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Can a garage charge what they like for Parts !

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  • colino
    colino Posts: 5,059 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I bet they don't do MOTs themselves and have a standard hours labour for getting it done plus the £45 the VTS charge.
  • Joe_Horner
    Joe_Horner Posts: 4,895 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Yes Joe....
    I guess your take on events here are quite right also...I do see what your saying as correct...I did agree to have the work carried out in the first instance for the price quoted.....however...It's only when you take a look at the invoice to see how he arrived at this figure...you get the full picture and can't help feeling he has just ripped your arms out....lesson learnt I guess...he will be losing 4 vehicles based on his actions here..just from my immediate family....NOT HAPPY RIGHT NOW !!


    Yeah, I can understand that. But bear in mind that it's a difficult word for business out there at the moment. A lot of people will choose a garage purely on the "headline" labour rate, but that's often swallowed entirely by overheads.

    I repair clocks and watches and have very low overheads (about £500 per month) You could probably quadruple that for a garage. Now, if I have 40 hours of chargeable work every week, 4 weeks a month, that means that those overheads cost about £3 per hour of what I charge. I don't charge "by the hour" because this industry tends to charge by the job, but the principle still holds that the hours worked have to pay for the overheads.

    In practice, I probably have about half that in directly "chargeable" hours, so that's £6 / hour that has to be added to every job just to cover rents, rates, electricity etc.

    Now, say my quadruple estimate is right, that means that a garage's basic overheads could easily run to £24 per hour. If they put their "headline" rate up by that they'd lose all their customers overnight to other garages that were still headlining the old rates, but it still has to be earned. So it's added into the parts margins.
  • arcon5
    arcon5 Posts: 14,099 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Labour £35
    M.O.T £45
    The brake pads £84
    cv gaiter £65

    The non-bold looks about right. Parts and Labour. And that includes a markup on the parts as well as the labour.

    The labour of £35 therefore is NOT for pads, is NOT for the gaiter and is NOT for the MOT - the MOT is only labour anyway so this is just a flat fee.

    So where on earth does the £35 come from? Get on to them and press for answers.

    At the very least you should get £15 which is between the price they quoted and the price you paid. Unless the price on the phone was an estimate?? Which it doesn't sound like it was.
  • arcon5
    arcon5 Posts: 14,099 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Joe_Horner wrote: »
    Yeah, I can understand that. But bear in mind that it's a difficult word for business out there at the moment. A lot of people will choose a garage purely on the "headline" labour rate, but that's often swallowed entirely by overheads.

    I repair clocks and watches and have very low overheads (about £500 per month) You could probably quadruple that for a garage. Now, if I have 40 hours of chargeable work every week, 4 weeks a month, that means that those overheads cost about £3 per hour of what I charge. I don't charge "by the hour" because this industry tends to charge by the job, but the principle still holds that the hours worked have to pay for the overheads.

    In practice, I probably have about half that in directly "chargeable" hours, so that's £6 / hour that has to be added to every job just to cover rents, rates, electricity etc.

    Now, say my quadruple estimate is right, that means that a garage's basic overheads could easily run to £24 per hour. If they put their "headline" rate up by that they'd lose all their customers overnight to other garages that were still headlining the old rates, but it still has to be earned. So it's added into the parts margins.

    Thanks for the lesson in business and management accounting but it's not of ops concern.

    The legal point here op is you agreed £220. So how they breakdown this balance isn't relevant really also. So you should press on for why they charged £235 (why didn't you question it when paying?).... but nothing stopping you pressing for answers for the extra £35 in the hope of getting something back or at the very least an explanation.
  • The £35 labour includes VAT, so is really £29.16. Could that not be the cost of fiddling about with the rear light cluster prior to the MOT?
  • Joe_Horner
    Joe_Horner Posts: 4,895 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    arcon5 wrote: »
    Thanks for the lesson in business and management accounting but it's not of ops concern.

    No, it's not his "concern", but it might go some way to helping him feel a little better about being "ripped off".

    It's very much like taxes - the country costs a certain amount to run, that can be paid for by high income tax with low taxes elsewhere or low income tax with high everything else (or just get the motorist to pay the lot :P ). A 50p + basic tax rate would be political suicide so they give a nice low rate and claw it back elsewhere.

    As for the £35 labour, like Chalice says, that'll be the faffing about with the rear light - probably no parts involved there except for maybe a terminal or two and a bulb but it still has to be paid for.
  • DKLS
    DKLS Posts: 13,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    He can charge whatever he likes, my boss has just billed a company 185k for a job that will cost us 30k max to deliver. I nearly fell over in the meeting, especially when they said we were the cheapest quote :rotfl:
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,671 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    seperately.....The pads he used I could of purchased for £17..The gaiter at a cost of £6...inc vat and I am not in the trade...How can he get away with this ?...what can I do ?...
    :

    Why didn't you buy the parts for that price and fit them yourself? Then you wouldn't have had to pay their costs.

    Just because you can buy for a price doesn't mean they sell for that price when fitting. I can buy coffee for 100 cups for £3 so why do they charge £2 a cup at Costa?
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • Richard53
    Richard53 Posts: 3,173 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    In my understanding, there is a difference between a verbal 'estimate' and a written quotation. If you agreed £220 over the phone and the final bill comes to within 5-10% of the agreed figure, I'd say that was normal. If he had given you a quotation for the work, in writing, for £220, that would be different.


    He's called you up in the middle of the job and told you it will be more than you think, and given you his best guess at a final cost. You can't expect that kind of figure to be accurate to the penny. I would say he's in the right ballpark, and it was right for you to pay what he asked. If you're not happy, don't use him again.
    If someone is nice to you but rude to the waiter, they are not a nice person.
  • Westmead_Fan
    Westmead_Fan Posts: 230 Forumite
    The £35 labour includes VAT, so is really £29.16. Could that not be the cost of fiddling about with the rear light cluster prior to the MOT?


    that is probably what he has done, which could explain it. price on pads fitted sound fair all in fitted. have you had problems with this garage because if you do go somewhere else you may get cheaper but poor work carried out
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