Opinion on garage not having inspection license?

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Mar 22, 2012
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Berks County/Pa.
Place in small town that I live. Just opened up alittle over a year ago. Older gentleman that owned it retired and younger guy -- mid 30s purchased it off him. Come to find out he has no inspection license. Takes the vehicles down the road to a Mavis Tire to get them inspected and charges 1 hour labor for a 2 mile drive one way. I personally used to take my cars and truck there for inspection before Mr.Kurtz retired and he physically inspected them and slapped the stickers on himself or his mechanic.
 
Place in small town that I live. Just opened up alittle over a year ago. Older gentleman that owned it retired and younger guy -- mid 30s purchased it off him. Come to find out he has no inspection license. Takes the vehicles down the road to a Mavis Tire to get them inspected and charges 1 hour labor for a 2 mile drive one way. I personally used to take my cars and truck there for inspection before Mr.Kurtz retired and he physically inspected them and slapped the stickers on himself or his mechanic.
Is what he is doing illegal? If not what is the issues?
 
That doesn't sound like a recipe for long-term business success. If this guy wants the repair revenue that's drummed up by doing inspections, he needs to get licensed. In Virginia, I expect to pay $20 for a state inspection. If it cost me $120, I would be finding another shop for both inspections and repairs.

It wouldn't be surprising if this is against the laws governing inspections, but maybe he gets around that by not doing the inspections himself.
 
several years ago, there was a local garage that did just that the guy never had an inspection license and always took any vehicle to another place seemed to work out ok for everyone involved
 
Why so sensitive ? People will ask questions to better understand the situation. Why not just report this so PA authorities since it seems to bother you so much.
Why report? I am pretty sure there plenty of places that don’t bother with getting an inspection license, likely does not fit their business model.

I think the OP should only be concerned if some other shop fails them for an issue, they then get it fixed here, on,y to have the first shop refuse to pass the vehicle as they didn’t get the work (money). Not ethical, pretty sure illegal, and I’m sure it sometimes happens.
 
Garage owner should just refer the customer to Mavis for the inspection. If the car is a drop-off and the customer wants valet service the guy should be more clear about how it works ahead of time. I'm sure there are general purpose shops that refuse to do... tires... because they can't compete with the chains.

I still hold a Maine mechanic license, but have to affiliate with a garage to write stickers. The mechanic license is jokingly easy to get; the garage license, less so. There's a bunch of liability for the garage. In my state the price is capped at an absurdly low level. And the authority having jurisdiction may have a previous issue with the guy.
 
Why report?
Mostly because people's "opinions" on this mean absolutely zero. This is like questioning a shop's hourly rate or parts mark-up. If it's allowed in PA, they'll tell him and then "yeah for capitalism". If it's not allowed, it should be reported.
 
There's nothing wrong with what the guy is doing. Mavis does the inspection and installs the sticker. All he's doing is taking some time from his business and should get paid for it. I don't understand why someone would take a car to a place that doesn't do inspections for an inspection. If the mechanic did some work and the inspection was due, the customer should just drive to Mavis after the work is done.
 
Well, some people don't want to waste their time hanging around a garage, or traveling back and forth to have their car worked on. I can see where a customer can come in with a laundry list of work he wanted done, and one thing could be an inspection. So the tech replaces a burned out brake light, changes the oil , rotates the tires, and get his car inspected for him. After all the guy is running a business, so his time does have value. And in the end Mr. "I'm too important" or "busy" to take my car all over town to get it worked on, comes in and his car is good to go. I'm sure there was more to it than the tech showing up , and them slapping a sticker on it and sending him on his way.,,
 
Lots of shops contract out specific things. Wheel alignments probably the most common. Body work. All kinds of stuff.

Having said that, this seems like a pretty silly thing to sub. No inspection here but when I lived in a state with it there was a maximum charge allowed for state inspection. I googled VA and it seems its $51 bucks. I suppose your signing the work order for "other services".

I would just take it elsewhere.
 
Is what he is doing illegal? If not what is the issues?

It's probably not illegal.
It is somewhat unethical.
If I take my car to that guy, I am paying him to apply his expertise to inspecting the vehicle.
I would not be getting my money's worth in that I am not receiving any automotive expertise.
Instead, I would be paying a doofus a fee to drive my vehicle to an automotive inspection station.
Why should I be paying the doofus an hour's labor to be driving my vehicle down to the Mavis Tire?
If I wanted the Mavis Tire to inspect the vehicle, I could do so myself in a manner that would not enrich the doofus.
In other words, I'd take it there myself.
 
So what does this guy charge for an inspection?
Cant say, friend of mine volunteers at the local fire department. Guy who works that counter there at the garage also is a volunteer fire fighter and he passed this info on to me. I did not ask how much. My garage I go to now has an inspection license and there rate is 95 an hour for labor. Which is cheaper than most places for labor these days for a mechanic/garage.
 
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