Problem with Garage - £76 becomes £450!

steve_bilton

Dear all,

A little rant, and a little request for help.

Booked my wife's car in to the local very good independant garage - used them for years, very happy customer.

It needed new glow plugs - £76 to supply and fit - £24 of that was the labour.

Got a phone call from them a couple of hours later to say that one of them had snapped and that they now needed to remove the cylinder head to remove it - the bill is now looking to be £450 (with a reduced labour rate and parts at cost!)

The car was fine when we took it in, and now we don't have it for a week, and we have to pay for their mishap.

Is this right? The whole point of getting them to do the job was that I had heard that they sometimes do snap so I thought going to the professionals was the safest option! All they say is that they are just men with tools and aren't able to predict what will happen - which I can understand.

But now, faced with a bill increase of nearly 600% I'm a bit miffed - is there anything I can do to get them to pay for the repair other than appealing to their better nature?

Thanks

SteveB

mr_accountant

can i recommended you paste this story to https://www.honestjohn.co.uk, this is an excellent free motoring site and lots of people will give useful free advice. To post go to the 'backroom' then discussion, then register and post your query.

good luck!

vansboy

The HJ link is well worth checking.

BUT,,, it was YOUR glowplug that broke, not the NEW one, they were supplying, so YOU provided THEM with a job to remove something that was dificult to undertake, in a manner that would not, potentially, become damaged.

As you mention, long customer history, local garage & they will, I'm sure take this into account, when finishing the job.

& you'll, no doubt have some other imprivements/early service work carrieds out, while they do it, New antifreeze, timing belts, alternator belt, oil & filter.....

VB

tomstickland

They're going to lose half a day's worth of business doing this, so I wouldn't get too demanding. TBH, it's just a bad thing that can happen. I'm surprised that they haven't offered to do it for zero labour cost.

Wig

tomstickland wrote:

I'm surprised that they haven't offered to do it for zero labour cost.

Why should they do that? They are not a charity.

waster_2

Wig wrote:

Why should they do that? They are not a charity.

No they are not a charity. But then they are supposed to be professionals and you expect them to undertake the work in a manner commensurate with that and exercise due care when doing so. Whilst it is not possible to prove whether they were responsible for the problem or not, the reason for using a garage to undertake such work is to benefit from their skills and experience. That is one of the reasons why they charge extortionate hourly rates (yes, I know it was a “cheaper independent local garage”, but I expect the hourly rate is still excessive?).

If this was likely to be a problem a competent and professional garage should have drawn the potential risk to the customers attention and the consequent possibility of this happening. They do not appear to have done so? So the question is did they really fully appreciate what they were doing? So, a gesture of zero labour would, IMO, not be out of place. And, such gestures would also usually enhance the reputaion of the establishment and generate more business than the costs incurred.

Wig

You appear to know nothing about snapping studs etc, and have obviously never had a stud or bolt etc snap off when doing work on a car. There is nothing that can be done to stop it from happening. And garages quite often have notices on the wall explaining they will not be held responsible for breaking studs and the labour that subsequently follows.

waster_2

Wig wrote:

You appear to know nothing about snapping studs etc, and have obviously never had a stud or bolt etc snap off when doing work on a car. There is nothing that can be done to stop it from happening. And garages quite often have notices on the wall explaining they will not be held responsible for breaking studs and the labour that subsequently follows.

I have worked on cars stripping everything from engines to gearboxes, clutches, transmissions etc, etc. for more years than I care to recall. I know that if you exercise due care, studs and the like will not just snap. You have to apply excessive force. And yes, I appreciate that in some situations that is unavoidable to get the job done, but also sometimes a little TLC and taking your time will also solve the problem. Therefore a garage should draw that to a customers attention before they start the job, especially where it is a known issue and possibility. Brute force and pneaumatic tools are not the be all and end all. And some greasy exclusion sign tucked away in an obscure location is just not good enough nowadays. It is the duty of the garage providing the service to draw to the customers attention the possibility that there could be a problem and the consequences and costs that may flow therefrom. To just leave the custoomer in the dark and present them with a bill of 500% more than the expected cost is not good enough.

Customer care and attention was, from the information available, sadly lacking.

Wig

They maybe should have said something, but I don't entirely agree, problems occur when working on cars and there is nothing that can be done. You didn't say if you've had one snap, there is in a lot of cases nothing that can be done to stop it from snapping.

tomstickland

Well, it is a bit a grey area, and if it happened to me then I'd probably come to some mutually acceptable conclusion with the garage, but if I was the garage then I'd probably do it labour free.

steve_bilton

As a finale to this - and thanks to those who commented...

The garage agreed to pay for the repairs - I only paid the £76 as per the original quote.

However, replacing the glowpugs didn't cure the starting problem! It turned out to be the injector seals, which is a £350 job - so I ended up spending £400 on the car jsut before Christmas after all!

Happy days

Merry Christmas and enjoy the hum-bugs

SteveB