Labour Costs - Servicing
 

Had my car serviced at the weekend (Fixed Price).

Service due to take 1.5 hrs

During the service they found I needed a part replacing and did so at my authorisation (extra 0.5 hrs labour quoted + part price).

Looked over the invoice last night and noticed £100 in labour charges (2hrs)

They had the car for 1.5 hrs - Should I be expected to pay for 2 hrs labour for a fixed price job + extra work when the total time taken was within the original service time?

All jobs on all cars have a "book time". That is the time allowed to carry out the particular work.
You'll get charged the book time, even if the technician has worked faster.

If the technician took his time and made you wait longer for your car, would you be happier?

Yes they do charge you for the book time but they dropped one by quoting less time on your invoice instead of 2 hours.

They can lie about the time and say it was the book time, but if they admit on the invoice that it took less than of the book time then I would not think that they are legally within their rights to charge for labour time that was not required.

I would certainly approach them with that in mind. That is a right royal rip off as far as I am concerned.

Les

What was the other part they needed to replace?

What if several parts needed to be replaced all with their own 'book time'

They could spend 3 Hours on my car but charge me for 5...

I do see your point about Book Time, but only if it's for a single job with no extras.

Fan belt tensioner

Was the belt making a right noise then when it went in?

I asked what part, because if it was something that could be done at the same time as other work, then naturally it wouldn't take as long, doesn't seem the case though.

A little bit, they said it was worn aswell.

That's fair enough then imo.

It might have only taken 1.5 hours in total, but 2 in man hours, they may have had a different guy do the tensioner, while another bloke done the service.

Car was only worked on by 1 guy AFAIK - Only saw one mechanic (I waited at the garage)


Was a Saturday and had the car booked in for a specific slot (11-12:30)

It is illegal to charge for anything not carried out in reality - if you collected the car after 1.5 hours then 1.5 hours labour is what you should pay.

By charging 2 hours they are acting illegally - get 0.5 hours back .... if you wish - or, if you are going to go back there in the future, I would let it ride IMO.

Having spoke to them, I was told another technician worked on my car and the labour time is in man hours.

I'm still a little dubious as there were no other cars or customers
around while I waited.

I was booked into a pre-arranged time slot (Saturday) so the 'other technician' would have been standing around for the almost the entire time I was there....

Had to travel to use them (saving £50 on service cost) and was planning on using them in the future, not so sure now... :brickwall

If you are not happy, tell them and if they still don't satisfy you, take your business else where.

Steve

Is this a main dealer / chain?

Do what i do, never bother getting the car serviced, that way theres less chance of anything going wrong with it and you will save shed loads of £.
Change filters etc.. yourself.

hi there
if it was a main dealer? or good garage they could of offered to collect an deliver the car from you , but because it was a saturday sometimes they are pressed for staff . . .
you could go back and speak to the service manager !!! he runs the workshop ..

However if you had a major fault with the car i.e wiring fault and if they charged to 3 hours , it might take alot lot longer and they prob wouldn't charge you (we wouldn't)
but we would phone you to talk it through.

what they have done is normal, the service was 1.5 hrs and another job took 0.5 hrs all book time, just because the tech can carry out the jobs faster than the book time doesn't mean they have ripped anyone off. techs are normally paid on an efficiency so it's in their interests to do the job quicker it's also where the garage makes it's profits from. on the other hand he could of taken 2.5 hrs to do it but that would mean the garage has made a loss and he wouldn't have a job if he carried on like that!!
don't shoot him down for being quick and efficient at his job, plus they also told you how long the extra job was going to take and you agreed to it.

:thumb::thumb::thumb:

But shouldn't he only be charged for half an hour as that's what was quoted EXTRA as the 1.5 hours was for the fixed price service.

Depends on the dealers system. They might have to state on the invoice that the service took 1.5hrs but have charged it at fixed price. Also the replacement of the tensioner would have been priced before you gave approval thus you would have been quoted this & you agreed, therefore all prices quoted have been agreed by you (the customer) & the dealer / garage. I also echo scoobyboys comments as well.

:thumb:

Problem solved ? :D

The rates these people charge can be as much, if not more, than Harley St Doctors charge.