Mot charged to much. AA

Sunseteyes

Hi, I went through the AA To get my mot, they have taken over £600.00 to pass my car. When I went to pick my car up. I was told  the garage quoted the AA £280.00!.  Why can they charge twice the garage price and can I do anything about it? 

JamoLew

why would you not just take the car for an MOT yourself ?

To answer the question - what did the T&Cs or contract with the AA say ?

Ebe_Scrooge

Something tells me we're not getting the full story here.  Let's wait for the drip...drip...drip

Car_54

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Something tells me we're not getting the full story here.  Let's wait for the drip...drip...drip

Indeed. We're in the dark. It could be a serious matter.

eamon

There wont be a drip...drip...drip. Just nothing!

AdrianC

Sunseteyes said:

Hi, I went through the AA To get my mot, they have taken over £600.00 to pass my car. When I went to pick my car up. I was told  the garage quoted the AA £280.00!.  Why can they charge twice the garage price and can I do anything about it? 

What did the AA say when you asked them?

And why would you ask a breakdown recovery company to MOT your car, anyway?

4justice2

Wonder if the OP was using this service https://www.theaa.com/car-care/book/start

greatcrested

4justice2 said:

Wonder if the OP was using this service https://www.theaa.com/car-care/book/start

If so:

How can I trust the prices I'm quoted?

The prices you see for your booking are personalised to your vehicle and its condition. All of our prices fall within set parameters and are pre-agreed with our garages before they join our network. For any additional work, once the garage has told us what needs doing, we check this with our technical experts and personally build the quote for you to make sure it'snecessary work and that it matches our best price guarantee.

Will I get a call from the garage about additional repairs?

If your car needs extra work then we'll call you with a quote rather than the garage.

What happens if my vehicle needs more work than I booked in?

We'll give you a call to let you know what needs to be done and how much it will cost. You'll then be able to approve or decline the quote.

k12479

Sunseteyes said:

...I was told  the garage quoted the AA £280.00!.  Why can they charge twice the garage price...? 

The amount the garage invoice the AA for is not necessarily the amount they would have charged a customer going direct. The AA will likely have negotiated discounts, or perhaps imposed rates they are willing to pay, on their network of garages.

AdrianC

4justice2 said:

Wonder if the OP was using this service https://www.theaa.com/car-care/book/start

1. Let us know what you need

Enter your number plate and postcode to select an MOT, service or vehicle check, with set prices and no hidden fees.

So it's a set price before anybody even sees the car.

For all the AA know, the MOT could just be the test fee. It passes straight off. £55 max. But they tell the customer £600 (in this instance) before anybody even sees the car. They're in for a shock if it's a very bad fail, though, and the customer knows it's not going to be more.

Which, of course, means that the average customer's real bill would be less than that quoted price, because the AA run this to make a profit after all their admin costs...

I've got my sensible modern daily booked for a test on Monday. I expect it to waltz thorough, "even though" it's 15yo and 90k. Unfortunately, I can't see what the AA would charge me, because the website tells me I'm lying about my postcode.

Grumpy_chap

Must be a common fault with the AA system as my postcode was also not found