Dispute with a garage over work/price - help!

reverbfuzz

Around a month or so I took my car to a bodyshop to get a price on some rust cutting out/patching in new metal/re-painting (it's an old car, but a daily driver, so no showroom condition-work or anything).

The following week I returned, and the car had its front bumper removed, holes poked through and looked in a bad state. I was verbally quoted a price of 500-600 euros for the work. Not thrilled with that as I was anticipating around €400, but I agreed and told him to go ahead with the work.

Last week I went in to see how work had progressed, but it hadn't.
I said that I still wanted the work done, and was informed that I will have my car back in a week's time.

I sent a text today to give them the colour code for the paint, and received a reply as follows :

"we are starting on 3rd day of welding here, this job is much more difficult than I thought, it's going to cost €850 and won't be ready for a week, that ok?"

...?! Where do I stand here? I agreed to a verbal quote of 500/600 euros.
I can't afford €850, and didn't at all agree to €850!

What do I do here?

Twoandahalfmen

reverbfuzz wrote: »

Around a month or so I took my car to a bodyshop to get a price on some rust cutting out/patching in new metal/re-painting (it's an old car, but a daily driver, so no showroom condition-work or anything).

The following week I returned, and the car had its front bumper removed, holes poked through and looked in a bad state. I was verbally quoted a price of 500-600 euros for the work. Not thrilled with that as I was anticipating around €400, but I agreed and told him to go ahead with the work.

Last week I went in to see how work had progressed, but it hadn't.
I said that I still wanted the work done, and was informed that I will have my car back in a week's time.

I sent a text today to give them the colour code for the paint, and received a reply as follows :

"we are starting on 3rd day of welding here, this job is much more difficult than I thought, it's going to cost €850 and won't be ready for a week, that ok?"

...?! Where do I stand here? I agreed to a verbal quote of 500/600 euros.
I can't afford €850, and didn't at all agree to €850!

What do I do here?

A verbal agreement is useless, unless its in wrighting, they can charge what they want I'm afraid.

reverbfuzz

Twoandahalfmen wrote: »

A verbal agreement is useless, unless its in writing, they can charge what they want I'm afraid.

I didn't agree to 850 euros. That's 40-60% over their estimate. I didn't agree to 850!
If they charge me 900, is that ok? What about 1000? 1200?

Stheno

You've a long thread on this in motors, i doubt you'll get different opinions here

Twoandahalfmen

reverbfuzz wrote: »

I didn't agree to 850 euros. That's 40-60% over their estimate. I didn't agree to 850!
If they charge me 900, is that ok? What about 1000? 1200?

Did you get the quote in writing ?
If not yes they can charge you 1000 1200 once you agree to it. Just because the original quote was 850 doesn't mean they have to uphold that offer

reverbfuzz

Stheno wrote: »

You've a long thread on this in motors, i doubt you'll get different opinions here

I've added more detail here. Thanks.
It seems a more appropriate thread topic for here too.

reverbfuzz

Twoandahalfmen wrote: »

Did you get the quote in writing ?
If not yes they can charge you 1000 1200 once you agree to it. Just because the original quote was 850 doesn't mean they have to uphold that offer

I haven't agreed to 850. SO now what?

wexie

reverbfuzz wrote: »

I haven't agreed to 850. SO now what?

The problem here is that you haven't really agreed to anything that you can prove....

reverbfuzz

wexie wrote: »

The problem here is that you haven't really agreed to anything that you can prove....

Well "more difficult than I thought..." in the text from him implies an increase in price. Asking "It's going to cost 850 ... is that ok" also implies a new price, that I've yet to agree on.

Stheno

wexie wrote: »

The problem here is that you haven't really agreed to anything that you can prove....

This and once they started cutting into the rust and welding in panels it could have been far more pervasive/other panels could be weakened.

I suspect they went ahead as you wanted it done, but they are at fault for not saying we estimate x price.

You are at fault for not getting a 100% quote.

reverbfuzz

Stheno wrote: »

This and once they started cutting into the rust and welding in panels it could have been far more pervasive/other panels could be weakened.

I suspect they went ahead as you wanted it done, but they are at fault for not saying we estimate x price.

