need legal advice

goldspanners

sturll wrote: »

Goldspanner,

Ford do not mark up their prices so much that £20 would become £190. Added to that the garage buys a part, they are charging stupid amounts to tighten a few bolts why further cream money by adding it onto a part?

Your analysis of a car being a luxury is feeble. Let me elaborate; I have two children, i start work at 9. I have to drop them both off at separate carers and then drive the 10 mile or so to work. Without a car i would not be able to do this, since the childcare is not open until 7.30. So the car is 'vital' to my lifestyle and millions of others. My home is also vital, should i learn to lay bricks? The school is vital, should i learn to teach?

My own profession - whilst all my mates were out working i was studying, i left university with in excess of £30,000 worth of debt and lived hand to mouth for many years. To gain my qualification was very very hard and cost me tens of thousand of pounds, given that i wasn't working for 4 years and going by the average of £18,000 take home plus my student debt it probably cost me in excess of £100,000 to get to where i am now. That must surely be taken into account. Not only that but say for instance i am dealing with a client who is leaving £2M in a will, i make it so he pays absolutely nothing in inheritance tax saving him (his family) hundreds of thousands of pounds. Slightly different to fastening a few bolts id say.

I appreciate the ethos of business, but please dont try and convince me mechanics (most) are anything other grease monkeys who fasten a few screws and prey on the misfortune of others exploiting everything and anything at every oppertunity.

and what about the apprentice mechanic,going to college while working,earning £60 a week for the first year and not much more for the second or third,only in the fourth year do they start to earn anything like a decent wage.
apprentice mechanics dont come under the same legislation as any other worker,minimum wage does not apply here and as for your student loans and grant they dont get them either as they dont qualify as they are not strictly full time students.
but they are expected to fund tools and equiptment worth thousands of pounds themselves.
to quote your own words "surely this must be taken into account"

i think you need to take a look outside your own little world.

sturll

goldspanners wrote: »

and what about the apprentice mechanic,going to college while working,earning £60 a week for the first year and not much more for the second or third,only in the fourth year do they start to earn anything like a decent wage.
apprentice mechanics dont come under the same legislation as any other worker,minimum wage does not apply here and as for your student loans and grant they dont get them either as they dont qualify as they are not strictly full time students.
but they are expected to fund tools and equiptment worth thousands of pounds themselves.
to quote your own words "surely this must be taken into account"

i think you need to take a look outside your own little world.

All workers come under the same - varying legislation.

This could go all day. I would never rubbish any profession be it skilled or not and i have the utmost respect for anyone that is able to and works. But lets not get carried away. Mechanics rip people off, a recent poll suggested that the general population was in agreement with me. However, if you make your apprentice spend thousands on tools id suggest you are ripping your own staff off too. What could he possibly want or need (unless setting up himself - which if he were an apprentice he wouldnt be) that costs thousands of pounds; i mean i dont know, so if there is something please tell me id be interested to know.

Conor_3

sturll wrote: »

Conor:

Yes i do most of the work on my car, your ecm fault is simple. Connect the diagnostics (maybe you can use the papaerclip on the scania? - not 100% on that) when you get your code fix it.

That's a "don't know" then?

You can rub yourself up as long as you want to but to claim mechanics are anything other than look and learn grease monkeys is wrong.

Obviously you've no idea what's involved in the CGLI or BTEC then.
Know much about 3D engine mapping do you? That's covered in the course.

Its quite irrelevant but im i lawyer who specialises in private equity and trusts.

I can do your job. After all, everyone knows it's the legal secretaries that do the work and you just sign the paperwork.

And obviously they need to spend most their time correcting the complete load of illiterate !!!!!!!! you produce if your post is any example of it.

goldspanners

sturll wrote: »

All workers come under the same - varying legislation.

