To think they're trying to rip me off - shaking with rage!

[OneToughMudderFudder]

So booked car in for a full service before we set off on a road trip next week. Stupidly mentioned that to the guy when confirmed the booking [duh!].

Get called after an hour with the garage saying that they've found numerous things wrong with the car, including brakes needing stripping down, completely new brake fluid and engine flushing and they want an additional £700 to correct them (said very cheerily as if we have that just lying about).

Car sailed through its last MOT 6 months ago, all brakes were replaced last year, but apparently now its dangerous to drive . I haven't noticed any problems with the car apart from it being a little juddery very occasionally as it's an automatic diesel and needs a good long high speed run which it hasn't had recently, to burn off the diesel particulate filter, but it will get plenty of that over the next few weeks.

Guy was very rude when I said I would check with DH, saying the car was dangerous to drive, asking was I serious that I didn't want the work done! He was very annoyed I wasn't prepared to immediately agree to shell out there and then. I'm pretty sure they thought I would be freaked by them saying it was 'dangerous' because I'm a woman.

We had this a few years ago where we took both (different) our cars in for servicing and ended up paying nearly £2k for 'faults' they found. Not falling for that again.

Is this common when sending a car for a service? AIBU to think they were pulling a fast one?

Garages often try to take the piss with a woman. I would take it somewhere else.

Sorry but I would ever trust a garage without questioning. I would ask for a breakdown of what what wrong and an itemized quote to check with hubby (excuse). The say hubby wants a second opinion before going ahead with the work. Then take it to 2 more garages for the same check using the same excuses to take the car off their property.
Since taking my car to SEtyres I won't go anywhere else. I have taken my car to them multiple times with problems I thought the car had, only to be told on most of them, there is no problem with the car, it doesn't need any work. How many garages would do that with a female. If there is on in your area please check them out. Even when work is needed there is no pressure to get the work don. They are more than happy for you to take the car to other garages for a second opinion. I can not recommend them highly enough.

It’s not even just garages that’s try to rip off women.
I went to buy new carpet last week, and, after the measurer had been to my house, was quoted a price I knew was far too high (I’d carpeted the same area a few years earlier, and inflation has not been 250% since then!)
As sooner as I refused and told them I was going elsewhere for a rival quote, they suddenly caved in, asked what figure I had in mind, and then dropped the price by £800!
I was furious - presumably any customer too meek to haggle would just get ripped off.

Yes, they are almost certainly trying to rip you off, especially as you are a woman and your family needs the car for a holiday on a deadline.

I am very much a feminist but I always let my DH deal with the garage as they know not to try to put one past him.

Garage attached to car make dealership?

I took my car in to have a new door handle fitted. Told me it would take an hour or 2. Walked to local supermarket for brunch waiting for call. Finally got through after 2.5 hours and it's having a 'free check'. One I didn't ask for nor needed and I'd made it clear I didn't want to hang around as had autistic ds with me and had been assured it was a quick job.

Get car back all cleaned inside and out with a list of dangerous faults nearing 1k.

I nearly cried there and then.

Went to local garage who informed me only 1 thing was faulty and not an emergency and it cost me £68 quid to get it fixed.
Same garage passed it through it's MOT for next 2 years.

I've NEVER taken my car to the dealership for servicing or fixing again.

Renault tried this with me on day they gave car service and mot.
Phoned me saying I needed brakes replaced and other work done. Was going to cost well over 500.
I said so car failed mot? No it hasn't. Colour me confused but how has car passed when brakes need replacing?
Our standards are different to the government. Hahaha omg. I told them where to go.
Car passed mot no advisories at all.
Even official dealers are dodgy as hell.

I think we need a thread for us to share our car related tips. I can't find anywhere to start one, what would anyone suggest? Would be good to have somewhere to refer back to.
About 17 months ago i bought a secondhand car from a local independent dealer. It had failed the MOT but the guy said he was going to get the issues rectified before selling it to me, and sure enough when i collected it, it has passed its MOT.
A year later a took to my car to my local, and very trusted garage, and the car failed on the brakes and needed quite a lot of work. The mechanic checked the mot history and the car had previously failed on the brakes just prior to when i bought it. If I remember correctly, it needed the discs and pads replacing. So either the guy I bought it from had some kind of deal with the garage he uses to get it through the mot, or the garage just ignored that fault. I had only driven about 5k in the year after I bought the car so there was no way they would have needed doing AGAIN in that time.
I was advised that if I had taken the car for an mot within a year of it passing , I could have complained to VOSA but as it had been over a year I couldn't.
So my advice would be to anyone buying a secondhand car through a dealer.. Get it MOTd yourself straight after. Its worth paying the £40 for your own peace of mind (and you may have some warranty too).
And I concur, I am absolutely sick of "faults" being found when you take your car for one little job. Until i found the garage I currently use, I had very little faith in what i was told by mechanics who always found more extra work that needed doing.

I would ask for a breakdown of what what wrong and an itemized quote to check with hubby (excuse). The say hubby wants a second opinion before going ahead with the work.

Why bring ‘hubby’ into this?

You can ask for an itemised quote and a second opinion for yourself!

About 10 years ago I took our car to the Ford dealership for its service where we'd been taking it since car was new and it apparently needed over 600 quid of work. Going through the list it was clear that lots of the things were optional, or we could source things cheaper. They lied to us about having to have tyres with air pressure monitors (they told us they were compulsory). We got them to do the absolute minimum which ended up being a few hundred quid and we never went back.