Have I been ripped off by dealership?

[Clueless bird]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 05 October 2024 at 15:31

[BertBert]

It's hard to say why, but it's possible. Not sure why a slave cylinder has two pipes, so that's one to establish. It is possible that the hydraulic pipes were damaged when removed if there was corrosion (for example). Or maybe some other reason. But you'll have to get them to talk to you to make any progress. How are they ignoring you? Not responding to emails, not answering the phone? How much was the total bill by the way?

If you can't get them to talk to you and you paid by credit card, you could do a chargeback.

[Clueless bird]

They are ignoring my emails, messages to the website and nobody calls me back. The bill was £365, control pipe, slave cylinder, control pipe. Thank you.

[PurpleTurtle]

Are we talking brake or clutch slave cylinder, what sort of car and what additional size of bill?

Assuming brakes, it could be that:

a) in removing the slave cylinder they have accidentally damaged a brake line or found it to be non-reusable, forcing replacement
b) on inspection your brake lines were found to be corroded (an MOT failure)
c) it was a case of "whilst we are in here" if replacing the slave cylinder it is more long-term cost effective to also replace pipes, as they don't have much life left in them, so you would soon be back there anyway.

Either way, a good garage should explain what they are doing, but I don't think many go out of their way to deliberately rip you off, it's more a case of ensuring your safety.

[BertBert]

Clueless bird said:

They are ignoring my emails, messages to the website and nobody calls me back. The bill was £365, control pipe, slave cylinder, control pipe. Thank you.

You'll have to use the phone or go in in person

[TwinKam]

Most likely scenario is that the pipe union was seized in the slave cylinder or onto the pipe, and it was therefore physically impossible to do the job without also renewing the pipe(s). They should have explained this to you and shown you the parts.

[Clueless bird]

Pipes were not mentioned on MOT but I didn't see that until after they'd quoted for and replaced clutch slave cylinder and 2 control pipes. Peugeot. The 2 pipes and slave cylinder both cost £60 exc vat and the rest was labour £365 total.

[Pistom]

How old is the car? What car is it?

This sounds typical of how repairs escalate.

The poor show is the lack of communication from them.

[richhead]

they probably couldnt get the old pies off the slave cylinder due to rust etc, so needed to cut them or similar.

[Red9zero]

richhead said:

they probably couldnt get the old pies off the slave cylinder due to rust etc, so needed to cut them or similar.

This. Should have been explained when paying the bill though, as it`s a perfectly normal, additional expense.

[E-bmw]

Red9zero said:

richhead said:

they probably couldnt get the old pies off the slave cylinder due to rust etc, so needed to cut them or similar.

This. Should have been explained when paying the bill though, as it`s a perfectly normal, additional expense.

100% this with the caveat of not being able to see the job.

Lost count of the number of times I have had to replace a pipe because of a corroded in place union "unwinding" the pipe end to damage it beyond repair.

Having said that also 100% they should be replying & should have explained this at the time.

[Rough101]

If this is a Fiat 500, it’s quite common that you need to do both, which means replacing both cylinders as the only parts available are a pipe attached to the the master and a pipe attached to the slave.

And each one has half the union on it, and the union splits. Parts alone are nearly £400

Even if it’s not, lots of ars now have plastic pipes which are fine until you interfere with them.

[Clueless bird]

It's a Peugeot, 2014 and there was no rust or corrosion on the pipes the leak was at slave cylinder which was easily removed from the pipe but they replaced the undamaged pipes which I believe to be unnecessary. Now I've queried this they aren't replying.

[FMOB]

Find the email of the dealer principal in the particular dealer.

Write them an email explaining the problem i.e. query with the repair, that you have tried contacting with no response include methods and dates finally what you want from them.

Dealer principals hate getting direct contact from customers with problems so should get a response from someone quite quickly.

Alternative is a personal visit and wasting several hours of your time in the process.

[Red9zero]

Clueless bird said:

It's a Peugeot, 2014 and there was no rust or corrosion on the pipes the leak was at slave cylinder which was easily removed from the pipe but they replaced the undamaged pipes which I believe to be unnecessary. Now I've queried this they aren't replying.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't some corrosion on 10 year old pipes. Maybe not visible, but on the threads I'd have thought. No excuse for not explaining what they had done though.

[Desiderata]

Clueless bird said:

they'd quoted for and replaced clutch slave cylinder and 2 control pipes.

If they quoted for them and you accepted the quote, what's the problem?

[Clueless bird]

The problem is that I hadn't seen the MOT report so I accepted the pipes needed replacing but then discovered it was just the slave cylinder at fault.

[sunbeam alpine]

Posts like this remind me why I stopped working on friends' cars years ago.

As others have said, it's perfectly possible that pipes - which are visually OK - twist and break when you're removing a slave cylinder. At that point what do you do? Call and say that it will cost more, or just push on and fix it?

Clueless - you have 2 choices - argue the toss (and maybe win) but you'll never be welcome in that garage again, or pay them and leave the garage with a safe car.

Edited by sunbeam alpine on Wednesday 2nd October 19:26

[FMOB]

sunbeam alpine said:

Posts like this remind me why I stopped working on friends' cars years ago.

As others have said, it's perfectly possible that pipes - which are visually OK - twist and break when you're removing a slave cylinder. At that point what do you do? Call and say that it will cost more, or just push on and fix it?

Clueless - you have 2 choices - argue the toss (and maybe win) but you'll never be welcome in that garage again, or pay them and leave the garage with a safe car.

Edited by sunbeam alpine on Wednesday 2nd October 19:26

I think it also depends upon how the work was described when the OP agreed to the work, if it was stated just the slave cylinder then I think there is a point, if it was described as slave cylinder but changing it will probably damage these 2 pipes as well then I think not much point having an argument but learn the lesson.

[sunbeam alpine]

FMOB said:

sunbeam alpine said:

Posts like this remind me why I stopped working on friends' cars years ago.

As others have said, it's perfectly possible that pipes - which are visually OK - twist and break when you're removing a slave cylinder. At that point what do you do? Call and say that it will cost more, or just push on and fix it?

Clueless - you have 2 choices - argue the toss (and maybe win) but you'll never be welcome in that garage again, or pay them and leave the garage with a safe car.

Edited by sunbeam alpine on Wednesday 2nd October 19:26

I think it also depends upon how the work was described when the OP agreed to the work, if it was stated just the slave cylinder then I think there is a point, if it was described as slave cylinder but changing it will probably damage these 2 pipes as well then I think not much point having an argument but learn the lesson.

I read it that the garage quoted for a slave cylinder and 2 pipes (as worst case scenario). Had they been able to swap out the slave cylinder without damaging the pipes I'd hope that they would have charged less and this thread wouldn't even exist.

ETA: If I'm reading the OP's earlier posts correctly she's arguing over £60 of the bill. If it's a good garage I wouldn't want to upset them over that.

Edited by sunbeam alpine on Wednesday 2nd October 20:22