I got screwed at the auto repair shop, but what can you do.

So what if you got screwed ? What can you do, demand they lower their charges ? All you can do now is take your business elsewhere.... You can't even bad-mouth this shop because you agreed to the charges.
I'm not badmouthing the shop am I? Where did I do that?
If i did get screwed i guess i can go somewhere else, or slide myself under the next time!
 
I think this is a valid point. Not to say that a good shop should blatantly overcharge, but if the only job you've ever brought to their doorstep is a pain in the behind, I don't blame them for being on the high end of normal pricing.

I wonder if this job would have had a different price attached if you had been to the shop for easier maintenance-type work in the past?
That is a good point, but I'll also say if as a tech I would get paid 2 times book for a job I'd probably still be an automobile technician lol. We got straight book time, and of course warranty time at the dealer.

Vehicle is clean underneath, when it was newer I pulled all 6 bolts for fuel tank and put antiseize on them, hopefully the guy appreciated it.

One thing that concerned me was that charged me 110 dollars for an inspection I didn't ask for and then found sway bar links were loose. Price to replace the links was over 300 dollars. I passed on that one. Its debatable if the links are bad. They dont knock or clunk and seem tight enough to me.

The 110 inspection had nothing to do with the fuel leak diagnosis. That was a separate line item.

So the bill total was 87x.00 with the charge for the inspection and shop supplies.
 
Hopefully! There is a 3 year 36k warranty on the work. That's good in my book.
Hopefully you never have to use it and it would apply only to the exact parts that were worked on. I can image them saying if you get an evap code or something related, "You probably have have some cracked vacuum lines over the tank Mr. 5. Got to charge you for dropping the tank again.
 
That is a good point, but I'll also say if as a tech I would get paid 2 times book for a job I'd probably still be an automobile technician lol. We got straight book time, and of course warranty time at the dealer.

Vehicle is clean underneath, when it was newer I pulled all 6 bolts for fuel tank and put antiseize on them, hopefully the guy appreciated it.

One thing that concerned me was that charged me 110 dollars for an inspection I didn't ask for and then found sway bar links were loose. Price to replace the links was over 300 dollars. I passed on that one. Its debatable if the links are bad. They dont knock or clunk and seem tight enough to me.

The 110 inspection had nothing to do with the fuel leak diagnosis. That was a separate line item.
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Hopefully you never have to use it and it would apply only to the exact parts that were worked on. I can image them saying if you get an evap code or something related, "You probably have have some cracked vacuum lines over the tank Mr. 5. Got to charge you for dropping the tank again.
That my concern, which at that point I would just pull it down myself which at that point I should have just done it myself. Lol.
 
Well I'd point out you paid for convenience. Looking at the bight side, let's say you may have gotten a top-notch mechanic that is worth paying for and the shop has operating cost to open their doors for that convenience, after their expenses they probably are lucky to end up with half that amount to pay the mechanic and may even have had the best of intentions of having done the the vehicle inspection.

Are they polite and generally thorough in answering all your questions? This may be worth paying a little extra in to build a relationship to have access a competent mechanic and/or team of mechanics that get things done right once most all the time when doing repairs.

When I first started frequenting the local salvage yard I thought the prices were a bit off too, I soon realized that was the price of admission and the deals I have gotten since have more that made up for the initial cost. In fact I sometimes bring gas station treats or energy drinks out for the help and I think I get the royalty treatment now.
 
I've also worked in dealer shops for over 25 years and in general it is rare to find quality shops that charge reasonably and do the job correctly.

As you've also worked in the business you realize that generally you're more than likely going to get over charged, and very likely
have sub par work done.

I can't say I blame you for just wanting to wash your hands of a job and send it out. But you should not be surprised about your experience.
It's typical for most customers.

I'm older too now and don't have access to a lift, so in many cases I just drive the wheels off my cars now until they die, often skipping difficult maintenance or repairs because unless I do the work myself, I'm in for more trouble than it is worth to pay someone else to fix it.

It does boggle my mind because the underhanded and sketchy reputation of the auto repair and service business costs the entire industry untold tens if not hundreds of millions every year in revenue because consumers generally believe and rightly so that they will be ripped off, and just end up with the same problems or worse due to poor workmanship, and yet the industry does absolutely NOTHING to change that situation.
 
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I will say sometimes I believe my expectations are high because looking back I worked in some really good shops and a good dealership. Judging by the luck we have had with our fleet vehicles at work a good shop is hard. The local Chevy dealer is a "stealership"

It seems almost half the vehicles that go thru there need an alignment according to thier drive thru alignment device. Very high pressure upsells.
 
Depends on the hourly rates. I’ve seen them all over the place. Indys charging anywhere from $70-135/hr, dealers charging $160+ and here I am thinking customers won’t like my 85/hr labor rate.

$40 over for the whole job or just r&r labor on the tank? Did they use an estimating software to find job hours or did they just ballpark it? I wouldn’t fully take what the dealer says. Might have been $40 less but I’m sure they would find something else to charge you up with once it’s in the lift. And if you don’t wanna do it? Then good luck you’re paying a diagnostic fee.

friend of mine was told by the Chevy dealer that his DRL was covered under warranty. Long story short it wasn’t covered by warranty and he had to pay $380 for the labor of pulling and putting the front end back together.
 
