Garages trying to rip me off

[johnnyb47]

Hi.
I run an old car that I've owned for over a decade now.Its my daily transport and I'm quite sentmentalay attached to. Its in remarkable condition for it's age and it's now bordering classic status. As you can imagine it takes a bit of looking after considering it's age and parts are often hard to find , but being part of local car clubs I have a sound knowledge of were to source those scarce parts from.
Of late I've been getting grief from the rear off side brake.
Every time the brake peddle is pressed ive been getting a slight thumping noise.Im quite ocd in keeping the old car in perfect health, and put the noise down to either a warped disc or contaminated/worn pads.As the parts are still readily available and cheap easy to replace I thought I would entrust a local garage to do to job instead of me messing around in the cold on the wet drive. I had in mind £150/200 would cover the job and it would be happy days.
By lunchtime I got a call from the garage.They said they've found the problem in that it was the handbrake drum that's built into the back of the rear disc was the problem.The backing plate that holds the drums shoes had rotted resulting in the brake shoes becoming detached.Ok I said no problem, It is what it is and duly accepted the cost would rise to £340.
This would be new discs new pads and and new shoes and back plates.
5 o'clock comes when I get the second phone call.
Expecting to say it was all done I was greeted with a another problem.The bill was now going to be £650!!! and the parts were going to be difficult to find. Obviously not to impressed I shot round to the garage to see what the was wrong.My poor old car was sat on the four post lift looking sorry for it self.Not impressed I told them to put it back together again using the original parts as i will source the "rare expensive" parts myself.I drove the car home and within 30 minutes, a specialist to my car from Llandudno was bringing to inlusive parts to my house for a fraction of the price followed by a load of pictures of how to do the job painlessly.
So after looking at the disc and pads tonight I've come to conclusion they are perfectly fine. The only thing that needs replacement are the rotten backplates and handbrake kit to which I acquired in an hour for £145 against the £650 quoted and a long waiting time for the parts needed.The said garage didn't charge me a penny today but they do have the disc brakes and pads there that they ordered in.I kind of feel obligated to paying for these, but on the other hand why should I after feeling somewhat conned and feed some B/S .I suppose they can always send them back to there supplier

 

[Sharky]

I am surprised the garage didn't get your consent with each price hike.
But for a car that otherwise does exactly what you want, its a small price to pay. Some people are buying new cars on PCP schemes which cost £500 per month.

Our car is almost 20 yrs old and I've had a few jobs done of that price order and it keeps going and very hard to justify replacing it.

 

[fossyant]

Itemised bill please. I own old cars and just ran a new to us car through with bills for a fair amount, mainly son killing the welds on a cat through driving like a tool.

 

[fossyant]

PS info on car also...

 

[johnnyb47]

Hi all.i pressed post before I finished my little rant sorry.Ive edited now If you can bare reading the rest of it

 

[gbb]

Be thankfull you're not my colleague, he has a 2007 Golf, quite high mileage diesel, he told me the other week he had spent £6k keeping it on the road...ironically he wasnt particually bothered, he travels 40 miles each way daily, he likes the car etc etc.

 

[Slick]

I suppose everyone can make a mistake, but I certainly wouldn't be paying the garage anything, especially for parts that I obviously don't need. I would try and get a local boy to fit them as a homer, there's usually no shortage of willing and able people looking for some extra cash.

 

[fossyant]

Back plates aren't needed. Funny that the car has a drum for the parking brake. What is it

 

[toffee]

Hi.
I run an old car that I've owned for over a decade now.Its my daily transport and I'm quite sentmentalay attached to. Its in remarkable condition for it's age and it's now bordering classic status. As you can imagine it takes a bit of looking after considering it's age and parts are often hard to find , but being part of local car clubs I have a sound knowledge of were to source those scarce parts from.
Of late I've been getting grief from the rear off side brake.
Every time the brake peddle is pressed ive been getting a slight thumping noise.Im quite ocd in keeping the old car in perfect health, and put the noise down to either a warped disc or contaminated/worn pads.As the parts are still readily available and cheap easy to replace I thought I would entrust a local garage to do to job instead of me messing around in the cold on the wet drive. I had in mind £150/200 would cover the job and it would be happy days.
By lunchtime I got a call from the garage.They said they've found the problem in that it was the handbrake drum that's built into the back of the rear disc was the problem.The backing plate that holds the drums shoes had rotted resulting in the brake shoes becoming detached.Ok I said no problem, It is what it is and duly accepted the cost would rise to £340.
This would be new discs new pads and and new shoes and back plates.
5 o'clock comes when I get the second phone call.
Expecting to say it was all done I was greeted with a another problem.The bill was now going to be £650!!! and the parts were going to be difficult to find. Obviously not to impressed I shot round to the garage to see what the was wrong.My poor old car was sat on the four post lift looking sorry for it self.Not impressed I told them to put it back together again using the original parts as i will source the "rare expensive" parts myself.I drove the car home and within 30 minutes, a specialist to my car from Llandudno was bringing to inlusive parts to my house for a fraction of the price followed by a load of pictures of how to do the job painlessly.
So after looking at the disc and pads tonight I've come to conclusion they are perfectly fine. The only thing that needs replacement are the rotten backplates and handbrake kit to which I acquired in an hour for £145 against the £650 quoted and a long waiting time for the parts needed.The said garage didn't charge me a penny today but they do have the disc brakes and pads there that they ordered in.I kind of feel obligated to paying for these, but on the other hand why should I after feeling somewhat conned and feed some B/S .I suppose they can always send them back to there supplier

