Unexpected bill from garage.... What to do

[anonymous-user]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 25 April 2020 at 10:23

[MR2MK1guy]

You would've thought they would of rang and asked you before carrying out any work?

[SHutchinson]

Is it fixed?

[fat80b]

skinthespin said:

Hi,

Wonder if I could have some advice....

Took my car in to a specialist garage for a simple bit of work (fit a sensor), would've been sub £100. Turns out this wasn't the problem so the garage started investigating.

I rang up multiple times concerned about the hours and the cost escalating. Despite me asking I was never given a monitary value of the work but was just assured it wouldn't be too much, naieve I know.....

I found out they had taken more and more bits off the car without prior consent and was told by the garage they don't like my attitude and they can't call up every time they take something off the car!

Now the car is working I'm presented with a £1300 bill...... I estimated a few hundred at best. I appreciate the bill would be much more than a couple of hundred pounds but this is excessive.

I haven't collected the car yet but I think there legally entitled to keep it until I pay and I have to go through small claims to get my money back.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar nature?

Thank you

Ouch - a bit of a mess. Sounds like the garage have made a bit of an error in terms of not communicating their progress and the likely cost impact.

But equally, it sounds like you spoke to them a fair bit as they were investigating so you must have had some idea of what they were up to?

Quite a difference between your estimate of a few hundred and £1300


Have they provided a breakdown of the £1300. Is it £300 labour and £1K of parts or the other way around?

What sensor was it initially believed to be and what did it end up being?

[HustleRussell]

Who deduced that it was just the sensor at fault?

[Megaflow]

HustleRussell said:

Who deduced that it was just the sensor at fault?

Who decided that said sensor would cost <£100 as well?

[InitialDave]

skinthespin said:

Hi,
I found out they had taken more and more bits off the car without prior consent and was told by the garage they don't like my attitude and they can't call up every time they take something off the car!

That's the point I'd have gone and collected it.

[Vaud]

InitialDave said:

skinthespin said:

Hi,
I found out they had taken more and more bits off the car without prior consent and was told by the garage they don't like my attitude and they can't call up every time they take something off the car!

That's the point I'd have gone and collected it.

They have a point, but nor can they can they commit the OP to £1300.

What they could have done is set time limits for investigation (e.g. 8 hours) and then sort authority for another block of time. Not an open chequebook.

[Trevor555]

That's naughty of them.

£1300 bill without warning you first?

Have you got the invoice?

Post it up on here (covering the name of garage to keep mods happy) so you can get an opinion of it's fairness.

And if you pay it, write across the invoice that you are disputing it.

Pay with a credit card, they may be able to help if you're disputing it????

[Coilspring]

It doesn't quite add up to me.

What was said to the garage? Fit this sensor for me for £100 ish.

Or was it more like. I think it's this sensor if you will fit it and see. If it's not, can you diagnose it and tell me the result, or even try and fix it?

I don't believe any garage would take it on themselves to just carry on working on a car without permission.

Edited by Coilspring on Tuesday 25th June 15:05

[Coilspring]

skinthespin said:

Thanks for the replies.

About £200 for parts, rest for labour.

I asked them multiple times for costs and expressed my concerns. He did spot his dummy and told me to come and get all the bits and take it away, I explained that doesn't help anyone but even then he didn't give me a cost.

It was my diagnosis there was a sensor fault. It turned out to be incorrect so we agreed to investigate. At no point did I authorise such an expenditure and quite the opposite, expressed concerns.

They are out of order but do you think best I write disputed across the invoice? If so what do I do next?

You agreed to let them investigate ? But you didn't authorise such expenditure?

So what did you authorise, or did you expect it to be free ?

Or did you say, stop, and do no more please?

[deebs]

skinthespin said:

Hi,

Wonder if I could have some advice....

Took my car in to a specialist garage for a simple bit of work (fit a sensor), would've been sub £100. Turns out this wasn't the problem so the garage started investigating.

I rang up multiple times concerned about the hours and the cost escalating. Despite me asking I was never given a monitary value of the work but was just assured it wouldn't be too much, naieve I know.....

I found out they had taken more and more bits off the car without prior consent and was told by the garage they don't like my attitude and they can't call up every time they take something off the car!

Now the car is working I'm presented with a £1300 bill...... I estimated a few hundred at best. I appreciate the bill would be much more than a couple of hundred pounds but this is excessive.

