expensive pen

[poshman]

took my car to renault garage for a couple of defects still under warranty also the passenger seat would not slide back and forth, went to collect the car woman in the showroom said " ill go and get the small invoice " they found a pen stuck under the seat in the running track apparently that wasnt covered under warranty anyway the small invoice was £116 oh we needed to take the seat out etc 1 1/2 hrs work @ £66 an hour am i out of touch with prices or is that a fair price

 

[splinter]

It is completely fair if you are recieveing £66 a hour

 

[Gary_M]

I suppose that the hourly rate quoted is probably about right (for a big garage), but I am not sure about taking 1.5 hours just to remove a seat !!

I have removed seats in several cars I have owned and it was a maximum of 5 minutes to take it out and same to put it back in again. Arguably, none of the cars were a Renault, but I wouldn't think they would be much different than the usual 4 bolts that hold the seat runners to the floor, plus a bolt to remove the seatbelt (if it is attached to the side of the seat, rather than the pillar

Personally, I would question anyone who took 1.5 hours to remove and replace a car seat

I have heard of some garages that charge you a minimum of 1 hours work, for whatever the job, but it might be worth asking them to put in writing what all they did and exactly how long each task took

 

[scott1968]

That’s why you should stick to DIY

 

[securespark]

I would question that.

After all, where will you have your car serviced post-warranty? Wink, wink?

I doubt very much whether you need to remove a seat to extract a pen from the runner, and also as others have said, the 1.5 h seems excessive.

I have removed many items from the runners (kids, eh? ) without the need to remove the seats!!

A word of warning to others:

I have successfully argued a reduction in two seperate jobs by a main dealer.

The first was a service job where they took much longer and didn't phone for authorisation.

I argued that if the service schedule gave a job time of 2.3 h for the work, it should not take longer. And certainly they should have phoned. I only paid for 2.3 h labour....

The second job they said would take 1.5 h, but it was done in 30m. They wanted to charge for 1.5 h, arguing they had used 2 men on the job.

Again, I insisted I wasn't paying them 3 x as much, arguing that the service schedule stated that 1.5 h was the maximum time allowed, and I hadn't asked for two guys to do the work.

Cheeky bleeders, if you ask me, mate!!

 

[Steve]

You took the car in, expecting not to pay anything because the defects would be covered by the warranty. Any deviations from the price given (£0) should have been notified to you, as I would expect of any garage. IMO, they cannot make you pay this. They carried out work that you didn't expect to have to pay for. And I shouldn't think they would have to remove a seat just to remove a pen from its runners. They are taking you for a fool.

 

[joe-90]

You know what Renaults are like, you have to remove the engine to change a wheel. I wouldn't pay it. There's a 'book' time for every job so ask them what it is.

 

[Moz]

As securespark said Dealerships are rip-off merchants , an a small local garage would always tell you a price before starting work , unless there is a sign up mentioning pricing where you gave them the keys I would argue with them about it certainly ...

 

[Thermo]

hmm smallest apprentice wedged under the seat with a torch, pulls out pen, pulled out by biggest beefiest mechanic....5 minutes!