The mechanic rip-off rort

[Express]

The mechanic rip-off rort


18 May, 2016


Adam Courtenay


If yours suggests you need fuel additives, chances are you're
being conned.



Be careful not to be swindled when getting your car serviced. Photo: Michele Mossop

When consumer ratings and research firm Canstar Blue published its auto-servicing ratings for 2015, it commented on what many Australians suspect about car servicing – more than 80 per cent of those polled were wary of being ripped off when getting their car serviced.

The comments came just after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found Kia Motors guilty of consistently overcharging customers in its "capped-price" auto servicing program – the ACCC found the dealership offered no "fixed price" on servicing at all – it had changed its price four times since 2012.

Gonzalez says the amount of "upselling" in the industry is endemic.

There is no sign that mechanic rip-offs are diminishing. The NSW Department of Fair Trading has recorded 2,240 complaints about automotive services from January 2015 to date.



Janelle Gonzalez: don't allow yourself to be swindled. Photo: Supplied

When Fairfax asked a number of industry stakeholders about the issues with auto servicing and mechanics, the list of potential rip-offs was lengthy and wide-ranging.

One respondent said there were cases of customers being offered vouchers for services to get them in the door but that individual local workshops refused to work at the low cost. "So they don't replace all of the parts they're supposed to in order to make up the difference in profit," he said.

Another common complaint was bringing forward scheduled parts replacements regardless of how many kilometres the car had driven or the time lapsed – this included barely-worn brake pads, "bushes" and "arms" replaced for the suspension, and timing belts being replaced at 30,000 kilometres rather than at the normal 100,000 kilometre mark. Others "create repairs out of thin air" in order to inflate the service charge.

"A rogue mechanic will not spend the time with you upfront to ask you the appropriate diagnostic questions and won't always have the right diagnostic tools available," says Janelle Gonzalez, who co-owns mobile mechanics franchise Blue Toro.

Gonzalez says the amount of "upselling" in the industry is endemic. Some of the dealerships and auto chains have your job card ready before anyone looks at the car, she says. "No one's taken it for a test drive, nobody's asked you what's wrong, nobody's checked it or opened the bonnet.

"They'll say you need windscreen wipers, wheel alignment, tyre changes, air conditioning sanitiser and even fuel additives – but these are already added into petrol," she says. "You don't need an extra $80 for the additive. The reason they're putting it in is that the companies making these additives are giving them a bonus for every litre they sell."

Gonzalez reserved most of her ire at the auto chains and the dealerships where many of her mobile mechanics used to work. "Our mechanics tell us they were consistently reprimanded for not reaching their weekly quotas," she says. Fairfax asked two dealers and two auto chains to comment. Midas and Ultra-Tune did not return our calls, nor did Sydney City Toyota. John Newell Mazda declined to comment.

Independent mechanic Josh Thatcher, who owns Edgecliff Automotive in Sydney, says that while he agrees there are rogue traders around, proper servicing costs money. Thatcher disputes some of the "rip-off" claims. "If you look at a car properly, there will always be problems," he says. "Every service there will be something needed to be done – possibly the tyres, the front and rear brakes or oil leaks.

He says the "upsell" accusation is open to interpretation. "There's no actual definition of what a service costs, unless you get into the nitty-gritty," he says.

His workshop aims to do a 12-month or 10,000 kilometre service, which means if brake pads or tyres appear not able to last that period, he will replace them. As for fuel additives, he happily uses them. "Not everyone on the road uses the best 98 petrol," he says. "And when our clients come back for another service after we've put these additives in, the engine is always clean."

Thatcher agrees there has been some level of over-selling among dealerships and auto chains. "These big overhead types of guys – the oversell has to happen. They have to do it to keep their doors open," he says.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said he did not believe rip-offs were endemic in the industry but it definitely was a case of buyer beware.

"I think the industry has become demonstrably better in recent years. We started the MotorServe service centres for this very reason – people didn't have faith in car servicing. There may be some rogue traders but there are safeguards to make sure people don't get done over."

