[Closed] £53 for braided hose!

Seems a bit steep

Goodridge hose is £8.99/m retail

Isn't it normally about £25/30 quid each end for a full kit including connectors?

Plus labour, so sounds about right.

Did you ask for a price? What would you think is fair?

So if you include parts and labour which includes a full bleed front and rear, £53 seem reasonable.

Not bad at all I'd have said

Doesn't seem bad to me considering what I paid for a service from Hope (via my LBS) which included swapping to braided hose.

The bill would have been more " including £53 " for hoses. But sounds about right for a full kit with connectors.

Did you ask for braided hoses? Or did you ask em to fix your brakes?
If you asked for them then that's a good price, if you didn't then you need to ask them why they've fitted them and why they didn't use standard hose.. Which is cheap....

That price was simply for 3m of hose. Labour was extra.
What had happened was even though I provided them with all the fittings (I only required the 3m of hose), they decided to, without informing me, provide me with 2 full fitting kits (£26.50 each, hence the £53).
Total price was £111.
I provided them with everything except 3m of braided hose.

You were expecting it to be a fiver?
Braided hose 3m @ £9 a metre-£27
Bleed brakes @ £15 each X2-£30
Cut and install hose @£6 X2-£12
Total =£69
Seems like they under charged you.
LBS bills are only usually a shock when the customer has totally unrealistic expectations.Though you should have been given an estimate when you dropped it off or phoned to get clearance if the work was more than originally expected.
Edit....now that IS shonky!!
Double edit...they charged £58 labour!Holey moley.

You were expecting it to be a fiver?
Braided hose 3m @ £9 a metre-£27

That's what they charged him £53 for - labour was extra

Please READ the edit.

Judging by the number of posts along these lines I must be the only person that asks 'how much', before...

[i]What had happened was even though I provided them with all the fittings (I only required the 3m of hose), they decided to, without informing me, provide me with 2 full fitting kits [/i]

Did your fittings 'fit'?

Rorschach - please see my post above. The price for 3m of hose was £53. Total price was £111.
Even though I supplied them with all the fittings and asked for just 3m of braided hose (total of £24-27) they, without, informing me decided to replace all my fittings by simply using 2 full kits even though there's nothing wrong with my fittings that I supplied.
I spoke to the mechanic later on when collecting the bike and he mentioned that there was nothing wrong with my fittings however he was presented with a job card and 2 full kits so simply did what he was told.
As for getting quoted a price I made contact with them on 3 separate occasions (twice by phone, once in person when dropping the bike off) and no quote was given even though I asked for a price prior to them commencing the work.

I do understand and am realistic with prices from LBS's however what I'm saying here is the shop have charged me, without informing me, for parts I did not require.

[i]As for getting quoted a price I made contact with them on 3 separate occasions (twice by phone, once in person when dropping the bike off) and no quote was given even though I asked for a price prior to them commencing the work.

[/i]

So you committed to work, without actually knowing the price... 🙄

b r - I do also ask how much. And on this instance on 3 separate occasion. And also asked to be informed of the prices for any parts prior to them continuing with the work. The LBS on this occasion didn't bother. In fact they did not even make 1 call back to me. I had to contact them myself after booking it in as I had not heard from them with the quotes and I too had to contact them on the Friday to collect the bike. It wasn't even finished at there closing time and had I not made the call about 20 mins prior to them shutting up shop I would have not heard anything.

And I did not commit to the work. If you've read the post you will have seen that I had asked on 3 separate occasions for them to quote me. Which they didn't. I asked when dropping off the bike to be called with the quotes prior to them commencing with the work. Which they didn't.
I didn't commit to anything, I simply dropped off the bike in the end with my list of what I needed doing. They simply decided to add extra things in without contacting me.

This is the sort of thing that set me on the path to becoming a home mechanic.

If you aren't happy don't use them again.

I was going to ask if there was another shop you could use as an alternative?

People on t'internet bang on about how you should support your LBS- well in this case, you now know not to I reckon.

