Dealer annoyances

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,154
Why is it that every dealer you ring always has to 'call you back with a price' when you ring them asking for a simple price in an Inspection 1 service? They must do 10 such services every day, they probably quote for 100 of them each week yet every time you phone, no matter which dealer you call, they tell you they will phone back with a price :confused:

No I dont know what its like for you guys at work but once I've done the same thing 10 times I pretty much know it without having to check the 11th time :p
 
Ex-RoNiN said:
Have you asked why they can't provide you with one then and there?
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Of course not, why take the sensible option when I can whine on the internet? :p

They called back with an estimated price. LOL, its a service!
 
[TW]Fox said:
Of course not, why take the sensible option when I can whine on the internet? :p

They called back with an estimated price. LOL, its a service!
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Most people don't bother to ask, and they tend to be wary of those who do as they tend to be the ones who complain when it's not the exact price they were quoted...
 
Dolph said:
Most people don't bother to ask, and they tend to be wary of those who do as they tend to be the ones who complain when it's not the exact price they were quoted...
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And complain they should - provided that no additional work is required there is absolutely no reason why a routine service should have dynamic pricing. Fixed price for a fixed job the technicians do day in day out and know like the back of their hand.
 
Dogbreath said:
Exactly, I thought most main dealers offered fixed priced servicing these days? Having never used one I couldn't confirm that of course...
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I wish they did. Every BMW dealer I rang for my first service quoted a different price and each one was a fair way apart from each other. Nottingham Sytner were £40 cheaper than Stratstone Derby. Crazy :o
 
Slackworth said:
I wish they did. Every BMW dealer I rang for my first service quoted a different price and each one was a fair way apart from each other. Nottingham Sytner were £40 cheaper than Stratstone Derby. Crazy :o
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Oh yes, we get that as well. dealer in Plymouth wants £250, dealer in Exeter wants £310. How very odd. Hopefully get 4Plus discount off the Plymouth price as well.
 
For the Alfa there was about a £100 difference between the dealer who supplied the car and a dealer in Knutsford. Went with the cheaper one in Knutsford, difference was hourly labour rates although I can't remember what the difference in rates was.

Bill = quote service price!
 
[TW]Fox said:
I'm still waiting for a call back from Scothall. Have you had a quote from them before Nick?
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Yup,

Sytner Insp 1 - £250 inc VAT & courtesy car. 4+ discount
Scotthall Insp 1 - £430 inc VAT & courtesy car. 4+ discount

Similar rubbish when I phoned up about my inspection 2. I did enquire back then to why there was such a differential in price and the guy at Scotthall gave me a sob story about how it was because Sytner had a bigger garage and were doing services at a loss (Ha!). Didn't even bother trying to argue about my latest quotes.
 
What an insane difference!

So far I've had Ocean quote £250 and Westerly quote £310. Westerly then dropped to £265 with 4Plus. I asked them to leave the Microfilters off as they cost £10 from GSF and even somebody as retarded as myself can fit them in 16 seconds so that knocks 50 quid off a service.
 
Same with Merc. Loughborough wanted an insane amount, like £550 or so for the C service on the wifes car. Derby quoted £400 but only charged £300 when it came to it. I think they quote for extra labour just in case their partially trained spanner monkey overtightens a nut and shears the head off, or pours antifreeze into the oil filler or something and you have to pay for the time it takes them to rectify their mistakes (without you knowing, of course):D
 
volospian said:
Same with Merc. Loughborough wanted an insane amount, like £550 or so for the C service on the wifes car. Derby quoted £400 but only charged £300 when it came to it. I think they quote for extra labour just in case their partially trained spanner monkey overtightens a nut and shears the head off, or pours antifreeze into the oil filler or something and you have to pay for the time it takes them to rectify their mistakes (without you knowing, of course):D
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Did you go to Mertrux by any chance? My next door neighbours took their ML to Mertrux and the service was over £400. :eek:
 
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