Outrageous mechanic bill!

Keith

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

I used to work in servicing in a bike shop, reception though, not in the workshop.. and £313 does seem very high.

You are including the cost of fitting a screen, which is on top of the service.

marcouk76

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

Seems pricey to me, but then again it all depends on what scooter it is.

Also, you could sell your old smaller screen on eBay and recoup some of your costs?

I used to work in servicing in a bike shop, reception though, not in the workshop.. and £313 does seem very high. A big Ducati service would cost £700, so a general service for a scooter seems high. The screen really should have been done as part of the service, I think they are being stingy by charging more, we never did for a 10 min job.

Did you ask for a basic service? Or have they gone by the manufacturer's service guide? If so then it could be more than just oil/filter/plugs..

I don't have any other screen. The one that was on the scooter before just cracked so I threw it away.

I did not ask for a basic service, but she said they only changed oil, filter and spark plug.

cyclonebri1

marcouk76 wrote: »

I did change the oil once and it took me about 20 minutes, but it was my first time and I wasn't too sure on how to proceed. I guess that a mechanic could do that with his eyes closed in half of that time, !

And there you have your answer, if you don't want your pants lowering, do it yourself, ;)

laurz121

I'm sorry but who in their right mind would ask a garage to do a service without asking how much it was going to cost? Who would offer to supply their own oil without asking what effect that would have on the overall price? And who would ask a garage to modify their vehicle and fit non standard parts without bothering to check how much that would be?

It is like taking a car to a garage and saying 'fit me some nice big alloys on here, i'll be back in two hours' and then being shocked that the alloys cost a lot of money.

Of course it is going to cost a fair bit for a new windscreen, a bigger than normal one. They have had to check that it fits, that all bolt holes etc line up and if they didn't they will have had to make adjustments, your bolts were for a smaller windscreen which will have less weight and less flex in it, they may well have had to put additional fixings in or use stronger ones etc.

A service isn't just a case of filling it up with oil and why exactly should a garage do it much quicker than you?

You took your vehicle into a garage and asked for certain jobs to be done, they have done these jobs and billed you accordingly with labour charges that are reasonable. £60 per hour is high but isn't unreasonable and is what a fair few garages charge.

tomstickland

I fail to see this as "outrageous". OP didn't ask for expected price before work was done.

hartcjhart

You got what you asked for, a new screen and a service,these people are doing a job to make a PROFIT not to do you a favour,
grow up put your dummy back in and pay the bill

Hammyman

marcouk76 wrote: »

No, I do not know where the spark plug is in my scooter.

So you have bupkiss mechanical knowledge. They're really not hard to find on a motorbike.

I do know how to replace a wind screen though and that would not take me 1 hour. More like 10 minutes.

So knowing their labour was £x, why didn't you just do it yourself? Probably for the same reason you can't even find a spark-plug.

Hammyman

marcouk76 wrote: »

They said they only had one other screen, so it's not like they had to try and fit 10 different ones! They took the only other one they had, luckily it was a good fit and they screwed it on!

How do you know it was a good fit? Were you there when they fitted it or are you going by the result? I can make many things to fit my car that weren't designed to but some of them require a monumental amount of time to do.

And as for the smiley in the other post someone made, I'll tell you why they put it in. Its because you're like loads of customers who come along and say "Its only X, I could do it myself in 10 minutes" but like you they dont even have a clue where it is, what it looks like, what tools to use and what may be needed to do to access it and would take many many many times longer than 10 minutes just trying to find the thing.

cyclonebri1

Latest posts are a weeeeeebit over the top in response to a poster who clearly is not motoring "savvy", anyone disagree????

Help the guy or butt out.

Keith

I think they are fine, the op thinks his bill is too high as its a 10 minute job yet doesn't even know where the parts go.

He's the worst type of customer, his moaning is probably why he got the imaginary discount.