to be pissed off over this garage bill?

[humptyismarriedtoanumpty]

I recently dented the front of our car by driving into a big stone flower pot in a car park. DH suggested I went to garage to get a quote for getting it fixed... I went to local garage who gave me a paper with the quote on it saying it would be £280.
I agreed and had work done, now been issued final bill for £600. I questioned it, garage guy says it's because the original quote was only for labour and the paint job and not the cost of parts. I questioned further and he said it is standard to quote like this.
I got home and looked at quote and see in the small print it says parts at manufacturers recommended retail price, but in that column it is left blank and the other prices are for labour and materials... But it lists new bumper lower down in work to be done.
I feel sick, don't have £600.... Was I ripped off or is it standard practice to quote like that?
Either way, have to find money somewhere I guess but AIBU to feel cheated?

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

No you are not being unreasonable, I had a quote done on some damage which included labour and parts. DH also had a quote for labour and parts for new suspensions and he asked and did supply his own parts as it was cheaper.

[southeastastra]

no a quote means for everything, i'd be very annoyed.

[humptyismarriedtoanumpty]

thank you five, the garage guy was insistent it's standard to only quote labour but not parts????/ In my experience, you take car to garage, they look then phone you and say it needs blah which will cost blah, shall we go ahead?

Soooooooooooooo fed up over this, have had to borrow money from my mum and pay back over the next millenium

[claig]

I haven't experienced that. They usually find out what the price of the parts is. Don't know what the law is, but it may be worth asking Citizens Advice Bureau, in case this wasn't done right

[claig]

did the bumper cost £320 ?
Very strange, you are right they usually ask for your go-ahead, otherwise what is to stop them replacing half the car and charging you?

[alicet]

YANBU. A quote is a quote for the amount it is going to cost to fix. They should find out the cost for parts - how on earth are you expected to know this??! That is why you asked for the quote!

I wouldn't have been paying to fix a dent if it cost that much so I would be incredibly p*ssed off. On that basis I wouldn't pay until I had got proper advice such as citizens advice.

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

That was a bloddy expensive bumper, as a lot more work than that the quote was just over £600.

[southeastastra]

i would disput it to be honest, do you still have the paper he wrote the quote on?

[claig]

I don't think I would pay that. I would get legal advice from Citizens Advice Bureau. That bill is totally unreasonable, because if you had known the price you may not have got that done. Surely this practice is against the trade description act. What may happen is that you come to a compromise with the garage and they have to settle for a much reduced amount. Legal advice will let you know if you have a case and whether they would really be able to pursue you for that bill. I think they may find it hard to justify their case.

[claig]

What is the point of asking for a quote, if it turns out it is not worth the paper it is written on? I can't see that such a large discrepancy is justifiable at all.

[Ingles2]

I agree with everyone else humpty...go to the CAB..
£320 for a bumper sounds ridiculous.. What are you driving a BMW? he's ripped you off by not listing the part price.

[monkeyfacegrace]

Guys, £320 is very reasonable for a new bumper. I recently paid £800 for mine, so it could be correct. I wouldnt pay the bill though. Id pay them the original quote and tell them to chase me for the rest.

[Tigerdrivesbackin]

You asked for a quote, not an estimate. A quote tells you how much it will cost, an estimate what it might cost. I'm not surprised that a new bumper cost £320 (parts always cost loads more than you guess) but they should have made that crystal clear. Report them to trading standards and dispute the bill, I bet they'll come down (maybe dispute first).

Tip: always make sure you ask for a quote not an estimate, as you can hold them to a quote.

[claig]

£800, what are you driving, a Ferrari ?

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

Thay can't quote for the labour without knowing what parts they need, so if they know which parts they need then they should know how much they cost, that is from DH.

[brimfull]

def question it again.
I was given a bill for some work done on my car and was told a part was £200 ,so bill was huge.
Paid by credit card took car home and sobbed to dh. He looked up the price of the part on the internet , it was £80.

He phoned the guy up , asked why it was charged at £200 and he did not have excuse. Gave us £100 refund.

I was shocked at this blatant overcharging , and this garage was one I was taken to by RAC recovery man.

[claig]

I had a garage roof done a few years back. They quoted me a price, I agreed and they did the work. Then they charged me £200 over. I rang them and they told me that they needed extra wood beams or something. I said "but you didn't check with me and advise me of the extra cost". I refused to pay it and I was passed around a few different managers on the phone. I stuck to my guns and they dropped it and charged me the original amount on the quote.

[monkeyfacegrace]

I wish claig, no, but it was a monster colour-coded bumper. All the same, £300ish isnt much. But..... I still wouldnt pay. But Im a grumpy bitch and Ive never even had to pay to get my car cleaned yet as the garage men love me

[Tiredmumno1]

Usually garages will tell give you a quote for the work and parts that they can see needs doing.

Then if anything else crops up whilst doing the work, they should phone you to get consent to do more work.

Did you sign the quote op, and do you still have it?

[emmyloulou]

Depends as we just had bodywork done on our car........they may have thought they could repair or pull the dint out and then found they couldn't and needed to replace panel, paint and colour match.

So to give you some persepctive the final price is actually reasonable and I would have been suspect at the low quote anyway knowing myself how much body work costs as we got a few quotes.

Thing is with body work even taking the tiniest of dints out can cost £100's.

But even so they should have cleared it with you first. We were given a quote of X but if they couldn't save the panel they would have come back to us as it would have been x more........

So people who are up in arms about the prices, probably have not needed bodywork doing recently, it's v, v, v expensive (hence why the £280 for a full repair and labour would have rung alarm bells with me) however they should have cleared it with you.

[claig]

Years ago I had a lot of work done on a car. When I went to pick up the car, there was an extra £350 or so for replacing my windscreen. The original windscreen had a small crack on it. They were a good garage that I went to regularly. I said that no one asked me if I wanted my windcsreen replaced. They didn't charge me for the new windscreen in the end.

[humptyismarriedtoanumpty]

thanks all for response, I specifically said to the bloke i wanted a quote or i would try going through insurance. when he said £280, I thought bargain so I went ahead. I told the guy, if it's too much I will go thru insurance.
Will try to scan the thing in to show you guys the paper to get a better idea.
I looked up price of parts and saw bumper for £150 on ebay so knew it would be dear, then there was the cost of having it painted to match the rest of car. He also failed to add on the VAT which accounted for about £100 pounds...
Feel like a total fool, when I said to the guy, I don't have the money he says it's my problem and I shouldn't have gone ahead. Even when I said I believed the total would be £280 like on the paper so I budgeted for that he basically laughed at me.
aaarrrggghhh, so angry with myself for doing the bloody dent in the first place.
Anyway ladies will upload the quote for your opinions...