Garage rip off - or fair charges - for you mechanics out there

[cootchypooch]

Took my little MX5 to the local garage yesterday as she had a judder on accelaration. Even with my limited knowledge of the engine I guessed it was to do with either plugs, air filter and or lead problems and not a major job issue. Dropped her off at 10am and left my home number to contact me just in case anything major was found.

 

At 3.30pm I called the garage to see how things were progressing and what had been found. I was told by the young lad that she had been up on the ramp and his colleague had noticed a misfire. They then tested the leads with a pair of universal ones and in his words " she ran as sweet as a nut". I was told they had ordered a new set for my make of car and were awaiting delivery, they would call me when it was done for pick up.

 

Fair enough at 5pm they called and I went to the garage to pick her up and pay my bill. Only to be floored when confronted with a bill for £207.83!!! On the invoice it states they ran tests for : compression test £40, ignition ht circuit test misfire traced to No 2 cylinder £80. The parts bill was only for total of £56.88 for new leads and plugs.

 

I was flabbergasted that having already diagnosed a simple problem they ran theses tests with out even checking with myself first and alerting me to the additional cost even after I rang them to check what problem was.

 

Were these expensive tests really necessary when the lad I spoke to confirmed they knew what the problem was and had diagnosed already by checking with a set of universal leads? Needless to say, a letter to the garage owner went hand delivered this morning and I await his reply, but where do I stand with this? are they allowed to do this at all?

[Chesterexpress]

They carried out the tests in order to find the fault! Can't see what the problem is personally.

[MrShed]

You are assuming that the tests took place after the fault was found as opposed to before - I dont see any basis for that assumption, as opposed to the assumption that the tests were performed in order to diagnose the fault, which is more logical.

[raydetinu]

Ask for breakdown in hours; ignition test sounds abit expensive if all they was change leads? ask for compression test read out results to check if they actually did it.

 

Anyway if they had only done the HT replacement it would of cost say £57 parts and say 1.5 hrs labour at £50/hr = £132 =VAT so sounds about right?

[richiepearce]

to be honest they would have scaned for fault codes found misfire on no 2 cylinder then checked plugs and leads not sure why they compression test was done what is the hourly rate and how many hours have you been charged for? ht leads should be max 30 mins labour

[gwc1000]

Sounds completely over the top to me. £80 to trace a faulty HT lead? Any mechanic could trace that in minutes. £40 for a compression test on top of the £80 is ridiculous.

[Conniff]

Just as gwc says. Run engine and pull each lead in turn until it makes no difference to the running, you've found the dodgy lead, replace with a known good lead to confirm it is the lead and not the plug or head gasket 5 mins at most.

 

Replace test lead with new makers original, 2 mins. Round that up, 15 mins.

[Nemesis_Drake]

The garage is incompetent! Was there an engine management light on? If not scanning for a fault code would have been fruitless, A single machine SEA or any of the others would have diagnosed the fault from the KV readouts.....Usual practice after having 2 "joeys" scratch their heads for hours is to pass the cost onto the customer.

 

 

From the OP I take it that it was an easy diagnosis and that it had been a quiet day for the garage...Someone has to pay eh!