Can a garage charge what they like for Parts !

DaveTheMus

The man is obviously a rogue trader......what a disgusting individual....operating a business to make a profit and provide for his family......shame on him.

Leon_W

If you get an exhaust, brake pads etc from the likes of Kwik Fit or Halfords they give you an all in price for the job including parts. That's all your guys done which seems fair enough to me.

Headsetuser

Thanks for the replies guys...and advice...It's helped a little and if nothing else helped me blow off steam...Im self-employed and consider myself to be an honest trader...
The way the invoice reads just blew me away..and is still questionable !
But lesson learnt...I'll ask the necessary questions in advance next time which ever garage I use....

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Labour £35= tail lamp repair + VAT
M.O.T £45=flat fee
The brake pads £84=%markup over RRP + labor+VAT
cv gaiter £65=includes % matkup over RRP+labor+VAT


sounds like the guy cant do math if he said he did 2 hours labor and charged per item for fitting that would equate to 3 item in my book LIGHT REPAIR PADS CV.


You get to find out the trade secrets when you work in a motor factors for a few years like I did these included from my experience:


Garage A was on a trade discount scheme with us because of his buying power (he spent more than £5k a month with us to qualify for the discount), he got trade prices plus -15% discount on all his parts excluding fluids and oils and tools.
He would phone us after fitting these parts for retail prices INC VAT then mark up a 5% on the retail price per item (you could hear him doing the mark up as we gave the RRP to him) this is what he would itemize his invoice to the customer.
So say he bought pads and a CV joint he bought them at trade -15% pads were say £12.00 and Cv boot was say £4.50 the RRP on the pads inc vat are £20.00 and the boot was £10.00 he would then charge the customer £20.00 plus 5% and £10.00 plus his 5% for the boot then add his labor per item then add 20% vat on top.
so it cost him little on his account for his parts but the customer paid RRP plus vat plus 5% markup.
He would then sound like he's doing you a buddy deal on the labor rates he charges, by reducing it from £40.00 per hour inc vat to £20.00 inc VAT, and that's what kept customers going back and the fact that he was really good mechanic skill wise.


Garage B a diesel specialist mainly bought diesel pumps turbo's fluids.
He also had the same discount scheme (due to the costs involved with buying diesel pumps and turbo's it would bump his account spending with us over £7.5k per month) a turbo say would cost him £600.00 inc vat, he would charge 1 hour labor per item at £29.50 (as a hidden cost in the invoice ) then he would apply his itemized labor of say 4 hours @ £29.50 +20%vat over all. so the customer would pay his mark up plus his labor plus the extra hidden 1 hour £29.50 charge on the item.


Most of the garages on our accounts were decent enough to only charge 5% markup on the trade price they bought the parts for and their standard labor rate on the time spent not per item and time spent.


the garage here has what seems to me has applied his markup, applied labor per item and not time spent labor. 2 hours seems to have turned into 3 hours by the looks of things.

droopsnoot

His biggest mistake seems to have been providing a detailed breakdown in the invoice - if he hadn't done that, OP might well not have felt so bad as it wasn't that different from the £220 estimate.

Some garages charge "book time" for fitting parts - that is, they look in the technical data for the vehicle which often gives a standard time to do a certain job, and charge for that. In the meantime they, through their experience of doing the job over and over, might find a great technique that allows them to do the job in half the book time. Or, they might have never done the job before and find it takes them twice as long to do as the book suggests. You lose on one, you win on the other.

Also a lot of small garages (a mate runs one) have a supplier that they use, so they don't necessarily always get the cheapest price. They'll deal with a local motor factor, not spend hours looking around because, in that case, who pays for their hours spent trying to get the parts cheaper? The motor factor will probably deliver, allow them to send back stuff that isn't needed, and they build up a relationship with that factor over a period of time.