At least you can quantify your job and the results versus cost. Many unaware/non-mechanically inclined get a CEL, take it to a shop and get charged more than a grand for what was essentially a loose gas cap or equivalent. Let the buyer beware. Of course the line item says something like new ecu.....always get the used parts.
 
You're just not used to paying a mechanic like we are. I paid $95 for a mechanic to replace a o2 sensor on the RV that last trip. Well Napa ordered the wrong one so he fixed the wiring and put anti-seize on it so I could get it out easily when we got to Sacramento. My wife was shocked since we've never paid a mechanic.. myself I was happy to pay. One he got to it first thing in the morning which he didn't have to and I just happy to have it loosened so I wouldn't have to fight it. I got to Sacramento and OReillys had the right part and I had it changed in 5 minutes. Now if we were in a big town and the stores had the right o2 wrench maybe I could of did myself.
 
Depends on the hourly rates. I’ve seen them all over the place. Indys charging anywhere from $70-135/hr, dealers charging $160+ and here I am thinking customers won’t like my 85/hr labor rate.

$40 over for the whole job or just r&r labor on the tank? Did they use an estimating software to find job hours or did they just ballpark it? I wouldn’t fully take what the dealer says. Might have been $40 less but I’m sure they would find something else to charge you up with once it’s in the lift. And if you don’t wanna do it? Then good luck you’re paying a diagnostic fee.

friend of mine was told by the Chevy dealer that his DRL was covered under warranty. Long story short it wasn’t covered by warranty and he had to pay $380 for the labor of pulling and putting the front end back together.
40 over for just the r&r on the fuel tank, and the dealer was basing that off fuel pump replacement labor as well which I'm guessing is probably .5 or something.
 
Not trying to pile on but that thread title was abit different than what you are saying now.. I think thats why this thread is what it is.
Can't change the thread title, I still feel like they were high on the repair, however I suppose that's the norm now. Not crazy about the 110 dollar inspection done on the rest of the vehicle that I didn't ask for, they pointed out something I'm not finding an issue with, however they missed 2 things that I know of that need attention.

When I was a tech at an independent shop we went by Mitchell labor times, I was charged double (actually over double) the book time for labor, which I guess is normal now.

Hopefully if the tech is paid flat rate they got the full 7 hours labor in the book.

Maybe I should go back to turning wrenches and get a job there! If I got paid double the book rate on jobs I would probably still be a mechanic.

So 7 hours labor to r&r fuel tank, and put a repair fitting on the line. Plus the 110 vehicle inspection, which was not for diagnosing the fuel leak, it was a vehicle inspection.. Not sure how much time tech gets paid for an inspection, but I'd take those jobs all day as a tech at those times if he is indeed flat rate.
 
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There are always more to the details than what gets posted on here after "buyers remorse" sets in. What a train wreck of a thread!
 
I'm not badmouthing the shop am I? Where did I do that?
If i did get screwed i guess i can go somewhere else, or slide myself under the next time!
Is there a place to review them on their site? If so and they have star ratings do a fair statement if possible. If good and bad are available are considered be honest. I don' consider Yelp because they tend to favor highest bidder in what I have experienced. I tend to look at the averages instead of the total rant. If someone is an a hole when you dropped off the keys why did you allow the repair?
My current mechanic has a 3.5 rating because out of 20 he he had 3 number 1 ratings.
On the 3 negative ratings he stated, "We are sorry you received less than stellar service. We will strive to meet a higher standard on your repeat business."
I have have searched this in NV, MT, CO and UT before I try them. I also obtain some first hand comments from customers. It has proven to serve me well.
 
There are always more to the details than what gets posted on here after "buyers remorse" sets in. What a train wreck of a thread!
Interesting, what details do you feel are missing? I laid it all out. Vehicle is older but not a rust bucket. Had a 1/4 tank of fuel. I had previously pulled all 6 fuel tank strap bolts and put antiseize on them.

But in the end they fixed it, and the repair is holding up so far. (Hopefully no evap codes! Not sure the monitor has run yet) Could have been worse, however I still feel the labor was a bit excessive. My choice was to pay it, or have it towed to another shop which may have been just as high on price or worse, or have it towed back to my house and fixed it myself.

I told them I was suprised that the labor hours were so high, but again what can you do.

Yes the dealer was cheaper as far as labor goes to R&R the tank, well actually the dealer labor rate is higher, it's just they charge book time, not double. Would the dealer have repaired the line? Probably not. What would the cost of a whole new line have been? I have no idea.
I approved all the charges before they did the work, he said they were going to do an inspection on the vehicle and I said ok. I assumed the inspection was "free".

I probably won't go back there, when I had the van towed there, I was actually thinking of bringing my other vehicle in for some repair, at this point I will just do it myself or bring it to the dealer.

Part of my expectations of having the repair done comes from the fact the dealer I use when I have had recalls, some maintenance on a lease vehicle and a timing belt job done at actually seems to be a good dealer.

I go to this dealer because thier sales department was excellent, thier parts department has been excellent and it turns out thier service department is excellent as well.

There are 3 or 4 dealers closer than this one, at least one of those is a "stealership"
 
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