Diagnosis longer than agreed

MrsGriffin89

My husband had his 4x4 collected (on a tow truck) in order to had a fault diagnosed at a local 4x4 specialist. He wasn't there when the car was collected, but had spoken to the mechanic/owner the day before and getting the fault diagnosed. A price was agreed for the collection/delivery of the car, but a specific time or cost was not agreed for the diagnosis (silly husband!) after three days of waiting the receptionist (owners wife) called to provide a quote for the recon of a gearbox which was the fault we expected. We agreed that rather than have the costly work done, we would have the car delivered back to us to have a rethink. We know a mechanic who has offered to fit the part for a small fee if we could buy the part ourselves (obviously we didn't tell her that). I asked her what the price was to date so that I could pay the bill (£55+vat), she agreed to send an invoice via email and then I would call to pay and the car would be dropped back as agreed.
Five minutes later...
The owner/mechanic called to tell me that he's spent 4 hours working/preparing on the car as he believed my husband would go ahead with the repair and this with the diagnosis came to £300+vat. I've complained that this was much more than expected and he lowered it to £250+vat. I understand no time/price was agreed but surely he's at fault for preparing the car for a repair that we hadn't yet agreed? What are your thoughts?

mcjordi

as your not getting them to repair it they have every right to recoup fees for mechanics to look at it..
£60 an hour inc vat is reasonable for a mechanic..

facade

As above, you owe them for the time they spent on it.

If you know what is wrong, and have someone ready to fix it on the cheap, why send it away?

Out of interest, it isn't a BMW X series with a broken plastic gear in the transfer box actuator is it? They could have fixed that in 4 hours easily, by turning the gear around.

gilbert_and_sullivan

I suspect £55 + VAT was either the towing charge or the labour charge per hour.
Proper diagnostics isn't how main dealers do it, plug a code reader in and fit different parts it might be until we happen upon the one that cures it, £200/500/1500 later.
If you already knew what the fault was you didn't need the specialist at all...or did we use the specialist's skill and knowledge and then plan to use messrs bodgit and scarper cash only merchants to fit the widget they wouldn't have a clue about had it not been for the man who diagnosed?..the man incidentally who is entitled to the money he earned.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

You agree'd for the mechanic to teardown and diagnose.








Those are his fees! pay the man.

macman

Diagnosis is the most time-consuming part (and therefore the most costly, in terms of labour) of the repair. Once that is done, changing the part is usually straightforward.

dannyrst

If I read correctly, the mechanic has begun work on a job you never authorised. Whilst you are responsible for the diagnosis, you are not responsible for his costs in begining to strip the car for the repair.

How you will be able to determine the difference is the difficult part, seems you didn't agree a fee up front.

Perhaps this is what the £250+VAT is?

bigjl

MrsGriffin89 wrote: »

My husband had his 4x4 collected (on a tow truck) in order to had a fault diagnosed at a local 4x4 specialist. He wasn't there when the car was collected, but had spoken to the mechanic/owner the day before and getting the fault diagnosed. A price was agreed for the collection/delivery of the car, but a specific time or cost was not agreed for the diagnosis (silly husband!) after three days of waiting the receptionist (owners wife) called to provide a quote for the recon of a gearbox which was the fault we expected. We agreed that rather than have the costly work done, we would have the car delivered back to us to have a rethink. We know a mechanic who has offered to fit the part for a small fee if we could buy the part ourselves (obviously we didn't tell her that). I asked her what the price was to date so that I could pay the bill (£55+vat), she agreed to send an invoice via email and then I would call to pay and the car would be dropped back as agreed.
Five minutes later...
The owner/mechanic called to tell me that he's spent 4 hours working/preparing on the car as he believed my husband would go ahead with the repair and this with the diagnosis came to £300+vat. I've complained that this was much more than expected and he lowered it to £250+vat. I understand no time/price was agreed but surely he's at fault for preparing the car for a repair that we hadn't yet agreed? What are your thoughts?

The reason garages charge for diagnostic time is so they don't lose money with idiot punters dropping their car off for diagnostics with no intention of them getting the work.

As the owner of the car already had a mechanic lined up to do the job for mates rates but was not clever enough to accurately diagnose the problem.

If you fail to pay the garage bill hopefully they will put at lien on it, that means they have more legal right to the car than the finance company.

bigjl

dannyrst wrote: »

If I read correctly, the mechanic has begun work on a job you never authorised. Whilst you are responsible for the diagnosis, you are not responsible for his costs in begining to strip the car for the repair.

How you will be able to determine the difference is the difficult part, seems you didn't agree a fee up front.

Perhaps this is what the £250+VAT is?

Certain things can't be diagnosed without some stripping of parts.

dannyrst

bigjl wrote: »

Certain things can't be diagnosed without some stripping of parts.

Completely agree. But the OP stated that they stripped parts to repair.

The time spent doing this can't be charged to the OP.

Rolandtheroadie

I'd read it as the garage had made an assumption as well, and started work not agreed on.

Who dropped the car off and who will deliver it back to you? If it was the garage, they may be looking to recover these costs, that may have been waived if you had used them.