Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

to feel I've been a bit ripped off? (car related)

88 replies

hormonallyyours · 06/01/2017 17:26

And if so what would you do about it?

I'll start by saying I'm fairly new to the world of car ownership. But my dad (sadly no longer with us) worked with cars for many years, and I picked up some stuff from him so whilst i couldnt repair a car myself I'm not totally clueless either.

So just before Xmas my exhaust took a bit of a knock, and split. Me and DP had a look under, and were both fairly sure the back box, and possibly the center section needed replacing.

I called a few places but as it was literally the day before Xmas no one could fit me in immediately. Of the places I spoke to, only one was clear on price (80 plus Vat for the back, 110 plus vat for the whole thing. Others were a bit vague (one said £50-300!), or said I'd need to bring it in first...the local national exhaust franchise said £130. But I decided to stick with first place which was local and clearest over price. They also had excellent which reviews etc.

So it went in today. Dropped it off this morning, told they'd call when it was done.

No call. So at 4pm I called them. Yes it was fixed but they couldn't tell me the cost. And they shut at 5 so could I fetch it asap?

Eventually called me back half an hour later. The cost was £150, they've replaced the front section (which looked fine to DP and I) and salvaged (their words) the rest.

AIBU to be fed up with the lack of contact, or update and feel if you've specified a price for the whole thing, and then only replace part, the cost should be less not more?

I've checked the cost of the replaced part and it's £50-60. So that's £100 or thereabouts just on labour!

OP posts:

BackforGood · 06/01/2017 22:31

Ive used my local independent garage for 30yrs plus. One way of keeping prices a LOT lower than main dealers is that they don't employ receptjonsist etc., to faff around making calls to customers - wno are normally at work so wouldnt be able to pick up earlier even if they got a call..... you kind of expect your car to be there from when you drop it off to when you pick it up at the end of the day.
They can only give you an estimate until the job has been done - they won't know until they finish how long it will take. Even more so as they hadnt even seen it when they gave you their 'guesstimate'. They almost certainly assumed that was obvious to most people, who would t expect a phone call for a job coming in very close to their ball park guesstimate.
Yiu seem quite anxous about all this.
Cars are expensive. Everyone has told you what you were charged was reasonable.

Rowgtfc72 · 06/01/2017 22:31

New exhausts do smell. It's exhaust paste used to seal the exhaust. Smells rank. Shouldn't smell for too long.

allchattedout · 06/01/2017 22:33

Kwik fit garages are the best in the different area ps ive been living and i would go to them over anyone else as they know what they doing. Tried other garages and returned to kwit fit as less likely to be ripped off

Kwik Fit are a franchise, to be fair. Depends on who owns/runs it. You might have a good one in your area, but if you look online, the list of horror stories is long. My experience of them in my area is:
-booking in for a service and getting call telling me I need new brake cylinders and pads and new tyres (despite being well above legal tread limit) costing around £600 plus VAT. Telling them no (completely unnecessary- had had new brake pads a year earlier) and getting a very stroppy response.

-collecting car from service and driving it off and it sounding like the engine was falling out. Turning round and asking them to check it and first of all being met with 'there's nothing wrong with it'. Insisted and turns out some numbnut hadn't tightened the sparkplugs

telling me my car will certainly fail its next MOT (at the service) to persuade me to have work done. Car passes MOT with no faults at a different garage.
my friend taking car in for service and putting a pen mark on the oil filter because he didn't trust them. He went to pick it up and they said 'all done'. He asked if they changed the filter and they assured them they had. He opened the bonnet and showed them and they were ever so apologetic.

If you do some research into them, you will see that their business model is fucked up. Yes, you might get the odd franchise that is good, but I would never recommend anyone go there because the risk is too high that they will fuck you over.

