I'm hoping that they have indeed carried out the LR service as stamped in the LR service booklet... Is there a thematic pattern about actual trust and confidence in LR franchises within this thread? Perhaps it should be shifted to the feedback section...

To be fair I don't think it's just about Land Rover franchises. It's more just about the motor trade in general. I mean car dealers have never had a particularly great reputation for honesty. There are good and bad ones franchised or not, but it pays to go into it with an open mind but a degree of suspicion the same as you would with a backstreet car dealer.

Bear in mind too, Internet forums are inherently negative. I mean no one it going to post "I took my car in for a service and when it came back the service indicator wasn't on, the book was stamped and the oil looked clean". You wouldn't have even posted if your service indicator wasn't on.

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Its quite difficult to forget to re-set the service indicator on a 2010 + (if you have done the service properly that is!) as you have to plug the tool in to read any fault codes as part of the service and it should promt you to re-set, and its the first thing on the service schedule!

If the service was not done there is a very high chance that the indicator will not be re-set.

Every time I have bought a new car the first thing I do is an oil and filter change, regardless of whether the garage say they have done it. That way I know I have new correct quality oil and genuine filters. Think about it - its another couple of hundred quid off the margin in the sale of the car for a two second stamp in the book.

I would be very suspicious!

On the other hand, most dealers have more service bays than they have diag machines, so if the machines are occupied the tech might get on with the service while waiting for one of the machines to become free. Then forget to plug in the computer afterwards.

It's worth popping the air and pollen filters out and seeing if they look clean, if they're filthy dirty then chances are the car hasn't been serviced. If they look clean then you know they've at least done some of the service. It's not fool proof but it's a good indicator if they've not bothered at all. As i said though, sometimes they'll just do the easy stuff to make it 'look' like it's been serviced. If everything looks filthy then take it back and get them to service it.

But for me too, i normally change all the fluids and filters when i buy a car for peace of mind.

It's always worth feeding these kind of experiences back to JLR customer services. All manufacturers check up on their dealerships and can put in place sanctions on or even de-franchise the bad ones. If a dealership is bad and everyone reported them to JLR, they'll know which ones to take action against.

Pity you can't check the oil but you should be able to see if the oil filter, oil pan plug/seal ring etc. have been handled recently. Even with the low mileage I bet that you can still see whether they were done recently.

Also check the other filters as well and check the service schedule to see what was supposed to be done against what you can determine has been done. Also see if the fuel filter is done.

Once you have established what has and has not been done, book a weekend to Craig part of the country, drop of the car, have the gearbox, transfer case and diffs done as well, plus the brake fluid and the coolant. That way you won't have to worry about any of those anymore for years . MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

The problem with checking if the oil & filter have been changed is, most garages can suck out the oil through the dipstick tube, so the sump plug might never have been touched (i'm not saying it's the best way to do it).

An old trick with the oil filter, mainly for the spin on type was to polish it up with a rag so it looks new. You could do the same with the plastic housing of the element type, but the effect will be less obvious. I would think though if they were going to take the engine cover off to do that they'd just change the oil anyway. From what i've seen the TDV8 has the filter in the valley under the engine cover, so i would think if they made the effort to take that off and wipe the filter housing down they'd have changed the oil anyway.

Isn't the TDV8 "dipstickless" (no pun intended Ryan) ? MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

A lot of cars are these days, but many of them still have a tube with a cap on them - crazy!

Like I said earlier, even if there were evidence of the oil and filter being changed - and there are little witness marks, I would change them again anyway, as you don't know the quality or the grade of the oil that has been used and we all know how critical it is with these engines.
I like to know exactly what oil is in my engine and how old the filter is and even more importantly - if it is genuine!

A stamp in the book doesn't mean a lot these days.

That maybe true, but if the book does have a stamp, i'd want to make sure it had actually been done, you've paid for it one way or another. You can always ask to see the drum/bottles that the oil came from if a garage does it.

A detailed service invoice from April shows filters changed, oil changed, front brake pads and discs changed etc. Must be an oversight around the reset...

I would have thought so, checking a couple of the easy to get to filters would confirm that as far as practical.