Garage increased quote to fix car

hoochis

Hi.

Had a problem with the brakes in my car. Took it to garage where I bought the car new and they checked it out and found the problem. They told me that the parts and labour would cost €750. I said ok and left the car with them. When I returned a couple of days later they told me that it took longer than they expected to fix and tried to charge €1050. After a long battle with a very rude secretary, they finally agreed on €750. What really shocked me though was when I was leaving the garage. The secretary said "be careful of the brakes, they could be a bit soft, I wouldn't want you to crash on your way home". She said it with such sarcasm in her voice. Anyway, was I right to argue for the original price or do garages normally run hours overtime on jobs. This was a main dealers btw.

Mar4ix

just for sake of safety, get off them list of what they done , and go to other independent garage for brake check and test, and see , if your car is actually safe to drive.

MagicMarker

If I agree a price with a garage then I expect a call first to confirm what unexpected work needs to be done and what the added cost is.

Garage is out of order lobbing on an extra 300 quid without prior confirmation with you.

Seve OB

you were right to argue

but with regards to the brakes, if you get new pads / discs I'm pretty much sure that they will always take a little time to bed in first so that was what she was warning you about. No need for the attitude though.

Care to Name and Shame?

sean1141

Why go to a main dealer? I take it the car is not that new as a brake problem would be covered under warranty?

As said after new pads/disks being fitted the brakes won't be at there best for a while and the pedal will be a bit spongy

hoochis

The man that owns the garage is a very fair, reasonable man. He was not there when I went to collect the car. It was the secretary that added up the extra costs after the job was done. I spent 45 minutes arguing with her. At one point I rang my father who is a retired mechanic and put him on the phone to try and reason with her. She told him it was a specialized job and that he wouldn't understand it. It was only when she rang the boss that he said to charge the original amount that it was sorted and I could get out of there.

sean1141

What car was it and what work was carried out?

hoochis

sean1141 wrote: »

What car was it and what work was carried out?

If I told you what car it was, the pi's on boards would have the name of the garage figures out in a flash! The brake servo was replaced along with brake discs and pads.

Anan1

What i'd do in that situation is have a friendly chat with the boss, explaining that although you have always found him fair and reasonable his secretary's attitude has left a bad taste in your mouth. The man has a right to know if she's going around alienating his loyal customers.

dave1982

Yes the owner might not even know this is going on

super_furry

dave1982 wrote: »

Yes the owner might not even know this is going on

Exactly, could be the secretary trying to pocket a few quid on the side.

Kenny Logins

super_furry wrote: »

Exactly, could be the secretary trying to pocket a few quid on the side.

I'm sure that's not what he meant.

bucketybuck

It can be very difficult for a workshop to accurately price a repair job. For example, I price for the replacement of brake discs, but when I go to remove the wheels I find that the wheel studs have been overtightened and I have to burn them off. So I have no choice but to replace the studs. Who pays for them? Its not my fault really. So when I do an estimate I always make very clear that it is only an estimate, not a quote, and that the price could rise (or fall).

However, the flip side of this is that I have to be on the ball with keeping the customer informed. Its one thing to charge extra for studs, but for a €300 difference you should have gotten a phone call telling you they have found another problem. It's not their fault you needed a booster/master cylinder/whatever, but there is really no excuse for not letting you know in advance.

(Though quite often the fault is with the technician not the receptionist. With the brakes stripped the mechanic may have found you also needed a booster. At that point you don't really have a choice, they cannot rebuild the brakes without doing it. Because the mechanic never faces the customer quite often they will just go ahead and do the work. After all, it had to be done didn't it. And it did need to be done, but procedure should still be followed.
So, the receptionist only finds out at the end that the extra work was done, and she is left trying to explain this to the customer.)

I can see both sides in these cases. Its probably not the garages fault that you needed extra work and they shouldn't really have to pay for it, but on the other hand they are a service business and they need to manage their customers. A lesson there for them.

dave1982

dave1982 wrote: »

Yes the owner might not even know this is going on

She rang him.