I haven't collected the car yet but I think there legally entitled to keep it until I pay and I have to go through small claims to get my money back.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar nature?

Thank you

Is the problem you dont believe the investigation and fix should of cost £1300; that you wouldn't have authorised £1300 of work as it would be uneconomical considering the value of the car or that you weren't told in advance of the work believed to be necessary and the rough costs?

You can dispute the cost (using what evidence though? Can you get any data for the book hours of changing the parts?) but if they wont budge and you want the car back you can pay it, make clear verbally and written on your invoice that it is "paid under protest" and start the process of trying to recover the money.

It would though be useful to provide some specifics as the story is a bit too general as it stands.

[pavarotti1980]

Coilspring said:

You agreed to let them investigate ? But you didn't authorise such expenditure?

So what did you authorise, or did you expect it to be free ?

Or did you say, stop, and do no more please?

Dont garages investigate the problem, ring the customer and tell the problem with associated costs to have it fixed prior to going ahead with the work? Or is that old school and not the done thing anymore?

Obviously the cost of investigation is chargeable (i.e. running the diagnostics) which i dont think OP is questioning?

[Coilspring]

pavarotti1980 said:

Dont garages investigate the problem, ring the customer and tell the problem with associated costs to have it fixed prior to going ahead with the work? Or is that old school and not the done thing anymore?

Obviously the cost of investigation is chargeable (i.e. running the diagnostics) which i dont think OP is questioning?

Thats it exactly.

What, exactly, were the instructions given to the garage. He has already said it was agreed to investigate. Were they given a limit, time or money?

[Driver101]

What was the fault and what work have they done?

Also what was the car?

Edited by Driver101 on Tuesday 25th June 16:32

[ElectricPics]

pavarotti1980 said:

Coilspring said:

You agreed to let them investigate ? But you didn't authorise such expenditure?

So what did you authorise, or did you expect it to be free ?

Or did you say, stop, and do no more please?

Dont garages investigate the problem, ring the customer and tell the problem with associated costs to have it fixed prior to going ahead with the work? Or is that old school and not the done thing anymore?

Obviously the cost of investigation is chargeable (i.e. running the diagnostics) which i dont think OP is questioning?

Exactly. Plenty of people seem to have 20/20 hindsight. The OP isn't saying he didn't want to pay but the garage have done a shedload of unauthorised work. Any decent garage would call and say it's going to cost north of £xxx, giving you the choice of going ahead - or not.

[pavarotti1980]

ElectricPics said:

Exactly. Plenty of people seem to have 20/20 hindsight. The OP isn't saying he didn't want to pay but the garage have done a shedload of unauthorised work. Any decent garage would call and say it's going to cost north of £xxx, giving you the choice of going ahead - or not.

I would be inclined to reject it and tell them to remove the part and restore vehicle to previous state. Pay for diagnostics and a bit of labour and pick up the car and get it done properly. Cost a little bit but at least OP will know for next garage and possibly save on diagnostics again

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

Can you be a bit more specific about the vehicle involved so we have a better understanding of the full picture.

[Driver101]

pavarotti1980 said:

ElectricPics said:

Exactly. Plenty of people seem to have 20/20 hindsight. The OP isn't saying he didn't want to pay but the garage have done a shedload of unauthorised work. Any decent garage would call and say it's going to cost north of £xxx, giving you the choice of going ahead - or not.

I would be inclined to reject it and tell them to remove the part and restore vehicle to previous state. Pay for diagnostics and a bit of labour and pick up the car and get it done properly. Cost a little bit but at least OP will know for next garage and possibly save on diagnostics again

What if £1300 is actually a fair bill for the work they've done?

It would seem unfair to get a refund from a garage if they've done all the hard work to find the fault to pay someone else to fix it.

That scenario would involve paying both garages labour time for doing partly the same job. It would end up more expensive if £1300 is a genuine bill.

[Coilspring]

ElectricPics said:

Exactly. Plenty of people seem to have 20/20 hindsight. The OP isn't saying he didn't want to pay but the garage have done a shedload of unauthorised work. Any decent garage would call and say it's going to cost north of £xxx, giving you the choice of going ahead - or not.

Is it unauthorised work?

The op agreed to more investigation after the initial sensor replacement didn't work.

What, Exactly was said regarding more investigation? What did they exceed ?

Or did the OP expect more work to be free? Were any limits specified?

Garages don't work without authorisation usually.