install new base unit for second computer – still not working. Engineer reported fault and left.
20.06.08
Engineer came in afternoon – hoped he had sorted out problem.
14.07.08
Went into stand alone mode again. Couldn’t get through to Helpdesk – kept getting cut off – partial emergency testing introduced at 9.10 am. Incident No: 4632978. Didn’t start working properly until late in the day.
15.07.08
Computer froze at 11.25 am – spoke to Helpdesk – told to turn off and reboot. Did work eventually but took 50 minutes to sort out.
18.07.08
Spoke to Helpdesk regarding how many slots were used whilst we were in emergency test mode on previous Monday – computer said 16 but we only tested 13 in all and only 6 passed. Said they were passing query to the “programmers”, ref: 3351825 – have still not had an answer on this.
22.07.08
Code VTS0024 appeared – could not read my smart card. Spoke to Helpdesk – they said turn off computer at? Wall as I could not get greetings screen to appear and turn off by pressing F12. Spent over an hour trying to boot up – would not work – so Hardware Team said they would send us a new base unit.
23.07.08
New base unit installed.
25.07.08
Second computer went into stand alone mode – first computer working normally. Incident number 3360521.
30.07.08
Second computer went into stand alone mode – first computer working normally. Helpdesk said try re-booting and sychronise card. Computer said it was working normally. Tried to order a report – eventually got Code VTS0075. Helpdesk suggested trying a new telephone line splitter between computers.
04.08.08
Second computer went into stand alone mode.
05.08.08
Second computer went into stand alone mode.
08.08.08
Fixed a new telephone line splitter.
13.08.08
Second computer went into stand alone mode in the afternoon – first computer working normally.
01.09.08
Both computers in stand alone mode from start of day. First computer started working normally later in the day, second computer in stand alone mode all day.
02.09.08
Second computer working but very very slow.
03.09.08
Second computer working but very very slow.
04.09.08
Second computer working but very very slow.
05.09.08
Second computer working but very very slow.
12.09.08
Engineer came to install a new modem for second machine to see if it speeds it up.
15.09.08
Second computer went slow again in the afternoon – got Code VTS0058 – rebooted – ok then got slower and slower and went into stand alone mode. Helpdesk sending out an engineer.
16.09.08
First computer getting slower and slower. Engineer came to install another new base unit for second computer and saw the problem we were having. He suspects a phone line fault.
16.09.08
Both MOT computers very very slow. Spoke to Helpdesk – they are sending out a BT engineer to test line.
17.09.08
Both MOT computers very slow and then went into stand alone mode. Helpdesk gave us two incident numbers 3416105 and 3416141. Helpdesk phoned at 2 pm to say they have found and rectified a fault on the telephone line.
17.09.08 – pm
Put MOT computers back as master and slave as requested by Helpdesk.
Tried to log on for a retest at 5.50 pm – took ages and then got Code VTS0058 – modem is not responding – retried – got it to work eventually.
18.09.08
Got Code VTS0058 on first MOT computer – not responding.
John from Helpdesk telephoned late pm to see how it was going as BT wanted to close incident. Told him it wasn’t right. He said he would ask BT to keep incident open.
19.09.08
Second computer went into stand alone mode when logging on to print results. BT came out to check line again. They said that the splitter device was faulty but as we had gone back to a “master and slave” system it wasn’t even connected so clearly this wasn’t the fault. Tried to log on machine 1 at 2pm – went into stand alone mode. Tried machine 2 – same fault. Tried to log on again at 16.50 – got fault code VTS 0008 – unknown fault.
24.09.08
First computer in stand alone mode. Second computer two fault codes – VTS0056 and VTS0021. Authorised examiner S Boyce on holiday from 25.09.08 until 02.10.08 so no record of faults kept except for on 01.10.08 when both machines went into stand alone mode at 8am. Turned both machines off and rebooted. Both worked until 12pm when both machines went into stand alone mode. Again, rebooted – both OK. Took approximately one and a half hours. BT came to check line again – no fault found. At 5.30pm tried to log on first machine for a retest – went into stand alone mode. Tried second machine – ok.
02.10.08
Both machines went into stand alone mode at 8am. Rebooted – ok until 9am when first machine went into stand alone mode again – second machine working ok.
Telephoned Helpdesk to complain about problem which has been ongoing since 30.05.08 – said they still had an incident logged as active – 3416141. Asked me to connect an analogue phone to MOT line and to call them. They said they could hear crackling on line so were going to get Cable and Wireless to check line again.
