French pricing.
Discussion
In the last week, and this isn't the first time but becoming more and more prevalent, the estimates and prices here have become more and more outrageous. I'm not a newcomer, having lived in France for twenty years and speak french like a native, but here are two examples.
I asked my local garage, who have serviced my car for five years, to do and oil change and regas the aircon, plus changing the front brake pads. Also, to do an oil change on the auto box and give car a good clean. After two days the last two hadn't been done, yet still for three small things I was presented with a bill of €432. I tore it up, left the garage and told him that when he came up with something reasonable I would pay. I counted a maximum of four hours worked.
Today I had the engineer from the shop from whom I had bought the awning come to change the motor. He told me he was there to just to give an estimate. This came to an unbelievable €780, including the visit and a minimum of one hours work just to give the quote. I checked the price of the motor on the internet and it was €209. Their price was €480, plus two hours to fit. I have found someone to fit it for €50 cash, and it is his daily job, not just anyone.
Is it just me, or are you finding that daylight robbery is becoming more and more prevalent?
I asked my local garage, who have serviced my car for five years, to do and oil change and regas the aircon, plus changing the front brake pads. Also, to do an oil change on the auto box and give car a good clean. After two days the last two hadn't been done, yet still for three small things I was presented with a bill of €432. I tore it up, left the garage and told him that when he came up with something reasonable I would pay. I counted a maximum of four hours worked.
Today I had the engineer from the shop from whom I had bought the awning come to change the motor. He told me he was there to just to give an estimate. This came to an unbelievable €780, including the visit and a minimum of one hours work just to give the quote. I checked the price of the motor on the internet and it was €209. Their price was €480, plus two hours to fit. I have found someone to fit it for €50 cash, and it is his daily job, not just anyone.
Is it just me, or are you finding that daylight robbery is becoming more and more prevalent?
After 15-years I have come to realise that value is not a concept that exists in France. If you work on the assumption that the value of every Devis needs to be halved to cover the cost of Social Charges, then everything falls into perspective.
France exists in a dream that does not exist anywhere else in the world.
After fighting a 5-year legal battle, I won and have recently paid €10000 to have the house exterior painted, plus €3000 to have my lounge painted. It has raised my cudos in the village 10-fold, but I know the price is ridiculous. Had the price been €6500, I would have been here saying what brilliant value French workmanship is.
There are huge detriments to living in France and a lifestyle which is hard to replicate elsewhere in the world.
We just have to take the rough with the smooth, and decide what really is value when living in a Socialist Society.
France exists in a dream that does not exist anywhere else in the world.
After fighting a 5-year legal battle, I won and have recently paid €10000 to have the house exterior painted, plus €3000 to have my lounge painted. It has raised my cudos in the village 10-fold, but I know the price is ridiculous. Had the price been €6500, I would have been here saying what brilliant value French workmanship is.
There are huge detriments to living in France and a lifestyle which is hard to replicate elsewhere in the world.
We just have to take the rough with the smooth, and decide what really is value when living in a Socialist Society.
Had an experience similar to your awning problem in the last house we rented. As our landlord was abroad, we sorted out the issue with blown motors on our electric roller shutters on two windows. Despite a lot of research, no one wanted to replace the motors and it was only possible to find someone to replace the shutters. The landlord paid, but couldn't help thinking that it was a waste and there must be a business model out there for servicing electric shutters and the like that isn't being taken up.
Yup. This year we have;
- had to pay €1300 to have a 100m trench dug and an alkathene pipe buried. Would have been £400 in the UK
- had to pay a ‘reputable’ garden equipment company €120 to collect and drop off our garden tractor in order to botch a service and repair. Despite admitting they cocked it up, they want paying to come and collect it to fix their mistake
- had the local hedge cutter do one of the three hedge trims he was contracted to do so far this year. He is now moaning that I will only pay 1/3 of his devis and arguing that he did come three times even though our CCTV proves he didn’t and strangely, he ‘can’t remember’ the dates
- Been quoted €800 to replace our hot water cylinder. I can buy the cylinder in Leroy Merlin for €250 retail and it is a max one hour job to swap it over. The guy quoting lives in the same village as us
I love it here but there is a lot of piss-taking when it comes to pricing work and delivering a quality service.