SadTrombone · 06/01/2017 22:34

YANBU
Irrespective of whether the end cost is 'reasonable' as some PPs have pointed out - you were quoted an amount for some work. The work was undertaken- no contact was made with yourself for the duration of the work.
You should be expecting to pay what you were quoted- and no more.
If this were a decorating job and someone had quoted 100 then charged 150 without advising you or anything unexpected arising (if the latter - would still expect contact from service provider) - people would be furious (and rightly so!).
Just because this is work on a car doesn't mean all usual rules re sticking to quotes can be ignored or broken!

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus · 06/01/2017 22:39

But they quoted without seeing the job.
If someone quoted for a decorating job without seeing the room,they would be justified in amending their quote having seen the room.

londonrach · 06/01/2017 22:43

You are right allchatted they are franchise. Just very impressed with the three ive missed...two in the south, one in the midlands. My experienceof little independant garages are awful and dont get me on main dealers. One main dealer forgot to put the bolts back onto my wheel!!!!! That resulted in them coming out to my house (luckily only a few miles down the road) within 10 minutes of me leaving to put the bolts on the loose wheel and then we had to return to garage to tighten them. Scary ride back with me questioning if car was ok! Checked it on return home and almost died of shock on seeing no bolts. No idea how that wheel stayed on. Manager said the phone rang and they forgot to replace the bolts. Strangley never returned to that main dealer! I now check my wheels if my car has been serviced.

londonrach · 06/01/2017 22:44

Visited not missed autocorrect!!

LittleCandle · 06/01/2017 22:44

I had to get my exhaust back box replaced last year. It split from the chassis about 3 weeks after the annual service, but it wasn't something that you could have predicted. I was lucky to find a good Kwik Fit who tied up my exhaust for free (we were on the way to a funeral and had an 8 hour round trip). I was charged £130 for the work, which I thought was pretty good since I got it done at the dealership. So while they were wrong not to phone you, their charges were not out of the way.

As for the smell - new exhausts stink! It needs more than one short journey to get rid of it. I think, to be honest, you think you know more about cars than you do. If you were that sure of yourself, you would have attempted the repair yourself.

SadTrombone · 06/01/2017 22:46

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus
But they quoted without seeing the job.
If someone quoted for a decorating job without seeing the room,they would be justified in amending their quote having seen the room.
Absolutely- as long as they requoted before undertaking the work! Which the mechanics did not.

allchattedout · 06/01/2017 22:49

If you were that sure of yourself, you would have attempted the repair yourself

Errrr, not necessarily. It's not a great idea for anyone who is not a mechanic to attempt a repair like that. It can be dangerous. How would you suggest she welds the metal parts together or does everyone have that equipment lying around? Attempting own repairs (other than v simple ones) is a stupid idea and would invalidate any warranty on the car.

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus · 06/01/2017 22:57

But she wanted her car fixing. It was £15. No one needs a room decorating.

allybally73 · 06/01/2017 23:14

It wasn't £15.

Phone quote for part exhaust £80 + vat = £100
She paid £150 for part exhaust.

£50 difference. It is good business to keep customer Informed, keeps them happy and also ensures that they can actually pay for the work.

Garages are generally crap at phoning, so I would just contact them myself if a phone call is not forthcoming.

Suggest the op agrees price if poss before leaving car, or advise the garage to contact them with a price once they have a diagnosis and / or just phone them. Shop around for better garage, once you find a good one stick with them.

SadTrombone · 06/01/2017 23:15

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus

But she wanted her car fixing. It was £15. No one needs a room decorating.

My apologies. Clearly should have used a car based analogy- for the hard of thinking.

allchattedout · 06/01/2017 23:17

But actually ally, the estimate was for the back box. She ended up having the front of the exhaust replaced instead and the backbox was salvaged. The front exhaust is more expensive than the backbox, so it is not surprising that the work was dearer.

themueslicamel · 06/01/2017 23:26

Depends on the age of the car too, often the manufacturer puts on a long part but the replacement is made up of 2 separate parts and they didn't realise two were required until they were under there.

