Garage quote - please advise

robberbill

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but maybe somebody can move it if need be...

Took my car to be mot - ed yesterday. Unsurprisingly it failed.

The garage could fit me in today which suited me fine.

Unfortunately they could not give me a full quote whilst i was there as they were waiting for the main dealer to phone back with the price of a part. Nevertheless, they phoned me shortly after i got home and gave me a price to do all the work.

Took it in today, and now, several hours later, the garage has now found out that the job will take much longer than they originally thought.

As i have no written quote, are they within their rights to charge to charge much more than they quoted over the phone, or do they have to stick with their original quote?

The problem that i have is that the original quote was just below the tipping point of me scrapping this car and getting another one, therefore if they go much above, then i probably would not have bothered having it done.

any advice please?

thanks

paddedjohn

Why not ask them, find out now and you could save a lot of arguing next week

flashg67

I believe they can charge more unless you have a written quote. Have they started the repairs and found more work is needed, or have they just messed up when working out the repair times? (there are standard industry labour times for 99% of repairs which a reputable garage will be using). If they've miscalculated then perhaps you have a good case for them to swallow some/all of the costs - if it's extra work that's needed then it's still worth asking, but if they've started the work, it hardly seems worth not finishing the job - a car in bits or half repaired is not going to be worth much?

s_b

unless its straight replacement of parts then there really isnt a book time
for instance welding may be much more involved than first thought
a part from the dealer may need more stripping down than first realised etc
a quote is a quote its not set in stone
you really need to talk to the garage quickly and come to an arrangement before you all fall out unfairly

robberbill

Thanks for all the comments.

After all that, just picked the car up & they actually wanted LESS than the original quote !! :huh:

mikey72

You can't argue with that sort of service.

[Deleted User]

robberbill wrote: »

Thanks for all the comments.

After all that, just picked the car up & they actually wanted LESS than the original quote !! :huh:

It wasnt qwickfit then.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

perhaps the price of the part was over estimated and actually much cheaper than they thought, and this offset the price of labour and worked in your favour?

waynedance

A quote is fixed.
An estimate is not fixed.

s_b

waynedance wrote: »

A quote is fixed.
An estimate is not fixed.

so OP should toddle off back to garage and pay them the extra money according to you:D
sorry but when i quote its always a quote and quotes can go down as well as up