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Post by Ben on Jun 10, 2008 16:13:23 GMT
Just to get people up to speed... Had my Saxo written off in February by an uninsured Polish HGV driver... Which was nice. Was then deemed the proud owner of a 1.6L Vauxhall Astra, which sent my insurance through the roof (Gonna be veeeery expensive in November when it's due ) Anyway... My car's recently been making a bit of a rattling, coming from the engine. Not good. Decided to take it into the garage yesterday morning. I said to them "Right, I'll leave it with you, give us a ring and let me know what's going on"... Yesterday I didn't hear anything, which I kinda expected as they said it'd probs not get seen til today. Today, didn't hear anything despite seeing the guy looking at it when I went past this morning, until about an hour ago, when I got a voicemail saying "Your car's ready for collection"... Er? Rang them back, they went through what they'd done... The bill total? £350. Three hundred... And fifty fucking quid. I need it back before Friday so I said I'd pick it up in the morning, but to do £350 worth of work on it when I just wanted to know what was up is... Well... Dare I say illegal?! I can't afford this
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Post by bigospedros on Jun 10, 2008 16:45:57 GMT
there would be a cost associated with the diagnostics work so for them to check it was never going to be free, but they should've called you first before carrying out the remedial work. Unless of course the work done was 100% required for the car to a) work or b) be road legal ... then you'd have no choice anyway.
I'd speak to the garage manager about it, anyway.
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Post by homeforsummer on Jun 10, 2008 18:01:52 GMT
Ask them for an itemised bill of exactly what they've done. There's no way an Astra would incur £350 in labour costs to investigate an engine rattle and any actual repairs they've done, they should have contacted you first.
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Post by Ben on Jun 10, 2008 18:42:05 GMT
He listed what they've done over the phone when he called me... Needed a new water pump, new cam belt + tensioners, and some other stuff that I can't remember Went through all the prices etc too
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Post by bigospedros on Jun 10, 2008 19:54:56 GMT
even so, most garages don't replace these things without your permission. You need to ask him why they did the work without doing that. Explain to them that given the price, you might not have asked them to do all the work ... even if the work was completely necessary.
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Post by [Ghost] on Jun 11, 2008 11:19:56 GMT
I was very unlucky couple of weeks ago, car started pouring out with smoke and turned out the head gasket had gone, among other things. Took it to a garage, where they looked around and estimated a cost of anything up to £900, and asked if I wanted the work done. I was due to sell the car anyway as I've got a Ford Escort that I've fixed up, bigger engine etc, so decided that for a 106 it would probably only be worth £900 anyway, so I chose not to have the work done and sell it to the garage instead and accepted my losses...
Anyway, the moral of this shitty tale, is that they asked me if I wanted the work done, so I had options. There is no way I could afford £900 at the moment anyway, with my plans to go to Uni this year meaning I have to pay off a loan etc before September. If they had of done the work first and then asked for the bill well...I have no idea what I would have done. It all sounds very, very dodgy to me mate...
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Post by xuenilom on Jun 11, 2008 16:12:57 GMT
I wouldn't trust any of these Garages, I've heard too many stories.
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Post by Stacey on Jun 11, 2008 17:50:06 GMT
I'm quite lucky as dad used to work for Ford and his oldest friend is a mechanic so i can always check whether work that needs doing is priced right.
But yeah, as with anything you have to be careful nowadays.
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becca
Polythene
Posts: 464
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Post by becca on Jun 12, 2008 14:09:44 GMT
I think that must be illegal, there was no acceptance of an offer, and therefore you aren't contractually obliged to pay anything other than the costs associated with them having a look. I think. I'm sure they can't juust present you witha bill for £350 without you consenting for them to do anything.