This could go all day. I would never rubbish any profession be it skilled or not and i have the utmost respect for anyone that is able to and works. But lets not get carried away. Mechanics rip people off, a recent poll suggested that the general population was in agreement with me. However, if you make your apprentice spend thousands on tools id suggest you are ripping your own staff off too. What could he possibly want or need (unless setting up himself - which if he were an apprentice he wouldnt be) that costs thousands of pounds; i mean i dont know, so if there is something please tell me id be interested to know.

most mechanics buy thier tools from snap on or mac tools vans that go around garages.if you have ever been inside one of these vans you would realise just how much proffesional tools cost. (personally i dont buy from them)

for a half decent roll cabinet and top chest your looking at the thick end of £500 from even cheaper places like machine mart and thats empty. then you need to fill it with tools that you can rely on everyday. not cheap diy stuff.
i dont know any garage that supplies tool kits for every mechanic? do you?

i think your statistics about the majority of the nation thinks they are being ripped of is because the majority of the nation is totally unaware just how much it actually costs to fix a car,they just think "my god thats a lot of money they must be robbing me"
garages are not charities.

Conor_3

sturll wrote: »

The school is vital, should i learn to teach?

If the illiterate rubbish you post on here is anything to go by, it's maybe better you don't.

I doubt very much you're a lawyer with that poor standard of literacy.

Here's a few clues:
1) It's "opportunity", not "oppertunity.
2) I is capitalised when referring to yourself.
3) "I'd" and "I'm" contain apostrophes.

Conor_3

sturll wrote: »

I spent 4 years at university, 2 years 'training' and 2 years previous to that doing my A levels.

Which compares to the three years it takes to do your CGLI on nowhere near the same level of income that a university student gets. Are you aware the typical mechanic has over £10,000 worth of tools which they pay for out of their own pocket?

sturll

Conor wrote: »

That's a "don't know" then?

Well, id think even the most seasoned of mechanics would want to determine the outcome of the diagnostics before making any assumption. So not so much a 'don't know' as 'id need to know the fault code' But then why would you want to know the exact fault? You couldn't rip off the customer then could you. Much better for you to assume you know the problem and just try one fix after another rather than going directly to the fault

If legal secretaries did all the work then why would the world need and employ lawyers?

Finally your attempt at grasping some kind of credibility like a fish gasps for air is feeble. I think it was in the late 90's when we actually gave up on slight typos and grammatical errors determining ones credibility as a person. However, given ive had a few pints or Peroni and a couple of Jack Daniels i dont think im doing too bad - since im writing in my leisure im too concerned about dotting my I's and crossing my T's. Maybe im just lazy or maybe its a bad habit

Goldspanner:

Thanks for that informative post. I genuinely didnt realise tools cost so much. I dont think it in any way justifies the costs charged but a lesson learnt nonetheless.

sturll

Conor wrote: »

Which compares to the three years it takes to do your CGLI on nowhere near the same level of income that a university student gets. Are you aware the typical mechanic has over £10,000 worth of tools which they pay for out of their own pocket?

Are we talking about an established mechanic who has purchased these things over a period of years - or a start out mechanic. If we are then justify your claims.

Conor_3

sturll wrote: »

Are we talking about an established mechanic who has purchased these things over a period of years - or a start out mechanic. If we are then justify your claims.

Start out. I had over £3k worth of tools 6 months into the first year of my apprenticeship and that was over 20 years ago.

Conor_3

sturll wrote: »

If legal secretaries did all the work then why would the world need and employ lawyers?

Because they've successfully manipulated the legal system to make it a requirement.
The world would be a better place without lawyers.

Finally your attempt at grasping some kind of credibility like a fish gasps for air is feeble. I think it was in the late 90's when we actually gave up on slight typos and grammatical errors determining ones credibility as a person. However, given ive had a few pints or Peroni and a couple of Jack Daniels i dont think im doing too bad - since im writing in my leisure im too concerned about dotting my I's and crossing my T's. Maybe im just lazy or maybe its a bad habit

No, it's because you're illiterate. I post on here having had a few, having worked a 14hr shift and having worked a 60+hr week but I manage to post with a level of literacy above that of a primary school child.