Car Repairs

[ssc456]

Hey guys,

I've just been wondering . . . .as my Mrs car is in the garage to be looked at and for them to tell us how much it would be to repair, their standard diagnostics is £45.

Now If it's what I think is wrong with it (immobiliser) then the repair bill could run into the £1,000 mark! Yikes!

But that's not why I'm here, I'm wondering if they mid-heard me and are actually carrying out the repair instead of just giving me the quote to repair it what happens?

So I wanted them to charge me £45 and tell me how much it will be to repair the whole thing and instead they just went ahead and repaired the whole thing i'm interested to know what would happen?

By the way i'm like 99% sure this isn't what has happened it literally just crossed my mind and I was curious as to if I would be obliged to pay the bill?

 

[Celery]

Is it on the papers that you only wanted a diagnostics done on the car? If so they can't stick you for the repair bill.

 

[cboucher]

They aren't going to do any kind of repair work that costs that much money without getting you to sign for it first. Especially if they're charging for the diagnostics...

 

[superman22x]

If it's in for diagnosis, they can only charge you for diagnosis.

I'm surprised they have a flat rate diagnosis fee... Lots of places don't have that. Often places will wave any diagnosis fees if you get the repairs done there too.

 

[muz]

last time my friend had work done to his car that cost near that amount ,( torque converter in an auto Mercedes ) they got him to sign an agreement for the repair work and pay at least a quarter of the £850 bill up front .

personally if I was any kind of tradesman I would always secure at least a deposit on any work over a certain value

in terms of your situation , legally it is a tricky situation to be in . and what is legally right is not going to be practically achievable .
legally if you have only asked for a diagnostic and quote for the actual problem and they go ahead and repair the car without your authority they have breached the contract that you reached with them , even if threes nothing in writing you can still have a verbal contract . As they have breached the contract you are not liable to pay for the repairs they might have carried out .

unfortunately though they have possession of the car which makes things tricky for you when it comes to addressing this issue as they are obviously not going to release the car without payment being made for the repairs , especially at this value. If It was say a £30 labor charge for something minor they might be prepared to let it go because of the hassle and to protect their reputation but a £1000 job they are not going to let you drive the car away till its paid .to understand the situation fully you need to see that from their view there is a valid contract in place they have a legal right to retain possession of the car until payment is made and even if you took the spare keys down and drove the car off you could be guilty of the theft of your own car .

if you wanted to pursue the legal route and take them to court you would be the claimant and so would have to prove that you only asked for diagnostic and quote , unless there is a written signed agreement they could just claim you spoke to them over the phone and authorized them to carry out the repair . with no other evidence the court isn't going to be interested in hearing your case .

you could ask them to undo the repairs they have carried out , however if most of the charge is for labor because it is a long job they might be reluctant to do this and if most of the charge is made up of parts be wary of asking for this as they certainly wont employ as much care removing the parts as they did fitting them and its then for you to prove that you are getting your vehicle back more damaged than you gave it to them . besides they might also be reluctant to do this as the parts are then second hand

a solution I have actually seen carried out by a friend who was in a similar situation with some building work he had done was to reach an agreement with the tradesman whereby if he could find a cheaper written quote to get the same work carried out the builder would happily accept the lowest quote . in the end he managed to get a quote for about 5% less .

at the end of the day though if this happens you have to assess how much the repairs are and if its worth the hassle , if its a cheap job pay but complain they might reduce it a bit or even drop it like I said above . I mean is it worth not having your car for a few weeks and all the hassle and arguments over £30 . sometimes it might just be worth complaining but paying up and never using that garage again .

 

[MMM]

Hey guys,

I've just been wondering . . . .as my Mrs car is in the garage to be looked at and for them to tell us how much it would be to repair, their standard diagnostics is £45.

Now If it's what I think is wrong with it (immobiliser) then the repair bill could run into the £1,000 mark! Yikes!

But that's not why I'm here, I'm wondering if they mid-heard me and are actually carrying out the repair instead of just giving me the quote to repair it what happens?

So I wanted them to charge me £45 and tell me how much it will be to repair the whole thing and instead they just went ahead and repaired the whole thing i'm interested to know what would happen?

By the way i'm like 99% sure this isn't what has happened it literally just crossed my mind and I was curious as to if I would be obliged to pay the bill?

You have to sign for authorised repairs before they can carry it out.

 

[ssc456]

You have to sign for authorised repairs before they can carry it out.

Interesting, not in this country you don't.

As I said I'm not in this situation but it would have been interesting if I was.
Because so much of the car garage industry in the UK and many other industries rely on verbal communication with no written contracts I'm surprise we don't hear more of this.

 

[berry120]

In the UK at least, the only real way you can go about rectifying this problem is to "pay under protest", where you pay to release your goods, but inform them in writing that you will be taking steps to claim this money back through the appropriate legal channels, which may involve going to court.

 

[muz]

In the UK at least, the only real way you can go about rectifying this problem is to "pay under protest", where you pay to release your goods, but inform them in writing that you will be taking steps to claim this money back through the appropriate legal channels, which may involve going to court.

forgot to mention that one , only problem with that is you would have to prove to the court that you didn't agree to the work being carried out which is difficult when its your word vs theirs .

 

[berry120]

forgot to mention that one , only problem with that is you would have to prove to the court that you didn't agree to the work being carried out which is difficult when its your word vs theirs .

Yup, agreed - these things are unfortunately a very grey area. In practice I don't think they prove a problem too often which is why, but unfortunately when they do things can really get a bit awkward.