You are at fault for not getting a 100% quote.

And that's it, in legal terms?

wexie

reverbfuzz wrote: »

Well "more difficult than I thought..." in the text from him implies an increase in price. Asking "It's going to cost 850 ... is that ok" also implies a new price, that I've yet to agree on.

it's a rotten situation, the garage should have kept you informed better and obviously either found something unexpected or made a very poor estimate.

Problem now is what do you do?

You need to let them know either way (and quickly) that you're not happy and try to come to a compromise on a final (written) price so at least you know where you stand.

If that turns out to be too high I guess you could choose to take your car back as is and pay them for the work already done but that's not likely to be much cheaper as you'll still need to pay someone else for the rest of the work.

And if you get another cowboy they're likely to find something wrong with the work already done (sucks air through teeth).....'s gonna cost boss..

fasttalkerchat

I would call and say the car isn't worth spending that sort of money. If he can still do it for €600 that's great, otherwise you'll put up with the rust.

reverbfuzz

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I would call and say the car isn't worth spending that sort of money. If he can still do it for €600 that's great, otherwise you'll put up with the rust.

But if there's (allegedly) 3 days of work done already, he could come back and say that they've done more than 600's worth already? Which I of course can't prove....

fasttalkerchat

reverbfuzz wrote: »

But if there's (allegedly) 3 days of work done already, he could come back and say that they've done more than 600's worth already? Which I of course can't prove....

I wouldn't pay more than the value of the work done. If he has one side of the car done pay half the agreed price. But the chances are that the work done so far will have no real value...
If a painter and decorator doubled the agreed price would you pay him €20 because he had already driven to your house and laid down sheets?
No, but if he had half the house done you would offer him half the agreed price (provided that he had a solid excuse for asking for more money)

reverbfuzz

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I wouldn't pay more than the value of the work done. If he has one side of the car done pay half the agreed price. But the chances are that the work done so far will have no real value...
If a painter and decorator doubled the agreed price would you pay him €20 because he had already driven to your house and laid down sheets?
No, but if he had half the house done you would offer him half the agreed price (provided that he had a solid excuse for asking for more money)

Hmmm... but how do I ascertain the value of the work done so far? He could turn round and say it's 600 euros of work done, just to get that from me?

namoosh

Dont pay leave them with the car and buy another one. You will get an ok car for 500-600. If yours needs that amount of welding its probably not worth much anyway.

reverbfuzz

namoosh wrote: »

Dont pay leave them with the car and buy another one. You will get an ok car for 500-600. If yours needs that amount of welding its probably not worth much anyway.

Errr, the car's worth around 1500, I can't do that

fasttalkerchat

reverbfuzz wrote: »

Hmmm... but how do I ascertain the value of the work done so far? He could turn round and say it's 600 euros of work done, just to get that from me?

You could ask another mechanic for a second opinion. TBH he may be genuine but I wouldn't pay anyone considerably more for work I didn't agree to pay for.

reverbfuzz

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

You could ask another mechanic for a second opinion. TBH he may be genuine but I wouldn't pay anyone considerably more for work I didn't agree to pay for.

Just to flip this for a minute - not sure how this affects anything - I have a text (in writing) of him saying it will now cost 850. There's nothing in writing up until THAT text stating that this will cost 850

.... so HE has no proof of 850 being agreed on!

fasttalkerchat

reverbfuzz wrote: »

Just to flip this for a minute - not sure how this affects anything - I have a text (in writing) of him saying it will now cost 850. There's nothing in writing up until THAT text stating that this will cost 850

.... so HE has no proof of 850 being agreed on!

He has no right to demand more than "500-600" for the completed job, however you should let him know ASAP if you do not agree to his proposal of 850.

Procrastastudy

You've a bit of an issue here. Quotations aren't generally binding, even in writing - they allow you to get a sense of what something is going to cost and then come to an agreement. You never came to an agreement on price.

I'd suggest negotiating with him and trying to get the price down. Legally I'm pretty sure there is little you can do. That said getting legal advise off randomers on the internet isn't the most sensible thing in the world - why don't you try FLAC.ie