Shop charged me 622$ for labor on my gears. what do i do? and what are my options? - Page 2

Capt Hair · 08-27-2009, 10:18 PM

you need to go to the shop and try to figure out what happened. If you can't work them down on the price, i think your kind of screwed b/c you have no written estimate or anything to go on.

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JC316 · 08-27-2009, 10:43 PM

Sounds like some serious BS to me. Firstly, $77 an hour for labor is ROUGH. Secondly, I can change a head gasket or a transmission in 8 hours, so I can't see why it would take 8 hours on gears.

You are probably screwed with a 2.5 inch tailpipe, but I would argue with them on that price

nascrchi · 08-28-2009, 01:48 AM

what is the "BOOK"? i wanna know all the prices. It's like the KBB of mechanical labor right?

Blk003GT · 08-28-2009, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fobra

I paid $200.00

cool you POS never asked what you paid

Blk003GT · 08-28-2009, 06:48 AM

yeah hopefully he will help me out i'm going to tell him i was planning on getting more work done there too. so we will see i guess but i think i'm screwed. nothing some pellets and their windows won't fix. no just kidding but it pisses me off

MJH78 · 08-28-2009, 08:15 AM

I paid $300. I supplied the gears, fluid, bearings, seals, etc. I think 300 is pretty much a right in the middle price for this type of work. Some pay a little less, some pay a little more. I think I paid over $100 for that motive bearing kit plus the axle bearings from ford. Fluid was $30 or so? so that puts me at $430. Not sure about the clutch work you mentioned, but you say that's $60, that'd put me at $500 if I had that done. You mighta got screwed, but I don't think you got screwed THAT bad.

Roush2002 · 08-28-2009, 08:26 AM

unless the owner is a really honest and nice guy i would say you are ****-outta-luck. You should only go to places you can trust to work on your car. You paid, you took the car...you screwed yourself. I would have said get the owner out of bed and have him get over here before his place gets turned upside down. They would have never gotten that money out of me. I would have argued that i was quoted an amount and thats what i am paying. They did not get approval from me on any further charges. The automotive repair industry can be very shady sometimes.

Ryan86272 · 08-28-2009, 08:27 AM

You would be suprised what a talk with the owner will do. If he is not wanting to work with you be sure to let him know you are in the service. You have already talked to your lawyers. Now your going to the Local News station so he can get some Free Publicity.

In Writing or NOT if a shop tells you its going to be a certain amount to fix your car they cant double it + without calling you and explaining what else they did. They should have only really charged you for the Gears and Installing the Clutches... Everything else they HAD TO DO to put the gears in... SO u dont charge labor for the little things.

If this place is a Franchise (Tires Plus, Tuffy Etc..) Call Corporate When u do that u get anything u want... Friend works at a tuffy People get free **** all the time from calling Corp. All the Customers are scum bags, but hey they get free ****. Good Luck.

devongarver · 08-28-2009, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blk003GT

my rear end blew up last friday so i brought it into a shop. i had discussed with them that another shop only charges 200$ for labor on gear installs and they said it wouldn't be much more than that. so i went with them becuase they said they could get it done the next day. so not only did they not get it done on friday. saterday, monday or tues, got it back wends around noon they are trying to charge me 622$ for labor on a gear install and full bearing kit and seals. and they said it was 8 hours labor. now the "book" dosen't even call for 8 hours of labor which is illegal right there to charge more labor than the "book" says. so i had to pay for it becuase i needed my car and i had to have it. when i picked it up the owner was not availible to talk to. so my question is what can i do about it? obviously talk to the owner but what if he dosen't lower the price. could i dispute it on my credit card and have him try to take me to court and JAG the army lawyers would have to represent me at that point since i'm in the military. i'm not really sure what to do.

Ok lets get some things straight here:

-What was the total amount of money given from YOU to THE SHOP in order to get you vehicle back?
-Who supplied the gears, bearings, oil, etc?
-If YOU supplied the gears up front, was the bill jacked up for bearings, oil, clutches, etc?
-Was the shop a franchise or a mom and pop?

I paid in the neighborhood of 5-600 bones, I cant remember exactly because i had other work done at the same time so the bill was higher. BUT, that 5-600 bones was for all the parts, ring&pinion;carbon clutch paks, all bearings, oil gasket seal, etc. That's a pretty fair deal IMO. So could you tell us more information please?

I think that when you paid, you lost any rights to disagree with the bill, as you basically sealed the deal by forking over dough. In the future, you should have demanded to speak with the owner, and if they refused, tell them you want the keys to the vehicle and they can contact your laywer.
If all else fails, get a damned news station there, they will crumble then for sure.

BlueBloodedPony · 08-28-2009, 09:03 AM

For the record, I am a collision estimator. Your first mistake was not getting a written estimate. That way you could have pointed to the $200 and said what happened to that!? Second mistake was paying the bill. You still would have that to hang over their heads, even though they still would have your car, but it makes them a little more willing to negotiate if it really was unfair.

Also, just looked at the "book" it is about a 5.0hr job for a overhaul, so if they are charging you the going rate of $80/mech hour, you are looking at least $400 and that is just straight remove and replace, if there was any additional repair work needed, that would be extra. Also, some shops in our area are up to $100-$110/mech hour. Did you even find out what their rate was on mechanical labor? You really need to ask questions when you walk in the door and get things in writing. I paid a friend of mine about $150 to help me with the swap, or actually me help him and that was at least 5-6 hours worth of work because we rebuilt everything and then had a little difficulty getting it shimmed just right. So, I would say $600 would be about right.

Talk to the owner, don't accept anybody less. Find out where they justify $600. If it sounds like they are blowing hot air, then I would suggest you get in contact with JAG just to see what your legal options are. But, you do need to listen to the owner, if you go in with the attitude he is screwing you, you won't hear a thing he says.