Do people expect cars to be expensive?

[Josho]

Bit of a different one to the rip off thread.

So I do some work for an agency.

Car in for a service. 2012 Corsa with 60k miles.

Suspected coil pack on customers part.

Get car in strip off coil pack. Half of it falls apart and is all green and corroded. Look at the plugs the number one is rotten and oil all around it.

Replace plugs and stick on a known good coil just to test (do I start getting the scope out etc and spend half hour diagnosing "properly" or just stick a coil on that takes 45seconds?).

Car better but still missing.

Customer had also stated the car looses water.

Oil cap and stick full of mayo, low compression on cyl 1 and the top of the piston looks clean.

Phone agency and they phone customer.

Long and the short is they are happy with it all authorise what is 700 quids worth of work to me let alone what agency charges.

Just couldn't believe how casual it all was! They apparently said let's not go mental but let's get it right.

Crazy. The agency do encourage extra work but fortunately we can add to the lists to what the customers see so when they advise brake fluid replacement per say I can put the moisture content on and say passed test okay but manufacturer says every 3 years.

Then other customers are tight as aholes. Had one the other day front and rear pads nearly metal to metal and it's a no go. They can see the photos as well!

[Ahbefive]

Who are "the agency" ?

[Stormfly1985]

Ahbefive said:

Who are "the agency" ?

You know. "The Agency". Best to not talk about it though.

[sparks_E39]

I'm a service advisor for a main dealer. When someone buys a £40k vehicle then argues about a £200 service or £400 for a set of discs and pads I do have to bite my tongue sometimes. Another thing is the diagnostic charge (circa £90 for an hour) People just don't seem to get that they are paying for an hour of our time first of all. Paying for us to get the vehicle in the workshop. Paying us for running fault finding via our (expensive) diagnostic equipment. Paying us to remove components to inspect.

The list goes on... but according to a lot of people, it's unjustified and think it's pure greed. Some can't understand why we don't just do it for free. If they knew the massive overheads a main dealer has, they'd soon change their minds!

[Yipper]

sparks_E39 said:

I'm a service advisor for a main dealer. When someone buys a £40k vehicle then argues about a £200 service or £400 for a set of discs and pads I do have to bite my tongue sometimes. Another thing is the diagnostic charge (circa £90 for an hour) People just don't seem to get that they are paying for an hour of our time first of all. Paying for us to get the vehicle in the workshop. Paying us for running fault finding via our (expensive) diagnostic equipment. Paying us to remove components to inspect.

The list goes on... but according to a lot of people, it's unjustified and think it's pure greed. Some can't understand why we don't just do it for free. If they knew the massive overheads a main dealer has, they'd soon change their minds!

That's pretty common across all service industries. Not just cars. Consumers and businesspeople struggle to tangibilize the intangible or unseen. Know someone who runs a big-data consultancy, and customers routinely expect large Excel datasets for free -- they just see a few numbers in a spreadsheet and assume they've been plugged in with 5mins of quick typing or cut-and-paste. They forget the millions and years spent on setting up the hardware, employing programmers, complex algorithms, etc.

[thelawnet1]

sparks_E39 said:

I'm a service advisor for a main dealer. When someone buys a £40k vehicle then argues about a £200 service or £400 for a set of discs and pads I do have to bite my tongue sometimes. Another thing is the diagnostic charge (circa £90 for an hour) People just don't seem to get that they are paying for an hour of our time first of all. Paying for us to get the vehicle in the workshop. Paying us for running fault finding via our (expensive) diagnostic equipment. Paying us to remove components to inspect.

The list goes on... but according to a lot of people, it's unjustified and think it's pure greed. Some can't understand why we don't just do it for free. If they knew the massive overheads a main dealer has, they'd soon change their minds!

I'm not sure if you are getting the point.

If someone buys a £40k vehicle then they have little choice about where to buy it. £40k is £40k

But they could buy the discs & pads off ebay and get them fitted for half the price. Or get the diagnostics from an independent also for half price.

It's like asking why am I happy to buy some posh chocolates in Harrods but don't want to do all my food shopping in there.

[MorganP104]

Stormfly1985 said:

Ahbefive said:

Who are "the agency" ?

You know. "The Agency". Best to not talk about it though.

[Ilovejapcrap]

sparks_E39 said:

I'm a service advisor for a main dealer. When someone buys a £40k vehicle then argues about a £200 service or £400 for a set of discs and pads I do have to bite my tongue sometimes. Another thing is the diagnostic charge (circa £90 for an hour) People just don't seem to get that they are paying for an hour of our time first of all. Paying for us to get the vehicle in the workshop. Paying us for running fault finding via our (expensive) diagnostic equipment. Paying us to remove components to inspect.