Khoury says consumers need to remember that dealerships do not have to service a car for the warranty to remain valid, and they should always get a second opinion if they fear they are being oversold.

"It's about transparency. You have to take the customers through the journey and explain everything." Ultimately, the power is the hands of consumers. "Get quotes and second opinions and shop around. It's always the best advice if there's extra work needed beyond the normal service."

What do you think? Are mechanics routinely ripping people off? Add a comment below.

.

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business...14-gov76k.html

[falconhell74]

Unfortunately there are quite a few around , I'm a mechanic myself but I have seen some rip off merchants in my time, especially in towns like Gladstone in QLD .
I was working for a company that have fleet vehicles and was sent a ute and told that it had a coolant leak before they sent it to me and to send it to the local (and only) dealership to be assessed and repaired.
Their diagnosis was leaking water pump $1800 yes $1800 to replace , I told them to take a hike as I would do it my self as Im a qualified mechanic with 20 years experience and I would just like to purchase the water pump.
They refused point blank to sell me the water pump .
So I said fine Ill get one from an auto parts store , they told me I wasn't allowed to .
I said try and stop me :-)
The following day I pressure tested the cooling system my self and surprise surprise no external or internal coolant leak.
I then tested the radiator cap and yep you guessed it, it was U/S .
So long story short $1800 to fix a water pump that didn't need fixing and should only cost a couple hundred at the most and turned out to be a $17 radiator cap.
I can guarantee the would have charged me the full $1800 for the job and possibly not even change the pump as li looked new any way.
So yes they are out there so shop around

[Yellow_Festiva]

Yes and no.....

Some are honest, some take advantage of clueless customers..

I caught out Toyota after they rorted my sister on brake pads I just replaced as well as a $90 charge for a tyre rotation. This was several years ago.

Ford kept harassing me for brake pads, tyres and wiper blades that were more than fine. They all lasted till the next service and had the brake pads changed just prior at my local mechanic for 1/3rd the price.

I buy and add my own additives. I price and buy my own tyres.

I just dropped off my Mitsubishi Monday.

Sure enough they suggested wiper blades ($90) and an engine carbon clean ($290). I declined both.

Having said that, they told me the tyres and brakes are fine with lots of life left.

Mitsubishi are also guilty of price changing. They have a different price for the same model depending on the year it was bought which makes no sense if it's the exact same car and work being done!

[Franco Cozzo]

Timing belts are made out of rubber, and rubber cracks and goes all stiff, maybe if Janelle read her car manual she might notice the 100,000km OR 10 YEARS suggestion for replacement.

[falconhell74]

Timing belts are made out of rubber, and rubber cracks and goes all stiff, maybe if Janelle read her car manual she might notice the 100,000km OR 10 YEARS suggestion for replacement.


Some are 60,000 km like the holden astra nearly $2000 service every 60,000 km ....... bugger that.

[Wretched]

I'll never go back to Ford for a service. Been to 4 dealers and the service has been average to outright rubbish. Sick of the garbage they spruik and the outrageous labor costs.
Will be looking for a local mechanic from now on. Thankfully the timing belt only needs to be replaced every 180k.

[Franco Cozzo]

Ive bought two new cars, never had them serviced at dealerships, only ever done by local mechanics and I supplied the oil and filters (genuine filters only).

They're out of warranty I do oil and filter myself but for the bigger more involved stuff it goes to the local mechanic.

[Stefan]

I had my Audi A3 1.8T serviced at the local mechanic, he asks me ifs the timing belt had been done I said "No"

Tells me he thought so could not see it in the service book and noticed it had a lot of cracks in the belt and it was a time bomb, i would be better to leave it with him and pick it up tomorrow after he changed it, will be cheaper than Audi...

I told him the reason no timing belt has been done is that this particular model has a timing chain.......suddenly the sound of crickets.

Not sure he would have ripped me off but he certainly did not see cracks in my timing belt.

