Garage bill advice.

When you put a car in for an MOT and it needs a significant amount of work would you expect the garage to call you before doing it?

Ta

Yes.

They must get your permission to undertake any work.

Ask them to undo it so you can go get a quote somewhere else 😉

That was my assumption but I’ve been known to be wrong in the past!

A fact of life is that garage phones can’t make outbound calls.

Yes, had this few years ago and they seemed shocked I declined to pay for unauthorised work. Had told them when dropping off I was in all day and to ring if needed work done but they did it anyway.
Their rationale was all their other customers would have been grateful! Backed down and removed additional work from bill when I asked for the phone book to look for trading standards phone number 🙂

Mine rang to ask if they could remove a nail from a tyre and plug the resulting hole…we now have a “If it’s under £x, just do it” agreement

You haven’t agreed to the repair, so you haven’t agreed to pay. Their problem IMHO

You haven’t agreed, but bear in mind that they thought they were doing you a favour in getting it fixed quickly. If it’s generally a good garage, might be worth just sucking it up if it’s not too much money.

I take my car to the garage to come back with an mot certificate. So unless it’s a big spend I expect them to just get on with it.

How significant is significant?

I guess if the OP car is worth £1000 and they have just given him a bill for £1000 then he’d be right to expect a call.

I’d refuse to pay personally.

How significant is significant?

It was £650 on a vehicle we didn’t think there was anything wrong with. They’ve done it a few times but not for as much and for obvious things like brake pads. Given that they have an excellent reputation locally we’ve just paid up till now. There are also a few odd things about what work has been done and the fact that when they told me it was ready they only mentioned one thing they’d replaced.

Couldn’t query at the time as the gaffer wasn’t there and the bill wasn’t ready so they’ve posted it out a month later.

I don’t think they’re cowboys but it’s not best practice.

There are also a few odd things about what work has been done and the fact that when they told me it was ready they only mentioned one thing that it needed.

Couldn’t query at the time as the gaffer wasn’t there and the bill wasn’t ready so they’ve posted it out a month later.

That is ridiculous! Seriously need to have a word with them for that approach, unless you know them well (enough to pay on trust alone) then that is very bad business practice. Entirely understandable people might think they are being scammed. So if you dont know them like mates (you say you’ve used them lots) then report them.

Hard to guess what would be wrong to justify that bill.
Wheel bearing, suspension bushes, stuff you can’t check easily I’d assume.

I’d ask to see an itemised bill and the stuff they’ve removed from the car.

I’d also be going ballistic that they didn’t call and went ahead without permission to do so.

I’m always a bit wary of setting a “spend up to X before calling” type of limit unless I know the garage as I’ve had a few too many experiences of it seeming to have cost just below that limit.
I do trust the guy who does my van now but before I found him I always used to tell them I was pretty skint so not to go too crazy & I’d generally find things like filters, bulbs etc would get done but pricked stuff involved a call.
Lol at garage phones not ringing out though. Also, whenever you call them it’s usually “just being finished now” or “we were just about to call you”…

Terrible practice. The garage that gets all my business and recommendations will call to tell you all work that needs doing unless you request the work. You’ll then get a full breakdown and laymans explanation of the work when you pick it up. I’m sure it’s a total pain for them but then we are trusting them with expensive important assets and paying them for the service. Trust works both ways.

the bill wasn’t ready so they’ve posted it out a month later.

unlike any garage I’ve ever had to deal with – sounds dodgy.

The garage I use a fair bit will, without fail, ring before doing anything.
You ‘could’ refuse to pay – it would end up going to small claims and you could then ask them to prove that the items needed replacing, which would be rather tricky for them. I don’t suppose they have facebook or twitter pages do they?

sharkbait – Member
the bill wasn’t ready so they’ve posted it out a month later.
unlike any garage I’ve ever had to deal with – sounds dodgy.

I think this depends where you are. Round here no garage or tradesman gives you a bill on the day, you get it through the post several weeks later. So it’s normal here.

Very dodgy, you pay for an Mot, if they fail it you get a list of what it’s failed on amd a free retest within x days. You can then choose for them to do the repairs or get a second opinion elsewhere or get the repairs done elsewhere.

Where’s there? I’ve had my car into garages in various places and every single one has presented a bill when I’ve picked up the car – a bill you’re expected to pay before you drive off. Seems very strange to me – especially if he wasn’t even told about the work when he picked the car up.

Currently I get the car MOTed at the local garage across the road – have never yet had work done there (it’s only once needed anything, tyres and exhaust and I took it to the local tyre and exhaust place which was half the price they were quoting – after spending half a day fixing the bonnet catch so I could drive it, but that’s another story).

Given that they have an excellent reputation locally

That isn’t necessarily built on anything other than self-perpetuating goodwill – we had one like that, everyone recommended it, because it must be good, because that was who everyone recommended to them.

Until trading standards went in, that is…

Where’s there?

Scotland. I can only think of one occasion since I’ve lived here when I’ve had to pay a bill at the time, and that was a main dealer car service in Inverness. Almost everything is done by them sending you an invoice later on, builders, plumbers, roofers, electricians, the people who supplied and delivered my stove, the local garage.

