Am I getting ripped off?

Jotun

Jotun

Jotun

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Posts
3,606
Location
Liverpool
Hi guys,

The clutch on my MR2 has been slipping lately so I've took it to a local garage to get replaced. My dad had phoned up first to ask for a price and was told £280-330, and asked if that included vat and everything and was told yes.

I dropped it off on thursday morning, phoned in the evening and was told they had trouble removing the starter motor due to rust and so wouldn't be able to pick it up that evening. Phoned again today and I've been told that they have cracked a part of the starter motor but the car is running, and as it's taken longer than expected the cost is £380. I'll be going round tomorrow morning to pick it up and pay.

Can I tell them where to go as I was told 280-330 and so I won't pay anything more than £330? or should I even be asking for a discount as if the starter motor is damaged then it's going to need work doing on that soon too? Or is it just tough and I'll have to pay up?
 
£330 only if they replace the starter motor otherwise £330 minus the cost of a new one and labour.
 
Unfortunately, unless you got any guarantees in writing, you don't really have a leg to stand on.

You're paying for the garages time at a fixed rate plus the parts - so longer = more expensive. Sounds like there were legitimate reasons for it taking longer, although I'd be doing a bit more probing on the starter motor
 
Had something similar when I had the clutch changed on my GTIR. They quoted £500 but its really an engine out job. I told them its easier to do it with the engine out but they tried to do it with the engine in place. It took them nearly 2 weeks and wanted to charge me £750.

IIRC I paid them £600 and managed to get the car from them. I had no intention of paying the difference because it wasn't my fault they ignored me and tried to change in situ. Whether coincidence or not, within a day the rear brakes failed and I had to take it back to the garage. They wanted £200 for the repairs and wouldn't release the car to me until paid. Had no choice but to pay.

When I used to repair pressure washers we would give written quotes before work started.
 
iaind said:
Unfortunately, unless you got any guarantees in writing, you don't really have a leg to stand on.

You're paying for the garages time at a fixed rate plus the parts - so longer = more expensive. Sounds like there were legitimate reasons for it taking longer, although I'd be doing a bit more probing on the starter motor
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I've just had a chat with my dad. He's said the garage is a member of autosafe, and on their code of practice it states

Provide, if requested by a customer, a full written estimate or fixed-price quotation for any services or work to be carried out.
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He asked for a fixed price quotation. Is that worth mentioning? To be fair I went past a couple of times on my way to/from uni and it was up on the ramps for all of thursday and first thing friday morning, so it does seem like they have legitimately spent some time on it, but obviously I don't want to pay more than I have to.

I'll be asking about the starter motor, it looks like I can pick up a second hand one for £10-£15 +p&p off the OC, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace myself.
 
your paying for the man hours it took for them to remove the starter motor.

they always make you pay for man hours even if they spend loads of times trying to fix a problem , they replace the bit and its something else, they charge you for the mistakes they make i find it shocking they get away with it
 
Jotun said:
I've just had a chat with my dad. He's said the garage is a member of autosafe, and on their code of practice it states



He asked for a fixed price quotation. Is that worth mentioning? To be fair I went past a couple of times on my way to/from uni and it was up on the ramps for all of thursday and first thing friday morning, so it does seem like they have legitimately spent some time on it, but obviously I don't want to pay more than I have to.

I'll be asking about the starter motor, it looks like I can pick up a second hand one for £10-£15 +p&p off the OC, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace myself.
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Have you had a written price or quotation?
 
A quote is just that... a quote for what it should be if there are no problems.
If they run into unexpected problems, then the priice for labour will rise.

I recently sent my 98 scorpio estate in for new rear pads & shocks (which I supplied)
Quote for fitting £155

However job was much more complicated due to discs bieng shot, & caliper damaged.
The removal of the shocks was a little more complicated.

Price on collection was £325 which after speaking to the guy who did the job I was happy with.

So to answer your question, no you are not getting ripped off.
 
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iaind said:
Have you had a written price or quotation?
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No, it was just over the phone.

Thanks for the replies guys, I was expecting this pretty much, I just wanted to be sure I wasn't doing anything foolish beore I paid.
 
IMO they should contact you before doing any additional work which you have not agreed to, for all they know you may only just be able to afford the £330 with this months pay packet, in this instance I think you will have to cough up the extra for the man hours but I would look at getting some sort of deal on the starter motor, maybe get a second hand one and ask them to fit it for free, seen as they broke it
 
I'd definately be questioning the starter motor. From what you have wrote it sounds like they damaged it? If they have damaged it then surely they should replace it free of charge.

I would also be querying why they were doing extra work without your authorisation.



M.
 
A quote is a fixed price to hold the garage by wether its written or otherwise, if they want to charge more for anything then they should contact you in advance for the OK. its pretty normal to find things wrong as you go, things that it would be impossible to include in a quote.

'the starter motor is siezed in, it will cost another ...blah blah to rectify'

you should then give the yay or nay, if you say nay the garage can simply push your car outside and tell you to collect it and charge for what time and materials they have used.

It is not the garages fault that the part was stuck with age and sometimes you do have to destroy to remove but you should have been informed. Tell them that your not happy but are willing to compromise ask for a bit to be knocked off and request that what damage was done tothe starter be recorded on the invoice then if any problems happen in the next few months go back to them and point out that it was a previous issue.

But to be honest most of the time with starters they get siezed onto the locating dowels and require 'smacking' off this can damage the outer ally base but do no harm to the internals it just makes the starter look a bit sorry for itself.
 
Maybe it's just me, but whenever I've had cars in garages doing work, I've always said "could you give me a shout if anything else needs doing" - they never do.

It's never bothered me really, as it's always things that have needed doing and never anything really expensive, but they really should out of principal.
 
Well I've just been round, they said they spent over an hour removing the starter motor as it was heavily corroded. The starter motor has a crack in the housing but they fitted it back and it starts ok. They said they don't expect it to cause any problems but told me incase there are any issues so I know what to look out for. They have written a note on the invoice about the starter motor.

Next time I'll be sure to get a written quotation, although I'm wondering how much difference it would have made here, the job took them longer than they expected and most of the cost has been their time.

iaind said:
Maybe it's just me, but whenever I've had cars in garages doing work, I've always said "could you give me a shout if anything else needs doing" - they never do.

It's never bothered me really, as it's always things that have needed doing and never anything really expensive, but they really should out of principal.
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I believe that the starter motor has to come out to replace the clutch, so I don't think it was them finding extra work to do, just having problems with the required work taking longer than expected.
 
iaind said:
Maybe it's just me, but whenever I've had cars in garages doing work, I've always said "could you give me a shout if anything else needs doing" - they never do.

.
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Usually its things that need doing anyway or customers that leave phone numbers but never turn their bloody phones on. Iam currently stuck at work at the moment trying to phone 3 people about their cars but not one of them is answering their phones. :mad:
 
I'll always give them 2 numbers (my work and my mobile) and always answer them so it's not that :)

Normally it's just things like bulbs on an MOT - the most expensive thing was a handbrake cable when the Toledo was in for a service, added about £30 IIRC so nothing serious
 
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