03.10.08
First computer went into stand alone mode on the first test of the day – tried second machine – got Code VTS0075. Retried again and it worked but took 20 minutes to print result. At 11am both machines went into stand alone mode again – phoned Helpdesk – asked us to try an analogue phone on MOT line again – seemed clear but Helpdesk said someone was coming to check the line again anyway.
08.10.08
Both machines went into stand alone mode at 1.30pm, phoned Helpdesk. They said BT/Cable & Wireless had found and rectified a fault on Monday 06.10.08. Tried turning off and rebooting – still not working. Spoke to Helpdesk again. Said they would email hardware Team and get them to contact us today. Carried on testing in fallback.
09.10.08
Telephoned Helpdesk to enquire why Hardware Team had not contacted us as promised. I was put through to Paul who said Cable & Wireless had closed the incident because the fault was rectified – it clearly wasn’t. Then I was talked through re-setting local configuration from 28.8 KBS long dial to 28.8 KBS short dial.
Siemens came to replace both base units at 2.30pm as part of an upgrade – not to do with our ongoing problem.
10.10.08
Tried logging on to both machines at 6.30am – both went into stand alone mode. Tried rebooting – still not working. Telephoned Helpdesk at 7.30am, was put through to Hardware Team. Spoke to Paul who said he was waiting to speak to his Service Manager and would phone me back. Carried on testing in fallback.
Telephoned VOSA to complain about ongoing problem – spoke to Monica Arora who told me to speak to the Compliance Department which is when I first spoke to you.
10.10.08
12.45pm – tried to log on, got Code VTS0096 – carried on testing in fallback.
Re-tried rebooting and synchronizing at 5pm – still in stand alone mode.
15.10.08
8.25am – got Code VTS0058 – communication error – advised to switch off and re-try – went into stand alone mode.
10.20am – recovered from stand alone mode
10.25am – went back into stand alone mode
BT came to test line again and said no fault found even though we were in stand alone mode at the time.
12.30pm – both machines were recovering from stand alone mode, one N.T. logged on for an MOT on first computer. I tried to enter calibration results for diesel and petrol analysers on second machine – went into stand alone mode – re-tried on first machine, went into stand alone mode – got Codes VTS0075 and VTS0058.
Turned off both machines – rebooted and synchronized, got Code VTS 0077, retired – managed to log one calibration result. Tried to log other one and got Code VTS0075 again – retried, got Code VTS0075 again. Eventually gave up at 1.25pm Now not able to test diesels even though machine had been calibrated.
1.40pm – tried to log on for a re-test – got Code VTS0096 – carried on testing in fallback.
15.10.08
Telephoned yourself about the problems we were still experiencing. You said you still thought it was a line fault and would get back on to Siemens.
21.10.08
You telephoned to see how we were getting on. Happily I was able to say that we had not had a problem for three and a half working days. You said you were aware of Cable & Wireless doing something in the background.
21.10.08 – 4.40pm Helpdesk phoned to check if everything was still ok, said Cable & Wireless had had cabling issues – closed incident number 3416141.
Finally, I apologise for the length of this letter but I think its important that you realize how frustrating it has been MOT testing for the last four and a half months and how much extra time myself and my nominated testers have had to put in. I just hope I haven’t lost too many customers because of this debacle.
I accept that it may take some time check and verify my comments above but please acknowledge receipt of this letter as soon as possible and advise of the procedure for compensation.
Yours sincerely
S J Boyce
VOSA Response
On the 30th October 2008 an acknowledgement of this letter was received from VOSA. Then on 14th November, Mr Boyce lodged a claim for compensation using the very precise calculation required by VOSA – which took him much time to prepare. He claimed a net figure of £9078.68 (gross £11,667.20). We have not published this letter because it contains commercially confidential information regarding S & B Motors’ business operation. Receipt of this was acknowledged by VOSA on 30th October 2008. Nothing then happened until 8th April 2009 when, following repeated telephone calls to VOSA they wrote to confirm the claim was still being processed.
Then, on 3rd June 2009, over six months from when he lodged his claim, it was rejected with the following letter from VOSA’s James Body:
Click on this link to view a PDF of the letter:
VOSA 3.6.09 PDF
VOSA’s Complaints Department
At this point Mr Boyce wrote to us about his problem. We published his letter in the Reader’s Letters column of our publication MOT Testing. He also lodged a formal complaint with VOSA’s complaints department. On 23rd June he received this response from Ms Cranney of VOSA’s complaints section, which was an outright rejection of the complaint, and also informing Mrs Boyce that it was the end of the road with no right of appeal:
Click on this link to view a PDF of the letter:
VOSA 23.6.09 PDF
Incensed at this, Mr Boyce’s wife Carol then sent this e-mail to Miss Cranney:
 |
SB Motors were forced to turn customers away, rather than keep them waiting indefinitely until the MOT computer could be coaxed into operating properly.
|
From: carol_s_boyce [full address removed]
To: complaints@vosa [full address removed]
Subject: FAO Sally Cranney
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:15:35 +0100
Dear Miss Cranney
Ref: 17664.01
I was very disappointed to receive your letter dated 23 June. It took four and a half months for VOSA to find and rectify this fault. It took a further eight months for VOSA to reach a decision regarding compensation.
