Beware of price gauging
Beware of price gauging. Paid $680 ($505.25 Labour costs)
for essentially an oil change, windscreen washer addictive (oil filter change, if they actually did, it was replaced last year!) and a lot of bad news.
I took the car in 8am this morning and was called at 1:30pm to advise the service and diagnostics have been done cost $680
But it needs more work to the tune of $4200-5000 and we can’t start this until next Monday. So I collected my car paid $680 and asked Gerard if he was happy that a customer is paying $680 to walk out of his garage with effectively all the problems it came in with. He said “yes” if indeed they have serviced the car as listed for $480 inc $305.25 labour, do they really need to charge $200 labour on top to look at warning lights. I’ve never been charged anything like this before. I am taking to another mechanic tomorrow to double check they have done what they have said they have done and compare quote for works required. I will update here and will be contacting consumer and business affairs.
Reply from Auto Studio
Dear Kym,
We are sorry your recent experience didn’t meet expectations, but we feel it prudent to clarify the facts.
When you messaged us to make the booking last Tuesday, we responded at 4pm confirming the cost would be the service for $480 + the additional cost for diagnostic labour to investigate the issues. You proceeded to book in your vehicle knowing this.
Diagnostic labour involves our highly skilled technicians finding the cause of the issue, not applying a bandaid fix to remove warning lights. We take pride in quoting jobs correctly and undertaking high quality repairs to ensure your vehicle is properly fixed, rather than needing to bring it back again soon after, as it wasn’t done properly the first time. We found the cause and quoted to fix, which was the faulty thermostat.
You have uploaded the first page of your invoice. If you read the second page, it lists all the additional works we recommended to fix your vehicle from its service and address the issues we diagnosed. The repairs required are major works (LHR Wheel bearing, All upper control arm bushes torn, Both lower control arm bushes badly cracking, both caster arm bushes torn, thermostat faulty, battery, wipers, due for brake fluid, due for trans service, hence the quote and timeframe to do the repair. Whilst we won’t publish the second page for your privacy, we recommend you reading this so you can understand the works quoted and the associated cost.
When you advised you wouldn’t be proceeding with the repairs, you requested to pick up your vehicle and paid what we were up front about charging. $480 for a service plus time for diagnostic repairs.
We wish you luck going to another mechanic to repair your vehicle.
Thanks
Auto Studio