Dealership issues...

[bmrrwolfe]

So my sisters A/C stopped working in her KJ randomly so I checked everything I could and couldn't find the issue. Compressor worked fine lines were cold and it was holding the charge of refrigerant fine but I did notice the drip tube out of the firewall wasn't dripping anything out.
So we took it to my dads buddy at a chevy dealership that my dad use to run the bodyshop of and asked him to look at it which he did and it was about an hour before he was leaving and we told them to call us if they find anything and what a quote would be.
So about 45 mins later we run up there and he said it seems to be a blend door motor. So we asked how much and he didn't know so we said stop before doing anything and I want a real quote. So they said first thingn the morning they would. It comes to noon and still no word so we call and they didn't have anything yet. At about 2:45 they call and say it will be about $1400 and my dads buddy was gone on vaca and couldn't help us out anymore.
So she said no thanks I will come pick it up in a hour. The lady says alright and tells her it will be about $300 for the dionostic...
Now since my dad has managed a body shop and service department for 20 years he knows you can not charge more then about $100 without consulting the customer that it would require further dionostics.
He lives out of state now and they want the car gone tonight and I work til 8 so I can't go with her to make a scene..
What can she say or do to keep from getting screwed over like this since she's a young women that I know they aren't treating fairly..

Sorry if there's errors this is from my phone

 

[Warren.fischbeck]

Tell her to just say "uh... no I'm not paying $300.00 for a diagnostic..." Should be just that simple. They should be upfront about a diagnostic charge, before they start looking.

 

[bmrrwolfe]

Well she is horrible at standing up and arguing back like that. She told them on the phone she wasn't paying that since they never told her the cost. But she said they should of told you what the labor rates for a technican are which they didn't.
She's okay with paying since they did actually determine the problem and I guess she got it down to about $170 after tax so I guess that isn't too bad since they did have to recharge the system vaccum test for an hour etc.
But its kinda more of one those we won't be back here for service situations..
Its depressing how its the place my dad knew a lot of people and worked with some of them but the managements way of working out that pricing and that the cashier that wouldn't be clear or even call us caused them to lose our service.

 

[tjkj2002]

I recall from your other post about this when you when you last seen it it half the dash was already out(your friends did this that works there?) and that is why the diag cost is so much,if you did not know the cost of doing such you should have asked or had them stop ASAP.Without your friend being there they charged according to what work was done and that is fare since your freind did was not there to say he was doing it for free and do not charge.So your actually did consent to further diagnoses time and charges by having your freind look at it and he screwed you not the dealership.

Oh and every shop,including dealerships,there labor rate is posted right there in the service department for all to see,you just have to choose to read it.

 

[jnaut]

I'm kinda with tjkj on this. I do believe the shop should have been more formal and less 'buddy/buddy' with you on the process, because the bill ain't buddy-buddy, it's real. But anytime someone starts removing major parts of the dash, the time and labor can add up fast, and $300 is probably close to what a regular shop would charge to tear into your dash.

The problem lies in the fact that what, if anything was going to be charged up front. Every shop I've ever worked with is pretty clear what a diagnostic charge is gonig to be when I ask them to diagnose something. So if they weren't clear with you, you may have an issue that you can push on there, and in for the sake of good business, they may cut the diagnostic in half.

I'd try to nicely negotiate with them, tell them that the amount wasn't made clear to you.

Good luck.

 

[bmrrwolfe]

I recall from your other post about this when you when you last seen it it half the dash was already out(your friends did this that works there?) and that is why the diag cost is so much,if you did not know the cost of doing such you should have asked or had them stop ASAP.Without your friend being there they charged according to what work was done and that is fare since your freind did was not there to say he was doing it for free and do not charge.So your actually did consent to further diagnoses time and charges by having your freind look at it and he screwed you not the dealership.

Oh and every shop,including dealerships,there labor rate is posted right there in the service department for all to see,you just have to choose to read it.

Well I shouldn't of said half the dash just the radio benzel lower panel that I removed glovebox and PS airbag.
He was working on not through the shop or so we though so it was kinda his fault. When we left we did tell him to stop for now until they could get us a quote. He was working on it for maybe an hour hour and half at that point. And I may be wrong but didn't see the labor rates. They had 2 charts of prices of things and neither mentioned a labor rate..
They did have an A/C check and dionostic that was listed at $119.95 so we figured that was about what it would run.
The quote had 5 hours of labor which I believe is wrong. 2 maybe 3 after a slow reassmbly would be accurate but 5.. No way unless they worked for a couple in the morning which we told them not too..

 

[tjkj2002]

Well I shouldn't of said half the dash just the radio benzel lower panel that I removed glovebox and PS airbag.
He was working on not through the shop or so we though so it was kinda his fault. When we left we did tell him to stop for now until they could get us a quote. He was working on it for maybe an hour hour and half at that point. And I may be wrong but didn't see the labor rates. They had 2 charts of prices of things and neither mentioned a labor rate..
They did have an A/C check and dionostic that was listed at $119.95 so we figured that was about what it would run.
The quote had 5 hours of labor which I believe is wrong. 2 maybe 3 after a slow reassmbly would be accurate but 5.. No way unless they worked for a couple in the morning which we told them not too..

