Car repaired when I asked for a quote

Grumpy_chap

MR_M_P said:

 I would not have had the work done at that price

What would you have done instead?

Would the car be a scrapper?

Would you have done the work yourself?

Would you have gone to another garage? 
If so, would you have really achieved the work down at half the price? 
If so, why didn't you go to that other, trusted garage to get the MOT in the first place?

MR_M_P said:

I'd have gone somewhere else if I had been quoted the £751 

Where?
What would their price have been?

Although I understand and agree with your annoyance, the pragmatic thing may well be to accept the situation and pay.  If you make a small, but polite noise about it, the garage may discount down by a bit.

Ibrahim5

I think you pay under duress. Not sure how you do that with card payments and then you take them to the small claims court.

gozaimasu

AdrianC said:

The one thing he definitely is going to have to do is pay the bill, if he wants the car back.

Not necessarily. If the garage leaves the cars parked outside their premises, the OP can turn up with a spare key and drive it away.

facade

gozaimasu said:

AdrianC said:

The one thing he definitely is going to have to do is pay the bill, if he wants the car back.

Not necessarily. If the garage leaves the cars parked outside their premises, the OP can turn up with a spare key and drive it away.

That would be theft.

Look up R v Turner (No. 2)[1971] 1 W.L.R. 901

gozaimasu

facade said:

Look up R v Turner (No. 2)[1971] 1 W.L.R. 901

Interesting. They were charged with a criminal offence. I thought the garage would just have took them to small claims to get the money, in which case the OP could have fought the charges on the basis that he didn't ask for the repairs, just a quote.

[Deleted User]

Just offer them what you think it's worth or they can put it back in the condition you left it and get nothing.

tommyedinburgh

Just be careful OP. I recall something practically identical to this many years ago when I was an apprentice. My tradesman ended up paying more to have his teeth fixed than the cost of the actual disputed bill. 

Flight3287462

This why everyone should find a garage they trust.  They are like hens teeth these days but well worth it.  I'm very fortunate in that I have shot with my mechanic in the past and he controls vermin for me and we get on well.

The only downside is he takes too much perverse pleasure if he can find something to fail one of the cars MOTs  and/or remarking that something is a fail when in fact it never gets a mention.  

Last time was a slight oil leak on the sump pan, which I got fixed anyway a few weeks later.

DB1904

Grumpy_chap said:

Is it plausibly possible that the garage mis-understood the request for a quote as meaning you wished to proceed?

Was your old MOT still valid?  Were any of the fail items "dangerous"?  If so, you may have been restricted in the option to simply drive away:
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test

What work was done and what were the costs of the work?  Would you have got a garage to repair in any case (even if not that garage)?
If so, and if the charges were in the market-range, it may be pragmatic to accept the bill.

The garage couldn't stop the OP from collecting the car and driving away. 

Bendy_House

Mr MP, what make and model of car is this, and how old is it? I agree that £700+ for the list you've provided seems hugely excessive, but there may be mitigating circumstances, as pointed out by others.

And, yes, with any repair that's remotely likely to come to that sort of figure, a garage would normally run it past you first, and not go ahead until approved by you - and that's without you even asking!

Realistically, though, what would you have done had they said it would cost over £700? What would your options be? Try to find a cheaper garage? If so, why would they be cheaper? Or even scrap the car? Well, that option still applies if you don't pay up!

I think the crux of this is - whilst accepting that the garage's communication was seriously pants, unless they genuinely misunderstood your instructions - was the repair bill fair and reasonable?

Make, model, age will help ascertain this.