My daughter let herself be ripped off today.

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wtd

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southwest Mo.
My daughter works next door to a repair shop. Her employer buys coupons for oil changes for the employees so she went and had them change her oil today. They also rotated her tires for free even though she didn't buy her tires there. That part all went fine.

She has a 2010 Chevy Cobalt and two out of the three bulbs for the third brake light were out. They called her to ask if she wanted them to fix it for $30. She texted me about it but I didn't see the text until about 30 minutes later and by then she had already authorized them to do it.

The third brake light is in the trunk lid and to change the bulbs you open the trunk, press the four tabs that hold the assembly into the trunk lid and pull it out to access the bulbs. Less than a five minute job. They charged her $2.64 per bulb and about $25 in labor.

I told her next time to at least call me or get on YouTube and see if someone has posted on how to do the repair to see what all is involved before authorizing something like this. There was a video that showed exactly how to replace the bulbs and it was something she could have done because no tools are involved.

I'm just shocked that anyone would consider this a $30 job.
 
Well they did a once-over of some safety signalling equipment while it was in there and fixed it promptly and properly.

I get that you're peeved, but how does she feel about this? She may eventually think you're being picky, she's an adult, and can handle this sort of thing without even referencing you.
 
I don't fault them for suggesting to fix it. My problem is the cost to do so. She knows she got ripped off and accepts it. She may be an adult but she always asks me my opinion on vehicle related issues.
 
They basically got what they wanted out of those cheap oil changes, some minor additional business to make up for a cheap oil change. $30 isn't cheap, but not a total rip off either considering what shops will charge just to change an air filter or wipers.
 
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She actually did well. My friend's favorite shop quoted her $80 to swap a taillight bulb in her 4Runner, and there was no "free" work involved in the $3700 worth of work she agreed to that day.
 
A bit high sure, i think it's a bit of a rip for them to do it to me but not a big one for someone who wasn't going to do it themselves.
 
It's not a rip off. Average shop rate in Mo is about $2.45/min. The labor charge is for about 10 minutes including getting bulbs out of stock, removing 2 old and installing 2 new. Probably a lot cheaper than the ticket she was risking for brake light out and safer too.
 
It's not a rip off. Average shop rate in Mo is about $2.45/min. The labor charge is for about 10 minutes including getting bulbs out of stock, removing 2 old and installing 2 new. Probably a lot cheaper than the ticket she was risking for brake light out and safer too.
You don't get a ticket in MO for a third brake light being out and she still had one working bulb. It's my opinion it was an excessive charge. Obviously other disagree which is okay.

Her employer paid for the oil change and free rotation. They just give the employees the coupons to redeem.
 
How much do you feel your daughter should have been charged?

This is 2022, and the charge seems reasonable/acceptable to me based on what you said the shop did.
Whatever about five minutes of work equals to. The other stuff that was done was paid for by her employer.
 
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