Issue with mechanic

krudmonkey

Hi.

I gave my car in last week for, what I was told was, a free pre-NCT checkup.

I got a call a couple of days later explaining what was wrong with the car and that it was ready to be collected, along with a €550 bill.

I never knew this work was going to be carried out and am just being bamboozled by mechanic lingo over the phone so don't actually know what he didm I've picked up the car but he wasn't there to collect payment but is now chasing it.

Is what he did legal??

I'm not even sure what he did and if I was worth €550...

colm_mcm

They can't just do unauthorised work to your car.

Renegade Mechanic

krudmonkey wrote: »

Hi.

I gave my car in last week for, what I was told was, a free pre-NCT checkup.

I got a call a couple of days later explaining what was wrong with the car and that it was ready to be collected, along with a €550 bill.

I never knew this work was going to be carried out and am just being bamboozled by mechanic lingo over the phone so don't actually know what he didm I've picked up the car but he wasn't there to collect payment but is now chasing it.

Is what he did legal??

Nope. **** him. If the free nct check was agreed upon, common practice is to do the check, make a list and call in the customer for a chat. They either agree or drive away.
If he's done the work without your consent, he's in the wrong. I'd even be wary as to how much work the bugger did...

Big Nasty

Main dealer or indy?

duffman13

krudmonkey wrote: »

Hi.

I gave my car in last week for, what I was told was, a free pre-NCT checkup.

I got a call a couple of days later explaining what was wrong with the car and that it was ready to be collected, along with a €550 bill.

I never knew this work was going to be carried out and am just being bamboozled by mechanic lingo over the phone so don't actually know what he didm I've picked up the car but he wasn't there to collect payment but is now chasing it.

Is what he did legal??

I'm not even sure what he did and if I was worth €550...

It sounds very strange, why would he need the car for a few days to do a pre NCT test? Did you query it, did you sign anything? Sounds dodgy on the mechanics part! Was there anything wrong with the car?

endacl

This 'pre nct checkup' shyte needs to be put to bed. The NCB will tell you what needs doing in order to pass an nct.

krudmonkey

this thing had a dent in it (see top left of it) and the screw/bolt that held it in had to be shaved back? Took him an hour to take it out apparantly?

Forget it's name, but it sits at the back of the car, near the base...

Renegade Mechanic

That dent was put in taking it out, I've dented enough of them to help with removal
Still irrelevant though, he should have told you it needed doing instead of just doing it.

dazza161989

Completely unacceptable behaviour. Once the vehicle health check was complete all needed work should have been priced up. Work should only have commenced once you had given authorisation. This is a fact!

PS that's a rear subframe bush in the pic by the looks of it!

krudmonkey

it's an independent dealer but he seems to have a great reputation. Apparantly the best machanic in the world...

What annoys me is:
- we never asked him to do it
- we've no idea what "it" is, just that were being asked for money
- he's done this a week before Christmas and two weeks before we get married (which he knows about)

What's next best steps? I don't want my legs broken

krudmonkey

dazza161989 wrote: »

Completely unacceptable behaviour. Once the vehicle health check was complete all needed work should have been priced up. Work should only have commenced once you had given authorisation. This is a fact!

PS that's a rear subframe bush in the pic by the looks of it!

Yep that's it! So he got a 2nd hand bush and the big screw that goes in to it (which he already had)... Would that come in at anywhere near €550, including labour?

And besides, is he even legally allowed to do it without our consent?

dazza161989

krudmonkey wrote: »

it's an independent dealer but he seems to have a great reputation. Apparantly the best machanic in the world...

What annoys me is:
- we never asked him to do it
- we've no idea what "it" is, just that were being asked for money
- he's done this a week before Christmas and two weeks before we get married (which he knows about)

What's next best steps? I don't want my legs broken

Explain that what he did was not common practice and that no authorisation was given to carry out said work. If that fails a solicitors letter.

dazza161989

krudmonkey wrote: »

Yep that's it! So he got a 2nd hand bush and the big screw that goes in to it (which he already had)... Would that come in at anywhere near €550, including labour?

