Ethical question

flatty

Hi all, long story short, I have an old convertible I punt round I an odd time in the summer, and park away for the winter. Last spring, it broke down (I go and start it and run it to temp every weekend, and move it a bit for the tyres).
I took it to my usual mechanic, who has always been fair and honest with me.
He had it for 4 months, and did a good few things to it,including rotor arms etc.
None of this worked so eventually I had it taken to a specialist, who took one look, said "distributor caps", changed them, and hey presto, car fixed in less than a couple of hours.
Now, I'm minded to go back and pay the first lad, for the work he did do. What does anyone think?

Cee-Jay-Cee

It depends on what he actually done and how much he charged you.

Like if all he done was maybe service it and change the plugs etc then I'd cough up as it was due a service anyway.

If he started replacing expensive parts on the basis that something might just work then I'd be less inclined to pay him and if he asked I'd gladly tell him it was a simple repair and something that he should have looked at first before doing anything else.

bear1

To be fair, you probably should have realised around the 1 month mark that the mechanic isn't sure what to do. 4 months is a piss take.
Moving on, were the parts he changed needed to be changed? Or were parts changed just to see if it cures the problem?
What is the bill he has given You?
Need a bit more details.

Lantus

This isn't ethics. It's competence to do the job and a business decision on what to pay. Post the work done and cost of the first mechanic do people can review.

biko

I don't see the problem.
You gave it to your trusted mechanic who had it and fixed some other things.
Apparently there was an issue he could not diagnose and fix.

Just pay the first mech for the work actually done?

MetzgerMeister

I would be paying the first mechanic for the work he did and the specialist for the work he did. Simple as that.

It would be different if the first guy tried fixing the issue the specialist fixed and charged you for that if it wasn't done properly.

flatty

I've already paid the specialist.
He suggested that none of the other things needed doing, and that the distributor caps were the first port of call, and all that was wrong, and should always have been the first things looked at in the circumstances.
I'll pay the other lad in any case as I like him, just thought it an interesting situation.

MetzgerMeister

So the original guy replaced parts thinking it would solve the problem?

flatty

Exactly

flatty

PS I will pay him for what he did, though it wasn't correct and didn't fix the issue. He just kept saying he was working on it any time I rang, saying he'd done x, and that didn't work, so he was going to try y. The car had been serviced (by him) recently and was only there for repair of this problem.

MetzgerMeister

It's a bit of a conundrum but personally if he didn't solve the issue you asked him to, therein lies your problem.

Have you spoken to him about it? What's he asking you to pay for?

flatty

Don't know. He'll be fair. He's not contacted me since. I rang him to ask what I owed and he said he hadn't worked it out yet, and would get back to me, but hasn't. Tis was about two months ago. I'll have to ring him to chase it I suspect. That's neither here nor there tbh, as he did his best, and it didn't work. Everyone has to eat. It is just an interesting question in principle, and I was interested what people thought.