Advice needed re dealer costs

[Quadratica]

I purchased a car privately in June for a good price, the car has been 100% fine, FSH and 18 months warranty remaining. However it recently developed a non-urgent fault so I arranged a dealer inspection.

They told me that it would be £160 for a 1 hour health check and if the fault was covered by the warranty then I would not pay the £160. I agreed and signed the paperwork. They phoned me later in the day to advise me that they had done 3 hours work and found that the fault is not covered by the warranty. I accepted that and told them to put the car back together (another 2 hours work), they have billed me for 5 hours work (£800). I will pay this.

However, I have a simple question on which I would like some advice.

Should they have called me after the 1 hour inspection and informed me that no fault has been found and would I like them to dig deeper. Or were they right to carry out 3 hours of work before calling me ?

I am collecting the car tomorrow so some advice would be much appreciated.

[Scrump]

I would have expected a call to say that more than the 1 hour (£160) time is required to investigate.

[Rough101]

If this is the original manufacturer warranty I’d have expected that only the first hour is payable, or they should have sought authorisation.

What’s the issue and did they fix it for the £800?

Can only be wear, tear or damage?

[FWIW]

I’d only be paying the authorised amount.

[Quadratica]

They will not fix for £800, they will fix for £2000. so I told them to put the car back together and I will pay £800 and leave it at that. It is not a critical fault and I can drive as normal.

However, I am wondering if I should have been informed after the first hour.

[ScoobyChris]

I think the thing to take away is you need to be explicit about what you want and have it noted on the job card. If the job card simply says “diagnose fault” they will assume that is what you want from them and spend as much time as is needed.

However, I think you should certainly mention to them that your understanding was that the one hour health check would give clarity on whether it was a warranty job or not and you would have appreciated a call to decide how to proceed.

Chris

[Quadratica]

Thanks Chris, I agree 100% with what you wrote. I will raise it with them and look over the job sheet which I am pretty sure only mentioned the one hour diagnostic check. Either way I will pay £800 if they insist but follow it up through their complaints procedure.

[Monkeylegend]

What was the fault out of interest, this being a motoring forum and all that. We need closure

[Quadratica]

A fault with the info-tainment.GPS antenna, it turned out that one wire had been nibbled at and eventually gave way. I assume it was rodents. They only found this fault after taking the dashboard panels apart.

[MitchT]

I'd expect a call saying one of the following...

A: The diagnostic hasn't revealed anything, do you wish to proceed?
B: The diagnostic has revealed a fault which will be covered by the warranty.
C: The diagnostic has revealed a fault which will not be covered by the warranty, do you wish to proceed?

You should not have incurred charges exceeding £160 by the time that call came.

Edited by MitchT on Thursday 5th December 21:34

[Quadratica]

Thanks Mitch, that seems to be the consensus view. The first contact I had from the dealer after dropping the car off was to inform me that after 3 hours they discovered the fault. the cost at that point being 3 x £160.

[Gericho]

Quadratica said:

I accepted that and told them to put the car back together (another 2 hours work), they have billed me for 5 hours work (£800). I will pay this.

Er no, I would not be paying £800 for them to f*ck around for a bit. I would pay the £160 as agreed and that's it. If its an electrical issue take it to an auto-electrician.

Edited by Gericho on Thursday 5th December 21:42

[Quadratica]

Thank you Gericho, I agree with you and your way of expressing it cheered me up !!

[Quadratica]

Closure :

A good outcome for me, I challenged them to prove that they contacted me after the one hour of diagnostics and they could not. My phone showed their call logs.

They agreed and dropped their charge from £800 to £160.

A big thanks to all those who gave me advice.

[MitchT]

Great news. Correct outcome.

[LuS1fer]

Sadly, it just underscores what I think about the motor industry sharks. I would probably have had it checked out independently, for less money, before going anywhere near the usually worthless warranty.

I'd trust a barbed scrotum scratcher before most garages. Sad but true

[Quadratica]

luS1fer...well said.

[croyde]

Sounds like they try this on with everyone hoping that it won't be questioned.

The fact that they were happy to go back to £160 says it all.

I have a newish car and I dread something going wrong with it, even whilst it's still currently under main warranty, as I wouldn't trust any dealer or their service department with a two piece puzzle.

Are they are just rip off merchants and completely useless?

[e-honda]

I can't really understand why something would take 3 hours to figure out the problem is something not covered under warranty.

[stevemcs]

MitchT said:

I'd expect a call saying one of the following...

A: The diagnostic hasn't revealed anything, do you wish to proceed?
B: The diagnostic has revealed a fault which will be covered by the warranty.
C: The diagnostic has revealed a fault which will not be covered by the warranty, do you wish to proceed?

You should not have incurred charges exceeding £160 by the time that call came.

Edited by MitchT on Thursday 5th December 21:34

That’s what we would do, if we agreed 1 hour then that’s what you would get. If we went further it would be after we called the customer