Mechanic broke my car - Now refuses to pay

dan_uk_1984

I stuck with asking for half, but made it clear that if it goes to court I will ask for the full amount. I really would rather avoid going to court.

It's 50% of the labour as concession for not allowing him to do the work as that then takes the labour rates the garage charged me down to his labour rates. When he replied to one of the texts he said that he would have charged me less - suggesting that he would have charged me for the repair anyway! I still expect him to cover 100% the cost of the parts...

Dan

pendulum

Your mechanic is saying all the right things back to you about how you should have given him chance to rectify the fault first, and that he would have done it cheaper... maybe he's been here before and knows a little bit about legal wranglings.

You really should have given him chance to fix the problems by calling him as soon as his repair failed. Also, you can't be sure he was at fault for splitting the hose and you say yourself you did not blame him at the time. As he indicates he would've charged, he's not admitted liability either. Sometimes an old, weak hose can split when it has to be moved out of the way - it's really just the breaking of the plastic box you can be reasonably sure about.

He's a professional mechanic with X years experience and you say you've used him before with no problems - so he's not that incompetent... I doubt a judge will agree he's so incompetent that he shouldn't be working on cars... he'll probably trot out all his experience and qualifications to prove he's not a novice. It'll look like you were unreasonable to get the car repaired somewhere else I think.

blondie0000

dan_uk_1984 wrote: »

I stuck with asking for half, but made it clear that if it goes to court I will ask for the full amount. I really would rather avoid going to court.

It's 50% of the labour as concession for not allowing him to do the work as that then takes the labour rates the garage charged me down to his labour rates. When he replied to one of the texts he said that he would have charged me less - suggesting that he would have charged me for the repair anyway! I still expect him to cover 100% the cost of the parts...

Dan

That's what would really get me angry about it, that he has the nerve to expect you to pay him to fix the things he broke! Only mechanics can get away with that kind of nonsense. And then to make the situation worse, there really isn't anything you can do about it. Can tell him you will never use him again (like he cares, as there are fifty other customers waiting to take your place), or you can draw the ordeal out and take him to court, wasting your time and even more money on a gamble things will go your way. He seems to be a slippery one, making all the right moves to ensure you have no recourse, but still, he probably hopes to avoid court as much as you do, so just maybe he will go ahead and give into your demands to quickly put the situation behind him. And if he doesn't, I say take his !!! to court, even if you don't win, at least you didn't just go quietly into the night.

mikey72

dan_uk_1984 wrote: »

Jason said:

Sorry Dan,you should have told me the repair had failed before you got someone else to do it,I would had then had to make time to sort it.I probably would have been able to do the repair cheaper than you just paid for it.

I read that as meaning just that it would have been cheaper as he would have got the parts trade, and used his own labour, so the cost would have been cheaper, which is true, not that he would be charging the op for it.

w.dws

Firstly you should not have paid the mechanic if you were as unhappy with the job as you say you were. Secondly you should have given the mechanic a chance to repair the job after it failed a temporary fix on a saturday afternoon when motor factors suppliers are shut seems reasonable as the part would be unavaliable until monday, tuesday. 5.2 hours seems about 4.2 hours an excessive amount of time to replace the part you have described if I was your original mechanic i'd be questioning this, as in this time most mechanics could remove an engine repair and refit same engine. I'd be taking it up with the second garage on how it took this long to repair a vaccum hose. Not really sure you have a leg to stand on, however you might get lucky, but there is a lesson here about trying to get things done on the cheap.

dan_uk_1984

pendulum wrote: »

Your mechanic is saying all the right things back to you about how you should have given him chance to rectify the fault first, and that he would have done it cheaper... maybe he's been here before and knows a little bit about legal wranglings.

You really should have given him chance to fix the problems by calling him as soon as his repair failed. Also, you can't be sure he was at fault for splitting the hose and you say yourself you did not blame him at the time. As he indicates he would've charged, he's not admitted liability either. Sometimes an old, weak hose can split when it has to be moved out of the way - it's really just the breaking of the plastic box you can be reasonably sure about.

He's a professional mechanic with X years experience and you say you've used him before with no problems - so he's not that incompetent... I doubt a judge will agree he's so incompetent that he shouldn't be working on cars... he'll probably trot out all his experience and qualifications to prove he's not a novice. It'll look like you were unreasonable to get the car repaired somewhere else I think.

It wasn't a hose that this guy split, otherwise a repair wouldn't have cost £300. It was a plastic pipe that attaches onto the intake manifold, he snapped the right angled shoulder off of a larger piece so the whole part needed replacing.

If a window cleaner was washing your windows with a brick and he broke two of them, would you continue to let him wash your other windows?