And besides, is he even legally allowed to do it without our consent?

Nowhere near it! If he used a 2nd hand bush €200+VAT would be approximate cost imo.

Renegade Mechanic

dazza161989 wrote: »

Completely unacceptable behaviour. Once the vehicle health check was complete all needed work should have been priced up. Work should only have commenced once you had given authorisation. This is a fact!

PS that's a rear subframe bush in the pic by the looks of it!

Rearmost bushing on front wishbone of a volkswagen group car :cool:

EDIT:

krudmonkey wrote: »

Yep that's it! So he got a 2nd hand bush and the big screw that goes in to it (which he already had)... Would that come in at anywhere near €550, including labour?

And besides, is he even legally allowed to do it without our consent?

That's definitely not a rear subframe bushing. Your car (golf?) very likely doesn't even have one.
This lad is properly dodgy....

Atlantic Dawn

Did he give an invoice of what else was done?

None of the work should have commenced until he confirmed with you that you gave the go ahead.

dazza161989

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

Rearmost bushing on front wishbone of a volkswagen group car :cool:

Touché!!! Well played sir!! (You'd never guess I have not worked for a VAG franchise) ;-)

Renegade Mechanic

dazza161989 wrote: »

Touché!!! Well played sir!! (You'd never guess I have not worked for a VAG franchise) ;-)

I haven't either but that didn't stop enough of the bastards finding me
I'm a bit like Rain Man with that kind of stuff, though Colm takes it to another level altogether..

CianRyan

We've already established that this mechanic is a complete douche but can I just ask, who the **** uses second hand bushes?

dazza161989

CianRyan wrote: »

We've already established that this mechanic is a complete douche but can I just ask, who the **** uses second hand bushes?

S**t dodgy useless mechanics!

krudmonkey

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

Rearmost bushing on front wishbone of a volkswagen group car :cool:

EDIT:


That's definitely not a rear subframe bushing. Your car (golf?) very likely doesn't even have one.
This lad is properly dodgy....

It's a polo - I'm impressed you knew that much to be honest!

The car had failed NCT a couple of weeks previously and the form we got back did say that the wishbone wb bush was deformed - just looking at the original fail document now.

The guys doesn't seem dodgy. My girlfriend broke down months ago and rang him for help. At this time we weren't even customers of him but he chatted to her for an hour, got her to send on pictures of the engine/dash lights etc and told her what to do. All free of charge.

And we did pass the NCT the day after we got the car back...

Atlantic Dawn

So did you hand him the fail sheet when you gave him the car?

krudmonkey

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

So did you hand him the fail sheet when you gave him the car?

My girlfriend sent him a picture of it, yeah.

I had nothing to do with it except going to pick it up and then being told by mechanic I could drop in the €550 later. Spoke to girlfriend and she didn't know what was going to be done when it was dropped in. Now that I'm looking at the picture of the form (hadn't seen it before i started this) it makes sense that he'd fix it... but surely he'd flag the cost or at least warn us?

Atlantic Dawn

Ok so if you handed him a fail sheet the only outcome would be for him to fix the issue would it not? He should have agreed on price before work commenced though.

sadie1502

Any work ive ever had done the mechainic always rings before he goes ahead. But that said I do always make sure to say this to him when I drop the car in. Ring me with a cost before you go ahead.

cml387

So it wasn't a pre NCT check.
Were you trying to catch out the NCT?

krudmonkey

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Ok so if you handed him a fail sheet the only outcome would be for him to fix the issue would it not? He should have agreed on price before work commenced though.

That makes sense to be fair...

Just a bit shocked to be hit with €550 bill but I suppose, with the NCT a couple of days after we gave him the car, the logical thing do him to do would be fix the issues...

If he were to have bought a new bush and done the removal/installation etc, how much should you be talking?

dazza161989

Ahhhh that's not a Pre NCT check as you had just failed the NCT. I can now understand the miscommunication as your other half delivered him a car and an NCT fail sheet so he assumed you wanted it fixed!

krudmonkey

cml387 wrote: »

So it wasn't a pre NCT check.
Were you trying to catch out the NCT?