[Trump]

There is no issue if one keeps his or her wits about them when it comes to service and maintenance of their car. That is why it pays off massively to be educated enough about the intricacies of one's conveyance to avoid getting burnt.

I just see it as being clued-up on what is for most people the second most expensive thing they will buy as common sense. However, many buy cars these days with the same amount of pre-purchase due dilligence that one would use to buy a bag of sugar for example, none.

[Falcon SXR8]

My favourite one was my local drongos at ford telling me I needed new back tires...... They were literally 1 day old had driven 3klm to ford dealer with them. Absolute scumbags

[falconhell74]

Originally Posted by Falcon SXR8

My favourite one was my local drongos at ford telling me I needed new back tires...... They were literally 1 day old had driven 3klm to ford dealer with them. Absolute scumbags

They weren't bald when you got the car back ???

[Mercury Bullet]

Originally Posted by Falcon SXR8

My favourite one was my local drongos at ford telling me I needed new back tires...... They were literally 1 day old had driven 3klm to ford dealer with them. Absolute scumbags

Haha...memories.
Years ago I was given a yellow sticker by a copper for bald rears on my cobra.
I tried to tell him that I'd just bought them yesterday and they had done 5km.

A trip to the cop shop and a friendly chat with the sergeant had the sticker quickly removed.

[Falcon SXR8]

Originally Posted by falconhell74

They weren't bald when you got the car back ???

wouldn't surprise me

[Pis-ton broke]

my first car when i was 17 ,a 74 escort need a tune (so i thought), so i sent it to a reputable garage. i got it back, not fixed, i need the car for tafe. i took i back, they fiddled with it, and said don,t bring it back. the car was running so badly at this time so i took it to a back yard mechanic, within five minutes he told me the dizzy shaft was worn, he took one out of a cortina and put it in the escort and fixed it.
my very first experience with a reputable and big name garage was a disaster. so ever since that time i learnt to fix my own cars and rebuild engines and so on. so really they did me a favor , cause i never use a mechanic and ive saved thousands and thousands of dollars.
atm my landcrusier is getting all new shocks and swaybar rubbers etc, pedders quoted (they checked it for me) stacks, i ask my mate who manages a supercheap store and he gets me his staff discount. so a big saving! imagine paying a dealer to repair and service this type of car, heaps
machanics= 0
me = heaps
how sweet it is!

this is going to be a long thread with many complaints.

[olfella]

If you think someone is ripping you off, regardless of what it is - get a second opinion!! Same with a doctor, mechanic, painter, electrician, plumber - the list goes on. We all can dig up horror stories we have experienced and I hope we all learn from them. Writing an article that has not been well researched does no one any good except her - she gets paid to write crap.

[4vxc]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

my first car when i was 17 ,a 74 escort need a tune (so i thought), so i sent it to a reputable garage. i got it back, not fixed, i need the car for tafe. i took i back, they fiddled with it, and said don,t bring it back. the car was running so badly at this time so i took it to a back yard mechanic, within five minutes he told me the dizzy shaft was worn, he took one out of a cortina and put it in the escort and fixed it.
my very first experience with a reputable and big name garage was a disaster. so ever since that time i learnt to fix my own cars and rebuild engines and so on. so really they did me a favor , cause i never use a mechanic and ive saved thousands and thousands of dollars.
atm my landcrusier is getting all new shocks and swaybar rubbers etc, pedders quoted (they checked it for me) stacks, i ask my mate who manages a supercheap store and he gets me his staff discount. so a big saving! imagine paying a dealer to repair and service this type of car, heaps
machanics= 0
me = heaps
how sweet it is!

this is going to be a long thread with many complaints.

I hope your mate from super cheap knows that they get audited by the loss prevention manager, he doesn't have to come to the store to do it.
He can do it from home or sitting in his car via his laptop.
They are generally ex detectives or similar and can spot b/s a mile away.
All these things get checked without anyone's knowledge and if something appears out of the ordinary its see ya latter, don't come back.
It is treated as stealing from the business.
Not worth it to get 25% discount for your mates.
SCA managers are easy to replace.

