To feel ripped off (garage)?

[TheAverageJoanne]

During the icy weather I damaged the door handle on my car driver's side door so it was hanging off. I did some googling and found it's a design fault (Fiat 500) and reading a lot of posts on an owners' forum I joined they advised posters to ask a garage to source a genuine Fiat part and not buy "Chinese rubbish" from eBay or Amazon for £20 or thereabouts as they don't last and you have to start over again, or the screws and fittings aren't right.

I need the car for my job (not just travel to work) so I found somewhere local to where I'd be based today and they ordered the handle and fitted it today. I was remiss in not getting a quote first I know but the total bill is £297.65. For fitting a bloody door handle.

I can't not pay. But is it excessive? I'd have thought a garage would have been able to get a Fiat part for trade cheaper than me. I'm going to ask for a breakdown of costs but it seems everyone is ripping everyone off when they can just using "cost of living" as the same excuse as covid.

Forgot to add - we did an entire replacement handle. I don't know how the repair kit differs, we just replaced the whole sodding thing then part-exchanged it before it broke again

Have you collected your car ?
Are you going to share with us the bill - breakdown ?

Sounds about right £147 for the part £50:vat and &97 odd Labour

Sticker shock sucks with car repairs… but it sounds normal to me.

Yes, next time ask for an estimate…and by all means shop around, but it doesn’t sound like you had too many options

@Tessasanderson Same car, exactly same problem handle came off when it was freezing. Yes charged for a full handle kit.

Reading these posts I CBA to ask for a breakdown as it's probably fair, and I've had a very long, partly lousy day.

Hey @Ledwood85 , remember i have done it 4 x. I think the first time took me 2hrs because i was second guessing and trying not to damage anything. By the 4th time i was able to just do it.

If you watch the video the repair kit is amazingly simple. Its a metal hinge held on by a screw and a nut. Absolutely no wear caused to the handle so no need to replace it.

Yes that rod that needs disconnected is a bit of a PITA. The little collar that holds it in, once you know you can undo it with your eyes closed. Even removing the door card became very easy to do. Remove the allen bolts and Pop it around a few of the clips. Then pull out and lift.

A mechanic can do this job with his eyes closed in 30 mins. I would agree they would probably charge 1 hr and that isnt entirely unreasonable as rushing causes damage. So £100 labour, £20 part.

We were quoted £700 a few years ago to replace the casing of the wing mirror on my golf. It was a local small garage. Cars are expensive! My husband ended up.buying a cheap part off eBay for £50 and doing it himself. It was easy!

Hi

Lesson learnt. Never please do that again as many get caught out

About the bill, looks high but it takes time to take off door trim etc plus price of part and VAT - looks reasonable but I hear you

One of our cars a MB - MB labour rates are about 220 an hour - just to get pads done on non-high spect large SUV is around 400+ just for one set of brake pads.