Car mechanics-should we make a stand

hjb123

spiritus wrote:

There should be some legislation to make garages be more open about their charges.

I agree with you - the thing I am trying to say is that you took the car to the garage and were you expecting them to look at it for free? I totally agree that they should have spoken to you before doing anything but do see that they had to charge something


The work on my car I was made aware before hand that there was a £30 charge - they told me this was so that people didnt take their cars in, get a diagnosis then take them elsewhere.

spiritus

Helen,

Actually I did expect them to look at it for free upto the point where I then expected a phone call to tell me that it was going to cost me if they spent anymore time on it.

I appreciate this is something of a murky issue but one thing is certain............the ambiguity doesn't play in the consumer's favour !

Although I see your point about garages wanting to secure their own business and not wanting to give a free diagnosis I would also ask you to draw comparisons to when a plumber/decorator/electrician is called to someone's house. Many of us will get several quotes before deciding on a firm to use and none of us would expect the plumber to spend 3 hours walking around our house trying to diagnose a problem, then telling us he couldn't find it and then whopping us with a bill.

blue_haddock

I work in the trade and to be honest this sort of thing infuriates me - people seem to think that they can drop the car off and have a mechanic diagnose the fault for free. Unless the customer can tell us i need the water pump/head gasket/cat converter changing then there will be a certain amount of diagnostic work involved. When you get a plumber in, the problem will often be fairly evident to him so he doesn't need to spend time working out what is needed to fix it.

At work we regularly get people buying car parts then coming back a few days later saying it wasn't the part we'd sold them that had gone wrong so can they bring the part back and get a full refund. Now they ask us for a specific part and we sell them that part so why should be be obliged to take back that item when its not our fault?

hjb123

blue_haddock wrote:

I work in the trade and to be honest this sort of thing infuriates me - people seem to think that they can drop the car off and have a mechanic diagnose the fault for free. Unless the customer can tell us i need the water pump/head gasket/cat converter changing then there will be a certain amount of diagnostic work involved. When you get a plumber in, the problem will often be fairly evident to him so he doesn't need to spend time working out what is needed to fix it.

At work we regularly get people buying car parts then coming back a few days later saying it wasn't the part we'd sold them that had gone wrong so can they bring the part back and get a full refund. Now they ask us for a specific part and we sell them that part so why should be be obliged to take back that item when its not our fault?

I totally agree - you have put it in words better than me!

I wouldnt expect to pay nothing for a diangostic session at the garage.

spiritus

And if after the diagnostic work the source of the fault still cannot be found I then have to pay the garage for their failure I suppose ?

hjb123

Well I would still expect to pay a fee - though not an expensive one.

saintjanet

Like many threads on here this seems to have turned into an argument,i can see both sides of this and agree that someone has to pay,the problem should have been diagnosed etc .Can i just add to this ,that in my opinion ,it is important to build a relationship with your mechanic/garage.

If you do ,they will know you are genuine and vice versa,not all garages are rip-off merchants,there are bad customers too,if you are fair with them you will often get better service in the long run,i do think though that any garage worth dealing with should solve your poblem one way or the other,and you should be prepared to pay the going rate. for the privilege.;)

spiritus

albertross wrote:

They asked you to bring it back in to continue their diagnosis. It is similar to asking someone to decorate two rooms, then turfing them out after one is finished without paying them.

Not quite. I was asked to bring it in so they could determine why the car was emitting a "burning rubber" smell. Although I communicated this as a problem BEFORE I brought the car in it clearly wasn't communicated to the guy working on the car.

northern_munky

Blue haddock, if you work in the trade, would you be happy spending 3 hours trying to diagnose a fault and then give up but still ask the customer for £65. I worked as a mechanic for 13 years and had a stint as a self employed mobile mechanic and I know if I had been unable to help a customer because I wasn't up to the job, theres no way I would have charged.

Why didnt the mechanic or garage hold their hands up and say they werent skilled enough to find this fault. Fault finding is an art and comes with experience and of course having the right equipment and unfortunately a lot of garages and mechanics today dont have the knowledge to do it, all they are fit for is changing clutches and general grease monkey jobs, makes my blood boil :mad:

blue_haddock

Yes i would be happy to ask a customer for payment even if i didn't manage to find the problem. When a customer is as vague as saying there is a rubber smell coming from the exhaust you are not exactly given much to work from are you. A knocking/banging/grinding noise is pretty easy to find but a smell?

If you went to a solicitor etc you are charged for his time regardless of outcome so why not a mechanic?