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Post by Timmay on Jun 13, 2008 12:29:36 GMT
I was very unlucky couple of weeks ago, car started pouring out with smoke and turned out the head gasket had gone, among other things. Took it to a garage, where they looked around and estimated a cost of anything up to £900, and asked if I wanted the work done. £900 for a fecking head gasket? The actual head gasket costs about 10quid, and between the timing belt/head bolts etc, parts couldn't be more than £50. so thats £850 in labour for skimming the head and slapping it all back together! Must have been a main Pug dealer! Anyway, yeh, my head is wrecked with cars also, my sistors piece of crap 97 primera breaks down about twice a month, happened again during the week so they (my sis and her BF) dicided to get a new car. Of course because they didnt have a car I had to drive them around about 10 garages lookin at different cars which were either the wrong colour or the seats were wrong etc etc, I can take much shopping ah this was wrecking my head. Eventually they decided on a car, about 6hrs of misary later!!!. To make matters worse, I had to tow their old car home (about 50miles!!!), I hate being the person in my family who knows about cars and is the person who has to get them out of trouble! , got that rant off my chest!
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Post by [rach] on Jun 19, 2008 11:56:54 GMT
I had an MOT done last year and when I went to collect I had to pay £250!! I asked why and they said they'd spoken to my dad and he'd agreed for the work to be done. I just shrugged and paid. They then said it had failed the MOT!! ...I drove home and asked dad and he said he'd only had a phone call saying it had failed and did we want diagnostics done. Dad said no! The next day we drove back to the garage and got a refund on the £160. Took it to a local garage and they passed the car no worries with nothing wrong. Now if it needs any work doing I always get a 2nd opinion!! ...and keep the old parts
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Post by chris88 on Jun 19, 2008 15:54:57 GMT
My dad has a mate he used to go to the pub to who owns a garage, so I took my car to him a few weeks ago to get some new brake disks and pads put on as my Ford ones warped a fair bit... total bill for that was £120... Then I got some new tyres about 4 months ago which came in at £100 even though my old ones had plenty of tread on them, they were utter shite!
And then before that back in December - I don't know if you remember my smashed car window story after de-misting, but the window mechanism broke, took it to Ford thinking it was going to be a warrenty repair, but it wasn't, cost me £90... it was ment to cost me £200, but I argued with Ford that it may well have been broken already when I got the car, and they saw my point of view and gave me a discount on it.
I'm not looking forward to September though... Insurance renewal (£1000), service and MOT aswell... Hopefully no parts are needed for that.
I was hoping I wouldn't have needed things like tyres, brakes and window mech in my first year of owning it... But these things happen, and I'm learning how expensive it is to own a car!!
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Post by homeforsummer on Jun 19, 2008 16:06:35 GMT
Mine's gonna cost me money soon, the exhaust is starting to blow. I could make a full dodgy exhaust out of all the different sections of mine that have gone over the last 5 years of owning it.
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Post by Stacey on Jun 19, 2008 16:14:50 GMT
I'm not looking forward to September though... Insurance renewal (£1000), service and MOT aswell... Hopefully no parts are needed for that. I'm gonna have all that was well in October or November along with tax, although my insurance is cheaper. Having said that i'm hoping to have another car by then.
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Post by Chloe on Jun 19, 2008 16:16:32 GMT
ideally with an alarm that doesn't drain your battery!
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Post by Stacey on Jun 19, 2008 16:21:46 GMT
True (although since i didn't pay for that car i can hardly complain really).
And new car will depend on where i'm living...i'm not buying a shiny new (well new to me) one if it's gonna get bashed about by passing cars like my current one does. Honestly...can people not drive anymore?
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Post by Chloe on Jun 19, 2008 16:25:53 GMT
not down our road they can't.
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Post by Ben on Jun 19, 2008 18:44:09 GMT
christ, November's gonna be expensive enough for me... I'm looking at £2k on insurance alone
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Post by bigospedros on Jun 19, 2008 19:24:33 GMT
£2k for insurance?! fuck me ... that is ridiculous ... change your car, seriously!
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Post by andy99902 on Jun 19, 2008 19:26:16 GMT
christ, November's gonna be expensive enough for me... I'm looking at £2k on insurance alone Now you see thats why I bike it to work. Insurance at our age just kills us. Let alone the current cost of fuel.
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