Notwithstanding the huge financial loss suffered and the disruption and frustration experienced by all members of my staff due to the constant, almost daily problems over this long period, a huge amount of time and effort was spent collating information Mr Body requested be provided to him in connection with the compensation claim. This included the amount of MOT revenue lost, details of dates, number of tests, rates charged, labour costs incurred, including dates, number of staff unable to work, labour rate paid to employees etc. To be told VOSA have decided against compensation simply because they cannot decide which of their providers was at fault is unacceptable. All along we were led to believe compensation would be paid by VOSA. Kindly explain more fully why this decision was made and why there is no right of appeal.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Carol Boyce
VOSA’s “Corporate Office”
Following her e-mail, Mrs Boyce was informed by letter on 15th July that the matter would be referred to VOSA’s “Corporate Office” for investigation regarding the “exceptionally long period of time…” taken to consider the claim. Then quite unexpectedly on 22nd of July, S & B Motors received this letter from VOSA’s acting Chief Executive Alastair Peoples:
Click on this link to view a PDF of the letter:
VOSA 22.7.09 PDF
Despite the offer in this letter of an ex-gratia payment of £400, (not for the computer outages, but for the delay in dealing with the issue), Mr and Mrs Boyce were further angered and wrote the following letter back to Mr Peoples:-
A Peoples Esq
VOSA
Berkeley House
Croydon Street
BRISTOL BS5 0DA
28 July 2009
Dear Mr Peoples
Thank you for your letter of 22 July regarding our compensation claim. In response we would like to raise three points:
1. You state that telephone line faults are outside of VOSA’s or Siemens remit. This telephone line is supplied to us by VOSA. We cannot deal directly with Cable and Wireless or BT because we are not their customers – you are.
2. In your letter you describe MOT garages as your customers no fewer than 8 times and yet you state on page 4 paragraph 2 that “there is no contract between the Agency and MOT garages and no relationship giving rise to a duty of care”. This surely means your Service Level Agreement is meaningless – just empty words.
3. Under the heading “Fair” in your letter you state that when it was established that we were not content with the response received from James Body we were correctly put in touch with VOSA’s Customer Complaints Coordinator Sally Cranney, who responded “I can only advise that there is no right of appeal against this decision and, therefore, there is no further action VOSA can take in this matter. This in incorrect. Your own booklet “The Service We Give You” lists a further three options available if we are not satisfied with the response.
We are still not satisfied that our claim has been handled fairly or correctly. Its all very well for you to say that lessons have been learnt from this case which you will put into practice in the future. This does not help us, we are still very much out of pocket as has already been proven.
We would now like you to pass this case on to DVO’s Independent Claims Assessor.
We have also passed copies of all relevant correspondence to date to Jim Punter at “MOT Tester and Authorised Examiner” magazine who wishes to run a feature on it.
We’ve done this, not to try to influence this compensation claim, but to save other MOT garage owners the time wasted on making a claim, no matter how justified, when in reality they have no chance of success.
Yours sincerely
S J Boyce & Mrs C S Boyce
S & B MOTORS
This is the current situation. If Mr Peoples responds to this letter we will add it to this story…
Conclusions
Whilst this story speaks volumes about the level of service Testing Stations get from VOSA, some key conclusions can be drawn from this sad sequence of events:
· Whether the problem with the MOT Computer was the responsibility of Siemens, VOSA, or Siemens’ telephone line provider (seemingly the most likely cause), it certainly wasn’t the fault of Mr Boyce. If one of our suppliers let us down and as a result we refused to attend to a customer’s problem which resulted, Trading Standards would be on us like a ton of bricks!
· The most important service MOT Testing Stations receive from VOSA is the operation of the MOT Computer – yet any agreed basis of compensation should the system serially breakdown as happened here, was specifically excluded by VOSA from inclusion in their much trumpeted Service Level Agreement.
· Just because VOSA ask you to submit a compensation claim, it doesn’t mean you will be compensated. Ask them to reach a conclusion about your complaint first – then take the time to calculate your losses on the complex basis VOSA require.
At no stage was VOSA’s much trumpeted new Customer Directorate involved – why not? they are supposed to be there to protect the interest of their so called Testing Station 'customers'.