Tail to avoid on brakes

[titchfield9]

Well bit of a mess up thinking the frontera mot was next month only to find out it run out last week.
By chance a local well known tyre place managed to fit here in, then the dreaded phone call "Shes failed mate" well lights where low, which was a surprise as the front end was only repaired in August but then, the breaks are pulling. Agreed for them to take a look as needed the car for towing tomorrow. Calipers gone mate and damged the discs. Though not a massive job they got the tools and the ramp, said they would have it done..... then 480 quid later, yes fell off my chair. Chrged me 330 quid + vat for one caliper, two front break discs and a set of pads, oh and year 56 quid fitting. The motor facotrs was next door, when i checked today the list price of the parts was 153 quid. Guess what, place not interested so feel well ripped off. Specialy as i could have sorted it myself if it wasnt christmas. So well in the dog house with the Mrs.
so the tail is check the parts prices first so you too dont get ripped off.

Now I am left with what i though was the gater clips weak but the invoice says drive shaft circlips weak... bit of a differenace I do think.

Moral is I shouldnt have though about these guys getting home monday as they where an hour late fixing her as i didnt check the invoice costs and what else needs fixing.

Posative though no advise on the MOT, not bad for a 2000 RS

[jimmybhoy]

They`re all the same, licence to print money

[Drift]

Those circlips cost no more then 16p each and take 2 minutes tops to fit and I wonder what they meant by "weak" you cant tell if they are weak or not unless they fall off

You should have asked for the old calipers and discs back

Sorry to say but they have definitely had your pants down

[titchfield9]

You are so right, did go and ask for the caliper back today, guess what they cant find it what a surprise.

I new they did need doing but the claiper was the shock as i didnt feel it pulling under breaking.
Was a post Christmas job, just the timing was off.

It was that or say to her indoors we couldnt go away tomorrow.......

Going to change the circlips and the gater slips just to be sure.

[Drift]

was that just one caliper

I would go see trading standards after asking for the manager of course then an email to head office.

It might be worth contacting a couple of other branches further away and see what they quote, you will then have ammunition

[titchfield9]

Yeh was only one, spoke to the area manager today, no joy just rude so going to write to the MD.
Dont mind paying a fair price, i wouldnt have thought it was more than two hours work on a ramp.

[gregster]

The lesson here is to get a price BEFORE you agree to any work being done...getting upset afterwards is just reinforcement of the lesson.

If you tell them to go ahead without a price then they will charge accordingly. They will charge a retail price for parts, I am guessing the motor factor quoted you a trade/list price.
The extra that they make on the parts goes to subsidize their labour costs I would think, £56 fitting isnt bad really as this could easily take over an hour and possibly involve 2 of them to bleed it up if they dont power bleed it.

I think complaining will get you nowhere, and will just waste your time and energy.

Just learn from it, and next time get a quote for the work before you agree to having it done.

[titchfield9]

There was a price agreed over the phone as i challenged the prices of the caliper (Wanted 125 agreed 75 as that was the list price on ECP) and discs and I suggested i got the parts from ECP next door myself as i get 10% discount, they confirmed thats where they where getting the bits from so wasnt an issue (chaps words)! Problem is they didnt put the parts through at the prices agreed and then charged VAT on top of the prices that had VAT all ready in it.

Problem here is nothing in writing.

I agreed a price over the phone with 56 quid labour and yeh aware thats a good price and paid them over the phone and collected the car that evening from outside. They invoiced at the higher prices and put it through at the higher prices, I didnt make that clear earlier.

At no time where they told just to proceed.....

On the positive side Visa have been great, so the out of pocket has all ready been reduced.

[gregster]

Well thats a different story to the one in your first post

[Drift]

A verble agreement between a company and client can still hold up.

[taylor6632]

i was informed never to get an MOT test done at a garage that carries out repair work. I use a council place where their vehicles get tested and things like the head light stuff he just did during the test for no extra money. His words were:

"You get an honest opinion mate, i've been doing this for years and years and if its safe for the road, it'l pass"

Seemed to work for me just a thought for the future.

