Unauthorised work?

[DanG]

How much, in cash terms, do people feel needs to be authorised before a garage carries it out?

I ask this in the members section as I am currently in a dispute with a firm carrying out work on my car.

Yes, it needed a lot doing to it. But back at the end of March when I asked for reassurance that we 'went racking up a massive bill' I was told that it 'only had ten hours done to it last month' and only needed 'a few more hours' before paint. I was happy with the bill and level of value i had seen.

Then at the end of May, I was sent a bill for an additional 100 hours. Which came as some surprise as i hadn't said OK to that level of spend and also had not seen much, if any, changes to the car. A break down of the bill says basically 'work'. I will add this was accompanied by requests of urgent payment as they had run out of money, bank was housing them etc etc

I asked them to stop all work immediately, at which point they got very short. They then went ahead and carried out another £2,500 worth of work - leaving me with a big bill.

We agreed payment terms and 'best guess' budgets at the start and this goes well beyond that. They are now talking about closing down the business in order to force me to pay.

Ultimately, I think this is going to legals, but I would be interested if anyone thought this was common practice - including the bullying tactics being used now to force me to pay ASAP.

[Nige]

I guess it depends on the initial estimate, if we're talking a £100 estimate then if it crept up by 50% unauthorised then I think most wouldn't have an issue.

If the estimate was £2500 I'd be content with around £500 (20%) unauthorised, thereafter surely a polite phone call to explain any further increase. Lack of comms is often a trade person big let down.

If the estimate was £15k then £2.5k unauthorised doesn't seem too bad to me though.

[DanG]

It's £7,500 in total on an estimate of £15,000.

[Nige]

Sounds excessive to me, I'd seek some legal advice before venturing further.

[smallspeed]

ouch! £7.5k is a lot of money to everyone, and when its a 50% overspend thats pretty high

i've had this conversation recently with amie; her car went in for a service at a main dealer and she was worried they would do a load of stuff and she'd end up with a massive bill. i assured her they wouldn't do that, and then when we went in to collect the car low-and-behold they listed about 5 or 6 things they had done in addition to the service! I could have died, right upto the point the guy said it was all service buletin work and there was no charge

i think cranking up the bill that much is taking the mickey to be honest, AND as a minimum when you told them to stop all work on the car, adding £2500 to the bill after that point is totally unacceptable. Even without that addition, £5k overspend on a 15,000 estimate SHOULD have some authorisation. Just doing that amount of work without mentioning it is dishonest in my book

[Richard]

If it were me I would engage the law firm and let them deal with it. It's clearly going to be messy.

[Viv_Surby]

I would make them a 'without prejudice' offer 'in full and final settlement' in terms of what you are prepared to pay and a validity period for that offer. A lot of businesses - especially with a cashflow problem will accept a reasonable offer.

If they then wish to pursue you for the additional, they will have to take you to court....this will cost them time and money which it seems they don't have.

I would also give them a date on which you intend to collect the vehicle and the address at which you intend to collect it.

[Neill W]

Sounds grim.
I'd also be finding a way to get my car out of there ASAP, by any means...

Neill W

[964RS]

Sounds grim.
I'd also be finding a way to get my car out of there ASAP, by any means...

Neill W

Neil....that's a 9 month bump?!

But while we are here any update on these scumbags Dan?

[Neill W]

Neil....that's a 9 month bump?!

But while we are here any update on these scumbags Dan?

That's what you get for not paying attention while browsing with a cuppa...