Consumer Rights Question - Work carried out at a garage

[Woody3]

Right, a long story cut short

One of our cars had a bit of an electrical issue (auto wipers went crazy)

We took it to a specialist garage (specific to the make) about 8 days ago. After around 3 days of the mechanic tracing the issue (swapping parts as he went), he finally found the issue - all well and good.

The car was fixed on Tuesday.

Problem is, the garage wants to charge us for the parts he replaced (and later swapped back) - around an extra £370 (40% extra on the bill) and then, IF he's able to return them to the manufacture, refund us the cost of the said parts. I'm not entirely happy about this as he's got no incentive to return the parts as such.

The other option he's given us is for him to keep the car until the parts supplier confirms the refund.

Basically, is the garage ok to do this? At the moment, my thoughts are that it wasn't my fault that he tried all these other parts which didn't cure the problem, yet on the otherhand how would he have been able to eliminate possible issues without buying in those parts? (They do seem to be very helpful chaps).

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers!

[xjay1337]

Tricky one.

Did you authorise the swapping of the parts?

Unfortunately I would view it if they were bought then tough luck but if they are just sensors ETC I'm sure they can be returned....

[herewego]

He should know when he buys them whether they are returnable. It can't be the first time he's had such an issue.

[POORCARDEALER]

Many electrical parts are not returnable

[Spangles]

If he's not clever enough to diagnose the issue without randomly swapping parts then he should get another job.

[xjay1337]

Spangles said:

If he's not clever enough to diagnose the issue without randomly swapping parts then he should get another job.

Have you ever dealt with annoying electrical issues on cars?

[HantsRat]

Pay but take the part yourself. Just sell it on ebay or to a another specialist.

[HD Adam]

xjay1337 said:

Spangles said:

If he's not clever enough to diagnose the issue without randomly swapping parts then he should get another job.

Have you ever dealt with annoying electrical issues on cars?

I have as I used to be an Auto Electrician.

Random swapping of parts mean you have no idea what you are doing.

[xjay1337]

We don't know what the parts that were replaced were.

It may only be 1 or 2 parts.

For example a motor and a wiper stalk or something.

[h0b0]

HD Adam said:

xjay1337 said:

Spangles said:

If he's not clever enough to diagnose the issue without randomly swapping parts then he should get another job.

Have you ever dealt with annoying electrical issues on cars?

I have as I used to be an Auto Electrician.

Random swapping of parts mean you have no idea what you are doing.

Just to add to this, we call this "Part swapping monkey". You should not have to pay for someone not knowing how to do their job. I used to be the business manager that would invoice for these situations so I have been there. It is not reasonable to charge a customer for guessing and not fixing.

[andymc]

had this on a saab with a steering lock issue, £750 and no further forward, he just kept swopping parts

[Woody3]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

To answer some of your questions:

Regarding authorisation - I never said yes to purchase any of the parts - he just said "I've tried x and y and they didn't cure the problem, so I'm now going to try Z" - luckily Z was the correct part!

The parts that he's not used is a wiper motor (£250 apparently - only £50 s/h on eBay) and "ignition relay/moduleStarter Motor Relay" at £117.

Thoughts?

Edited by Woody3 on Friday 17th March 22:50

[Cyberprog]

Woody3 said:

Thanks for the replies chaps.

To answer some of your questions:

Regarding authorisation - I never said yes to purchase any of the parts - he just said "I've tried x and y and they didn't cure the problem, so I'm now going to try Z" - luckily Z was the correct part!

The parts that he's not used is a wiper motor (£250 apparently - only £50 s/h on eBay) and something along the lines of an "ignition relay/module" at £117.

Thoughts?

You should be able to bench test both parts and figure if they work, no need to replace.

[xjay1337]

Woody3 said:

Thanks for the replies chaps.

To answer some of your questions:

Regarding authorisation - I never said yes to purchase any of the parts - he just said "I've tried x and y and they didn't cure the problem, so I'm now going to try Z" - luckily Z was the correct part!

The parts that he's not used is a wiper motor (£250 apparently - only £50 s/h on eBay) and "ignition relay/moduleStarter Motor Relay" at £117.

Thoughts?

Edited by Woody3 on Friday 17th March 22:50

Then i would say you are not liable for those parts. Just the labour and part that fixed it.

[StuTheGrouch]

So he wants you to pay for parts that are not even fitted to your car? Tell him to get fked

[grumpy52]

I tell all youngsters wanting to join the garage trade to train to auto electricians.
The modern vehicles are so complicated on the electrics side .
Not only do you need the right diagnostics kit you also need to be able to understand what the diagnostics is telling you and what it is hiding ..
So the guy you were dealing with might have been a make specialist but not an electrical specialist.

[Vaud]

grumpy52 said:

I tell all youngsters wanting to join the garage trade to train to auto electricians.
The modern vehicles are so complicated on the electrics side .
Not only do you need the right diagnostics kit you also need to be able to understand what the diagnostics is telling you and what it is hiding ..
So the guy you were dealing with might have been a make specialist but not an electrical specialist.

To be fair, neither of the OP's cars in his profile are super complicated...

[Spangles]

xjay1337 said:

Spangles said:

If he's not clever enough to diagnose the issue without randomly swapping parts then he should get another job.

Have you ever dealt with annoying electrical issues on cars?

Yeah, it's what I do. If I screw up and fit the wrong part I wouldn't dream of charging the customer.

[robinessex]

I know an electrician who keeps a stock of s/h, but working, bits and pieces. A quick swop is done to proove the issue, then a new part is used.

[Woody3]

I've not updated my garage recently - it's a 2012 V40.

I'm at absolute loggerheads with the garage at the moment.

Labour is being charged for 10hrs (fair enough, I'll take this on the chin) and the part that was the issue was only £40 - the total bill is coming out at £530 (+ £250 for wrongly diagnosed wiper motor and £120 for wrongly diagnosed starter relay), which takes it up to a massive £900!

They are refusing to accept that it's not right that they should be charging me for parts that didn't need changing and are no longer on the car. They are saying that they are waiting for a response from Volvo to see if they can have a refund on the parts (they've actually been returned to Volvo) and they don't expect to hear from them until Friday.

It's now been fixed a week and we're without a car.

I don't understand how they think this is reasonable.