Am I getting ripped off???

[Phizzle]

You live, you learn. Busy places can't just pull someone off a job to have a free look at a fault on someone's car and give them a diagnosis then that someone goes to Holmart/ebay/wreckers and fixes it themselves. They spent years as apprentices and training new staff, why would they give away their knowledge for free?

[HSV590]

The first image shows the quote to get the air con fixed
The second image shows how much they charged me for the quote

I'm not so sure the quote for the repairs is unreasonable, but being charged $150 for a partial quote seems excessive.

1) I've been charged $100 for a hour's work
2) I was told it 'wouldn't be much' for the quote
3) The whole point of a quote is to find out how much it will cost to get something fixed. Without quoting the labor they're not really doing that are they?


Also, please, clarrification on the grease nipple thing. Someone just said they don't need to be greased, is that true?

If that is true, how do I stop my suspension from creaking?

Thanks heaps guys

PS sorry the first pic is sideways. I did change it on photobucket but apparently have to wait for the image to be updated

Mate, I'd have to say, that looks all pretty fair and reasonable to me. Sure you could shop around and get more pricing on the repairs, but for what they did, $150 looks about the money to me...They did miss putting a receiver drier on the quote though..

[whitels1ss]

Buddy after seeing that job sheet I don't think the price is all that bad, They vacced down your air cond system, used some gas, checked it over
and it all would have taken time, it looks like they were trying to get your system gassed and running for you and found that your compressor is u/s and the job could not be done without replacing it.

As I said before, try and find somewhere cheaper to do the work, Pro Fix or somewhere like that?

If you really want to try and save money, you might even get a firm quote from a wrecker who may be able to supply, fit and warranty a decent used compressor, I said get a quote from a wrecker to supply and fit in case you have a problem and then it is not an argument between the supplier and fitter for payment and re gassing if there is a problem down the track.

Creeks and groans are often caused by slightly loose nuts and bolts under the suspension and things slightly moving around, they often can be fixed just by tightening them up again.

[Dillzio]

You live, you learn. Busy places can't just pull someone off a job to have a free look at a fault on someone's car and give them a diagnosis then that someone goes to Holmart/ebay/wreckers and fixes it themselves. They spent years as apprentices and training new staff, why would they give away their knowledge for free?

I never asked for anything for free, I really don't know where you got that impression from.

I was told up front by the manager that the quote "wouldn't cost much" so that's what I expected.

Mate, I'd have to say, that looks all pretty fair and reasonable to me. Sure you could shop around and get more pricing on the repairs, but for what they did, $150 looks about the money to me...They did miss putting a receiver drier on the quote though..

Nah they didn't miss it, they've already done it and billed me for it.

[whitels1ss]

If you wanted to try a wrecker, I would suggest Complete Auto Dissmantlers on North East Road, there used to be a guy working there called Lance
who was quite helpfull, also there are a couple of mobile air conditioning guys who might give you a quote supply and fit a used compressor but I don't know anyone who works that side of town these days.
Those compressors were often a problem on those models.

[Mohit]

I was told up front by the manager that the quote "wouldn't cost much" so that's what I expected.

Well that's open to interpretation isn't it!

[Dillzio]

If you wanted to try a wrecker, I would suggest Complete Auto Dissmantlers on North East Road, there used to be a guy working there called Lance
who was quite helpfull, also there are a couple of mobile air conditioning guys who might give you a quote supply and fit a used compressor but I don't know anyone who works that side of town these days.
Those compressors were often a problem on those models.

Thanks mate. I live in Salisbury so ProFix Eliz could be worth a go. It's just hard to get my car into a mechanics when I need the car for work and i work mon-fri 8:30-5.
I'm not sure about going a second hand compressor, I mean it might just pack up 6 months later right?

[Dillzio]

Well that's open to interpretation isn't it!

True, but I think saying something won't cost much strongly suggests it will be under a hundred dollars, especially if it's just for a quote where they're not actually fixing anything.

Would you say that $150 isn't much money? If you don't think it's much money, then $50 must be pretty trivial to you, in which case I'd ask that you kindly give me $50 since you obviously won't miss it

[whitels1ss]

Thanks mate. I live in Salisbury so ProFix Eliz could be worth a go. It's just hard to get my car into a mechanics when I need the car for work and i work mon-fri 8:30-5.
I'm not sure about going a second hand compressor, I mean it might just pack up 6 months later right?

Yeah, it could and maybe it would not?

I reckon you would buy a used one for $200 or perhaps less and a new one would be close to $600

I just offered the suggestion in case you wanted to save costs on what could be a fairly expensive job.

[HSV590]

True, but I think saying something won't cost much strongly suggests it will be under a hundred dollars, especially if it's just for a quote where they're not actually fixing anything.

Would you say that $150 isn't much money? If you don't think it's much money, then $50 must be pretty trivial to you, in which case I'd ask that you kindly give me $50 since you obviously won't miss it

Perhaps you should have asked for a ball park number first instead of complaining about it later. Looking at what they did, that is $150 worth of work in anyone's workshop...

[jai]

Looking at what was done initially for $150, time and materials seems fair. The quote to replace parts for you seems ok too. You car was probably $60k when new, so yes $150 doesn't seem like much, well it doesn't to me. Sounds like this might be your first car with a major systems issue!


iPhone

[OVZ-346]

after looking at the breakdown of what you were charged i really dont think you have much to be concerned about

theoretically if it had have not had a faulty compressor you would have driven out of there with fully functional air-con.... its not their fault that they had to vac down and gas the system to determine that the compressor was faulty.....

you made it sound like it was $150 to "look" at the vehicle not actually try and repair it which would have been reasonably labour intensive

id be quite ok with it personally

[steve_t]

In the scheme of car repair AT A DEALER, I do consider $150 to be "not that much". It's just part of the cost of car ownership. Sad but true

[Dillzio]

OK, thanks for the insight guys.

What about the matter of not saying how much labor is going to cost?

The way that quote reads they could end up charging me anything for labor. The whole reason I was paying for a quote was to find out how much it will cost me in total to fix the air con, and it seems to me that they haven't really done that. For all the work they put in diagnosing it, shouldn't they have been able to work out how long it would take them to fix it? I mean if they're only swapping out a compressor and regassing the system that should be pretty straight forward and predictable right?

[planetdavo]

(puts flame suit on)
Looks pretty reasonable to me.
One thing I've noticed in Australia is that many people often expect quotes to be either free or heavily discounted, because they feel they aren't getting any "real" work done.
$100 per hour labour is actually quite low for a dealer, with all their overheads, plus parts and consumables were actually used (rec drier, o-rings, gas, dye), so "work" has actually been done. This is a good example of where posting up the invoice answers far more questions than just typing up a few words often does.
For reference, my local pool shop charges $66 to quote on the repair of a pool pump motor. If you proceed with the job at that time, they only charge you for the repair, not the quote.
Which now leads to one of the main reasons workshops charge to quote.
What's to stop a customer going to workshop A for a cheap quote- to then go to a different place to have it fixed (or fix it themselves) at lower cost? Why would the original workshop want to discount the quote knowing this scenario is quite possible? Going back to my pool shop example, places "may" discount the quoting/diagnostic time if you show some loyalty in return, but since the op clearly stated he was only after a quote, this never came into the discussion.
It also highlights the dangers of trying to do verbal quotes without looking at the car. Often, until you start poking and prodding, you really have no idea how serious the issues with the car might be.