Repair bill surprise!

tony glenn

I had a problem with re-starting my diesel van after air got into the fuel line (long story). I couldn't sort it myself after hours of trying, so I asked a local mechanic if he'd call out and look at the problem. He wasn't familiar with the system, but eventually sorted the problem after two hours. I'm delighted to be back on the road, and fully appreciate his skill and efforts. Having said that, I was surprised at how much I was charged for this cash-in-hand job.
What would be the average 'normal' garage charge for a local call-out and two hours labour these days?(no materials)

Toyotafanboi

Depends on what part of the country you are in and other variables but €100-150 call out fee and anywhere between €50 and €100 per hour then after that.

tony glenn

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Depends on what part of the country you are in and other variables but €100-150 call out fee and anywhere between €50 and €100 per hour then after that.

What world have I been living in then? I paid him what he asked for....100 euro....but had actually been expecting him to say 50-60!!!! So I guess I should be relieved, not depressed?

Stheno

tony glenn wrote: »

What world have I been living in then? I paid him what he asked for....100 euro....but had actually been expecting him to say 50-60!!!! So I guess I should be relieved, not depressed?

Seriously? You expected a mechanic to spend the guts of half a day between going to your location and back and fixing your problem to do so for 50 quid?

Toyotafanboi

What part of the country are you in OP?

jeepcj

100 euro, you got off very lightly there, think of what it would have costed to have your car towed to a garage, and then have someone spend 2 hours sorting it out. Main dealers are close to 100 euro and hour these days

TherapyBoy

If I had to call out a mechanic to my stranded vehicle, no matter how local, I'd be expect to be putting €100 into his hand before he put his phone down. You've found the most generous mechanic around, keep his number.

JohnBoy26

In fairness €100 won't get you far these days and the mechanic has to make a living too.

SCOOP 64

I think we would all like to know his number , 2hrs and fixed for €100!

mickdw

Our local diesel fitter is 40 per hour cash.
100 charge was fine but the top end of what was mentioned here is 150 call out plus 100 per hour. That would be nuts I'm.
If someone wants to charge main dealer labour rates, they should be able to bleed fuel system in less than 2 hours.

khaldrogo

tony glenn wrote:

What world have I been living in then? I paid him what he asked for....100 euro....but had actually been expecting him to say 50-60!!!! So I guess I should be relieved, not depressed?

I would not have done what he did for 100e. No way.

Voodoomelon

I guessed €150-€200 for the job before reading down, you got a great price.

tony glenn

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I guessed €150-€200 for the job before reading down, you got a great price.

Ok, ok. Points taken, lessons learned...and I feel a whole lot better! Thanks to all, appreciated ðŸ‘

Polo_Cluvie

150e call out and 100e an hr for two hrs?? This man I'm assuming is a local mechanic and isn't coming from 80 miles a way!! If we were to charge a customer that for one we wouldn't get paid and two we'd be down a customer and possibly any other customers connected to them. 100 e was fair for a cash job

corks finest

tony glenn wrote: »

What world have I been living in then? I paid him what he asked for....100 euro....but had actually been expecting him to say 50-60!!!! So I guess I should be relieved, not depressed?

e100 is ok

George Dalton

khaldrogo wrote: »

I would not have done what he did for 100e. No way.

+1 to that. You get no thanks for it anyway as can be seen from this thread.

We had a similar situation last week where someone tried to do their own fuel filter change and couldn't get the engine started afterwards. We got the car recovered to our place and sorted it. Total cost was €185 so I think the OP did ok.

bucketybuck

Yet another example of why mechanics can't win. Never mind the time and hassle involved, how much does the OP think the knowledge and experience was worth?

Seriously, the man went off site to a vehicle where the customer had already been ****ing about with the fuel system, identified and repaired the problem within two hours and then gave a very honest charge where it would have been very easy to charge more. In return the OP goes online to complain about the excessive costs...

In answer to the question, if our breakdown van was sent to a vehicle yesterday there would have been a fixed €150 weekend callout charge, travel time to and from the location would have been €75, no per km charge, and the labour would have been 2 hours at €75 per hour. So a bill of €375.

And if anybody thinks thats expensive, just consider that we would be much happier taking those breakdown vans off the road.

honda boi

€100 is dead cheap for a callout. Even for an off the books job .

Dr_Colossus

bucketybuck wrote: »

In answer to the question, if our breakdown van was sent to a vehicle yesterday there would have been a fixed €150 weekend callout charge, travel time to and from the location would have been €75, no per km charge, and the labour would have been 2 hours at €75 per hour. So a bill of €375.

Well that's just nuts, call out fee is expensive enough but then charging travel time on top regardless of distance is really turning the screw. €375 would be most of a weeks wages for most people so goes to show value for money is hard found in this country.

The OP got a great rate in fairness so definitely hold onto that mechanic.

the_pen_turner

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Well that's just nuts, call out fee is expensive enough but then charging travel time on top regardless of distance is really turning the screw. €375 would be most of a weeks wages for most people so goes to show value for money is hard found in this country.

The OP got a great rate in fairness so definitely hold onto that mechanic.

where do you work.
if your boss rang you up and said I want to you to come in on your time off, how much would you go for.
after a long weeks work you should be well compensated for doing it


look at the overheads of that truck.
buying it, running it
maintaining it
tax insurance
doe
fuel
driver (plus overtime rates and maybe out unsociable hours rate as well)
plus money for having to be on call that day/night and not being able to go away with the family
profit
etc
etc



there is a reason these things cost what they do.

bucketybuck

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Well that's just nuts, call out fee is expensive enough but then charging travel time on top regardless of distance is really turning the screw. €375 would be most of a weeks wages for most people so goes to show value for money is hard found in this country.