I wouldn't worry about the parts they will just return them to their suppliers for a refund. As regards not being able to get the extra parts that were needed it is probably that their usual supplier did not have them in stocks at that time. There are a lot of suppliers out of stock at the moment and they could be bothered to find one that had stock.

 

[Drago]

Back plates aren't needed. Funny that the car has a drum for the parking brake. What is it

Its not unusual for cars that even have rear discs to also have a "drum" built into the disc for handbrake purposes.

I wish you'd asked me first. The thumping noise is a classic symptom of brake shoe delamination.

In the very raremoccadions I can't/won't get the spanners out myself I gomto the main dealer. Any part available either off the shelf or within 24nhrs at the most, the parts fit first go and have a lifetime warranty. Thus far they've also been honest and not remotely shady. Indeed, most visits Im the one telling them what the fault is and what they need to do to repair it, not the other way around. I clearly missed my calling!

 

[Alex321]

Thus far they've also been honest and not remotely shady. Indeed, most visits Im the one telling them what the fault is and what they need to do to repair it, not the other way around. I clearly missed my calling!

The second sentence could well be part of the reason for the first.

They can tell you know enough that they couldn't try it on with you.

 

[Moodyman]

Garages are like tradespeople. Many are unscrupulous and will rip off those that don't appear to know their subject.

I find it's trial and error. A sign of a good garage is when you take your car in for something and they say "it doesn't need the work doing now, come back in 6 months".

I also find many people today are less mechanically minded, so are at increased risk of being conned. Could some blame lie with PCP type arrangements where all the servicing/maintenance is taken care of?

 

[Moodyman]

Another point...I have friend who works at the local Kwik Fit. He once told me they treat smartly dressed office types differently to someone who went in with dirty clothes and black fingernails. That is, the latter was deemed to be a practical type and would not be conned, whereas the office type will just open their wallet.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Garages are like tradespeople. Many are unscrupulous and will rip off those that don't appear to know their subject.

I find it's trial and error. A sign of a good garage is when you take your car in for something and they say "it doesn't need the work doing now, come back in 6 months".

I also find many people today are less mechanically minded, so are at increased risk of being conned. Could some blame lie with PCP type arrangements where all the servicing/maintenance is taken care of?

Agree with your post and that it comes down to trial and error.

I also found where the foreman or the person who makes an assessment is a salaried staff there is seldom an issue as it pointless for them to rip a customer off.

 

[gbb]

I once brought and had fitted some tyres at Formula 1 autocentre, generally good prices etc etc. When i refused tracking and all the usual stuff they try to put on you, he got a tad grumpy and wryly muttered something like...not sure how we're supposed to make money if everyone did the same. My response was....perhaps everyones business model is wrong then ?
But then, my SIL , qualified garage mech used to manage a Kwik Fit or similar depot, he said the pressure on them to perform was immense, the overheads are huge, and there may be an element of truth in the running costs, a former friend gave up having premises decades ago, it seemed like the council just treated every business like a cash cow, effectively made it impossible to trade profitably.

And then , what constitutes a reasonable profit ? We all know you can go to mainstream parts suppliers and get parts cheap, the garage will do the same and add a percentage, seems quite acceptable. Tradesmans rates ?, got to be at least £30 hr minimum, dealerships are pushing at least £100 hour surely ?

Tools, most garage mechs have to buy their own, again, my SIL spends a fair whack on tools, its all got to be paid for.

All the more reason to DIY whenever its reasonable you can. 4 discs and pads, thatd take me maybe 2 hours, maybe take a garage 1 hour there £100 labour minimum (roughly) before you even begin the rest.