I had used him in the past to do basic things like oil changes. The part I asked him to replace this time was a 4" breather hose that was in a hard to reach place behind the engine so was oily and not something I wanted to do myself (for the sake of £20 I have better things to do with my time). It should have been well within his ability but because he didn't look to see where this other hose went, when he shoved it out of the way he broke the other end. In reality he should have disconnected both ends of the hose and removed it completely.

mikey72 wrote: »

I read that as meaning just that it would have been cheaper as he would have got the parts trade, and used his own labour, so the cost would have been cheaper, which is true, not that he would be charging the op for it.

He's a one man band, he'll have no substantial discount with a Land Rover parts supplier. I ordered this part direct from Land Rover already with 10% off. I feel he was certainly talking about charging me for the labour rather than the part.

At the end of the day, HE damaged MY property. Whether it was a plain accident or negligence - he should pay.

dan_uk_1984

w.dws wrote: »

Firstly you should not have paid the mechanic if you were as unhappy with the job as you say you were. Secondly you should have given the mechanic a chance to repair the job after it failed a temporary fix on a saturday afternoon when motor factors suppliers are shut seems reasonable as the part would be unavaliable until monday, tuesday. 5.2 hours seems about 4.2 hours an excessive amount of time to replace the part you have described if I was your original mechanic i'd be questioning this, as in this time most mechanics could remove an engine repair and refit same engine. I'd be taking it up with the second garage on how it took this long to repair a vaccum hose. Not really sure you have a leg to stand on, however you might get lucky, but there is a lesson here about trying to get things done on the cheap.

I asked him when he could fix it and he said not for a week. Not the following week - a week. I could not be without my car for 7 days, not without losing my job anyway.

5.2 hours x £45 - First of all if I'd taken it to a Land Rover garage they charge £110 + VAT per hour. Plus to replace this part they would remove the entire inlet manifold (book time is 6 hours) so that would have cost me at least £775 plus parts.

And yes replacing a vacuum hose shouldn't take that long - that's what the original mechanic was asked to do. One could also say it's not a particularly difficult job to do either, yet he managed to make it difficult and break two other things at the same time!

This is the part he snapped off:

mikey72

He'll get more than 10%, I have several trade accounts as a part time "one man band", some of mine are over 50%.

As to the fact he made a temporary repair, and said he would could back in a week to fix it, (or couldn't come back for a week), if you had told him it failed he could have cancelled a non urgent job, shuffled them all round, or just come in the evening and worked late. He could even have told you to take it to a garage himself.

dan_uk_1984

mikey72 wrote: »

He'll get more than 10%, I have several trade accounts as a part time "one man band", some of mine are over 50%.

As to the fact he made a temporary repair, and said he would could back in a week to fix it, (or couldn't come back for a week), if you had told him it failed he could have cancelled a non urgent job, shuffled them all round, or just come in the evening and worked late. He could even have told you to take it to a garage himself.

He didn't make a temporary repair, he asked me if I had any araldite and told me to stick it back together! As he drove off my drive he left me there telling me to hold it for ten minutes for it to set.

I told him I didn't want it to be glued and specifically said cant you shuffle another job around. His answer was "No I have a lot of big jobs on" as if this wasn't a big enough job for him to warrant getting involved in. It just goes to show my worth as a customer to him.

He didn't say he would come back, or offer. As per my original post, he was very dismissive. I had to push him for an answer, and knowing full well that I need my car he said a week so I would have to fix it myself. Probably so that he didn't have to fork out any money or time.

I'd love to see how cheap with your 50% discount you can get the part for: LKR000040. I think you'll find that being a Land Rover part your trade price will not be much cheaper than mine. You have to get it direct from them as any of the other online retailers will have done.

Also as a point of character, he hasn't paid for the plastic box he put his knee through, or offered to source on for me. Should I take my car off the road until he fixes this as continually driving with the ECU's open to the elements could cause further damage - this would run to the thousands if they need replacing. Let's remember we're not talking about a ford fiesta here, we're talking about £80,000 worth of Range Rover.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Dan uk, i have the utmost sympathy with you but to be honest if you let a grease monkey tinker with an £80K car this is what happens.

I don't suppose you needed to be told that and the whole thread comes across as a cash in the hand job gone very pear shaped.

There are many very competent LR specialists around, most towns will have one.

I doubt you'll have any joy pushing this to court stage but if it was my car i'd be probably going down the same route as you, i wouldn't however had a kerbside cowboy working an such a valuable vehicle though.
All the very best with this, i hope the chap does the honourable thing, from his attitude from the moment things went wrong i doubt he will, it might be better to put it behind you and put it down to one of those big mistakes we've all made...it could have been worse he might have made a pigs ear of a rad change and you could have ended up with glycol being fed round the inners of your auto box.