my local garage want to charge me more ,,advise

jamesey

hi ive bought a focus c-max and ive got a 6 month warrenty with it , now whilst driving the engine light has come on so ive taken it to my local garge that specialises in fords and my warrenty company have told the garage to deal with them direct with the fault.
so whilst on holiday i got a call from the garage saying that the car needed a new egr valve and the warenty would cover it but only 1 and half hours to fit it on the labour??
the garage said i have to pay for the other hour and half labour of over £85 out of my pocket .
i phoned the warrenty place up and they said the job in the autodata manual will only take 1.5 hrs to do.with this i rang the ford dealership up and they confirmed the job would take 1.5 hrs to do , just to second that i phoned some more garages up and they said yes 1.5 to do the job.
I ranf the garage back up where my car is and the woman said the guys in the garage have never done one of these jobs before so thats why it would be 3 hrs labour??
WHY do i have to pay the extra 1.5 hrs just because they have never done one before , THEY should stand to this
what do you think , thanks:mad:

Exemplar

You dont. They are trying it on thats all. Dig your heels in, state your evidence regarding the 1.5 hours. Good luck, let us all know how it goes please.

mrscb

Get the warranty company to give you a different garage to do the work that will not cost you any extra and take the car there.

jamesey

yes thats what i thought , the reception even rang the ford dealer up and agreed with me , yes they have got a book labour price time of 1.5 hrs but our lads have never done one before
well thats not my problem.

jamesey

mrscb wrote: »

Get the warranty company to give you a different garage to do the work that will not cost you any extra and take the car there.

this was the nearest ford specialist for me , id have to drive miles for another , the egr had to be programmed into the ecu , only a ford dealer or specialist can do it apparently.

jamesey

they did the work on the car on friday , and said it may take 3 hrs to do the job or it might not , as im on holiday till weds ill not know a price , but i bet they want to charge the full 3 hrs unfairly
ill be getting copies of autodata to give to them.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Perhaps I misunderstand but the garage that has your car isn't the garage you bought it from?

In which case they can quote whatever they like. If you don't want to pay, then go elsewhere. If they've already done the job then surely you will have agreed a rough price with them before the repairs commenced?

jamesey

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Perhaps I misunderstand but the garage that has your car isn't the garage you bought it from?

In which case they can quote whatever they like. If you don't want to pay, then go elsewhere. If they've already done the job then surely you will have agreed a rough price with them before the repairs commenced?

no it isnt the garage where i bought the car from , i can take it to any garage with the ford diagnostic equipment but not a ford dealer as they charge around £70 ph , the warenty co said not to take it there

i havent agreed any rough price as im only paying for the 1.5 the book says

ukjoel

They are talking rubbish.

The Ford diagnostic machine (think its called WDS) is pretty much only available at Ford main dealers. This is because its costs a fortune and delivery times are about a year and they are hard to sell on as update disks are only available to original purchaser and not easy to transfer.

However most dealers have their own independent diagnostic stuff which does pretty much the same job. They can be bought as cheap as £50 in the car mags but generally cost more.

If your dealer isnt a ford authorised dealer then he has nothing special (if he does its highly unusual).

The term ford specialist dealer or repairer usually means they employ someone who once worked for ford and has a certificate. His training may be 10 years out of date and often he isnt the one who has worked on your car. They have no affiliation to ford. I know several dealers who were terminated 15 years ago and still have the Ford signage up.

Take your car elsewhere - get your warranty company to sort it out as this is a garage they have authorised. If they threaten to remove them from approved list and the work dries up they will soon change their mind.
Book times are there for a reason.

jamesey

they have done the job now as of friday im just wating on the dreaded phone call , i cant pick it up till weds anyway , but ill not be paying the £80 odd pounds extra

neilmcl

jamesey wrote: »

they have done the job now as of friday im just wating on the dreaded phone call , i cant pick it up till weds anyway , but ill not be paying the £80 odd pounds extra

I don't think you've got a choice but to pay. The garage told you up front that they couldn't do it within the expected 1.5 hours it would normally take, for whatever reasons, you were free to take it somewhere else which you chose not to do. You haven't really got a leg to stand on.