Big Markup on MOT?

amacs

My car went in for its MOT last week, into a council garage where I thought I wouldn't be ripped off.... I was told it had failed - it needed a lot of welding - they don't do it on site but could arrange for it to be done for me - cost including VAT would be approx £350. The wprk has been done today - when I went to pick it up, the car hadn't yet been delivered - I overheard them talking - one asked the other - 'What's the markup on this job?' to which the answer was '35%' - the first girl seemed surprised it was so high! Am I being completely ripped off here or is this a normal garage mark-up? Should I dispute it - I have the car back but am yet to pay the bill as they had closed the system down when I finally picked it up and was asked to go back tomorrow to pay the bill.
Any feedback really welcome....

PHYTHIAN

Don't understand your concern TBH. You needed the work done and agreed that the garage could organise it. 350 for ' a lot of welding' doesn't seem too hefty a price anyway. They also seem to be very trusting people if they have allowed you to take your car away without paying the bill and thus not the type to 'rip you off'.

photome

What has the mark up got to to with you (sorry that sounds a bit blunt) You only know because you overheard a conversation, but you were happy enough up to that point. What do you think the mark up should be?

35% doesnt seem a lot to me anyway, mark up on some retail items can be 100%

soup

better to always take a day or two to get quotes and say you'll let them know. Sounds like you are paying over £100 more than you could have got the work done for. lesson.

Gloomendoom

I think I would be wondering in whose pocket the mark up went. They are council employees after all.

The good thing about these council run MoT places is that they can usually be relied upon to test the car impartially as they don't stand to profit if the car fails. That doesn't seem to be the case here. They have failed the car on welding and made a £100 in the process.

Whether or not the job was done for a fair price is beside the point.

amacs

Thanks for your replies - the reason I was so shocked was that I really didn't think that a council run MOT centre would profit so much - after all they made 3 phonecalls at the most ( one to get the quote, one to me to tell me the quote and one back to the other garage to authorise the work ) which have cost me in the region of £100 - much more than any other service I can think of! Obviously the bill will have to be paid tomorrow - a lesson has certainly been learnt here - I couldn't afford to take time off work to take my car to other garages for them to assess the amount of work needed to be done to get a quote - but hey ho - that's life I guess. I will ask them tomorrow for a breakdown of the charges and I will mention the 35% and see how they react. If they had done the work needed on site then fair enough, but the fact that they've sent it off and added this on seems wrong to me? £100 for 2 phonecalls seems really excessive. I guess I won't be going there next year!

SteveJW

I assume you will be getting an invoice / receipt, let us know what name is on it
Is it the councils or someone else

gardner1

amacs wrote: »

My car went in for its MOT last week, into a council garage where I thought I wouldn't be ripped off.... I was told it had failed - it needed a lot of welding - they don't do it on site but could arrange for it to be done for me - cost including VAT would be approx £350. The wprk has been done today - when I went to pick it up, the car hadn't yet been delivered - I overheard them talking - one asked the other - 'What's the markup on this job?' to which the answer was '35%' - the first girl seemed surprised it was so high! Am I being completely ripped off here or is this a normal garage mark-up? Should I dispute it - I have the car back but am yet to pay the bill as they had closed the system down when I finally picked it up and was asked to go back tomorrow to pay the bill.
Any feedback really welcome....

which council centre was this i was under the impression that they dont do/or arrange for work to be done
are you sure it was a council mot centre

Hammyman

soup wrote: »

better to always take a day or two to get quotes and say you'll let them know. Sounds like you are paying over £100 more than you could have got the work done for. lesson.

Based on what? Chances are the place they got it done gives them trade discount.

Hammyman

amacs wrote: »

If they had done the work needed on site then fair enough, but the fact that they've sent it off and added this on seems wrong to me?

Hate to break your lovely little rose tinted view of the world but in virtually every business where work is subcontracted out, you will pay more than they pay by some margin.

amacs

Its definately a council centre - its Halton council testing depot.