DAVE-W

Lets start with the moral of this story.....

When obtaining quotes for engine work, always get something in writing, be it fax, e-mail etc. and never rely upon a telephone call

....anyway, you may have read my thread about my leaking rocker cover gasket a week or so ago, and this is where the story begins.

I wanted someone to do the work who has experience in this sort of stuff, and know exactly what has to be done, therefore the job only has to be done once, so I rang around.

Amongst the companies I spoke to were Scoobysport, who said it would be around £120 plus vat to do the job, and Graham Goode who told me around £50-60 labour plus parts (which I had already priced with their parts dept. at around £40). Both prices were similar give or take 10 or so quid, and a couple of other companies also quoted similar prices.

Now having been to GGR previously I knew that it was a fairly easy motorway drive up to there from West Wales, with the bonus that I knew exactly where I was going, so I decided to take the car to them. With the price difference being so marginal this was the only influencing factor in my decision. The car was booked in and we arrived there early this morning.

The car was taken into the workshop at around 9.45 and emerged just before 1 o'clock this afternoon.....then the bill appeared

Parts total was as I had been told.....the labour.....£150....a little bit more than what I had been told on the phone I'm sure you'll agree .

Now I can't comment on whether Scoobysport would have stuck by the price given to me on the phone either, but had I known the price difference I eventually shelled out, I would surely have taken it to them.

Now thats off my chest (I'm a little wound up at the moment), I would add that I have used GGR since I purchased the Impreza for mail order items and had no problems with them whatsoever, I'm just a little dissapointed at what happened today.

Also on the bright side, they have done a good job and the leak is cured....so is the smell!!!! (I'm sure I would have had a similarly succesful result with Scoobysport as well)

In the future I'll be getting quotes on a fax etc. to cover my ****.

Dave

fivepint

a sorrow tale... just out of interest did u raise this with the service manager at the time? if so waht was his reply?

Cheers

DAVE-W

Yeah....it was the first thing that I pointed out when presented with the bill. The response was "...well you can see how long the car has been in the workshop so it seems a fair bill doesn't it?"

The fact that I had been quoted something very different didn't seem to bother him very much, he even said "hope to see you again soon" as I was leaving.

Not likely

Dave

robski

You have to ask for a job price if you want to cover your ****.

e.g. When fitting my second hand scoobysport downpipe, pete said its a flat fee same as if I had just bought a new one. If it was a non-scoobysport it was their normal hourly rate......

Quotes are only slightly less vague than estimates IMHO

robski

Dizzy

tbo quotes are just quotes.. your lucky it wasn't twice the price

Dad took our westi to Aldon (who quoted £350) to have a Webber Alpha ignition fitted to the westfield(XFlow). dad went back and colected the car for a ball breaking £750 hmm he haggled it "down" to £700. I'm sure they phoned him to say it was going to go over the quote but ffs.

I'm still recovering from that bill. Still the car now flies.

To be honest most places I go the quote is a quote unless its a fixed price (ala Scoobysport). Sometimes is less sometimes its more.

DAVE-W

It just gutted me ....I was gonna buy some bits for the car from them until the bill arrived. Guess its gotta wait til next month now

Dave