Charging £48 to change a light bulb?

[businessflop25]

Car went in for MOT yesterday. Needed headlight bulb changed but other than that it passed. Was charged £48 for labour, £25 for the light bulb and £54 for the MOT.
Took less than 5 mins to change the bulb (I was there when it was changed). AIBU to feel £48 labour is a bit steep for 5 mins work? Don’t think they are supposed to charge labour for the actual MOT? Didn’t quibble at the time as I don’t notice the charge until I got home and he didn’t actually tell me how much it was I just paid stupidly.

I’ve never been charged for something like that. And £73 for a light bulb is ridiculous

An MoT charge is exactly that. No added labour costs.

You've been ripped off for £48 to fit a bulb.

@businessflop25

Your car, almost any brand, comes with an owner's manual. Open it up, find the reference for changing bulbs, wipers, etc and follow that.

Take out the dodgy bulb at a budget/fair-priced spare parts shop. Let the counter-jumper look at the lettering/info on the side (or get it from the owner's manual).

Pay the price. Go out front to the car-park. Insert/install the new bulb. Test light(s).

Take away the stress of complaining about mechanics/plumbers/dentists paying themselves like millionaires with (what you consider to be) high hourly rates or large fee-for-service charges.

Lots of people come to me for my professional services and feign heart-attacks and apoplexy when I tell them that I start at $AUD77 per hour.

I also do not b1tch when my dentist wants $AUD425 for a moderately complex filling repair ... but I did not go to university for 6 or 7 years, and I do not have a $75000 treatment chair, a dental nurse, a hygienist, a receptionist, etc. It's all relative.

If you can't or won't do minor maintenance to your house or car, you pay the going rate or shop around.

The going rate......£48 for 5 mins, which the op states how long it took to change the bulb.

Work out how much that is an hour.....

If you can't or won't do minor maintenance to your house or car, you pay the going rate or shop around.
It's not the going rate though. When a mechanic rings you and asks if you want them to change the bulb or does it and tells you after the fact, you reasonably expect maybe £10. You don't say "sorry, STOP MY MOT I MUST SHOP AROUND TO GET A FAIR PRICE". They don't exactly have a price list on the door. OP's been ripped off. But thank god a random man came on the thread to tell her to suck it up. 🙄

I had 2 headlights fitted yesterday, which I supplied myself. The local garage charged me £20 for both and it took about 10 minutes. I have done it myself in the past, but at this current time I am up against it with other stuff and after initially trying I had trouble getting my hands into the small gap to do it.

My car failed an MOT once on a headlight out of adjustment, and the tester wanted to charge me £16 to adjust the headlight. Adjusting the headlight consists of turning a screw at the side of the headlight and literally took me 10 seconds.

I would never pay an MOT station do any work to pass a car. My current garage will just change a bulb or a windscreen wiper (or do similar little jobs) for free if that's all it needs to pass.

KwikFit or Halfords?

Of course you’ll be charged labour to fix anything that it’s failed on though.

£48 is a bit steep, I’m guessing it’s a main dealer. Probably a minimum 15 or 20 min charge. The bulb change may well be 5 mins but there’s extra time involved in potentially moving the car, fetching the bulb, doing the paperwork etc.

Assuming an easy change and a standard H4 bulb, I’d probably charge £20-£25 including the bulb.

I’ve been to Halfords and couple of times and it’s usually £15 including the bulb. I know I could do it a bit cheaper myself but I can’t be bothered!

My car failed an MOT once on a headlight out of adjustment, and the tester wanted to charge me £16 to adjust the headlight. Adjusting the headlight consists of turning a screw at the side of the headlight and literally took me 10 seconds.

That’s literally the only thing a tester is allowed to fix during a test as it requires the MOT equipment to set properly. We wouldn’t charge for it during a test but if someone came in just wanting a headlight alignment then we’d charge 15 mins labour (unless a regular customer, friend etc).

Who was it? Was it a big company/well known name?

We used to use Halfords, and they used to charge around £30 to £38 to supply and fit a new light bulb for the headlights/sidelights etc. And they didn't even give it a guarantee. This was early 2010s... (We have a Vauxhall Astra.)

Then when we moved to the rural area we live now, we went to a little garage run by 3 brothers, and asked them to replace the same bulb (but on the other headlight,) and they charged £7.00. (Just 18 months after the last one that cost us £38.)

We nearly keeled over from the shock of how cheap it was. Took them 2 minutes to do, and yet Halfords used to make a meal of it, and take 20 minutes. Said we were paying for the 'labour' when we questioned the price once. Utter fucking rip off merchants.

I am still angry at how much Halfords charged and how we were clearly ripped off by them for some years.

I think the problem is that it is 5 minutes to someone who knows what they are doing. It would take me a good hour to work out how the hell to replace a lightbulb in my car and assuming I even bought the right bulb in the first place. You are paying for experience and convenience.

OP, ask your garage to provide you with a breakdown of their Labour rates: if they are a main dealer, they have a set amount they charge per 1/10th of an hour (or they used to, anyway!)
I remember when this was £14.00 for Fiat, but that was a long time ago!

Or you could check the bulbs before you send it in for an MOT. It's not hard, although fitting the bulb might be, some are extremely fiddly and many people would rather just pay.

While £48 seems a lot, its probably the minimum charge.

I've changed one myself before. The issue is probably the alignment in DIY. In fact when I took the car in for the MOT after the garage moaned that "someone" had fitted a bulb and it was not aligned properly. I just kept my mouth shut.

Normally it is fairly easy to change a bulb. But some cars are stupid and it takes forever. This might be why the charges tend to be quite high from chains. Because the standard price not only has to cover the 5 minute job, but the one that takes 30 mins.

You could have had your MOT done got the failure certificate and taken it elsewhere for the minor repair or you could have replaced it yourself and taken it back. There is no charge for a retest.
The MOT cost is purely for the test.

How many Mumsnetters would it take to change a lightbulb?

Sorry, Op I couldn't resist but what happened to you isn't funny.

Well, anyone charging money for it should 'know what they're doing!'

It's called a stupidity tax. You've probably been driving around illegally for days.

Did they contact you to ask if they could do the work required? They should have told you what it was and how much before they did the work. You have 10 working days to put right anything that fails on an MOT and then retest it, but then it would depend if they would charge to retest I suppose

Presumably OP knew there was a headlight bulb out. You’d have to be an appalling driver not to notice unless you never drive at night.

I drove home, shone the headlights up against the garage wall, and adjusted the out of alignment one so it matched the one that was ok. I drove it back and he very grudgingly passed it. I didn't realise that the tester could adjust it and it seemed very tight. I think it was because I had a discount voucher for the MOT, and despite it being a large national chain, they probably wanted to make their money back up. I would never use the company again.

No small independent garage who I have been using for more than a decade. Never had an issue with them before. Hence not wanting to complain and ruin an otherwise good relationship!

The headlight bulb was not out! It’s been changed as per manufactures guidance as it was too bright!

I might, in an emergency, and very very begrudgingly buy something from Halfords if I absolutely had to and had no other option, but their rip off prices (£10 to clip on wiper blades) are shocking.

They usually hide it as an all in price with the product so a pair of wiper blades is "only £25" including fitting, but £10 to fit is a con.

I did a pair for an elderly lady outside of Halfords to save her the fee.

I only got the headlights done at the garage yesterday, because I had tried and failed already and I didn't have the time to mess about.