Sorry, I'm going through it with my girlfriend here.

So we dropped it in to this guy a couple of months ago for a service. He did a few bits and all fine.

We then had the NCT a couple of weeks ago and failed on a few things.

Then gave it to him for a once over before the retest. So yeah, he was obviously going to have to correct the fail points. (Bush, light on registration plate and hubcaps not removed)

My stupidity is showing now...

goz83

Sounds like a misunderstanding and a great excuse to axe the people you don't want at your wedding

cml387

krudmonkey wrote: »

Sorry, I'm going through it with my girlfriend here.

So we dropped it in to this guy a couple of months ago for a service. He did a few bits and all fine.

We then had the NCT a couple of weeks ago and failed on a few things.

Then gave it to him for a once over before the retest. So yeah, he was obviously going to have to correct the fail points. (Bush, light on registration plate and hubcaps not removed)

My stupidity is showing now...

Yes I'd leave now while the going is good.:o
Not removing the hubcaps doesn't help your case either. Oh dear.;)

Atlantic Dawn

krudmonkey wrote: »

If he were to have bought a new bush and done the removal/installation etc, how much should you be talking?

Not exactly what's required to do the job on a Polo but normally you would replace the bushes on both sides as the other would likely be in similar bad condition and near failure. On pricing if he was to use VW supplied parts could perhaps be €150 or more per side then the biggest job would be taking the old parts off, sometimes they come off easy sometimes the metal would need to be heated to allow seized bolts to open.

Renegade Mechanic

krudmonkey wrote: »

That makes sense to be fair...

Just a bit shocked to be hit with €550 bill but I suppose, with the NCT a couple of days after we gave him the car, the logical thing do him to do would be fix the issues...

If he were to have bought a new bush and done the removal/installation etc, how much should you be talking?

For that one bushing alone? I'd imagine around the 100 to 150 mark. €550 is crazy, unless the price includes something like a full service, brakes, focusing, tracking etc etc...

It appears some miscommunications have taken place, so best to iron those out first

krudmonkey

Yeah I'll get a full breakdown of costs off him first.

I may have totally jumped the gun by the looks of it. He likely did what was necessary for us to pass. For all I know he did more but I didn't have a bloody clue what he was talking about to be honest. As you can see from my leaving the hubcaps on the car for the first NCT, I'm actually stupid when it comes to cars

Will report back and bring this to a close before the end of the week. Stay tuned...

Cee-Jay-Cee

If he only replaced that one bushing then he ripped you off big time! It's not a big job and if he had a hydraulic press it would only take 10 minutes to take out the old bushing and press in the new one once the suspension arm was off the car (which is a 20/30 minute job at most)

Get a break down on the costs and then ring a VW dealer and ask them for a rough estimate of cost to replace that bushing and compare dealer prices to cowboy mechanic cost.

JohnBoy26

Can you post a pic of the fail sheet op? It might give people on here a rough idea of what work needed to be carried out and the cost to do it.

Toyotafanboi

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors here.

If you got a "pre-NCT", you'd expect a once over and a list of possible fails.

If you brought him a fail sheet, what kind of "once over" were you expecting? Did you just want him to confirm that the fail items had definitely failed? As this wouldn't be the norm. If you give a mechanic your car and a fail sheet, he's naturally going to repair it.

That said, he should have priced you first.

Did he just do the bushes or did he do other items too? A main dealer would replace those bushes for €300.

gibbon75

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

once the suspension arm was off the car (which is a 20/30 minute job at most)

In an ideal situation with no rotten nuts and bolts

pa990

Let me get this straight.

Car fails nct
Carv goes to mechanic
Mechanic given copy of nct failure report
Mechanic fixed problem.

..........


What did you expect him to do. ?

Now, he should have phoned and told you that it would cost X amount, but I'm presuming that he presumed that you wanted the car fixed to pass the nct.


Or am I completely wrong !

OldMrBrennan83

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