The Independent Garage Association (IGA) has reinforced its commitment to support the new Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair by engaging with its 3,500 membership and ultimately delivering them to the Code subscription process.
IGA chairman Jonas Zambakides said: “One of the key objectives for my period as chair of the IGA is to deliver a consistent and fair method of members dealing with customers and the Code is the way we intend to do this. The Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair has all the ingredients an independent garage requires to enable it to address consumer issues, cost-effectively and without fundamentally altering its business – allowing it to remain competitive with other local garages.”
The Code aims to promote and safeguard the interests of consumers by helping them identify subscribing garages, and providing an easily accessible and robust dispute resolution mechanism when required.
Zambakides has made a commitment to engage the IGA in a process that will deliver subscriptions to the Code. This is in response to a reminder from Consumer Focus that the threatened super complaint to the Office of Fair Trading remains in place, and may be enforced, if the independent garage sector does not match the commitment to the Code shown by the franchised sector to date. Fewer than 500 of the 5,000 code subscribers are from the independent sector.
“While it is frustrating that Consumer Focus feels it needs to remind the sector about the threat of the super complaint, it has also made it clear that it regards the progress made so far with the Code as being a big success,” said Chris Mason, director of Motor Codes Limited. “The independent garage sector now needs to join the process of delivering a consistent, industry-wide method by which we can demonstrate our ability to self-regulate. The message is quite clear: sign up and prove that you are a responsible business committed to taking consumer protection seriously.”
The call to arms has come after a recent presentation, made jointly by Chris Mason and Steve Brooker of Consumer Focus, to the influential All-Party Parliamentary Motor Group, where MPs and Lords were briefed on the initiative and urged to promote the Code to their constituents and garage operators.