Find a better one- the good ones are worth keeping- or learn to do it yourself.

You got royally F****D there. I would no way do the work with extras without you committing to paying for it. Standard and basic good customer service. If what you say is true (and I've no reason to believe otherwise) then take it up with trading standards because that's a very very poor way to treat customers. Don't go there again.

I've been in touch with the manager down there who say they will contact me within the week to discuss what's happened and I assume he will take responsibility for what's been done.
I will though be speaking with Trading Standards though tomorrow and see where I stand.
There are indeed a few other LBS in my area however I generally just do all work myself. Just in this case I wanted the bike for the bank holiday weekend and with working 15 hour day's leading up to it I just didn't have the time to get it sorted. I did though go through and purchase all of the parts needed bar the hose.

What annoyed me the most was that on 3 occasions prior to Friday when the work was being done they were adamant the bike would be ready by end of play Friday. Then on the day I have no contact with them and it was only due to me calling them about 15 mins before they closed up that news was heard.
When I went to the shop to try and deal with it the manager decided that should I not want to pay up they would remove all the bits therefore leaving me with a bike which was incomplete for the weekend - which then defeated the whole purpose of taking it to them.

I've no doubt that once again they will fail to call me however will allow till near end of play on Weds before contacting them once more. It's a pain having to be the one whose always contacting them. Not once have they called me even when I asked for quotes or when my bike was finished.

that's properly crooked, Matt Allright Rogue Traders worthy stuff. tell us the name of the shop so we can all not go there.

I Bought some Clarkes Braided hose from CRC recently @£3.99 per meter,to replace some Goodridge hoses that I already had which were too short.

The Clarkes is virtually identical and all the Goodridge hose fittings swapped over perfectly.
Bought some LHM fluid from my local motorfactors to bleed the brakes through(Shimano Deore).

Cost:- 3m Clarkes Braided Brake Hose £11.97
1litre of LHM Fluid £5.99
Grand Total £17.96
That is why I generally do all my own servicing.

just to update this thread after a conversation with the owner yesterday he finally managed to refund the difference between the fitting kit and the retail on 3m of braided hose from Hope. It's not a lot of money but more so the principle of the service asked for.
I'm sure they don't very often get these sort of incidents as they've been around a long time in Newport Pagnell and I'm sure they would have been out of business a long time ago.
I'm glad it's been put to rest now even though not once did they bother to call nor suggest an option as to what could be done.
If it makes any difference the shop is Roy Pink Cycles in Newport Pagnell. Like I mentioned I'm sure this incident isn't a reflection of there normal service, more so just think its a one off.

Redacted after a closer read

Hi all, thanks for all comments and feedback. We take customer service very seriously so are disappointed to have let you down in the communication department on this occasion. I have taken your comments on board and whilst our policy is always to ensure that our customers are aware of prices prior to works being undertaken, I have restated to the Team at Roy Pink Cycles that it is imperative that these are agreed prior to work taking place.
Our prices are carefully calculated and based on the cost of parts plus a competitive rate for workshop time and we always aim to provide excellent service and good value for money.
We hope to finalise an amicable solution to your issue in the upcoming week and look forward to welcoming you to the shop in the future,
Alex, Manager, Roy Pink Cycles

I spoke to the mechanic later on when collecting the bike and he mentioned that there was nothing wrong with my fittings however he was presented with a job card and 2 full kits so simply did what he was told.

Sounds like the mechanic needs to grow some and query this sort of stuff rather than 'simply doing what he was told'.

As an aside, why are Brits still infatuated with braided hoses? They do **** all.

As an aside, why are Brits still infatuated with braided hoses? They do **** all.

They look better, don't kink or pinch when crashing and er look better

Oh and hope you get it sorted, lessons to all involved in bike/car/any kind of repair industry, the telephone is your most important tool!

I think TF Tuned have their guys on handsfree kits so they can call you if there are any questions before committing to doing any work