advice please!

Hi Newbie here but not been on for while.

Sometime ago I got work done on my car from an independent performance garage. Long story short...the owner charged me £1700 for an mot, some minor cosmetic work to the exterior (HID kit fitted, and some other bulbs upgraded). He also replaced the rear upper wishbone bushes with polyurethane ones (part of the MOT failure) and claims he had to get them sent from Australia?? He also replaced a couple of blown bulbs In the dashboard. Invoice states he spent over 32 hours in total working on the car, but when we challenged the mechanic who did the work, he said he spent less than 15 hours in total.

As a "good will gesture" the owner reduce the bill to £1400, but I'm still not happy with that. I settled the bill under protest and now plan to take him to the small claims court.

Want to be prepared for when I do, so needing to know, does 32 hours and £1400 to do the above work seem excessive?

I can provide the garage name, (it in Fife, Scotland though) but not sure If I'm breaking any rules so will hold back until I'm told otherwise.

Thanks guys and dolls!

Sheila

Do you have break down of what he charged for parts? I would be like WTF if I got that bill...

You should of come here, alot of our members are from Scotland and could and would of probably helped if not done that work for less (haribos)

32 hours sounds very extreme to me, i'd have thought there's a days work max on the jobs

you mention, rear upper arm bushes are readily available here in the UK

http://www.garagewhifbitz.co.uk/index.php/super-pro-2054.html

surely they was telling you the parts that was needing doing and how much it was going to cost as it went on ?

surely they was telling you the parts that was needing doing and how much it was going to cost as it went on ?

Did you agree to them doing the work? Supplying parts? That seems massively excessive to me.

Thanks for replying yep I have a sort of breakdown the parts came to 189.00 the rest was labour. I asked around other garages for quotes but they don't want to get involved! they wont tell you anything you have to take car in which costs more money!Has been an absolute nightmare, just worried that when I take him to court I might have to pay him more if I lose

Hi thanks for replying! 32 hours is extreme I just wanted to double check before I go any further with court proceedings but think I have a case!

Nope they did not inform me how much it was going to cost if they had I would have stopped them

Are you female?

I'm guessing so with your forum name.

I'm just wondering if they did you over because of that fact

There is no way that work took that long or to charge that much

Especially if parts were just £189

Yep I am a female lol! I have tried other garages for quotes but they wont get involved need to produce quotes when this goes to court! I know he has charged me far too much for what he did but proving it is the thing!

So he is charging you £1,511 for labour? At 32 hours that works out at £47.20 an hour.

Roughly how long did he have the car?

The HID's can be fitted within 30 mins as they are generally plug & play, maybe another 30 mins for securely it to the body. The bulbs shouldn't take long either, 1 hour labour at most as these dashes are easy to take off for replacing bulbs or fitting audio. Not sure how long the work on the upper wish bone bushes would be as I have never done them selves but like Dunk says I'd imagine this could all be easily done within 1 day inc MOT.

I'd gather evidence first, so start with the invoice and list exactly what work was carried out, each job.

I would say 5 or 6 hours all told, MAX.

I would say 5 or 6 hours all told, MAX.

An that is from a mechanic, so think you have your answer

Yep I am a female lol! I have tried other garages for quotes but they wont get involved need to produce quotes when this goes to court! I know he has charged me far too much for what he did but proving it is the thing!

Where you located?

And which garage?

Try a few of the traders on here for a quote.

Garage whiffbits is a supra specialist so that may hold some sway in court.

I would say you've been ripped off.

What cosmetic work was done? As that could be where the money has gone into.

Can you list everything that was carried out?

I was being generous at a day (8hrs) not sure how they could possibly take 4 days to do the work

I wouldn't be knocking £300 off a bill if i thought it was correct, good will my ass, the bill

should be more like £600

Afraid its a steep learning curve, you should always get a couple of quotes on anything you pay

to have done these days no matter what it is.

I am located near Forfar and the garage was Falkland performance in fife. The work was mot,fitted two new brake pads, fit four bushes, new windscreen wipers, replaced bulbs in dials, removed hid kit for mot then replaced, fit a strip of led lights to front grill, replaced door speakers with new ones, checked on bosch 560.

The worst job on that list is the bushes, they can be a bit of a pain to remove the old ones but a press should make light work of it....and he must have had one to fit the new bushes! A few other odds and sods too but I agree with the others, a days work max. Let's be real generous here in case he ran into other problems (not forgetting these are 15+ year old cars) and call it 10 hours labour. That's under £500, plus parts at £200 leaves you with a £700 bill max. I'd be asking him to justify how it's taken so long!! Did he do it blindfolded for a bet or something?

Anyone got the workshop manuals or auto data to look up the book time on this little lot?

When I went to pick car up he would not give it to me until I paid the full balance also the car wouldn't start lol so it was awful. I wrote on the receipt at the time paid under protest and have since been in touch with various garages for quotes but they don't want to get involved. I want to take this garage to court and I am going to self represent myself as don't have pennies for lawyer so I need as much help as I can get. Really appreciate the fact that you guys have taken the time to reply

I would say 5 or 6 hours all told, MAX.

Thanks for replying much appreciated, just need to do some homework before this goes to courtroom

make sure you have all the receipts etc of work carried out ,escpecially one for parts used,with proof of part costs from suppliers ...id try your very best to get at least two other written quotations from other garages for the work involved that will include "worst case scenario" labour cost,do you explain to them that its for court?I would say aye,but like youve been having people will be reluctant ,im afraid i agree with one of the previous posters that because you are female that they probably took feckin advantage the kants!

might turn out to be a very expensive and harsh learing curve for when it comes to owning these types of cars unfortunately ,and lot of us have been there and been bit in the arse at some stage:(

hope you get somwere with it in court though and get som sort of money back!

When I went to pick car up he would not give it to me until I paid the full balance also the car wouldn't start lol so it was awful.

I don't want to scare you or anything but are you sure you have the same engine you drove in with?

Dodgy mother fu**ers have no limits...

Sounds like daylight robbery. Good luck with the small claims court proceeding - think you'll find that he will claim bankruptcy and absolve of any responsibility - typical scum

Go to a garage in a different town,

Ask them for a quite on the work that's needed, don't say you've had it done or it's for court.

Then ask the garage to check the parts that you asked the quote for.

I've been in a similar situation before, I travelled to quite a few different garages, called a few etc then went to two different garages to check the car over for the parts I asked to get replaced.

Turned out that some wasn't even touched.

Went back to first garage with all the evidence, good them I'd spoken to CAB and they panicked and gave me a refund.

Now, I ask to check my old parts to be sure and see the damage.

Now, I ask to check my old parts to be sure and see the damage.

Good point of note Al.

surely they was telling you the parts that was needing doing and how much it was going to cost as it went on ?

This isn't the old days. My last twenty experiences with garages has been them not mentioning costs or price until they are either asked (several times), or the 'job' is done. If you do pin them down for an answer, they fire back with 'we don't know yet, it could take XX amount of time or YY amount of time.

Sadly, honesty and mechanics rank up there with honesty and politics.

I've yet to meet any one I trust concerning Supras and I find it ridiculous having to drive several hours to London area just to find some of the people on the forums here.

What Sheila experienced is not uncommon.

My only advisement in this matter is concerning the court appearance and that is to be confident but not scripted. While judges should rule on facts, personality can play a large part in small claims courts, where often disputes are rooted in some level of domestic/consumer affairs.