Con artists - "Approved Garages"

DoaM

OP joined in 2004 and has 24 posts ... 22 of them in this thread!

giraffe69

Perhaps nearly 14 years of comparative silence was, in retrospect, a blessing!

fred246

I remember someone saying that a quick fit place used to tell their staff that people will accept a bill up to £300 without question.
I remember asking a plumber to quote for a new boiler. £2500. OK well I have costed the boiler and flue etc and that is £700 so that equals £1800 labour. Does it take a week to fit a boiler? No less than a day. £1800 a day labour? £2500 was suddenly reduced to £1300.
I suspect it's the same with a garage. If people know the price of parts then they can find fitting times on the internet and suddenly people are discovering £300 is too much and £150 is closer to the mark.

Mercdriver

fred246 wrote: »

I remember someone saying that a quick fit place used to tell their staff that people will accept a bill up to £300 without question.
I remember asking a plumber to quote for a new boiler. £2500. OK well I have costed the boiler and flue etc and that is £700 so that equals £1800 labour. Does it take a week to fit a boiler? No less than a day. £1800 a day labour? £2500 was suddenly reduced to £1300.
I suspect it's the same with a garage. If people know the price of parts then they can find fitting times on the internet and suddenly people are discovering £300 is too much and £150 is closer to the mark.

Congratulations you have managed to add exactly nothing to the discussion, how is this relevant? The OP isn't adding a boiler to his car

fred246

It just illustrates that if a customer starts to ask more questions about parts and labour prices then they are less likely to be ripped off by a garage. If a garage quotes £300 to change brake pads and a customer finds they are £30 on eurocarparts then it is hard to justify £270 for a few minutes work.

caprikid1

"I don't want the garage to do it for free, I wish to pay them a reasonable labour charge."


What do you think a reasonable price is ?

lockedout69

I have heard through the grapevine that ecp sell the parts for more than they paid for them, where will this rip off end?

mollycat

I'm with the OP on this!!

I saw two mechanics from our local garage in the pub the other night.

Laughing and joking they were!

And if that wasn't bad enough they were drinking that "reassuringly expensive" Stella Artois.

hucker

Mercdriver wrote: »

Are you sure you're not on a wind up? If you don't belt up in the back and there is a sudden stop, you end up crushing the person in front, possibly to death. The person in the front won't be able to do sod all about it.

Are you really that thick not to know that?

Did you even read what I just wrote? If I'm a passenger in the back of a car, the driver is free to ask me to use a seatbelt so I don't kill him if he crashes. What's the law to do with this?

hucker

Mercdriver wrote: »

So if the part that you supplied fails and someone is killed as a result, do you have liability insurance or the collateral to cover the damages as a result? That's the reason for the type approval.

Never happens. The only parts I've had fail are old ones that have been on the car for years, usually the originals. Cheap parts work just as well as the rip off expensive ones you love to buy. The main dealers must see you coming.