ETA I am a near fluent French speaker and, despite inwardly raging, am studiously relaxed in dealing with people over here
- had to pay €1300 to have a 100m trench dug and an alkathene pipe buried. Would have been £400 in the UK
- had to pay a ‘reputable’ garden equipment company €120 to collect and drop off our garden tractor in order to botch a service and repair. Despite admitting they cocked it up, they want paying to come and collect it to fix their mistake
- had the local hedge cutter do one of the three hedge trims he was contracted to do so far this year. He is now moaning that I will only pay 1/3 of his devis and arguing that he did come three times even though our CCTV proves he didn’t and strangely, he ‘can’t remember’ the dates
- Been quoted €800 to replace our hot water cylinder. I can buy the cylinder in Leroy Merlin for €250 retail and it is a max one hour job to swap it over. The guy quoting lives in the same village as us
I love it here but there is a lot of piss-taking when it comes to pricing work and delivering a quality service.
ETA I am a near fluent French speaker and, despite inwardly raging, am studiously relaxed in dealing with people over here
Edited by ClaphamGT3 on Wednesday 17th July 11:58
trunnie said:
Had an experience similar to your awning problem in the last house we rented. As our landlord was abroad, we sorted out the issue with blown motors on our electric roller shutters on two windows. Despite a lot of research, no one wanted to replace the motors and it was only possible to find someone to replace the shutters. The landlord paid, but couldn't help thinking that it was a waste and there must be a business model out there for servicing electric shutters and the like that isn't being taken up.
I am fortunate in having a few good French guys who work on “le black”. Immediate call-out gets me round August close-down etc.My electrician is now something of an expert on Somfy electric shutters. It seems that the problem is always the condenser. I always have a replacement 2mF to hand, they cost €4.5 and I pay him €20 cash to remove the motor and swap over the condenser. It takes less than an hour.
Took my XF into the Jag dealer in Limoges for it's service last month. They produce a devis for the service which you sign and they then do the work, I was somewhat surprised to receive a devis for €1250 for an interim service though! On getting up off the floor the service reception lady explained that I could delete the gearbox oil change and bring the price down to €400, so, that's €850 to change the gearbox oil then, the oil must be made of veryspecialolyibdon to warrant that cost and needless to say I told them not to do it.
We had a weird one with our 2007 BMW 320. the local garage picked up that there was an oil leak to the gearbox. Due to the newish 2 year guarentee rule he wouldn't touch it as it was an auto box. I searched everywhere to try to find someone to do the job which was to basically fit a new replacement sump (Plastic) and oil seal which was readily available in the UK for £175 and an hour or so work.
In the end we ended up at the BMW main dealer and were charged 900 euro!
In the end we ended up at the BMW main dealer and were charged 900 euro!
lowdrag said:
So many auto boxes are eponymous these days so I have no idea if BMW and Mercedes use the same, but recently I bought the kit to do a gearbox oil change on the internet for €120 including the ATF. I gave it to my local garage chap and paid two hours labour, so not that dear.
I think you did really well.lowdrag said:
. I checked the price of the motor on the internet and it was €209. Their price was €480,
The parts issue is weird. We had our front discs changed and the garage charged a fortune for the parts. The rears needed changing so I bought Mintex stuff from Amazon at a fraction of the price and the same garage was very happy to fit them??????Could it be the French spares suppliers are taking the p*ss?
WyrleyD said:
Took my XF into the Jag dealer in Limoges for it's service last month. They produce a devis for the service which you sign and they then do the work, I was somewhat surprised to receive a devis for €1250 for an interim service though! On getting up off the floor the service reception lady explained that I could delete the gearbox oil change and bring the price down to €400, so, that's €850 to change the gearbox oil then, the oil must be made of veryspecialolyibdon to warrant that cost and needless to say I told them not to do it.