The OP got a great rate in fairness so definitely hold onto that mechanic.

We are actually cheaper than most of our competitors.

Value is relative, we do not want our technicians driving around and then ****ing about in customers yards, they are far more productive back with us doing twice the work.

And why do you think we shouldn't charge for the hours drive to get there or the hours drive back? Do you want to explain to the tech that we won't be paying his wages for that hours drive? That will go down well I'm sure.

Like I say, value is relative. The cost of our breakdown vans isn't based upon what is fair to the customer, its based upon what will cover the costs of having that van on the road, and even with those charges those vans are not a big money maker for us despite being out every day.

vandriver

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Well that's just nuts, call out fee is expensive enough but then charging travel time on top regardless of distance is really turning the screw. €375 would be most of a weeks wages for most people so goes to show value for money is hard found in this country.

The OP got a great rate in fairness so definitely hold onto that mechanic.

You buy a 30 grand van,stock it with expensive equipment ,tax insure and maintain it,pay a man,plus his holiday pay,plus employers prsi.
You get a stranded van driver back on the road and earning,and all you get is grief.Should have been 50 quid.Jeez,it's not 1982.

TherapyBoy

It seems a lot of people aren't living in the real world anymore, we're in real danger of losing a lot of the service industry & genuine expertise & experience in situations like this. In a world where people won't pay for services like this the cost of these things will rise & rise to where they are not economically viable anymore.
Being stuck at the side of the road with a broken-down vehicle trying to fix the problem by watching YouTube videos sounds like hell to me, I'll pay the educated expert to come to me in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday night at 8:30 in his well equipped & specialised vehicle, and thank him profusely when I'm driving away with empty pockets.

If we lose the experience & expertise of these people we'll never get them back.

elperello

Some places in Dublin will require credit card authorisation to cover call out before leaving the garage.

vandriver

elperello wrote: »

Some places in Dublin will require credit card authorisation to cover call out before leaving the garage.

Eminently sensible.

bucketybuck

vandriver wrote: »

Eminently sensible.

And yet it is boringly common to have arguments with people who can't understand why garages need to have that guarantee of payment before heading out to a breakdown.

"But sure the cars in warranty, why do you want my credit details, what sort of crap is this, theres warranty so you have to come out etc etc etc"

**Gets to car and its been driven without oil/damage to sump/fence post through radiator/isn't there at all because customer decided to drive on and not bother telling anybody... :rolleyes:

mickdw

Requiring credit card to call out to or recover a car in warranty on the off chance that it's a customer created issue is a bit sharp in my opinion.
Surely you go out, recover the car, fix it if warranty issue or calmly demonstrate that it's not warranty and request payment before car is released.
Take a new car on warranty. If it stops on the road, vw or any other manufacturer won't look for credit card. They will pick the car up and go from there.

bucketybuck

mickdw wrote: »

Requiring credit card to call out to or recover a car in warranty on the off chance that it's a customer created issue is a bit sharp in my opinion.
Surely you go out, recover the car, fix it if warranty issue or calmly demonstrate that it's not warranty and request payment before car is released.
Take a new car on warranty. If it stops on the road, vw or any other manufacturer won't look for credit card. They will pick the car up and go from there.

And what if you waste an hour and 50km diesel driving to the location, immediately spot and state that the vehicle is damaged and the driver states that they aren't paying? Think that won't happen? I've handled breakdowns for years and not only might it happen, its guaranteed to happen.

And why assume there will be a recovery involved? Most breakdowns do not require recovery. And even if the vehicle is recovered into our possession the question of whether we can actually hold the vehicle or not is very much a grey area.

And why would I want the onus for recovering financial costs to be on the mechanic? That is not his strength and not what I am paying him for, I do not want him arguing with the driver at the roadside about whether something should be warranty or not. Remember, damage is damage, but there are quite a few examples of things that some people would consider warrantable but the manufacturer would disagree.

There are any amount of reasons to have a guarantee of payment before attending some random vehicle at the roadside, any garage operating without one is leaving themselves wide open to lost revenue.

Farmer Bob

tony glenn wrote: »

...I was surprised at how much I was charged for this cash-in-hand job.
What would be the average 'normal' garage charge for a local call-out and two hours labour these days?(no materials)

What do you do for a living OP? Would you work half a day for 50 quid?

Smh...

Sam Quentin

€100 was a nice price, and what most of us would expect to pay... People on here saying he got away lightly!? IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO..
And such comments only put ammo in the not so fair mechanics pockets.

If he had turned round and said to ME 150euro Sam.. Then I wouldn't be happy at all.. And Sam is not a good guy when he's not happy...

Toyotafanboi

Farmer Bob wrote: »

What do you do for a living OP? Would you work half a day for 50 quid?

Smh...

I reckon this is the bottom line. There's not many who would do half a days work for €50. Least of all a self employed tradesman, who is operating an entire business of off the sale of his time alone.

Location is key to this too I suppose, a small local mechanic in the west may have less overheads than a Dublin based operator etc.

biko

I think OP is getting too much stick now.

Thread closed. I hope we all learned how much to expect now.