That said they should have called you to confirm

Original poster

hormonallyyours · 06/01/2017 23:33

My dad who was experienced in all sorts of car repairs, wouldn't have repaired an exhaust (other than a temporary repair) himself, because you need to be able to jack the car up etc, it's not the sort of job you attempt on a driveway.

I don't profess to be a mechanic, or to have any vast knowledge. I know how to maintain a car (yes you might think that's pretty basic but I know many women - and some men - who struggle checking tyre pressure/ putting air in tires, or checking oil etc). I knew when the exhaust split exactly what had happened, looked under the car to confirm and see where the split was, and then phoned garages to confirm. I knew the car was otherwise sound - I think it's quite normal to call a garage explaining the problem, especially when it's something so straightforward, and ask for a quote/ estimate for the repair cost. I certainly don't want to be the stereotypical woman driver who phones up saying 'ooh my cars making funny noises' .

It's just the same as if I had a problem with my boiler, or an appliance at home.

I'm afraid I don't buy the idea they were obviously too busy to call/ expected it to be collected at close of play - not least because when I dropped it off they specifically said they'd call, not that I should come back for it at 5pm.

And even aside from that, not being able to tell me the cost when i phoned at 4, and taking half an hour to phone back, is poor. So if I'd just assumed the car would be ready by 4 and pitched up then, with my £96, as apparently the garage would have expected me to...firstly I'd have been £50 short, and had to rush to a cashpoint, but only after Id waited up to half an hour for them to work out the bill...

OP posts:

laidbackmummy13 · 06/01/2017 23:36

You must have annoyed them. Sounds like they have patched with coppersnott (thus the smell). And 100 on labour for an exhaust repair is dirt cheap.

Ingles2 · 06/01/2017 23:36

Haha! You sound like a total nightmare!!! We are talking about £15 more right??

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus · 06/01/2017 23:44

SadTrombone. Fuck off.

SadTrombone · 06/01/2017 23:44

Ingles2

Haha! You sound like a total nightmare!!! We are talking about £15 more right?

Why can only half the people on this thread fucking count? It's £50 not £15. Would love to know what makes OP a "nightmare"...

SadTrombone · 06/01/2017 23:46

ExitPursuedBySantaSpartacus

SadTrombone. Fuck off.

Thanks for the witty riposte

Original poster

hormonallyyours · 06/01/2017 23:50

Yes I'm not sure why I sound a nightmare? Or on what basis I pissed them off? (given I only spoke to them three times in total, and left it from 7.30 til 4 to call, deliberately not to rush/ chase too soon!)

They said £132 for the whole exhaust, it charged me £150 for part of it.

I know some car exhausts cost more, but this is a small, budget make of car, with parts costing accordingly.

OP posts:

chipsandchilli · 06/01/2017 23:52

But they quoted on the phone £110 for the whole lot replaced, the exhaust for mine was £73 i think from euro car parts, ops saying about £60 for her car

They charged her £150 for one section replaced and the other 2 salvaged, she could have got the whole lot done for less than that. They didn't inform her of the cost increase or that they were just going to salvage some of it.

Kwick fit could have replaced the whole exhaust for £135 so she's paid £15 extra at the garage she used for one section replaced and the other 2 salvaged when the garage she used quoted £110 for the whole lot replaced.

Thats how i read it

allchattedout · 06/01/2017 23:59

I don't think you're a nightmare OP. Do they have a place for online reviews? If so, leave an honest review for them. Often they will contact you and you may get a partial refund. I did when I left a slightly negative review for a plumber. I think they were also Which recommended. Most businesses take that rating seriously.

Audreyhelp · 07/01/2017 06:32

No way are you a total nightmare you have done nothing wrong.
Just don't use them again and of course you ring round garages you are not going to drive round every garage to get a quote it would take time and petrol up.
If they saw the exhaust was more they should have rung you first to check that was ok.

Flip

1 2 3 4