Legal options with garage overcharge
Discussion
Folks,
Recently started a thread on this but it got derailed into details of another situation, so… this isn’t happening to me now and I’m not expecting it to.
I am purely interested in LEGAL options at the point of collecting ones conveyance if, for instance, an unjustified bill is presented or one which is well beyond quote.
Beyond negotiation, what could you actually do? The garage has your car, and a garagemans lien on it… this has happened to me in the past and I’ve just ended up paying, but what’s the other option. Short of ‘stealing’ your own car?
Recently started a thread on this but it got derailed into details of another situation, so… this isn’t happening to me now and I’m not expecting it to.
I am purely interested in LEGAL options at the point of collecting ones conveyance if, for instance, an unjustified bill is presented or one which is well beyond quote.
Beyond negotiation, what could you actually do? The garage has your car, and a garagemans lien on it… this has happened to me in the past and I’ve just ended up paying, but what’s the other option. Short of ‘stealing’ your own car?
Edited by carreauchompeur on Sunday 27th March 21:50
My wife was getting rid of a 1 series to wbac. A week before the brake light came on. I booked it in to a local garage. On arriving they had no record of the booking. Apparently if it's not in the book it's not booked in, the book is never wrong. Well I have an app that records calls, so I played the call. Apparently Wes hadn't written in the book. So the book was wrong. Before leaving I was quite clear, as I had been when booking, front brake pads only.
On collection I was presented with a much larger bill than was discussed on the phone. It appears they decided to do the discs too. I explained the car was going to wbac so wtf would I pay for discs. Apparently it was written in the book to do discs, so we must have said to. I asked is this the never wrong book that didn't have us booked in. Then my wife had said to make the car right and do the discs. I explained my wife (not there on collection) didn't know what a brake disc was, so not likely.
To get to the point they took the discs off the car and I paid what had been agreed on the phone. No way was I paying a penny more than agreed.
If they had refused to take the discs off I would have offered to pay only the agreed phone quote. If they refused that I would have taken the car. I would probably have recorded this action at least in audio. I'm aware if it got to court I would have to show I acted reasonably.
EDIT: She also had an instance where a BMW dealer quoted a service price over the phone and then more than doubled it when she turned up with the car. As this was before it commenced we ended up sucking it up, as it was to late too make alternative arrangements. I think they came down a bit.
On collection I was presented with a much larger bill than was discussed on the phone. It appears they decided to do the discs too. I explained the car was going to wbac so wtf would I pay for discs. Apparently it was written in the book to do discs, so we must have said to. I asked is this the never wrong book that didn't have us booked in. Then my wife had said to make the car right and do the discs. I explained my wife (not there on collection) didn't know what a brake disc was, so not likely.
To get to the point they took the discs off the car and I paid what had been agreed on the phone. No way was I paying a penny more than agreed.
If they had refused to take the discs off I would have offered to pay only the agreed phone quote. If they refused that I would have taken the car. I would probably have recorded this action at least in audio. I'm aware if it got to court I would have to show I acted reasonably.
EDIT: She also had an instance where a BMW dealer quoted a service price over the phone and then more than doubled it when she turned up with the car. As this was before it commenced we ended up sucking it up, as it was to late too make alternative arrangements. I think they came down a bit.
Edited by Wackywoo105 on Monday 28th March 11:37
Had this recently with a Mazda main dealer - they quoted me a price for replacing the thermostat, then charged me 50% more on collection. The excuse was that the computer system had given them the wrong price..
I paid in full, then complained to the service manager by email, setting out exactly what I'd been quoted, how they'd arrived at the price (they'd said it would have been higher, but didn't think it right to charge that much more!) and that I was not happy with having to wait in the showroom for 40 minutes for the invoice. They'd told me on the phone the car was ready and all paperwork completed...
Got a call the next day apologising, when they explained the person had looked up the wrong vehicle in their system, so had quoted me the wrong price. They confirmed policy was to charge the quoted figure, no matter if it was a mistake or not, so refunded me straightaway.
Had it not been this main dealer, I'd probably have argued more before paying, but these are a small local, family-run group who have a good reputation for customer service, so I was fairly sure I'd get it back easily enough.
I paid in full, then complained to the service manager by email, setting out exactly what I'd been quoted, how they'd arrived at the price (they'd said it would have been higher, but didn't think it right to charge that much more!) and that I was not happy with having to wait in the showroom for 40 minutes for the invoice. They'd told me on the phone the car was ready and all paperwork completed...
Got a call the next day apologising, when they explained the person had looked up the wrong vehicle in their system, so had quoted me the wrong price. They confirmed policy was to charge the quoted figure, no matter if it was a mistake or not, so refunded me straightaway.
Had it not been this main dealer, I'd probably have argued more before paying, but these are a small local, family-run group who have a good reputation for customer service, so I was fairly sure I'd get it back easily enough.
I think if yiu dispute the bill at pick up, and cannot resolve it at pick up, then the way to overcome the lien claim would be via courts. Either leave car their and start a claim via a solicitor etc, or pay, but pay under rprotest’ make sure paperwork says that get car back and then go after them.
Thanks… have read before about needing to go to court to release a lien which sounds…faffy
Didn’t manage to get anywhere with the last garage that overcharged me, but did get slight delayed satisfaction on seeing that my detailed, balanced and honest Google review had achieved 500 views…
Didn’t manage to get anywhere with the last garage that overcharged me, but did get slight delayed satisfaction on seeing that my detailed, balanced and honest Google review had achieved 500 views…
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