[gpssti4]

I had a problem with brakes on an old 205 years ago. The car was towed to KwikFit and they tried to pull my pants down for the sum of £790 - all it NEEDED to get the brakes working again was an O seal in the master cylinder - well an overhaul kit I guess. Barstewards the lot of them.

[Gazeddy]

[red5]

Indeed. Always the few ruin it for the rest.

Bit confusing the sequence of events there though.

[Gazeddy]

i should probly add some context here im a one man band mobile mechanic

[gregster]

Good on ya gazzebo

The problem is with interpretation with trucks that are the age of ours...if someone was instructed to change everything that is worn, then we would end up with a new truck and a bill that would buy a Cayenne. My thoughts are with older vehicles that the owner should know what is wrong with the truck prior to putting it into the garage...so you should be telling them what you want changing and have an idea of how long it will take and the labour costs associated with that.
There should be no surprises as you should know your truck and what needs doing and what can be left to be sorted later on.
For example...If I blindly stuck my 2.8lwb in and told the garage to "sort the brakes"...then they would change both front calipers as they sometimes stick when the pads are getting low, they would change the flexy's as a precaution, and probably all the brake lines underneath as they have a bit of corrosion in places. This might mean it also needs a new bias valve as the brake lines would probably not want to come undone from it. Bingo...£1200 bill!
Most garages arent interested in doing half a job, and realise that they have a responsibility for peoples safety, so wont second chance anything. If its corroded then it could fail, or could break during disassembly/reassembly, so these components are going to priced into the job.
Hence we get stories like the 205 up the thread, where a replacement seal might have got the brakes working, but paying someone to strip and replace seals sooner than replacing a mastercylinder will reduce the parts bill and increase the labour bill...so no win, and in honestly I would sooner have the new part and pay less labour, sooner than a repaired part for the same money. But then what were the condition of the rest of the brakes/lines like? Might be that you were happy with them, but would someone "who knows better" be happy for you to drive on them, potentially risking your life and others, and leaving them selves wide open for legal proceedings and prosecutions should something else fail...and the driver/owner then claimed complete ignorance with their No-win-no-fee lawyer.
Long and short of it is...Know your vehicle, know what it needs before you ask, research cost beforehand, understand the garages responsibilities, and then get a written quote...then you will get no surprises.
Try and use a garage/mechanic that is recommended, cost is largely unimportant, a mechanic you can trust, understand and who understands your vehicle is a great find and one to hold onto and support.
Personally speaking my local Kwikfits are great, really helpful and I have never had a problem with them at all.

[jontera]

this is sort of related, so nearly on topic..

couple of years back the late father inlaws focus needed a new clutch. Being the kind of man he was he got a quote from Ford, can't recall the actual figure*...but it was one of them "you can shove that where the sun don't shine ones". So I priced up the parts for him from the local motor factors and got the whole 3 part clutch for £115 or around that sort of price..Unfortunatly I didn't have the time to fix it for him, but I knew a man who could (ex-ford aswell) so it went to him for £200 labour with me supplying parts. Pretty sure it worked out a saving of more than £200..

*£550 seems to be rolling around in my head for the steelers quote..

but I do agree with Gregster that owning an older car, the owner should have a better understanding of it's needs rather than the "trade"..they are not all bad, just that it seems that the younger the mechanic the less they understand about the older motor (no offence intended to the good ones)
I had on chap try and fail my truck about three years back because the steering idler arm moved from left to right when the steering wheel was turned. Turned out he didn't quite understand what it was. (idler did fail on last MOT as it was then moving L>R and front to back)

[justdan]

I've been in the same boat , wife due to drop my daughter any moment ! MOT due , fails and I got hammered to the tune of £590 for a few new brake lines and anti roll bar linkage ! Couldn't not have the car and I was about as mechanically minded as a brick back then !
Now I go over the car myself before sending it in !!!!!!

[gregster]

I dont believe that these places change stuff that doesnt need changing...but on a 15-20year old car everything that is degraded could be deemed as needing replacing, and that is pretty much everything on the chassis isnt it...especially in the "blame-cultured" society we now all live in where businesses are sued at every opportunity, so they are wrong if the change something old and scabby, or in court if they dont and the part they didnt change fails and the car owner is looking for someone to blame.

[lpgmad]

have they actually fitted the parts?