Taken the piss

martin gillespie

Left the other halfs 2002 vectra in for front and rear bushins replacement, got the car back after 3 weeks , yes i kid you not.
I gave the Garage owner 250 euro , and told him to give me a bell with the final amount (1200)
I siad explain , front and rear bushins , service (i did not ask for ) rear disck brake plates(did not ask for )2x control arms and 17 hours labour.
Where do i stand with this

Bpmull

So they never asked you about any of the extra work before doing it and you only brought it in to get front and rear bushing or was it control arms aswell.

MuppetCheck

I wouldn't be paying the rest tbh. Get someone to have a look and see if the other bits are actually done.

martin gillespie

Bpmull wrote: »

So they never asked you about any of the extra work before doing it and you only brought it in to get front and rear bushing or was it control arms aswell.

No just the bushins , he even quoted me 400 for the job .

Toyotafanboi

this has to be a contender for thread of the year.

2002 vectra, €1200, 3 weeks and 17 hours labour for some bushings changed.

that's more than the car is worth. tell him to keep it, you'l buy an NCT'd 02 vectra for less.

seriously though, what bushings were you looking to get changed? if it was just anti roll bar bushings, even €250 was too expensive. or was it wishbone or subframe bushings? was it for the NCT?

who has the car now, you or the garage?

edit: just at a glance, it looks like you could replace the whole car for a newer NCT'd version for a little more than half of what he's asking for repairs. i know this isn't strictly how the game works, but if you're genuinely stuck and dealing with some sort of con man, use it as a negotiating point.
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/03-opel-vectra/8123050
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-vectra-for-sale-price-drop-for-quick-sale/8095261
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-vectra-tax-nct/8070703

martin gillespie

We have the car back , there was 10 bushins in total 6 rear 4 front.Sorry for the mistake

CiniO

martin gillespie wrote: »

We have the car back , there was 20 bushins in total 6 rear 4 front.

So let me summarise.

You left a 12 year old car worth feck all, for changing bushings (front and rear) and paid the garage man 250 quid.
Then 3 weeks later, he finishes the job, which includes changing 20 bushings (6 in the rear and 4 in the front, and god only knows where's the other 10), additionally he did give the car a service, changes rear disck brake plates (whatever they are), and two control arms...
All this took him 17 hours, and he is asking you for 1200 euro for the job.

For me it sound absurdally ridiculous.

Toyotafanboi

CiniO wrote: »

6+4=20 ????

i'd say he meant per side. either that or he his "2" instead of "1!

bazz26

Did you not think of asking them what's going on when they had the car so long? Since you have the car back I presume you have already paid them.

Toyotafanboi

did you get a written or printed invoice? were you in a main dealer?

give us a bit of background

martin gillespie

bazz26 wrote: »

Did you not think of asking them what's going on when they had the car so long? Since you have the car back I presume you have already paid them.

No i gave him 250 , and was to pay what i taught about another 250 this week then he hit me with 1200.

Kevin McCloud

Is he expecting you to buy the ky jelly too op?

martin gillespie

Local Garage , i have used him.a few times , not always happy , but he is handy , every time i rang about the car i got fobbed of , waiting for an arm etc . I have noticed he has been loosing buisness the last few months , i was going to put my old merc in , not now.i will get a detailed list of work carried out , and contact a few Garages for a quote, i only paid 400 for the vectra , Def not worth 1200 worth of work ?

martin gillespie

Kevin McCloud wrote: »

Is he expecting you to buy the ky jelly too op?

No thats part of the service

eringobragh

martin gillespie wrote: »

No thats part of the service

It sure is :cool:

Toyotafanboi

martin gillespie wrote: »

Def not worth 1200 worth of work ?

definitely not.

i guess all you can do at this point is negotiate with him and try to get out as unscathed as possible.

€1200 is on another planet, as is 17 hours labour imo, you were paying a competent professional, not someone to **** around, that's two and a half full working days, the equivalent of clocking on Monday morning at 9am and finished up Wednesday after lunch.

lets take an average case, say the bushes were €20 a pop and there's ten of them, that's €200. that leaves €1k and 17 hours which works out at just shy of €60 an hour. not the most un-reasonable labour rate, but i can't help but feel like 17 hours is too many.

Tail Docker

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

definitely not.

i guess all you can do at this point is negotiate with him and try to get out as unscathed as possible.

€1200 is on another planet, as is 17 hours labour imo, you were paying a competent professional, not someone to **** around, that's two and a half full working days, the equivalent of clocking on Monday morning at 9am and finished up Wednesday after lunch.

lets take an average case, say the bushes were €20 a pop and there's ten of them, that's €200. that leaves €1k and 17 hours which works out at just shy of €60 an hour. not the most un-reasonable labour rate, but i can't help but feel like 17 hours is too many.