Supergurrier

Cost going over €300 is fine but not contacting the customer about it before going ahead with the work is not.

the culture of deference

hoochis wrote: »

Hi.

Had a problem with the brakes in my car. Took it to garage where I bought the car new and they checked it out and found the problem.

Just shows.

As the long timers here always say

ALWAYS Get a 2nd opinion

hoochis

The €300 extra was all for labor. No extra parts went into the car. The mechanic thought it would be a simple enough procedure. When he went about taking the servo out, he realized that he had to remove the whole engine (this is what I am told). I think this is the point that I should have been contacted. They must have known that would add considerable time and cost to the job. The odd thing is that the secretary did contact me half way through the job to ask me if I wanted new tyres fitted to the car while it was there. She never said a word about them running into complications! They tried to charge me for 8 hours labor in total which didn't make sense as she said the car went up on the ramps at 10am and I got a phone call at 5pm to say it was ready. I presume the mechanic took a break for lunch so it had to be under 7 hours labor that they actually did. I was skeptical that they could have done that much work so quickly so I had a look at the engine to see if there were signs that it was removed. Im pretty certain it was removed but on closer inspection I noticed that there were minor mistakes made when fitting it back in. Fuel filter holder was missing a bolt. There was a small pipe from the air intake pipe not connected back on. Other small things like pipes and wires not put back into their clip holders. All little things but things I would expect to be right when they expected me to pay full labor.
Sorry this post turned into a novel. I need a break now!!!

MrDerp

Seems harsh. I'd a job on herself's car go from 550 to 800 recently. It needed more parts and labour than expected but ...
1. I was called early to let me know what was going on
2. The garage was embarrassed and gave us 10% goodwill on both parts and labour bringing it in at 720.

Paying more than expected was inconvenient, but I thought it a very decent gesture.

Supergurrier

Removing the whole engine for a brakes issue, sounds legit

Honey-ec

bucketybuck wrote: »

So when I do an estimate I always make very clear that it is only an estimate, not a quote, and that the price could rise (or fall).

This, x1,000. Was the original €750 price a quote or an estimate, OP?

hoochis

Honey-ec wrote: »

This, x1,000. Was the original €750 price a quote or an estimate, OP?

It was a definite quote. She said they could do the discs, pads and servo for €750. She based their labor charge on warranty time to do the job. Mechanic had never changed a brake servo on that model car before even though they are main dealers for the brand.

bucketybuck

hoochis wrote: »

It was a definite quote. She said they could do the discs, pads and servo for €750. She based their labor charge on warranty time to do the job. Mechanic had never changed a brake servo on that model car before even though they are main dealers for the brand.

I had assumed from the OP that there was extra work needed, as in other repairs, but if they simply took longer than they expected then thats a different kettle of fish. They need to look at how they price jobs, but thats their problem not yours.

corktina

Id want a whole car for €750...

icjzfmq7ewon1t

hoochis wrote: »

If I told you what car it was, the pi's on boards would have the name of the garage figures out in a flash! The brake servo was replaced along with brake discs and pads.

My guess is VW/Audi

sean1141

hoochis wrote: »

..They tried to charge me for 8 hours labor in total which didn't make sense as she said the car went up on the ramps at 10am and I got a phone call at 5pm to say it was ready. I presume the mechanic took a break for lunch so it had to be under 7 hours labor that they actually did...

Maybe two mechanics were working on it at one stage??

el tel

hoochis wrote: »

It was a definite quote. She said they could do the discs, pads and servo for €750. She based their labor charge on warranty time to do the job. Mechanic had never changed a brake servo on that model car before even though they are main dealers for the brand.

This smells seriously of horse ****.

Every job they do is detailed in a book with an estimated time, from which they can estimate the labour charge.

Even if he had never done it before (or didn't realise it was an engine out for your car) it could and should easily have been checked before doing the job. If they did this, and it turned out more difficult for some reason, they possibly should have contacted you.

That said, if they had contacted you in advance, and told you it would be €300 more to complete, what would you have done? I doubt you would have said leave it.

As for the additional mistakes they made, that's par for the course. I would be interested to know what make and model of car you have.