5 Things To Check After Your Car Is Serviced

Buying a new car is easy but maintaining it is the most challenging part. And while you may take care of it like it's your own child, you can't trust the service centre to do the same. No matter how much they stress on the trustworthiness of their service, many people almost always experience something iffy that teaches them to be wary of service centres. If you're one of them, we've prepared for you a checklist of sorts that you can peruse each time you get your car serviced. This will help you ask the right questions and make sure you're not being swindled out of your money.

Check your belongings

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Most service centres will ask you to take your belongings with you when you leave the car with them. On the odd occasion that you don't, the first thing to do is check if they are present in the car. It's not like the people at the service centre will try and steal them - after all their reputation will take a massive hit if such an incident comes to the fore - but they might misplace them. So, before you take your car home, check if everything that you usually keep in your car is where it belongs.

Check the job sheet

The job sheet is the main communication between the service agent and the people who do the actual work on your car. Sometimes, due to a lapse in this communication, certain work doesn't get done properly and you may end up taking a half-serviced car home without even realizing it. Hence, it's necessary to take the time to check the job sheet and see whether every item that's on it has been attended to.

Ask for an itemized bill

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Hidden costs are much easier to hide in bills that are not itemized. So, while taking the delivery of your car from the service centre, always ask for an itemized bill. This is where you can see the price of every part that has been replaced or every aspect that has been repaired. If any cost looks unusual, you can straightaway ask for an explanation. Also check whether you're being charged for an oil top-up or an oil replacement, as both are different and their similar-sounding nature is often misused by the service centre.

Check fuel levels

Some service centre employees could end up using your car for personal reasons, which they are not allowed to. It's hence necessary that you check the fuel level before delivering the car to the service centre and after getting it back. A minor drop in the fuel level is understandable as the car has to move around within the centre but a major drop is a cause of concern.

Check the tyres

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Observe your tyres well. There's a chance that your perfectly good tyres might get replaced with old ones by some notorious service centre employee. A good practice is clicking a photo of the tyres of your car before it's taken for servicing and checking it against the actual tyres once the car is returned to you.

Once you memorize this checklist, you're in the clear for taking your car home from the service centre without worrying about anything.