Cutting off your nose to spite your face!

[Sheepy]

So I had a cracked weld on my MGB radiator. Found a little restoration place in a workshop just off Kings Langley high street (the actually specialise in Jag C/D types and historic race cars). Chatted to a nice bloke in there, who told me that yes they could repair it, but that they would have to charge me for an hours labour (£36+vat). Fine says I (since a new rad is £100+).

Got a call yesterday to say it was done, so go back to collect it. £36+vat (ie £43) says the bloke who did it, oh and we painted it for you too since it didn't take long to fix. Nice one thinks I.

Along comes owner of workshop (who I hadn't met before). Add £5 for paint and other materials says he to the cashier. Excuse me? Why am I paying for the paint you chose to add (I didn't ask for it). Ah yes, that also includes the solder for the joint (one friking pipe joint!!).

Hmm says I, fine, here's your £50, but thinks I, as for the other work I asked your guys to quote me on (repairs to both 'B wings and some other work), I'll take my business elsewhere. If you're going to sting me for an extra £7 on a simple job, you can get to fk if I'm going to give you a few hundred quids worth of work.

Well done mate, I guess you don't really care about small customers. of course small customers always have the potential to become big customers, and in this case, big customers of someone else.

[Murph7355]

Not an uncommon practice it would seem.

Try 500 quid for painting some cam covers crackle black. That wasn't asked for, nor required (even if 500 quid were justified).

I did ask, once we'd agreed to remove that from the bill, whether I'd also been charged for the guy watching the feckers dry!

This was only one of many amusing items on a bill that was more than double the top estimate. Needless to say I will not be going back. Or recommending them to anyone else.

[Sheepy]

Why do these places do this sort of thing? It's not that it was £7 more than I agreed that annoyed me, more the principle of it. On the one hand the guy who did the work tried to do me a favour because he obviously thought charging me an hour labour for a ten or twenty minute job was a bit much, but on the other the owner was obviously a bit too anal.

[Murph7355]

Sheepy said:

Why do these places do this sort of thing? It's not that it was £7 more than I agreed that annoyed me, more the principle of it. On the one hand the guy who did the work tried to do me a favour because he obviously thought charging me an hour labour for a ten or twenty minute job was a bit much, but on the other the owner was obviously a bit too anal.

Too used to some customers neither checking nor caring about the bill.

Stupid in my book. But it would seem there are always enough customers who are more stupid to keep them in business.

It's really quite daft in the small circles that some of these cars move in. I know quite a few owners of similar cars to my own, and there aren't many of them about....

[a8hex]

Murph7355 said:

Sheepy said:

Why do these places do this sort of thing? It's not that it was £7 more than I agreed that annoyed me, more the principle of it. On the one hand the guy who did the work tried to do me a favour because he obviously thought charging me an hour labour for a ten or twenty minute job was a bit much, but on the other the owner was obviously a bit too anal.

Too used to some customers neither checking nor caring about the bill.

Stupid in my book. But it would seem there are always enough customers who are more stupid to keep them in business.

It's really quite daft in the small circles that some of these cars move in. I know quite a few owners of similar cars to my own, and there aren't many of them about....

You get to cars like C & D types and almost all the owners probably know each other.

[alsaautomotive]

Murph7355 said:

Not an uncommon practice it would seem.

Try 500 quid for painting some cam covers crackle black. That wasn't asked for, nor required (even if 500 quid were justified).

I did ask, once we'd agreed to remove that from the bill, whether I'd also been charged for the guy watching the feckers dry!

This was only one of many amusing items on a bill that was more than double the top estimate. Needless to say I will not be going back. Or recommending them to anyone else.

It is a bloody shame, as it gives the rest of us (who are pretty decent I'd like to think?) a bad name & consequently everyone has an automatic distrust of anyone in the motor trade.
It's not the license to print money that many think it is if the job's done properly, trouble is that quite a few take the p**s as above and in the OP.
Alway, ALWAYS as for a list of (more than one) satisfied clients & check their charges - the real favourite is charging more for one marque than another!!!!!!!!!!! Certainly in my field, it costs no more to do the body/paint on a bad MGB as on a bad 250 Lusso; but I'm more than well aware I'm in the minority

[williamp]

There is an old adage which is worth repeating:

"never use the services of a company who races cars"

There is nothing more expensive then racing cars, and you are funding their passion. If they can get more from you, they will.... they need to so they can keep racing.

[cardigankid]

Agree 100%. While I yield to none in my admiration of the capable racing driver, I am in no way able to fund their habit. I also wonder how many of the restorers you see advertising actually just subcontract and manage the process.

Incidentally, its not just classic specialists. A little trick that we have experienced from Arnold Clark and Kwikfit. Take your car in for a service at an agreed rate around £130.00). Within a couple of hours (just when you are expecting to get the call to go and collect the car) you get a call recommending that you carry out a great deal more work, such as change corroded discs.

