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Could you clarify how workshop rates are set for my mother?
Please would you clarify something for my mother, who is over 80 and thinks that the garage is trying to 'diddle' her. Her car is more than ten years old, and doesn't do much mileage at all. The garage said that they had difficulty in taking the wheel bearing assembly apart, and ended up putting the whole thing in a vice and breaking the cover. They did not warn my Mum that this might be necessary, and only told her afterwards, when they told her that the bill had gone up from about £450 to nearly £800, and that they couldn't locate the part. My mum, who has a Ford pensioner's card, was able to source the part for £205, and my sister picked it up for the garage, but now my Mum thinks that part of the assembly has been included in the garage's bill.
Asked on 5 October 2013 by MG, via email
Answered by
Honest John
Garages allocate a certain amount of time to each job, and time is money, usually at the rate of around £100 + VAT an hour. So they will try to do a job as quickly as they can. If it's an old car and the parts were fused together they would have had no choice other than to do what they did. She needs to ascertain from the invoice how much she paid for labour, how much she paid for parts, and what parts she actually paid for.
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