[Pis-ton broke]

Originally Posted by 4vxc

I hope your mate...........
SCA managers are easy to replace.

ok, thanks for that, i will call him tonight. maybe the saving grace is that he has a crusier too, but i will see what he says.

[bobthebilda]

I think alot of people would get the wrong impression of what is a rip off. Only today i got a friend to replace the front brake pads on the old Falcon. $39 for the pads, and he had them changed over in less than 30 minutes (obviously didnt charge me for the labour). Not sure what the going rate would be anywhere else, but i could assume that if i took it down to the local Kmart auto etc, then i would have been paying a share of their site rental costs, their equipment costs, the mechanics wage, the mechanics managers wage, head office costs etc. Most people would think that they are getting ripped off if they had to pay for more than 30 minutes of the mechanics wage to do the changeover (say $20), but you end up paying sometimes 4 or 5 times that much due to the huge costs associatted in running a business.

[PHANTMXR6]

Exactly. It's easy to say it should be a short cheap job, but not too many people take overheads into consideration.

[Trump]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

I think alot of people would get the wrong impression of what is a rip off. Only today i got a friend to replace the front brake pads on the old Falcon. $39 for the pads, and he had them changed over in less than 30 minutes (obviously didnt charge me for the labour). Not sure what the going rate would be anywhere else, but i could assume that if i took it down to the local Kmart auto etc, then i would have been paying a share of their site rental costs, their equipment costs, the mechanics wage, the mechanics managers wage, head office costs etc. Most people would think that they are getting ripped off if they had to pay for more than 30 minutes of the mechanics wage to do the changeover (say $20), but you end up paying sometimes 4 or 5 times that much due to the huge costs associatted in running a business.

Most mechanics charge between $80-100 per hour to cover the costs of running the business (as mentioned above) and to put a little in his pocket at the end of the day for his efforts. Where the rip-off tag might be legitimately applied is on the $260 p/h labour rate that is found in BMW and M-B dealerships.

[Pis-ton broke]

go and talk to some women and here their rip off stories

[Franco Cozzo]

I own an automotive repair business, I've never ripped anyone off or sold them something they didnt need, also if I cant fix it then there is no charge for our time, but people seem to come in distrustworthy of us right off the bat due to people giving my trade a bad name.

The way my pricing works is off margins (and I move it downwards to help people in lots of cases) so if my supplier can move on my price, the customer pays less, I don't pocket the difference.

If the part is expensive for me to buy unfortunately it will be for you too.

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

go and talk to some women and here their rip off stories

You mean like their trip to the shops for that $400 hair cut and colour / tint foil thingy and then off to pick up that new pair of $800.00 Jimmy Choo Choo shoes ........

Don't ask women what a rip off is - it aint the same as what we men think.......

[Pedro]

delete

[mechanic]

So, what is the profession, trade or occupation of the OP?
If it's fair enough to accuse mechanics of crooked practices how about we have the opportunity of returning the favour?

[Falcon SXR8]

There is good mechanics to. I have a local guy who is your typical old school fella, just working on his own and he is a legend. Quite often ill want a job done and he will just give me the tools to do it myself and say bring them back by the end of the week, never wants payment for it, but I always get him a six pack.

[Pis-ton broke]

Originally Posted by PHANTMXR6

Exactly. It's easy to say it should be a short cheap job, but not too many people take overheads into consideration.

i don,t think people give a poo about over heads, just honestly and value for money is a good start.

[deesun]

I work for a supermarket. We have around 25000 lines on our shelves, everything is a rip off according to the customer.

[Nikked]

I get the feeling a lot of people must think mechanics work for under $10 and hour and pay for overheads from the money tree out the back.

[Phildo]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

go and talk to some women and here their rip off stories

What do womens hairdressers have to do with this thread?