please help if possible, thanks

[ady347]

Hi all, cool forum, i am in need of help if possible, I booked my wifes old renaulty clio into a garage to have a noisy wheel bearing fixed. On delivering the car to his premises i left clear instructions with his front desk that i believe the car had a noisy front wheel bearing but should he find anything more severe wrong with the car or the cost went over £100 to call me before any work was carried out for authorisation, my mobile number was written in his diary.

i didnt here anything from him all day, and i went to collect the car and found out that he changed one wheel bearing and the fault was still their, then he changed another and a further 2 to rectify the fault. I asked him what the cost was as it sounded like alot of work had been carried out and he told me he would do a good price and send me a bill through the post (£438.83) but didnt give me a price their and then. i told him i wasnt happy at all about this as he was supposed to ring me before such extensive work was carried out, to which he replied "sorry i didnt call you it has been a very busy day and i knew you wanted the car back asap" if it takes him four attempts to fix the fault that isnt my problem, and that he is billing me for parts that were not required, and also this work he carried out was unauthorised anyway. He knew the value of the car was no more than £400 - £500 and to carry out this amount of work on such an old car without calling me is ridiculous.

what the garage doesnt know is that a few days previous this car was mot'd elsewhere, i went back to the garage that carried out the mot who told me that it was possible to miss a noisy wheel bearing on an mot as they dont roadtest the car, but missing 4 was just impossible. I also know alot about cars and if all four wheel bearings were gone it would make alot more noise than the slight humming it was making when steering left when taken to him.

as i good will gesture i offered to pay him the sum of £150 at the time which was point blank refused and still £50 more than what i authorised to. this was originally 2 years ago and every month i get a statement from him.

today i have recieved a final demand from a debt recovery agency saying they will take court action and now im really worried.

[spiritgirl59]

Hiya Ady

I read your post and am amazed at the cheek of that garage

I can only tell you what I would do in these circumstances, but please understand I'm not legally qualified, just a consumer who would be livid if I were in your situation right now.

As I see it you have two options, firstly you could make the original offer of £150 in full and final settlement to the DCA. Put this in writing, send your letter by recorded delivery, and wait to hear back from them before you send any cheque to make sure your offer is accepted in writing and that their letter states that it is accepted "in full and final settlement".

If they refuse to accept this (what I consider to be very reasonable offer in light of what you went through) then you could wait for them to take you to court. I know this will feel very daunting but you will have every opportunity to state your case fully to the court in your Defence. From what you have said in your post I feel you have a very good Defence to this situation. You handed over your vehicle in good faith, made sure the garage had full contact details and expected them to contact you prior to undertaking any expensive repairs. As you state, it was not your fault that the garage went ahead with such expensive repairs without contacting you first, they had no authority whatsoever to do so.

The fact you have/are making a very reasonable offer to settle this outstanding debt in the sum of £150 will go very much in your favour. You have not tried to get out of paying it, but you are paying what you feel is fair in all the circumstances and I feel sure the court would look favourably on you because of this.

I hope this helps. Ideally I would like some of the other CAGers to have a look and give you their opinion too, but this is just what I would personally do.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Love SG x

[ady347]

thanks for your advice, when their is an update to what has happened i will post it on here. Whatever happened i wasnt going to pay its just the first time i have ever had a final demand letter, but i do believe its the usual scare tactics to get you to pay.

[Dont trust the banks]

£438 to fit 4 wheel bearings???????, Some thing ain't right hear, Could you post the original invoice (or a summery of it), And maybe copy and past one of the "statements"?.Your in the right pace for advice.

[ady347]

hi, thats is with the debt recovery fees, the original bill is £363.22, will see if i have a breakdown of the costs, the noisy wheel bearing only made a noise when you turned the steering wheel left (putting a load on the front right wheel) was what i thought it was. i said i think its just a wheel bearing when i dropped it off, but if it was anything serious like a cv joint/driveshaft/ over £100 then ring me first. it wasnt even that loud just wanted the car to be right ( a gift). they told me he changed the front right bearing and it was still their, so he changed the front left, to his surprise it was still their, then he changed a rear, still their lol, then he changed the other rear and the noise went.

[Dont trust the banks]

Even so £363 is still a hell of a lot for 4 bearings, The fronts should take around 2 hours to fit each side, and the rears some were around an hour each. As the front suspension's been apart it would be wise to have a look at the tracking. I will get some prices for the bearings on Monday.

Regards banks

[Hammy1962]

Hi there Ady347

£363 might not be that excessive, i'm not familiar with this particular model but, £363 ex VAT is £309. i suspect the fronts are different to the rears but dividing the cost by 4 gets us £77.00 a bearing inc labour, £50 labour, £27.00 for the bearings.

2 Years ago!!! Let him take you to court, the work was done without your authority and you will mpost likely win

Hammy

[Dont trust the banks]

Fair point......on all counts

Regards Banks.

[Dont trust the banks]

Hi, If I had suppled the bearings, The fronts would have cost you £23.21 ea and the rears would have been £21.72 ea. But prices do vary depending on exact model and the percentage added by the garage as profit.

Under the circumstances you described I would have expected the garage concerned to give you the smallest bill they could have afforded to rather than charge the "going rate" for the job. Having said that I dear say the job consumed a lot of there time.

Keep us up dated.

Regards Banks.