The Great Tyre Centre Rip Off

lochnessboat

I think they must have seen me coming! Ordered and paid for two tyres online from National Tyres and Autocare a couple of days ago. Went to have them fitted to rear of car and the fitter said that the fronts were pretty worn too. I gave him the go ahead to fit two front tyres as well. No complaints so far as the price for the tyres was not unreasonable. When he got the front wheels off he checked the discs and pads and told me they were pretty worn and could do with being replaced. Again he was correct. I knew that they were due for replacement soon and said to go ahead with the job. Car is a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 1.6 diesel. They had to order the discs and they were delivered within half an hour from Unipart and the fitting of the new discs and pads took less than one hour.
No complaints about the tyres but the cost of the discs and pads was unbelievable! A bill of £265. Cost of pads £109 and cost of discs £78 each. As they had detailed the Unipart part numbers on the bill I was able to go on to the Unipart web site and check the prices.
Set of pads £43.09 Discs £35.77 each, a total for parts of £114.63 This does not take into account any trade discount that National would get. This gives a difference of £150.37 So for a job which took less than one hour I was effectively charged £150 per hour for labour.
Checked the price of the job with two independant garages. One quoted a total of £140 and the other £150
I am now doing some more investigating as sadly National Tyres are not the only company ripping of their customers.
Prices obtained so far. Good old Quick Fit: £270 Citroen main agent £290 This for a job which takes about one hour.
I am not letting this one go and will be fighting the exorbitant charges as soon as I heve gathered more evidence.

[Deleted User]

You shouldn't have let them go ahead with the new discs and pads. You should have just took their quote on board and then shopped around.

Classic fast fit centre con.

I can get front discs and pads supplied and fitted for between £90-£110 at local garages in my area.

eezer

I don't think there's any secret that such places are incredibly expensive. However, you agreed the price with them instead of shopping around first which i would suggest was unwise, especially as you knew they needed doing. Rather than 'not letting it go', I would put it down to experience and not make the same mistake next time.

thenudeone

Deleted_User wrote: »

I can get front discs and pads supplied and fitted for between £90-£110 at local garages in my area.

That seems cheap compared to my experience with mid-sized cars, but it depends on the car.

Ideally the OP should have asked for half an hour "to think about it" but used the time to get a couple of other estimates then negotiated on price.

It's difficult to get exact quotes for brakes over the phone, because the manufacturer may have used more than one supplier of each part, but you should be given a range of prices.

jase1

So the price was similar to other fast-fits and main dealer. In other words, the going rate.

This thread is useful as people need to be aware of the differences in rates for such jobs. I would add that I too have had discs and pads replaced for around £100, this on a Nissan Primera so not the cheapest car to get parts for either. My garage has even done pads for nowt for me in the past as I am a regular and I was getting other stuff done at the same time.

only_mee

No offence, this how they operate and you were their perfect customer.

webby23

lochnessboat wrote: »

I think they must have seen me coming! Ordered and paid for two tyres online from National Tyres and Autocare a couple of days ago. Went to have them fitted to rear of car and the fitter said that the fronts were pretty worn too. I gave him the go ahead to fit two front tyres as well. No complaints so far as the price for the tyres was not unreasonable. When he got the front wheels off he checked the discs and pads and told me they were pretty worn and could do with being replaced. Again he was correct. I knew that they were due for replacement soon and said to go ahead with the job. Car is a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 1.6 diesel. They had to order the discs and they were delivered within half an hour from Unipart and the fitting of the new discs and pads took less than one hour.
No complaints about the tyres but the cost of the discs and pads was unbelievable! A bill of £265. Cost of pads £109 and cost of discs £78 each. As they had detailed the Unipart part numbers on the bill I was able to go on to the Unipart web site and check the prices.
Set of pads £43.09 Discs £35.77 each, a total for parts of £114.63 This does not take into account any trade discount that National would get. This gives a difference of £150.37 So for a job which took less than one hour I was effectively charged £150 per hour for labour.
Checked the price of the job with two independant garages. One quoted a total of £140 and the other £150
I am now doing some more investigating as sadly National Tyres are not the only company ripping of their customers.
Prices obtained so far. Good old Quick Fit: £270 Citroen main agent £290 This for a job which takes about one hour.
I am not letting this one go and will be fighting the exorbitant charges as soon as I heve gathered more evidence.

Sorry, but i dont think this is the garages fault at all.

If you are going to ok them to do the work without checking or at least asking their prices first then I dont really think you have a lot of comeback !!!

The only person who has ripped you off here is yourself, for OK'ing work to be done without comparing prices first !!

Take it as a lesson learnt and move on !!

ilikewatch

The last time I visited one of the big national tyre chains I was told that my Volvo 440 needed new front discs and pads and that they could supply and fit these for £220, or I could get the same parts from GSF for £70 and they'd fit them for £30 - needless to say I walked accross the road to GSF and bought the parts myself!

[Deleted User]

Also when you bought the two new tyres for the rear, did you not check if the front needed new tyres also?

jase1

Deleted_User wrote: »

Also when you bought the two new tyres for the rear, did you not check if the front needed new tyres also?

Must admit that does seem a bit curious, especially as the sheds tend to do discounts for multiple tyres.

I really can't see what National have done wrong here. They've quoted for work that the OP acknowledges was not excessive, and they have charged a comparable rate to other similar establishments.

I've always found National to be a pretty honest company; if you need something as a distress purchase they can be relied on to do a reasonable job at a not-too-extortionate price. As people have said, assuming the brakes were not dangerous there was no need to accept their quote without speaking to another garage first.

This is a perfect example of the advantages of finding a small independent you can trust and throwing as much business to him as possible.

Strider590

webby23 wrote: »

Sorry, but i dont think this is the garages fault at all.

If you are going to ok them to do the work without checking or at least asking their prices first then I dont really think you have a lot of comeback !!!

The only person who has ripped you off here is yourself, for OK'ing work to be done without comparing prices first !!

Take it as a lesson learnt and move on !!

Unfair comment pal.....

They scare you into buying, they probably made the OP feel like they'd be driving a dangerous car if they didn't have the work done and if you have kids, you'd be even more susceptible to this.
These scare tactics are how they sucker people in!!