Garages trying to rip me off

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keithmac

Guru
Working on vehicles for 25+ years myself I can honestly say I've never ripped any off and never will.

I've worked on vehicles where the owner has been ripped off previously and it annoys me as much as them!.

Seems the Motor Trade is all tarred with the same brush unfortunately.

Probably 90% of my work comes from regular repeat customers and you won't get that treating people poorly.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
Just spoke to my SIL, mechanic with a small independant garage. Hiw much to replace discs, pads, backplates and a handbrake kit ?
Bear in mind i said all round where OPs may only be the back set...he immediately said, £600 to £700 ?

Does sound a lot if it is just the rears in OPs case. Trouble is as well, i remember 30 years ago getting some insurance work done at a garage, a lady in front of me was settling up for brakes, brake pipes etc, all normal kinda stuff....£230, 30 years ago :ohmy:. I remember wincing , she just said 'fine' and got her cheque book out without any reaction at all. There are plenty of people who have no choice and seemingly accept the price to be paid.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Working on vehicles for 25+ years myself I can honestly say I've never ripped any off and never will.

I've worked on vehicles where the owner has been ripped off previously and it annoys me as much as them!.

Seems the Motor Trade is all tarred with the same brush unfortunately.

Probably 90% of my work comes from regular repeat customers and you won't get that treating people poorly.
His nickname of Dick Turpin is utterly undeserved 👍
 
OP
OP
johnnyb47

johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
Hi again,
Sorry for my opening post which sounded more like a rant, but I've finished spitting my dummy out now and calmed down.
After having a good think about it all and doing some maths (or trying to) I've now decided what in going to do. There quote of £650 was well over the odds in my opinion, and I think they have realized that too. After I had a rant at them and told them how much I could get the backplates/handbrake kit for (£145) ,they revised the overall estimate price to £300 if I supplied the backplates/handbrake kit).Their price includes a pair of discs/pads and a pair of abs sensors (if the old ones get damaged)
So if I added everything together, it's now £445 job done.
Today I popped in to chat about rebooking the car in, and they have also offered me a free curtousy car for the day,which means I won't have to take time off work. They never said but I think this may of been offered as "good will" for over estimating the original cost..
If I break it down the total parts come to a total of around £260 ish and £185 labour + a free curtousy car for the day.
 

oldwheels

Legendary Member
Location
Isle of Mull
Parts can be sometimes surprisingly expensive. I used to do all my own work and ran some ancient bangers so quite familiar with what is involved.
I had a Suzuki Vitara once where the support for the front suspension rusted badly and would cost some eye watering price just for the bits. I checked car breakers for the parts from a write off. Nothing was to be found which made me suspect this was a common problem. Cannot remember the price now but I did an independent check and the garage was correct. On the same car the window winder switch failed and the list price was about £160. This was a multi use switch so I just disconnected it and fitted a couple of independent switches for very little.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
I was going to suggest, that even the price might have been on the upper end. I didn't consider a rip off. Dont forget the repair shop is in business to make money. Maybe their supplier had pricing/ sourcing issues for an older vehicle. Shops dont have endless time to hunt down the cheapest parts price.

Personally, I would have done the job myself.

Your position now is if the new parts fail in the warranty period, you will pay twice for labour to remove faulty parts. The garage wont warranty customer supplied materials.

Garage supplied parts would have borh labour and materials covered for warranty failure.

Bear that in mind for future repairs :okay:
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Breakers can be pricy too and pluck prices out of thin air.

I fitted a new window switch to a neighbours Peugeot 407 some years back. A new one from the dealwe was 43 sheets. Pricy, thought I, so I tried a local breakers. 80 quid, they said.

I told them a new one was only 43 and they said theyd match it but no more. I cycled up the road and bought a new one at the dealer by way of a reply.

Indeed, dealers have a rep for pillage, but in my experience the indies and so called specialists can often be just as bad. Offtimes dealers can sometimes be surprisingly inexpensive so when getting prices I always check with them and quite often theyre very competitive. Indeed, in my case Volvo give a lifetime warranty on their parts if fitted at a dealer (normal wear items excluded) which can be very good value in the long term, so I just throw the keys at them now.
 
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stephec

Legendary Member
Location
Bolton
Breakers can be pricy too and pluck prices out of thin air.

I fitted a new window switch to a neighbours Peugeot 407 some years back. A new one from the dealwe was 43 sheets. Pricy, thought I, so I tried a local breakers. 80 quid, they said.

I told them a new one was only 43 and they said theyd match it but no more. I cycled up the road and bought a new one at the dealer by way of a reply.

Indeed, dealers have a rep for pillage, but in my experience the indies and so called specialists can often be just as bad. Offtimes dealers can sometimes be surprisingly inexpensive so when getting prices I always check with them and quite often theyre very competitive. Indeed, in my case Volvo give a lifetime warranty on their parts if fitted at a dealer (normal wear items excluded) which can be very good value in the long term, so I just throw the keys at them now.
The sweary filter would have exploded if I'd written what I was thinking when I read this. 😂
 

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
Thought I'd just put this on here, as it's not really worthy of a new thread. I went to a local Halfords this aft' to buy some new wiper blades. £17 a pair, which I suppose is the going rate, but it also cost me £6 for them to fit them for me. Heck, it only took him one minute to do it! I also noticed they charge £18 to fit their batteries, whereas a local car parts/accessories shop charges £5 for them to bring a new battery to you (if you live locally) and to fit it as well.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Thought I'd just put this on here, as it's not really worthy of a new thread. I went to a local Halfords this aft' to buy some new wiper blades. £17 a pair, which I suppose is the going rate, but it also cost me £6 for them to fit them for me. Heck, it only took him one minute to do it! I also noticed they charge £18 to fit their batteries, whereas a local car parts/accessories shop charges £5 for them to bring a new battery to you (if you live locally) and to fit it as well.
You could have done yourself and saved £6?

Halfords has bigger overheads than local place, plus shareholders etc.

Why didn’t you get blades and fitting done locally?
You’re paying for a service, up to you how much you’re prepared to pay for that service (if not willing/able to diy)
 

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
You could have done yourself and saved £6?

Halfords has bigger overheads than local place, plus shareholders etc.

Why didn’t you get blades and fitting done locally?
You’re paying for a service, up to you how much you’re prepared to pay for that service (if not willing/able to diy)
The local garage i use told me to buy Halfords blades as although they cost more they last longer than cheaper blades. Yes, I could've bought them and asked my local garage to fit them, but while I was there I thought 'oh just pay then it's done'! I look at it positively not negatively. Imagine if I'd fitted them (in a fashion) then one, or both flew off on the way home!:okay:

Besides, I don't do manual/physical work these days! :whistle:
 
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Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
You could have done yourself and saved £6?

Knowing Halfords they probably fitted Accy's new wipers to his wheels.
Thinking about it later, I thought at the time that the blades would be like the last ones I fitted which was probably in the 1990's. Then if I remember rightly you just bought the actual rubber blade and not the frame/holder. I imagined me having to thread the rubber blade into the frame with my cold fiddly fingers, then put the frame/holder onto the wiper arms. I saw him just slip the frame/holder onto the arms in less than a minute and thought 'damn, even I could've done that'! The one man band garage I use back home would've done that for me for free. Ah well, another lesson in the school of experience, as my dad used to say.:rolleyes:
 
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