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.

Won’t Halfords do it free!

Why does my garage charge £7 then? (To change a headlight or side light bulb?) I'll tell you why. Because it takes less than 5 minutes. Charging nearly 50 quid is an utter rip off. As I said, Halfords always charged me £30 to £38, a decade ago.

Interesting. What car is it?

Clearly you have not had a bulb replaced at Halfords!

Blimey. Our local garage used to do it for free 😂

Also it's incredibly hard with some of the other models, my Dad used to struggle for ages with his Insignia because it was so fiddly.

But what they charged is well out of order.

You say that, but my old avensis needed the whole front of the car taking off to do properly - thankfully i have kids with tiny hands.....

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).

The more 'modern' cars become the harder and harder it is for a lay person to do small bits of maintenance and repair. Changing the bulb on my Allegro and my old Micra was as easy as pie. Once you start having to remove casing, unscrewing things, trying to reach tiny clips etc I get a bit nervous. Firstly I don't want to break something and secondly I don't want to risk installing a bulb incorrectly and driving round illegally.

I think it's a conspiracy! Something as important a car light bulbs should be easy to replace.

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

That's crazy, shouldn't the main dealer have done it as a recall?

(However I am all for bright car lights being replaced with less bright ones, they are a menace on the roads at night.)

I have previously had wipers be the cause of mot failure, but they called before and quoted a reasonable price to change, so i went with it. If they didn't ask you and then charged you that much, I would be upset.

I used to get bulbs done at halfords for a tenner and my car was awkward so it involved lots of unscrews stuff to access. Now I have the horrible led bulbs, so they should last for many years, but eventual changing will cost a fortune.

No need to get angry at me, I was just stating most garages have a minimum charge now. If yours only charges £7 to change a bulb then that's great, wish mine would but I'm fortunate that I can do basic maintenance (thanks dad) so little jobs like that I don't have to go to the garage. It's just what the mechanics have told me when I've gone in for bigger jobs that they've decided to put in a minimum charge. They obviously have their reasons and it's not for me to argue that as they are the ones that are qualified to do the work. If it was easy we'd be doing all the repairs to our own cars 🤷🏼‍♀️ to be fair to the OP though the guy doing the MOT really should have checked with them first on cost before just doing it to pass the MOT, perhaps the OP may have been able to change it themselves only needing to pay for the bulb.

This is an old story my Dad told me.

^There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired. Several years later his company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine fixed, but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day he marked a small “x” in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, “This is where your problem is.” The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again.
The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly:
One chalk mark………………….$1
Knowing where to put it……..$49,999
It was paid in full and the engineer retired in peace^

They sort of have. But because it’s not an urgent safety recall there is not urgency to have them replaced, nor at the moment is it compulsory.
Mine had to be replaced as six months ago someone drove into my parked car and smashed the passenger side lights. You can no longer get the old bulbs so the new style was put in. They did not replace the one in the opposite side. Now to pass the mot the drivers side one had to be replaced to match the passenger side.

Going to guess the Op wasn’t offered this option - that they changed it because it would not have pass the MOT without a light.

Patronising her with a description of how to change the bulb was uncalled for.

Now to pass the mot the drivers side one had to be replaced to match the passenger side.

That would piss me off TBH. Whoever fixed the broken light should have told you to replace the other one at the same time. Presumably technically you've been driving round in a car that was considered unsafe (absolutely not your fault but who knows how an insurance company would have viewed it).

I’d be interested to know the exact wording of the MOT fail as well.

I had to look it up, head light too bright is a fail so I'd guess thats what the wording was

They told us it would probably have to be replaced but the insurance company wouldn’t cover that at the time. The vehicle in question is used primarily off road as a farm runabout. We use it for towing when we need to but mainly for driving between units up and down our track. So it’s not been a high priority until now especially as having bright lights is blooming useful at times. Only a few days ago we were repairing fences in the dark using it as a work light 😂

My garage did it for free when I had a bulb registering as out due to a wiring issue. They fixed the wire and didn’t charge me anything. (I already had the spare bulb.)

As someone else stated, is it a truly a 5 min job or more than that?

I remember on my first cars in the 90s, it was literally pop off the rubber cover on the back of the light, twist the bulb housing out, remove, replace, put back together. Two minutes max. Today with some cars you may have to go as far as to jack it up, take the wheel off, wheel liner out, remove bumper, remove headlight... you get the idea. Sadly one of mine is like this. Hours of work. It's an extreme example but want to make the point your car could be a little more complex than the way things used to be (5mins).

Anyway, £48 sounds like about half an hour of a garages standard labour time. Looks like they charged that, which may well be their minimum for all/any services. Other garages may do it for less or have a set fee for bulbs, others may do it for free since they have a relationship/ongoing business with you.

What I would do? Check to see if yours is indeed a 5min job. If it is, maybe ask them if they could refund it. Nothing to lose. If they stand their ground, politely inform them that's a shame and that you won't be returning to them.

Like most things in life, some businesses will let the little things slide for the sake of ongoing repeat business and reputation, others will want to nail you on every little thing. Choose who you want to do business with based on that.

Ah just saw that it was indeed a 5 min job in your OP. Ignore my first para!

My car dealer ( for my not fancy make) wanted £150 just to plug it in for a diagnostic check. Which you can’t do yourself.

Think that’s fairly average now
We are £210 for diagnostic

Bloody hell! Calm down! Also this is in the UK not Australia