9am: Drove the car the 30 mile / 1 hour journey to the dealership near my work. All fine in terms of driveability...

14:30: Advised the job is complete (including eye-watering bill)

17:30: Here goes....

• Collected the car from the main dealer. Hopped in, checked it was in neutral before starting the engine (like all people should! )
• Gearstick feels like a spoon stuck in jelly. I've no idea if it's in neutral or not tbh but decided it must be.
• Started engine (after it cranking for 4/5 seconds)
• Put car into 1st gear and somehow selected reverse instead (reverse is push the stick hard left and then forwards as I'm sure you guys know). Anyway, 1st gear (for want of a better description) seems to have "moved" slightly.

So I tried the other gears once I'd rediscovered 1st gear. 2nd and 3rd are relatively easy once you've found 1st. 4th is a bit tough to get into and seems as though it was more to the left in position than it used to be. 5th is a bit stiff and 6th is like pulling a spoon through tar. Selecting 6th actually feels like I'm trying to move the gearstick through the plastic surround/centre console.

I went back in and spoke to the Service Manager as all the techs had gone home. I spoke with them again today and although they're happy to have the car back in on Monday for a check their simple response was, quote, "It's not anything we've done as the service doesn't do anything with the gearbox. We'll have a look on Monday but if we don't find anything we'll probably have to strip the gearbox and we'll need your authorisation to do that."

I really get the impression these guys couldn't give a toss. Does anybody have any thoughts on what this issue may be or things I should ask?

Sorry for the long post!

Many thanks,

Adam