The list goes on... but according to a lot of people, it's unjustified and think it's pure greed. Some can't understand why we don't just do it for free. If they knew the massive overheads a main dealer has, they'd soon change their minds!

I get your point but main dealers do seem to be a fair bit more money than a independent garage doing the same job (even with genuine parts) in my experience

[alorotom]

And let’s be totally honest, a diagnostic doesn’t really take an hour to read all the fault codes - takes very little effort and isn’t labour intensive

Yes it takes time and expensive equipment but it doesn’t need to be brought into the workshop etc... for such - poor choice of example I would suggest

[Jimmy Recard]

It depends if you're reading fault codes or doing an actual diagnostic process - checking parts, for example

[Ahbefive]

Stormfly1985 said:

Ahbefive said:

Who are "the agency" ?

You know. "The Agency". Best to not talk about it though.

Ah, "them". We've already said too much.

[Rat_Fink_67]

alorotom said:

And let’s be totally honest, a diagnostic doesn’t really take an hour to read all the fault codes - takes very little effort and isn’t labour intensive

Yes it takes time and expensive equipment but it doesn’t need to be brought into the workshop etc... for such - poor choice of example I would suggest

Ignorance is bliss. Reading fault codes is entirely different to diagnosing a fault. A DTC will tell you what's not working, but it won't tell you why. There are numerous faults that don't even log a code. Try stripping back a wiring loom, studying a wiring diagram and then doing volt drop or resistance checks in a car park.

[NelsonM3]

alorotom said:

And let’s be totally honest, a diagnostic doesn’t really take an hour to read all the fault codes - takes very little effort and isn’t labour intensive

Yes it takes time and expensive equipment but it doesn’t need to be brought into the workshop etc... for such - poor choice of example I would suggest

Any idiot can read fault codes. What you pay a dealer for is to follow a test plan to determine what is actually causing the fault. Be it testing other components or removing parts or checking wires to find out what's wrong.

It's the reason why "Fred In A Shed" ends up bringing the car to the dealers. As their £250 Snap-On codereader will only tell them what the code is, not what the fault is.

[Burwood]

The op has no grasp of English. Wtf is he talking about ffs

[Happy Jim]

Innocent question...

Is this a normal "thing" I take it "agency" = Dealer Franchise (one or some), do dealers farm out what they figure to be awkward/complex/time consuming jobs? presumably just so that they can keep their ramps free for nice easy service jobs?

In this case I guess the diagnostics/coil pack replacement/new headgasket = £700 cost and the dealer charges the poor sod punter £1400ish

Jim

[Rat_Fink_67]

Happy Jim said:

Innocent question...

Is this a normal "thing" I take it "agency" = Dealer Franchise (one or some), do dealers farm out what they figure to be awkward/complex/time consuming jobs? presumably just so that they can keep their ramps free for nice easy service jobs?

In this case I guess the diagnostics/coil pack replacement/new headgasket = £700 cost and the dealer charges the poor sod punter £1400ish

Jim

In my experience it's the other way round, I spend a lot of my time either diagnosing or repairing jobs that have been referred to us by a back street place. I tend to find that it's more important for the little places to keep cash flowing, so they need the ramp space and workshop time to deal with more routine jobs more than dealers. I travel to a lot of them to do software updates and module programming too. How many of the customers realise that their car has been passed on to a dealer by the quaint little indies they swear by I don't know. Engine rebuilds, gearbox rebuilds and more complex fault diagnostics are all things I deal with 2 or 3 times a week from independents.

[Sa Calobra]

sparks_E39 said:

I'm a service advisor for a main dealer. When someone buys a £40k vehicle then argues about a £200 service or £400 for a set of discs and pads I do have to bite my tongue sometimes. Another thing is the diagnostic charge (circa £90 for an hour) People just don't seem to get that they are paying for an hour of our time first of all. Paying for us to get the vehicle in the workshop. Paying us for running fault finding via our (expensive) diagnostic equipment. Paying us to remove components to inspect.

The list goes on... but according to a lot of people, it's unjustified and think it's pure greed. Some can't understand why we don't just do it for free. If they knew the massive overheads a main dealer has, they'd soon change their minds!

Just because they 'bought' (monthlies etc) doesn't mean they can afford it.

[rxe]

As a customer, l’ll only quibble with a bill, or what is being done, if I think the garage are taking the piss. Last year OK’d a load of work (totalling about 4 grand) without hesitation. If that same garage had tried to charge me £280 for an oil change (they wouldn’t...), I’d have no hesitation in telling them to F.R.O.

[Plate spinner]

Ahbefive said:

Who are "the agency" ?

I'm guessing work that has come via a third party booking website like servicing stop or book my garage?

[Sa Calobra]

I had to Google that. Are people that lazy?!