Am I being Ripped off at this car garage & do I have rights to refuse to pay

becky701

Hi 

My car went into the garage to get the clutch repaired, which was around £700, they found other issues and sent another quote for more work which was needed which ended up being around £1770. Which we reluctantly agreed to, now I have the final bill which is around £2100 - they said they had to use a flywheel part, which was genuine so costing over £300 more than the agreed price. They just went ahead and did it - do I have a right to refuse to pay this additional amount as they didn't notify me prior to doing the work?

Love some advice!

foxy-stoat

You agreed to £1770, was that fixed or estimated?
I think folk on here will need to know what they replaced for £1070 extra and what the £300 additional piece they replaced, also what car/engine/transmission is it?

I suspect the £700 was for the clutch, £1000 was a dual mass flywheel - the other £300 - not so sure what else.

becky701

Hi

Thank you, I've just checked and the £1770 was an estimate and they called so I agreed to that, but now it's over £2100 due to this part being over £500, but surely they have to ring and notify of that first? rather than having unexpected costs at the end?

macman

If you want proper advice, them you need to tell us what make/model/engine, and what parts, as requested above. No one can tell you what a part costs without knowing this.
Also, is this a main dealer or an independent?

foxy-stoat

Was it the Nissan Cashcow that you were thinking about borrowing 10 large for?  Not sure if you can spend over £2000 on a clutch/flywheel replacement but at the Nissan dealer, who knows what they like to charge their customers.

Carrot007

I expect a garage to be reasonable.

I know 2, one will go ahead and do all the work and then charge you (they may have a call first cut off point but it's too high!).

The other will do simple things, but if in for service and mot he will call if he thinks the car more needs to be scrapped before doing everything. He knows the next car will come there so why leave a bad taste my doing a service on a car about to be scrapped.

Of course this is harder depending on the age/worth of the car. But he has done it at all point to me. I tend to go for 3 year old cars and run them till they die (or have an annoying issue I do not want to pay to deal with (last one would not heat, yes it was all checked, it would have needed a complete tear down to find out the issue, on a under £500 car it was not worth it, still on the road though! maybe the buyers did it themselves, far to much effort, I just pocked around without removing too much!).

AdrianC

£2100 vs an estimate of £1770. It's less than 20% over the estimate.
Yes, they should have called. But if you'd said "no", what then?
No, you can't get away without paying it.

photome

becky701 said:

Hi

Thank you, I've just checked and the £1770 was an estimate and they called so I agreed to that, but now it's over £2100 due to this part being over £500, but surely they have to ring and notify of that first? rather than having unexpected costs at the end?

An estimate, is exactly that, did you ask them to call you again if it was going to be more than £1770

Homer_home

Why did you agree to the additional work ? 

What was the additional work? 

What was wrong in the first place?

macman

I don't think the OP is coming back...

sweetsand

Dear OP

Sorry to hear about the massive bill.
Are you certain what they said and if so, please demand a recording of their call as most main dealers record calls.
If the word 'estimate' was writtne/used/agreed then you have to pay the full lot
Then take it from there.