garage bill advice

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb

I took my car into a garage because it wouldnt start.They ran tests ect on it told me it would coat £1200 to fix I said ok.They came back to me and said its not what they thought and have to do more tests.2 weeks later they said they cant find the problem and will I pick it up,do I have to pay for the time they have spent on it even though its no better than when I gave to them?thanks

Sgt_Pepper_2

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb wrote: »

I took my car into a garage because it wouldnt start.They ran tests ect on it told me it would coat £1200 to fix I said ok.They came back to me and said its not what they thought and have to do more tests.2 weeks later they said they cant find the problem and will I pick it up,do I have to pay for the time they have spent on it even though its no better than when I gave to them?thanks

Why shouldn't you pay?

bryanb

Clearly they can't work for nothing, but I'd ask for details of the test carried out,working hours, and the results in writing.

vaio

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

Why shouldn't you pay?

I'm guessing because they haven't fixed it?

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb

No it hasnt been fixed same as it was when I took it in.I know they have spent time and run tests but I need to take it to another garage now and they will have to do the same.I dont think I should pay when they have failed to fix it and gave up?

Ultrasonic

How much money are they asking for and what are they saying they have done for it? You should obviously be paying them something though. I've never heard of any garage offering a No Fix, No Fee service!

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb

thats fair enough they have spent time on it but I was told after 4hrs diognostics at £75 an hr that it was the fuel pump that needed changing and all in all it would cost £1200 to fit a new 1 they tried that and it didnt work.so they were wrong.Then they carried on doing more tests without me ok ing it.Surely as they were wrong and the car is no better now I shouldnt have to pay?

vax2002

What car is this ?

Sgt_Pepper_2

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb wrote: »

thats fair enough they have spent time on it but I was told after 4hrs diognostics at £75 an hr that it was the fuel pump that needed changing and all in all it would cost £1200 to fit a new 1 they tried that and it didnt work.so they were wrong.Then they carried on doing more tests without me ok ing it.Surely as they were wrong and the car is no better now I shouldnt have to pay?

£300 for the diagnostics is work they have done.

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb

Its alright saying its work they have done but they said they had found the problem and they hadnt so the work they did was wrong.these guys are meant to be techs not back street garage guys and meant to know what there doing and at 75 an hr you expect correct answers.

Ultrasonic

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

£300 for the diagnostics is work they have done.

Haven't they also bought and fitted a new fuel pump? Even if it didn't fix the problem. Not saying I'd be remotely happy paying somebody £1200 for NOT fixing my car, but just thinking about the facts.

jbjbjbjbjbjbjbjb - it might be worth you answering vax2002's question about what type of car you have. Partly to get an idea whether £900 for a fuel pump is reasonable (seems a lot to me), and I guess in case someone knowledgeable (not me) might be able to help with what the problem actually is.

Edit to add: it could ultimately be important exactly what the garage said to you when you agreed to them doing the work to replace the fuel pump. Did they say this would definitely fix the problem, or that's what they thought the problem was and were you happy for them to try doing that (or something like that).