If they had the airbag on the passenger side out that is your $300 alone,if I remeber correctly is almost 3 hours to R&I the passenger side airbag alone.Then you got the AC service which is another 1 hour,and the other hour was everything elese they removed and the actual diag fee.There is your 5 hours of labor.

 

[bmrrwolfe]

If they had the airbag on the passenger side out that is your $300 alone,if I remeber correctly is almost 3 hours to R&I the passenger side airbag alone.Then you got the AC service which is another 1 hour,and the other hour was everything elese they removed and the actual diag fee.There is your 5 hours of labor.

Well the airbag was out within that first hour or hour before we left and a half before we left for the night.. And that was after doing a quick under the hood test. They only had it for about 2 hours that night before we told them we were leaving and wanted to stop until we had an actual quote.. Unless its the reinstall of of the PS that would take long. Hum I didn't know taking the AB off was that big of a job..

 

[Uncle Krusty]

You also have to remember that "shop time" doesn't reflect "actual" time.

The time you are charged is based upon a charge for that specific procedure. If a brake job is listed at say 1 hour, and the mechanic takes 2, he still only gets paid (and you are charged) for 1. If it takes him 30 min, he still gets paid (and you are charged) for the hour. A good mechanic can make money - if all goes well - by "doing" say 12 hours (book time) in an 8 hour day.

The three big questions to ask are:
1. What is the shop rate?
2. What is the "book time" on that specific job.
3. What does it cost if it takes longer....

 

[Straight6Jeff]

ANYTIME when bringing a vehicle in for diagnostics, you should aways sign a service contract with ..."diagnostics not to exceed $*** without written customer authorization..."

If it is not written, it never hapened.

Shop rates are posted, know them before signing. Some flat rate diagnostic fees are posted, know them also.

A few years ago, when the second vp44 pump went out on my Ram, the dealership tried to **** me for 8 hrs labor due to an aftermarket Reunel bumper. I simply pulled out my signed/counter-signed form, which clearly stated... "this vehicle is currently covered under the manufacturers warranty"..."the aftermarket front end replacement will NOT add additional labor charges to the repair order for which the customer will be responsible"...There will be, not to exceed, $0 charge to this customer without prior written customer authorization."

The service writer signed this form, as did I at the time the vehicle was dropped off.

In reality, the bumper should not have hindered a pump replacement at all, as it is mainly done from the side, but due to the fact that the tech was vertically challenged, he had to use a step stool.

 

[kb0nly]

HOLD ON....

So its the blend door motor but they took all that apart? What kind of mechanics they got working there? My god people.

I read your first posts about this problem, remember i said "it could just be the blend door"... ???

I'm not here to poke in a I TOLD YOU SO, but more of a WTF is up with these mechanics? Your original post on the problem had two of us, me included, diagnose it as a blend door problem. You DO NOT need to remove the airbag and tear apart the whole damn dash to test this or diagnose it.

You pull down the trim panel on the drivers side of the dash and grab a drop light, start it up, move the controls, and see if the stuff moves. Takes like five minutes. The blend door motor shaft doesn't turn then there ya go, diagnosed.

I helped replace that on a 2002, the motor was like $30 from a junkyard, i think it took an hour from start to finish, not including the time to diagnose the problem.

Sounds like you need a better shop anyway!!!

And i don't care what anyone says, unless you SPECIFICALLY GAVE THEM PERMISSION to complete the repair they should not have done that much work, and frankly they need to shut up and take the loss. Around here you take something like that to a shop and ask them to diagnose the problem they are going to say up front, we can look it over but we might not find the problem without further work, do you AGREE to the further work being done?

For example, if your going to tear that much apart to diagnose it you might as well fix it too, so give a real estimate.

 

[tjkj2002]

HOLD ON....

So its the blend door motor but they took all that apart? What kind of mechanics they got working there? My god people.

I read your first posts about this problem, remember i said "it could just be the blend door"... ???

I'm not here to poke in a I TOLD YOU SO, but more of a WTF is up with these mechanics? Your original post on the problem had two of us, me included, diagnose it as a blend door problem. You DO NOT need to remove the airbag and tear apart the whole damn dash to test this or diagnose it.

You pull down the trim panel on the drivers side of the dash and grab a drop light, start it up, move the controls, and see if the stuff moves. Takes like five minutes. The blend door motor shaft doesn't turn then there ya go, diagnosed.

I helped replace that on a 2002, the motor was like $30 from a junkyard, i think it took an hour from start to finish, not including the time to diagnose the problem.

Sounds like you need a better shop anyway!!!

And i don't care what anyone says, unless you SPECIFICALLY GAVE THEM PERMISSION to complete the repair they should not have done that much work, and frankly they need to shut up and take the loss. Around here you take something like that to a shop and ask them to diagnose the problem they are going to say up front, we can look it over but we might not find the problem without further work, do you AGREE to the further work being done?

For example, if your going to tear that much apart to diagnose it you might as well fix it too, so give a real estimate.

There "buddy" ripped apart and they were under the impression there would be no charge but there "buddy" was not there when the billing was figured.There "buddy" screwed them.