[hazzardv8]

I know this company,although their work is top class they really are'nt interested in MGBs and the like.
However, i run a small, yet busy restoration company and will rarely ever consider quoting for jobs.'Guess-timates yes, there are far too many pitfalls with old cars to be accurate on a 'quote' and to get it wrong invariably causes bad feeling.
John

[Sheepy]

hazzardv8 said:

I know this company,although their work is top class they really are'nt interested in MGBs and the like.
However, i run a small, yet busy restoration company and will rarely ever consider quoting for jobs.'Guess-timates yes, there are far too many pitfalls with old cars to be accurate on a 'quote' and to get it wrong invariably causes bad feeling.
John

The price I was told on the phone wasn't a quote before the work was done, it was after. The price was verbally confirmed by the guy who did the work when I turned up. It was only when the boss stuck his nose in and decided he wanted to charge for other things that the price rose.

I'm well aware that a quote before work commences on an old car is usually only a complete work of fiction! Years ago, when I had the back-end rebuilt initially I was told two or three hundred quid, the final bill was about £1400!! (it started as a bit of rust near each spring mount and ended up as two new rear wings and sill ends!!).

[williamp]

hazzardv8 said:

I know this company,although their work is top class they really are'nt interested in MGBs and the like.
However, i run a small, yet busy restoration company and will rarely ever consider quoting for jobs.'Guess-timates yes, there are far too many pitfalls with old cars to be accurate on a 'quote' and to get it wrong invariably causes bad feeling.
John

This is the right thing to do. Unless someone has done it themselves, they have no idea how long something takes. Removing the paint from a car without using paint stripper, for example can take lots and lots of hours. When companies do quote, they have to err on the side of caution- when Aston quoted to respray my car, they said 4 hours to remove the dashboard top and 4 hours for the front grill. I can do both in 10 minutes (4 screws each).

[jagman21]

hazzardv8 said:

I know this company,although their work is top class they really are'nt interested in MGBs and the like.
However, i run a small, yet busy restoration company and will rarely ever consider quoting for jobs.'Guess-timates yes, there are far too many pitfalls with old cars to be accurate on a 'quote' and to get it wrong invariably causes bad feeling.
John

Pretty sure i know this place, and they are of the highest quality, unfortunately this means that they can not do a great deal of work on 'affordable classics' such as your mgb as there business model (and space)consists of lucrative exotic vintage. In a strange way it may just be a polite way of saying MG's aren't really our scene, and we like to focus on more exotic motors, that i've seen there, The owner whom i have met, is the business man, and his mechanic may not have seen your car in the same light.

[RichB]

williamp said:

There is an old adage which is worth repeating:

"never use the services of a company who races cars"

Oh dear, my Aston is currently with a well known chap that races them

[a8hex]

RichB said:

williamp said:

There is an old adage which is worth repeating:

"never use the services of a company who races cars"

Oh dear, my Aston is currently with a well known chap that races them

My XKs spent the last lord alone knows how many months at one such place. But it does have the advantage that when you explain that the brakes pull to one side after repeated braking from 120MPH they don't look at you strangly

[RichB]

a8hex said:

RichB said:

williamp said:

There is an old adage which is worth repeating:

"never use the services of a company who races cars"

Oh dear, my Aston is currently with a well known chap that races them

My XKs spent the last lord alone knows how many months at one such place. But it does have the advantage that when you explain that the brakes pull to one side after repeated braking from 120MPH they don't look at you strangly

That's funny, mine's been away for months too!

[williamp]

My Aston was away for nearly a year being repaired/ resprayed. And now its beena way for 5 months having the electrics sorted. I told them not to worry too much about the timescale, so they have ben workign on it between other projects. Great from my point of view (garage space, winter storage, budget) but I really wnat it back now.

[a8hex]

RichB said:

a8hex said:

RichB said:

williamp said:

There is an old adage which is worth repeating:

"never use the services of a company who races cars"

Oh dear, my Aston is currently with a well known chap that races them

My XKs spent the last lord alone knows how many months at one such place. But it does have the advantage that when you explain that the brakes pull to one side after repeated braking from 120MPH they don't look at you strangly

That's funny, mine's been away for months too!

Argh, but mines back!



Which is a definite improvement from just after the bonnet came open on the Motorway last August.

[RichB]

a8hex said:

Argh, but mines back!
Which is a definite improvement from just after the bonnet came open on the Motorway last August.

Ah, so your car was at Racing Green then, must say I admired it when I saw it. Very nice Rich...

[a8hex]

RichB said:

a8hex said:

Argh, but mines back!
Which is a definite improvement from just after the bonnet came open on the Motorway last August.

Ah, so your car was at Racing Green then, must say I admired it when I saw it. Very nice Rich...

Yepp well spotted.
It's been in and out of there. They organised the body work and the paintwork. Chris has been doing various jobs on the suspension and the brakes.