Yesterday afternoon we booked my sons car in for a service as he had no idea where to get it done. I remembered an independent car service center I used many years ago and suggested we gave it another try. The garage I had been using for our work vehicles never ended well and I am not certain what qualifications their mechanics have or do not have.
Trying to find someone who can service your car outside of the car dealerships should not be that difficult, yet it is like rolling the dice. The garage workshop I was trying to build a relationship with ended badly as they seem to break something else when fixing the original problem. This was more like an African bush fix workshop and had to find an alternative. We had two vehicles that came out worse than they went in and even refused to use the 6 month service warranty they had offered.
This advert or window display is outdated and the major service at the Car Care Clinic is now R2999 with a 10% discount so R2700. Why play games and just offer the price first time without a discount? The old advert must be 4 years old so it shows nearly a 400% increase and you wonder how they can justify that increase?
We agreed the price as these days staying up to date with costs on various things is actually quite difficult. There were some red flags which I thought we would overcome those as they occurred like being told platinum spark plugs for a set of 4 are R2400. Looking online these are less that R800 at retail and not trade prices so they have a hefty mark up. If you are replacing the spark plugs anyway why be so greedy and just offer a reasonable price. An extra mark up of R200 for the set would get more customers paying than not.
The quote for the extra work needed came through mid morning today and the original major service price had gone from R2700 to an amount of R15700. I read through the work they recommended and rejected this immediately. These days you have to understand the value of your currency knowing you are not being ripped off which was clearly what was happening here.
Knowing the Rand outside the country is worthless does not mean you can justify charging over the top odds for work done and greed is going to kill this business and looks as though they have already chased away customers. Everything is relative to where you work and live and you kind of get a fee or an idea of where pricing should be. I can recall having to book a week in advance and not know a day in advance which tells you all you need to know.
The rocker arm bushings apparently need replacing and a tell tale sign would be tyre wear. This was quoted at R4800 which again is a major mark up for bushings that are not even needed. Replacement of 4 tyres which we do ourselves at a tyre shop around the corner. Rear brake discs which are not needing replacing because we get the brakes done at the sam eplace as the tyres and these were done less than 12 months ago and have the brake pads at 95% wear.
I made sure to go in and chat with them when we fetched his car and as thought nothing they quoted on was urgent or necessarily needed to be done immediately. The manager was rather sheepish and informed him all the extras he was quoting on we get done independently at a workshop around the corner and most likely where he was going to send my sons car.
This was all an up sale thinking they could make extra turnover because their workshop is not that busy and one can understand why. We will not be returning and will have the car checked independently through the person we know very well at the tyre fitment center later this week.
Thankfully my own car has another 4 years of service warranty at the dealership so I am not looking for independent workshops. What happened to building relationships with customers through goodwill and just doing your job? The way they "handled" my son thinking he was a complete fool with money to burn has guaranteed he will never return.