It's a Vectra, therefore everything was seized into place using the force of "The rust". I had one ages ago and hated working on it. Everything took forever. And maybe the bushes were 35 or 40 each. The garage is kinda having a laugh, but not a huge laugh, maybe just a little smile...

EazyD

17 hours labour for that is absolutely ridiculous.

Kenny Logins

Regardless of the cost of parts and the hours put into the job, at some point he should have stopped to think "Car isn't even worth that. Batter call the customer", but didn't. On that basis. I'm out.

bladespin

Didn't ask = Don't pay.

Tail Docker

EazyD wrote: »

17 hours labour for that is absolutely ridiculous.

What if two lads worked on the car for one full day? That's pdc to 17 hours labour...

corglass

bladespin wrote: »

Didn't ask = Don't pay.

What he said

visual

Tail Docker wrote: »

What if two lads worked on the car for one full day? That's pdc to 17 hours labour...

They should consider a job in the council

wexie

visual wrote: »

They should consider a job in the council

pfffft....they wouldn't work 17 hours between two of them in a week

Voodoomelon

I laughed out loud when I heard 17 hours.

On a more helpful note, he's taking you for a ride and you are under no obligation to pay for work you didn't discuss.

goz83

I would pay him nothing. You did not ask for this work. He did not ask if you wanted this work done. He is a mechanic and knew the car was worth half of the number he pulled out of his ar$e. He is losing business for a reason. It takes most garages a couple of hours to get bushings, not weeks. Keeping a customers car that period of time for that kind of work is a joke in itself.

mickdw

Doing work to that value without asking even if dealing with a 50k car is out of the question.
Doing work to that Value on a car worth less than the repair cost is just taking the piss.
Anyone mechanic with an ounce of sense would stop and advise the owner that is not economical to continue even if initially advised to replace x,y and z.

vibe666

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I laughed out loud when I heard 17 hours.

Stevie Wonder could have done it in less than that!

robtri

jaysis this man has a hard neck... asking that

i be telling him that, since you didnt ask for the work you will not be paying, if he wants the parts back, tell him to give you our old parts, plus 17 hours labour costs and you will have another garage swap the parts back out and return them to him....

johndaman66

Am I correct in thinking you lifted the car but still have to pay him the massive balance outstanding. If so I reckon you done yourself no favours there legally. In effect you sort of accepted the work done. Maybe somebody could clarify for sure the where the law stands on this?

I'd have told him to take it all off again and replace with old components. Not the first time I heard such a story though...

wandererz

martin gillespie wrote: »

Taken the piss

Where have you taken it to though?

bear1

Why did you pay for the work to be done up front? Never heard of paying for a job before actually starting the job.
Plus, 3 weeks? Were you not constantly on the phone asking wtf?
I'd refuse to pay. You paid 250e which in itself was robbery for what is a straight enough job so I would leave it at that. Get the police involved if you have to.

fartman

I feel your pain op ..some garage out there are just taking the piss out of people..i had a lot of crap from my local indy garage saying you need this done and that done and i knew the car was grand so i brought it to another place and they said the car was in perfect condition and did not need that work done on it at all ..so went back to them and had it out with them to be honest i nearly hit him a box for trying to scam me,i tell ya it took me the full day to calm down after that..i would tell him to f##k off and thats it mate you have to stand up to them.

Wossack

martin gillespie wrote: »

Local Garage , i have used him.a few times , not always happy , but he is handy , every time i rang about the car i got fobbed of , waiting for an arm etc . I have noticed he has been loosing buisness the last few months , i was going to put my old merc in , not now.i will get a detailed list of work carried out , and contact a few Garages for a quote, i only paid 400 for the vectra , Def not worth 1200 worth of work ?

'waiting for an arm'... was that not a bit of a warning bell for ya there, seeing as you say you mentioned bushings only to him?

CJhaughey

Wossack wrote: »

'waiting for an arm'... was that not a bit of a warning bell for ya there, seeing as you say you mentioned bushings only to him?

Waiting for a chance to chance his arm is what it sounds like.

Caliden

Tail Docker wrote: »

What if two lads worked on the car for one full day? That's pdc to 17 hours labour...

Then the OP would have the car back after 1 day, not 3 weeks later...

bear1

Caliden wrote: »

Then the OP would have the car back after 1 day, not 3 weeks later...

Laughed at this

OldmanMondeo

I just checked a catalogue and there would easy be 20 bushings on those Vectra's. Granted you looking at chaning on all arms and shock bushings as well.

OP mechanic is taken the piss big time.