I’ve never found something on there that I wasn’t told about though, I agree that’s odd.

Scotland. I can only think of one occasion since I’ve lived here when I’ve had to pay a bill at the time, and that was a main dealer car service in Inverness. Almost everything is done by them sending you an invoice later on, builders, plumbers, roofers, electricians, the people who supplied and delivered my stove, the local garage.

Yep, like going back to the 70’s isn’t it 🙂

We moved into the Borders a few years ago and with many of the trades you’ve to hassle them for a bill.

Total different around Glasgow, you get the bill within a millisecond of the work being done!

Round here some send bills later, but the garage charges on the spot. I’ve never had a garage that didn’t phone up before doing work, MOT or otherwise. 650 quid is a lot, I’d be grumbling but if he work really needed doing I’d pay up regardless.

Not a chance would I be paying them a penny!
There’d need to be a mahoosive pile of parts on the counter along with being able to categorically prove they came off my car. Even then if they hadn’t asked permission they wouldn’t be getting paid straight off.
Tell them you’ll pay the MOT cost and sod all else.

Last Mot failure I had – the garage asked me to come down (didn’t sound good) and they were refusing to fix it at all, even “just for the test”, as it was beyond economic repair (and their reputation).

Was miffed but also fair play..

Trades will send a bill round here. Garage – usually there on the spot but have been known for it to be chucked through the door a few days later. NE Scotland..

Yep, like going back to the 70’s isn’t it

Although so is the sense of urgency at times!

Cheers for all your input folks. I phoned the garage and they accepted that they should have phoned us and also that one of the new parts was not necessary for the MOT but did require replacement.

They initially offered me a derisory amount off. I suggested that as the problem was not the parts they’d provided but the fact that they’d done work without permission it was more appropriate to take the labour cost off. That seems pretty fair to me under the circumstances as we will be keeping the parts and they will not get paid for the unauthorised work. They’re thinking about it…

That sounds like a particularly sensible, and un-STW-like, proposal from you. Well done!

Now get out 🙂

That sounds like a particularly sensible, and un-STW-like, proposal from you. Well done!

Thanks, Solomon like in its wisdom I thought 😉

If they don’t like that they can chase me for it.

Out of interest, what were the parts that had to replaced?

Pads,discs and wheel bearings which are fair enough. The odd one was the sump which as I said above they’ve admitted was not neccessary to the MOT. Pretty sure it will be binned by now so there’s no evidence either way of the need for it.

As I’ve said before they have an excellent reputation for their quality of work so I don’t think I’m going to accuse them of replacing sound parts but it does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

The sump is a bit odd. Although I have seen corroded sumps, which I suppose could ultimately lead to perforation and oil loss, or perhaps it was badly scraped?

Did they do a service/oil change too? They may well have stripped/cross threaded the drain plug 😉
Had a rubbish garage do this on our old golf.

Ask them for the failure sheet – there will be one. It’ll have the reasons for refusal of an MOT on it.
Pads, discs and wheel bearings will not necessarily fail an MOT even if worn.
A massive lip on the disc would, as would excessive play in the bearings.
Its best practice to replace pads with discs but if they aren’t badly worn then again not necessary.
Unless they can categorically show me the actual parts and how bad they are – they wouldn’t be getting any money for any parts.
Personally I will not use a garage that does its own MOT’s for this very reason.
I’ve had a car fail on rear pads when less than an hour before I’d fitted new ones.
The “examiner” couldn’t see them properly (330D) so stated they were below the legal limit.
He had an advisory on the rear discs too as heavily worn – they were less than 1k old.
Again because he couldn’t see them properly and the newer rules don’t allow them to remove trim, wheels, guards, etc anymore.
Lets just say when I opened the boot and showed him the old ones and the paperwork for the discs, etc he wasn’t best pleased.
He now works elsewhere and has since admitted that its the garage policy – they make 80-90% of their money from MOT’s

I thought the brakes were simply tested on rollers, ie they either brake hard enough or they don’t?

Visual check of condition of discs is part of the test but they have to be so knakered they are seriously weakened or likely to fail to be a fail.

As the garage had done work without permission on a few other occasions for you, a precedent had been set and they probably thought they were doing the right thing. Bit unfair of you to penalise them for the necessary MoT work but fair enough on the sump.

I’ve heard (not first hand) of a guy being told his discs/pads had been replaced by an MOT place as they were below legal limit/damaged/knackered.

When he asked to see the ones they had taken off, he had to point out that his wheels were 5 bolt not 4, used discs about 1″ bigger than the ones they were waving under his nose and also, they’d done a fantastic job of filling the vented interior of the disc.

I suspect they weren’t happy about having to then pay to have genuine parts fitted, at their expense, at a main dealer, to replace the pattern parts they’d used…….

I’m suspicious about “porus” sumps. My reliable mechanic has changed 2 out and I don’t think it was necc.
Clean it, and chap it to see if falling apart. I’m sure they exist..just not as often as they make out.

Get MOT and work done at different garage to remove incentive.

if there are two related jobs to be done, ask them to do one and see if they notice the other one.