Extra charges by garage

elainew

Our car recently failed its MOT on various things. My dh asked the garage how much it would be to fix and the owner of the garage said approx £300.
At 5.15 that day the garage phoned to say everything had been fixed and the bill was £514 :eek:
My dh obvioulsy queired it and the guy said that while it was up on the ramps they noticed other work needed done so they just did it.
When we argued that we should have been asked the garage owner just said that he would start taking things off it then to reduce the bill !!!
We went to the garage and the bill had been reduced to £450 due to be charged again by error the MOT fee.
We argued we didnt have the money to pay the extra bill as we didnt account for it . In his original bill his approx £300 bill--we accounted for £50-£75 just in case.
We paid the £300 and hes created an account for us to pay the extra.
Does anyone know where we stand with this? We didnt agree the work, he didnt contact us to get us to agree to it either--I was in all day and he says he didnt contact us?
We are so angry and feel we've been taken for a ride( literally !!)

steveo3002

did you get a breakdown of what was done and how much each item and the labuor was?

doesnt hardly sound fair they did £200 extra without permission

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Can you be a bit more precise about the initial required work & the additional work that needed doing?

Also was the first MOT done through them & the initial quote come from the work needed to pass that was noticed on the first failure?

A copy of the bill & MOT Failure notes wouldnt go amiss either for the pro's to have a look at..

elainew

When we got the MOT fail certificate there was a breakdown on what work needed done but NO price--it was a verbal approx £300.
The extra work work wasnt even needed for the MOT. He said he there was a lot of play in the steering which he thought was ball joints. He didnt know the full extent of the damage until he had it stripped down on the ramps so he replaced the suspension arm without our agreement.

elainew

will have to dig out the bills and scan them later when dh comes in

Volcano

...the garage owner just said that he would start taking things off it then to reduce the bill !!!

The correct answer to this would have been "Ok then". With the extras removed you'd still have a roadworthy car with a full MOT, which is, after all, what you took the car in for.

Any decent garage would have contacted you before they did any extra work, this guy knows this and is clearly trying it on.

So what to do now? By taking the car away (with the extra work done) and allowing him to put the extra 'on account', you've kind of said "ok, I'm accepting the extra work and agreeing to pay you later for it". It's a bit like being sold extra stuff in a shop and putting it on their storecard, then taking it back the next day for your money back. If you didn't want the extra parts, why did you take them home with you?

Given that you perhaps don't want a disgruntled mechanic re-fitting possibly worn parts that they fished back out of the skip, onto your car, then personally I'd pay it and put it down to experience.

Yes the garage are in the wrong, but it's far more difficult to rectify if you accept the car back, then change your mind later.

elainew

I had no choice but to take the car away. The extra parts he was going to take off were the things I needed for the MOT-the wiper arm was broken and didnt clear the windows--it was this he was going to take off !! Plus I need the car for work--he'd already had it for one day.

Sirbendy

I think I'd have been bloody livid. If I take my car to a garage, I state the problem, I say "I'm available on phone 24/7 - check it over, let me know the cost and I'll decide what to do".

I had a rear brake total failure - both rear brakes destroyed themselves. I took it in, they called.."it's bad. £250 will replace everything "as was", but I can do you 2 new tyres for £30 extra, as yours took a beating, is that OK?"

I agreed. Same when I took it for new front suspension - I got a call asking if at 88k, I'd like the timing belt and rollers changed on it, and the thermostat changing out while the car was stripped, as it had seen better days. I could have said no, but since they asked..I had it done.

If I was in your situation, I'd have blown my stack at the lot of them..cheeky sods. It's like when I took one of my cars for..might have been new pads on the front. I took it to "Apples carcare clinic" (now long gone bust)..when I went to check on progress, they'd got the front suspension off, and told me it was leaking and needed replacing.

I told them to put it back on, don't even THINK of charging for that unrequested work, and I'd go to a dealer and get a second opinion. The dealer checked, and the dampers were A1. They got a really snotty letter for that peice of underhand behaviour.

I do now make a point of staying with the car during repairs - most garages will let you watch the process. But then, I also mark all the parts I expect to be touched, and double check that the "marked" parts have been replaced before I pay. I got caught out with a timing belt change on a rover where I bought the belt, and picked the car up with it "changed", then the belt snapped..and it was the original part! Wasn't impressed.

elainew

I had told them I was in all day as I had my dd and her friend at home playing. He did apologise for not contacting us and said it was an error on his part.
He knew I was angry so he told us to come down. My dh loses his temper so being the scouse gobby cow that I am --he left it to me

Volcano

elainew wrote: »

I had no choice but to take the car away. The extra parts he was going to take off were the things I needed for the MOT-

No they weren't, you've just told us that:

The extra work work wasnt even needed for the MOT

A wiper arm would be needed for the MOT, but I'm sure it didn't cost £200?

I can quite understand that you need it for work, but if this went to court, they would be asking why you took the car away when you weren't happy with it.

elainew

The extra parts that he fixed werent needed for the MOT. The parts he was going to take off WERE needed for the MOT