Recurring themes "am I been ripped off" and "it should only take an hour"

Hammyman

Strider590 wrote: »

What you fail to see is that many mechanics (and I use that term loosely) are now paid commission for over selling.

No they're not. Most mechanics never see the customer, thats the service managers job.

Many working in dealerships are trainee's, it's thought by the pencil pushers that a 17yr old with a laptop can do the same job as a time served (real) mechanic.

Again complete hogwash.

If you're so clever and knowledgeable, why aren't you repairing your car yourself?

Oh, that's right...because you're the guy who thinks you can hear air in brake pipes and that car alternators only charge the battery at 4 amps and should be the last person to give advice on this forum.

DaveF327

mechanic wrote: »

So,

1) if you can do the timing belt change in an hour, please show me how you did it.

And

2) If you think or are convinced you're been "ripped off" as I always say if you're not happy DIYFS, Do It Your Flipping Self. Then you won't be ripped off will you and you know it will only take an hour!!!

Brilliant post.

Reminds me of the time when I used to be a driving instructor and faced a constant battle against parents of pupils who hadn't passed their tests after "only an hour" of learning. I had to bite my lip several times from saying "DIYFS" after yet another "but surely..." :mad:

Probably not the best thing to say on a money saving forum, but there are those out there who seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

Admittedly I have a very sharp instinct when it comes fake goods, I have purchased 2 fake items out of more than 900 purchases.
"Too good to be true" usually is, but most folk don't seem to realise this... So I guess it's unfair to expect everyone to be even half as aware as myself.
My recent purchase of genuine Bosch wiper blades for the Vec was pretty good at £14 for a complete set of front/rear blades.... But there were some blatant fakes going for not a great deal less.

Probably the most copied items, along with light bulbs.
At £14, that's better than trade, so as you say, if it's too good to be true....

pompeyrich

With Main Dealers now charging £100 an hour or more, whilst probably paying the mechanic around £15 an hour, the 5.5 hour cam belt change is likely to cost around £700+ with the service. It's easy to see how someone would think that to be expensive and having spoken to the "canteen expert" who, after the event, knows someone who "could have done that for £50" might even conclude that they had been "ripped off".

I used to repair my own cars and would go into the parts department in my works overalls, complete with the company logo. This would, usually, get me the company discount, around 40%. So a relatively simple alternator change, list price £200, would cost me £120 and an hour or so, take it to the dealer and it's list price plus an hours labour £300+.

While I appreciate the shiny glass premises, tools, rates etc. dont come cheap, when you are asked to pay 2 or 3 weeks wages for a 5 hour job, I can see where people feel hard done by.

Hammyman

pompeyrich wrote: »

So a relatively simple alternator change, list price £200, would cost me £120 and an hour or so, take it to the dealer and it's list price plus an hours labour £300+.

When I had the alternator replaced on my MK3 Mondeo, the local Ford dealer charged less for a brand new genuine Ford alternator including fitting than the motor factors did for a recon.

If you are paying £100+/hr labour you need to find a better garage.

cirrusmp

Strider590 wrote: »

IT/computers is probably the second biggest, I know a local IT guy who convinces his more elderly customers that they need him to clear their internet history to prevent their bank details being stolen, now most of us know how to do this, it's simple.... But he charges £65 a time!! He also rigs customers PC's (using the task scheduler) to fail after a set time, so that they'll call him back for repeat custom.

I have to say that is not an "IT Guy" that is a !!!! running a terrible scam - have you reported him to the police?.

If you are hiring someone to do work on your computer - good qualifications to look out for are MCSE/MCSA Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer/Administrator), CCNA/CCNE (cisco certified systems administrator/engineer) or MBCS (Member of british computing society, the chartered institute for IT, which requires an accredited degree and verified professional experience and can be checked online).

I do agree however that people do have unrealistic expectations of the amount of skill involved in working in IT, in the IT industry it is Free/OpenSource software which I blame for this mentality. There is also the issue of people knowing you working in IT getting angry when you don't know every single system - for example I know a lot of commercial level software and have been asked many times to have a look at TVs, Ipods, phones etc etc.

Cirrusmp, MBCS.

scheming_gypsy

cirrusmp wrote: »

If you are hiring someone to do work on your computer - good qualifications to look out for are MCSE/MCSA Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer/Administrator), CCNA/CCNE (cisco certified systems administrator/engineer) or MBCS (Member of british computing society, the chartered institute for IT, which requires an accredited degree and verified professional experience and can be checked online).

Absolute tadgers!
MCSE and MCSA mean nothing except you've read some books, done a class room course and ticked some boxes. Most IT people just do them so they can put them on their CV for the employers who think they mean something,.
CCNA / CCNE - no idea why you'd want somebody with CISCO qualifications to fix your home computer.
MBCS - does anybody have that? I don't think I've worked with anybody who has it and recruiters don't even mention it.

Kilty_2

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

MBCS - does anybody have that? I don't think I've worked with anybody who has it and recruiters don't even mention it.

Seriously doubt it - it's been briefly mentioned at uni but nobody takes the BCS seriously.

Strider590

Hammyman wrote: »

No they're not. Most mechanics never see the customer, thats the service managers job.

I'm sorry, but it's the truth in far too many garages up and down the country, mechanics may not speak directly to customers, BUT they do get paid to find more work on each job.
The large tyre/exhaust outlets account for a VERY large portion of the market and we all know exactly what they're like!

Hammyman wrote: »

Again complete hogwash.

If you're so clever and knowledgeable, why aren't you repairing your car yourself?

Oh, that's right...because you're the guy who thinks you can hear air in brake pipes and that car alternators only charge the battery at 4 amps and should be the last person to give advice on this forum.

I do repair my car myself, wherever possible and whenever purchasing the tools would be cheaper than getting the job done elsewhere. Unfortunately I don't have £50k to spend on tools and a nice ramp to work under, the Vec is too wide to get into my garage and so im kinda limited to what I can do on uneven ground......

Brakes... I don't f*ck about with the brake lines on my car, I might change the discs/pads, but that's as far as I go. Next to the cambelt, it's probably the only thing I won't mess with, (id rather have somebody to sue if it goes wrong).

If you take the time to read through a Haynes manual, most of them state that unusual noise OR spongy feeling brakes can be an indication of air in the brake lines. I do believe it's part of the pre-mot inspection they recommend before taking your car to an MOT station.
Seeing as how I have limited knowledge of braking systems, I can only repeat what is commonly available to the general public.

As for batteries/alternators, your completely twisting what I said into whatever suits you best for the purpose of trolling me of this forum.

Hammyman

cirrusmp wrote: »

I have to say that is not an "IT Guy" that is a !!!! running a terrible scam - have you reported him to the police?.

If you are hiring someone to do work on your computer - good qualifications to look out for are MCSE/MCSA Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer/Administrator),

No they're not. They are "getting there" but they are far from an indication of competency. Remember that it wasn't that long ago that Paper MCSEs made the certification worthless.

And just because they're good with software doesn't mean they're good with hardware. Last week I fixed a laptop for a customer. She took it to a computer shop with "technicians" with the above certifications and they couldn't find the problem and charged her £30 to say there was nothing wrong and it still had the same problem.

She brought it round to me and described the problem - random blue screens with memory read error messages. I took one look at it, took out the DIMMS, cleaned the contacts with a fibreglass pen and put the DIMMS back in. A week later its working fine.

So, what did I know that they didn't? Well as an actual electronics engineer I know that the metal of the DIMM slots and the contacts of the DIMM are dissimilar metals and that corrosion can build up and that on a 5 year old laptop, that was most likely the primary cause....

I didn't charge her a bean.