I have seen this week's poll and also commented on this under there but...
8 months ago had cam belt replaced on V reg Focus by friendly mech
3 weeks ago adjuster went.
Direct Line rescued car to local Ford dealer
After three days local Ford dealer issue "preliminary" report after inspection - "cam belt tensioner has gone but it is not the original belt" - so no question of assistance with cost from Ford.
Fair enough, I arrange for local mech to recover car from Ford dealer and he does the work (cam belt OK but replaced anyway - with adjuster - plus 8 bent exhaust valves etc etc)
Ford dealer called the wife when the truck arrived to collect and said their bill must be paid before the car is removed - £140 + VAT. Short and curlies job - she paid up. (I was away)
Does the team think this is a reasonable amount to pay for a "preliminary inspection?". My mech reckons this would have taken him 20 minutes...maybe he's wrong...
(NB I have already written to the dealer to ask how they arrived at teh figure)
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Possibly charged you storage for the few days it was there after you told them they weren't doing the work.
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If it's any help Smokie, Ford hourly rates around here are a shade over 70 quid an hour.
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Adam
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Not storage - or at least it shouldn't be - it went in on Monday and they had staff off sick and were unable to even look at it till Wed pm (which annoyed me, we weren't even sure what the problem was, though I had a good idea...). It was removed during Thursday.
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Sounds like sour grapes because you've taken the car elsewhere. The 2 Ford dealers I use charge £50 and £55 an hour + VAT.
Not a lot you can do about it now - they're within their right to charge you for inspection but £140+VAT seems steep.
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Have you not got an itemised bill? If not, ask for one and query anything you don't agree with.
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I have a proper bill. details of which are:
"Investigate car cut out & will not restart Checked timing belt, nec to remove covers, removed rocker cover, checked valves, refitted all removed items. Non Ford belt fitted."
As they were not able to tell me whether there was any damage I have queried exactly what use Check Valves was to me.
Can someone technical confirm roughly how long this would take?
Thanks
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I have a proper bill. details of which are: "Investigate car cut out & will not restart Checked timing belt, nec to remove covers, removed rocker cover, checked valves, refitted all removed items. Non Ford belt fitted." As they were not able to tell me whether there was any damage I have queried exactly what use Check Valves was to me. Can someone technical confirm roughly how long this would take? Thanks
I could do this in under an hour (with a cup of tea) and I'm not a Ford mechanic. They are just ripping you because you've taken the car elsewhere.
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So they have quoted a time on the bill, I assume?
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Smokie, it all comes down to one fact:
When the car was recovered to your local Ford Garage, did you AUTHORISE them to work on your car? Did you ASK them to diagnose the fault?
If you did, then you are bound to paying their 'reasonable charges' and best practice dictates that you should have been advised of any 'minimum costs' and 'misc. costs' that working on your vehicle might attract. Although I beleive the onus is on you to ask of the likely charges and to set a 'limit' on the amount of investigation work they will do.
If, on the otherhand, you had NOT given them instruction to work on the car...then you might have a case in point. Question is, what di you ASK them to do?
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The bill is not itemised - the entry is exactly as I have described above.
I called the garage to check that they would accept the car before it went in.
I may or may not have asked them to carry out diagnostic work, but I accept that was implicit in having the car recovered to them. No min or max amounts were discussed however.
I wouldn't dispute a charge for their work (even though it actually added very little to anything!). What I was somewhat shocked at was the size of the charge compared to the amount of work carried out.
I'm really not expecting to get anywhere with them - after all, they already have my money and possession is 9/10ths and all that.
Mind you, they will be on my blacklist for any future work or purchasing...!!!
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Let's put it this way, the 'book' time to *change* a Focus timing belt is 2.5 hours. I don't know your dealers exact hourly rate but it seems to me that they've charged you this amount (i.e. 2.5 hours worth of labour) to simply *look* at the belt.
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Excellent, thank you Aprilia.
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another thing that has just occured to me is possibly when they removed the rocker cover and then they subsiquently replaced it they may have installed a new rocker box gasket which probably wouldn't be cheap from a main dealer.
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I think you should try and get an itemised bill.
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another thing that has just occured to me is possibly when they removed the rocker cover and then they subsiquently replaced it they may have installed a new rocker box gasket which probably wouldn't be cheap from a main dealer.
Its a Ford, not a Toyota ;-)
Rocker box gasket is not more than a few quid, even from the Ford dealer. I suspect they wouldn't have replaced it though - not when it would need stripping down anyway.
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Just had a call from the service manager. He stood by the 2 hour cost @ £69.50 ph, with apologies that he hadn't provided the diagnostic information. Not much more to be done. He offered to do me a "special price" on any future work...
Thanks for the advice anyway guys.
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So you are happy with two hours labour, considering that Aprilia reckons it should be no more than an hour?
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>>He offered to do me a "special price" on any future work...
I would get that in writing rather than by word of mouth..I agree with what Aprilia said.But he doesnt control what happens in a garage.No offence meant to Aprilia.I do agree they are a ripoff.Having worked for a few in the past I know..Make sure whatever is mentioned on the phone/either by recording phone call.Or asking for it to be written by letter.I actualy doubt you will.But worth a try
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Steve
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Personally, I wouldn't use the garage again. The best way to deal with this kind of treatment is to vote with your feet.
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I had this post open in front of me while I spoke to the guy and quoted some of what has been said. Not, I'm not particularly happy, but they have my money so there isn't much more I can do.
As stated, I won't be using them again.
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A further update: I had also written to Ford Customer Care as I had been told that they often offer "assistance" if the mileage is below 100,000, even thought the car may be out of warranty. (OK, I was "trying it on" a bit, but why not?)
I have just recieved a call from them. They said (on the advice of their technical department) that although the cam belt itself is recommended for change at 100,000 miles, the cam belt adjuster is NOT covered, as it is a mechanical part and therefore serviceable.
Not quite sure what they mean by this, but I don't see "check condition of cambelt adjuster" in any of the service schedules...
(They also said that in cases where they may "give assistance", the car would HAVE to be looked at by a Ford assessor, and dealt with at a Ford dealer. I wonder if that would have incurred a delay in the process?)
Anyway, case closed, lessons learnt (by me!).
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