wiltsandy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2009
- Messages
- 183
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- South Wiltshire
- Your Mercedes
- 2001 230K SLK
Hi Neil,
If you move "down the food chain" to a generalist garage, there may not be much of a saving on hourly rate, but there will be a big degradation in product knowledge and experience.
I've just fallen foul of this situation with my Jeep. It failed the MOT yesterday, needing a new rear wheel bearing. The garage quoted me £125 for the job, inc the MOT. It's an easy job so that sounded about right but as I haven't got the time at the moment, I agreed that they could do the work.
This morning I got a phone call to say that the 1hr their 'system' quoted for the job was going to be more like three as they'd broken a brake pipe trying to remove the backplate. The brakes don't need to be touched to change the bearing!
To cut a long story short, I had to visit the garage to show them how to change the bearing and have now entered a 'discussion' with them about who's footing the bill for all the extra work they've generated by unnecessarily breaking into the brake system. I'm certainly not planning to! In the meantime my Jeep is stuck on their lift in bits!
The SLK is definitely going to an independent specialist!