Over charged by garage. What are my rights?

straighttalker

OP, nobody can accurately advise you until you tell us what you wanted changing/repairing, what was actually changed/repaired and what was quoted and what was charged. It's all very vague at the moment.

apeshape

straighttalker wrote: »

OP, nobody can accurately advise you until you tell us what you wanted changing/repairing, what was actually changed/repaired and what was quoted and what was charged. It's all very vague at the moment.

Ok, just to clarify....

Had a pot hole damaged alloy that was bent. I emailed the workshop with a picture of the damaged alloy wheel. I said can I have the full price for the repair of this plus the tyre off my spare changed and put on to the newly repaired alloy. Got my quote. "Plus vat"

Got the repair done, found they had added an extra £5 for replacing the wheel and then the VAT added on the end. Yet, I was there the whole time and the service rep said NOTHING at the time and was happy to tot it all up at the end and say here ya go.

So the total was £20 higher than expected. Not a lot, I know. But I'm just a bit peeved because I've been mugged by a couple of garages now and get angry with myself and I promised I'd never let myself be stung again no matter how insignificant.

Thanks.

Money_maker

Plus vat means its added onto the price, not part of the price you were quoted.

If it had said including vat then the price would have included the vat.

Sounds like you mis read it.

loskie

Moneymaker thank goodness you spotted this too. My explanation to the op obviously fell on deaf ears. One of the posters who only hear what they want perhaps?
OP
If your email to the garage is as clear as your posting here I am not surprised there is a little confusion. For a difference of £5 you are making a big issue out of nothing.

arcon5

Charged £6 more than expected then

doubleug

A mechanic's time is both by the hour and by the minute. You have to pay. What the garage is not doing however is making it clear in easy to understand terms that a tyre repair is £x. Smoke and mirror pricing has clearly driven this customer away--however much of a case he has got or hasn't got...however £20 is not exactly small claims court stuff is it?

bowlhead99

apeshape wrote: »

Ok, just to clarify....

Had a pot hole damaged alloy that was bent. I emailed the workshop with a picture of the damaged alloy wheel. I said can I have the full price for the repair of this plus the tyre off my spare changed and put on to the newly repaired alloy. Got my quote. "Plus vat"

Got the repair done, found they had added an extra £5 for replacing the wheel and then the VAT added on the end. Yet, I was there the whole time and the service rep said NOTHING at the time and was happy to tot it all up at the end and say here ya go.

So the total was £20 higher than expected. Not a lot, I know. But I'm just a bit peeved because I've been mugged by a couple of garages now and get angry with myself and I promised I'd never let myself be stung again no matter how insignificant.

If the quote was £50 "plus VAT", then what they are saying is that you will need to pay them £50 for the work "plus the VAT on the £50 of work". This is a total of £60.

Then if you asked for them to repair a wheel and remove a tyre from another wheel and fit it to the first wheel, then it's fine for them to assume you will be giving them those wheels to fix and swap, not bringing them in bolted to a car which needs to be jacked up etc etc. A token fiver for that extra work is not unreasonable.

Really they should have said this wasn't what you asked for when we quoted, what you now want will be another fiver, but the guys doing the swap probably didn't know you'd asked for a quote and hadn't asked for the wheels to be taken off. If what they did was a little different from the quote and clearly involves more work than the most basic scenario and the revised work is only getting them a fiver extra, it seems like they are hardly rip off merchants, and you have not been mugged or stung.

If you were to be 'mugged' by a mugger in the street or a dark alleyway it usually costs more (and potentially hurts more) than £5.

And yes, the government wants its VAT on the £5 of wheel swapping work just like it wants its VAT on the £50 of repairs and tyre swapping.

£55 total plus VAT is £66. There is probably some rounding in the numbers you gave, if you are saying it was about £20 higher than you expected altogether.

The VAT thing is clearly your own mistake if they said in writing on an email that you would have to pay them an amount plus VAT (in other words, a larger total than just 'amount'), and you thought "Ah, I just need to pay them an amount, which will include VAT"

arcon5

doubleug wrote: »

A mechanic's time is both by the hour and by the minute. You have to pay. What the garage is not doing however is making it clear in easy to understand terms that a tyre repair is £x. Smoke and mirror pricing has clearly driven this customer away--however much of a case he has got or hasn't got...however £20 is not exactly small claims court stuff is it?

Or by the job! How a garage pays its staff is irrelevant. How a garage charge is relevant and many will do it by the job.

The issue here is their poor pricing policy.

bod1467

arcon5 wrote: »

The issue here is their poor pricing policy.

The real issue here is the OP's lack of understanding of what "plus VAT" means.

apeshape

I know what VAT means, thank you.

But in plain english, how can I ask for a FULL price...And when I get a quote in response the cost will be xxx PLUS vat, am I wrong to assume what he/she means is excluding VAT.

As for the extra work of swapping a tyre and replacing back on to the car, shouldn't this have been in the 'quote' as well (plus the umm, addtionally vat associated with this complex procedure)

Out of principle, I hate feeling like a blank cheque on legs every time I go near a garage.