MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Ok, so I had the usual "YAAVC" BS while on hold today with a bank but then a new one this afternoon. Phone call from local garage:
LG: Hi, as a valued customer we are calling to remind you that you car is due its MOT
Me: Thanks, yes good reminder. How much are you charging?
LG: £54.95
Me: That is v expensive
LG: We price match:
Me: I would prefer that you offered your [i]valued customer[/i] an attractive price from the outset
LG: [silence]
So phone another garage much closer to home:
Me: Can you fit me in for an MOT please?
LG2: Yes sure, we can do tomorrow
Me: How much will this be?
LG2: £45
Me: That's more than 10% higher than last year
LG2: Lets check. Oh yes, it was £38 last year, we will do the same again then..
Me: Great, see you tomorrow...
So lessons - (1) "valued customer" means nothing of the sort (yes thanks BA for the downgrade!) and (2) if your dont ask, you dont get!!
*waits for THM's [i]MOT failure - is my garage trying it on [/i] thread
😆
£54.85 is the Government set price so yes your garage is 10p more...
personally I always go back to the same garage (10yrs) and always pay the set price of whatever the gov have set it to...and it never fails and if it did I know its for a good reason...
Never been taken in by the cheap MOT offer. I would expect the car to fail so they can try and get the work and make up for doing cheap MOTs
they do it as a method of attractin customers as they expect to to get some of the work. however given the time it takes to do one it generally works out as equivalent to their hourly rate anyway so they still profit from it
My local 45 per hour labour charge MOT £30. It passed but for a tyre and a knackered part I knew about anyway.
FWIW given they get random inspected by the govt it is not worth the risk to most garages tbh to risk it ...this is less of a risk if you go to the same place every year and it is often better to go somewhere different each year as it is always a new customer who is checking them not the person who has brought the car here for the last 10 years.
I live and learn! I wasn't aware of the gov price 😳
Odd as LG2 is a major brand - surprised that they offer price below the gov set one. Is that legal?
They (LG2) have done last three MOTs and a service in wife's motor.
I stand corrected thought with respect to LG1 although amused that even they were prepared to price match!!!!
Hang on, you are spoofing me. Its the maximum price not a minimum or set one!
As you were......
Cheers UFG, that's what I looked at between the previous posts. That's the max price permitted.
So, we value you so much as a customer we would like to charge you the most we are allowed to. Thanks for that. Like servicing, I will take my business elsewhere.
I have mine done by a local garage which specialises in MOTs.They have failed me twice out of 9 MOTs for easily remediable faults,and retested free when the faults have been rectified,I'm very pleased with their service.I rectified the faults,they didn't suggest anything else,they were tyres,windscreen wiper blades and light bulbs.
Most dealerships do half price MOTs just to get you in the door. Think I paid £25 for my last MOT.
Nah, not [b]all[/b] garages drop their pants on MOTs just so they can purposely fail a car and make profit as a result. My local has been doing this for 3-4 yrs and neither I nor anyone I've recommended have had a failure. In fact, they're probably the most polite and honest garage I know.
Local garage (part of a small chain around the midlands) that I've used for last 3 years, offer a £25 MOT all year round, not a special deal, just what they charge, failed this year as headlights needed adjusting cost £6 and had a worn ball joint on anti roll bar (or something) I actually knew about that as could hear it knocking, charged me for parts only as they noticed I had asked them to look at the knocking noise last time car was in for a service and they hadn't picked up on it, free re-test obviously
Not all cheap garages will rip you off, there are some good ones out there
My most local garage has cheapish MOTs. Car failed on exhaust and tyres, both of which were clearly correct. I took it away to get tyres and exhaust done elsewhere, came back and got free retest. I'll be going back next year - and some things they're not that expensive for (though not tyres, and they'd have replaced exhaust rather than welded as I had done).
My garage (not my local garage) does good value MOTs and aren't thieves. Well worth putting in the effort to find a good one.
(mind you, I tend to turn up for the test with oil under my fingers, maybe I should send my dad down to them with his best mug face on and see if they're as honest! But he insists on going back to the same place that's ripped him off every year for a decade.)
As for "valued customer", it doesn't mean you're bezzie mates, it just means they valued your custom- because they thought they could charge you too much money.
TH, Farncombe service station, corner of Catteshall lane is the best place in Godalming.
Totally honest, no bullshit sort of place with free re-tests if necessary.