Labor Fee Q

[skloon]

if you paid for the labor on a credit card you can dispute it with the card company

[MadeInJapan]

Most shops give a 1 year, 90 day, 30 day warranty on the labor. You need to know their policy.

I concur. A rack that begins to CLUNK within a week is obviously defective. They're trying to tell me that no labor is warrantied. Period. "We can't get reimbursed". However I was told when I made the appointment by another dude "We can't get reimbursed, therefore we just have to eat the labor cost." As their talking out of both sides of their mouth, which is right?

The old man is putting the financial burden on me instead of his own son. That's not right nor fair.

I agree...you need to pursue this! I had a similar situation a few years ago... father took on my work, sold his shop to his son while my car was in it and his son F'ed up a new head replacement. Several months later I get my car back and it leaked like a sieve. He had not used anything to hold the cams and bent the cam cover when putting in a new head that I had sourced. Long story short, I got tired of pursuing it and ate the cost but could have taken him to court, I'm sure as I had to have another shop do the job all over again with the original head.

[tryingbe]

Most shops give a 1 year, 90 day, 30 day warranty on the labor. You need to know their policy.

I concur. A rack that begins to CLUNK within a week is obviously defective. They're trying to tell me that no labor is warrantied. Period. "We can't get reimbursed". However I was told when I made the appointment by another dude "We can't get reimbursed, therefore we just have to eat the labor cost." As their talking out of both sides of their mouth, which is right?

The old man is putting the financial burden on me instead of his own son. That's not right nor fair.

The words you're looking for is "SMALL CLAIM COURT"

[sleddriver]

I'll be returning to confront both jr. & the old man next week. Face-to-face. This is a necessary step given the circumstances and overall strategy. I didn't start this but I sure am going to end it. Blowing up at me was entirely uncalled for. Now that the gloves are off, more options have now been enabled with the locks removed.

I've also started a time-line and paper trail. No telling how far/long this will take so it's best to be over-prepared.

[rspi]

I don't think it matters which rack you use, as long as you install the proper inner tie rods.

A warranty is a warranty. If the shop sourced the part, they should warrant the job for some time, which would include the labor. The shop that I frequent did over $20,000 worth of warranty repairs in November. No customer paid for that labor.

[sleddriver]

RSPI: I think this shop is on the edge of bankruptcy. They're down to two mechs who know what they're doing on eurocars. The third is a very distant third. Most owners don't keep cars as long as we do, much less buy old ones. They lease, dump once the warranty is over, interest rates have been low for what?.....15yrs now? My first car loan during the early 80's I paid 9% interest! The younger set knows nothing of this. Society is VERY disposable these days.....emphasis on VERY.

This place hasn't kept up, is far past its prime and has been in the process of a very , long goodbye. My indy is a great guy though, knows his stuff and has been in the business for 25yrs. He doesn't own it though. No problems with him. The gm is the problem. He's not even the owner either.

[cuhfs]

Sorry to beat a dead horse but I wanted to point out that when someone pays a fee of $75 to $150 per hour to a repair shop instead of DIY, IMHO some of that hourly fee is to cover the shops overhead, employees, taxes, supplies, tools, profit to shop, AND mistakes and warranty work. That's why labor costs ARE so high. Shop should eat it.

[98v70dad]

If this isn't covered by the fine print you signed when you authorized them to do the repair then I think everyone needs to be fair to each other. You and the shop owner are both victims of the poor quality of the remanufactured part. I would say that it would be fair if they split the labor fee with you. My opinion, but I would be happy with a 50-50 deal.

[sleddriver]

Very pleased to report this issue has been resolved to my satisfaction. I returned, asked for the rest of my money back and received it without any fuss...much to my surprise given the open hostility and abuse I received last time.

This time I was prepared and loaded for bear. Fortunately, I didn't have to remove the safety. Unfortunately, I'm losing a trusted mechanic as I won't be going back. Too many encounters where the manager screwed up, and the staff is clueless.

[precopster]

My local Volvo indie supplied 2 faulty (used and slightly leaking) brake boosters and didn't charge me for dropping the subframe on both replacements. The 2nd one was also faulty and as we were chasing a problem on the braking system that was trapped air in the hydraulics I didn't expect him to do it a 4th time for free.

I felt sorry for him on the 4th booster and purchased a new one and did it myself.

Ends up my indie didn't know the Vida procedure for bleeding a Volvo ABS system. He supplied a used master cylinder as well and still couldn't get the pedal right.

After doing it myself the Vida way and using a vacuum pump all air was expelled and brake pedal was restored to feeling like new. Still I bear no grudge as he was doing his best and we still help each other out.