That's odd when you consider Jag always chuck out the 'sealed for life' rubbish and never, usually, touch oil changes on autoboxesTerryg4 said:
The parts issue is weird. We had our front discs changed and the garage charged a fortune for the parts. The rears needed changing so I bought Mintex stuff from Amazon at a fraction of the price and the same garage was very happy to fit them??????
Could it be the French spares suppliers are taking the p*ss?
I have always used the franchised AD garages, but even they are really upping the prices now. I will buy direct from Oscaro.com in future and get a local garage to do the work for me. I've just check the Mercedes tariff for front pads and it is €332 including fitting. Buy the Bosch pads from Oscaro and they are €39.49 reduced from €115.Could it be the French spares suppliers are taking the p*ss?
1) £ has dropped roughly 1/3 since Brexit vote, so comparing £ to Euro will seem expensive, as France didn't suddenly become 1/3 cheaper to live in.
2) Social taxes, roughly 50% of a bill. Look at the taxes on your electricity bill, for example.
3) Much lower tax on profit made on parts, so companies load the profit on parts and reduce labour fee to pay less tax. Makes parts look expensive.
2) Social taxes, roughly 50% of a bill. Look at the taxes on your electricity bill, for example.
3) Much lower tax on profit made on parts, so companies load the profit on parts and reduce labour fee to pay less tax. Makes parts look expensive.
When I built a holiday home there the only thing I wasn't allowed to do myself was the electrics , they wouldn't connect it to the supply without a registered electrician doing the work.
I got a price of 10k to install a basic lights and sockets and a radiator ring , supply the main cable into the house , I dug the trench and filled it in . No chasing out as i was dot and dabbing insulated plasterboards to the walls , basically conduit , wire , sockets and light fittings , I supplied the rads and water heater .
I questioned the price and cross referenced with two brothers up the road that were also building two houses , one of them is a builder , and they asked for the sparkies number as they thought it was cheap ! They couldn't believe it when I told them what it would cost in England .
I'm lucky I did all the building myself as my little holiday house would have 4 times what it did , and that's being conservative.
I got a price of 10k to install a basic lights and sockets and a radiator ring , supply the main cable into the house , I dug the trench and filled it in . No chasing out as i was dot and dabbing insulated plasterboards to the walls , basically conduit , wire , sockets and light fittings , I supplied the rads and water heater .
I questioned the price and cross referenced with two brothers up the road that were also building two houses , one of them is a builder , and they asked for the sparkies number as they thought it was cheap ! They couldn't believe it when I told them what it would cost in England .
I'm lucky I did all the building myself as my little holiday house would have 4 times what it did , and that's being conservative.
Stedman said:
That's odd when you consider Jag always chuck out the 'sealed for life' rubbish and never, usually, touch oil changes on autoboxes
Things have changed. Years ago (1997) I had a new X300 XJ6 and it was sealed for life. The trouble was that the boxes had an electronic problem so they had to be opened by the dealer and a switch changed. Sturgess Leicester then had to find out a way of refilling the box, and the only way was via the inspection hole. Apparently the apprentice took 12 hours to refill it drop by drop! And Sturgess weren't reimbursed by Jaguar either. Mercedes had sealed for life boxes, then went back on it and recommended an oil change at 100,000 klicks. I think that's about the same today but mine had got forgotten and we had 130,000 on the clock when it got done. I have now found a little garage, highly recommended by the locals, and his rate is €50 per hour. He's getting my servicing in future.Edited by lowdrag on Monday 29th July 19:14
And yet, all of our daughter's friends, now in their late 20s, and all our neighbours children, have been able to buy or build new houses, large by UK standards and well finished by skilled tradesmen. Some of the work has been done by family members to be sure, and plot prices are low compared to the UK, but even so, all of them.
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