Not sure that I can agree...Gibbo2286 wrote:There is one aspect of the posts that I don't agree with, that of the garage informing you if they spot something wrong.
A good mechanic will have his eyes open whilst under the car even if he's just doing something as simple as an oil change, not because he's looking to hit you with more work but for the safety of the travellers and to cover his own ass.
Just suppose Boris's track rod end had dropped off a couple of days later and he'd fallen of one of those Scottish cliffs as a result, the fact that it had been in the garage would have given the ambulance chasing lawyers a free run to sue the pants of the garage.
Win or lose there would be endless grief for the mechanic and the garage owner.
It's one thing to bring a serious fault to the owners attention if its obvious with casual observeration, some problems you'll spot right away as soon as the car is up on the hoist. I have no problem with that.
However identifying a worn track rod end is something that can only be done if you go out of your way to spend time testing them - just as Alex joked about, the pry bar must have accidentally jumped into their hand.
I don't agree that they would be held liable either, in the exceptionally unlikely scenario that you paint. The car went in for an oil change, not an AA check. Should they have also thoroughly checked the rear brakes and rear suspension while the car was in for the oil change as well ? I don't think so. Where would you draw the line. If he took it in for a general service and check up maybe, for an oil change no. Perhaps he did take it in for a general "service", in which case it would be more reasonable that other things were checked.
I wouldn't even mind if they were a bit over eager in checking things that they weren't asked to check if they weren't charging blatantly ripoff prices. The sad fact is that trades people get a bad reputation for a reason. I know there are good reliable honest trades people and mechanics out there, but they're not in the majority.
One of the reasons I like to do as much of my own car work as possible (apart from the satisfaction of tackling and solving a tricky problem, and the fact that I can be a bit of a perfectionist) is that I've just had far too many bad experiences with getting other people to work on my cars. In the overwhelming majority of cases they either over charge, don't do the job properly, or try to bullshit me. This accumulation of bad experiences spans two countries as well, so its not specific to the UK, and it's not specific to Citroen's being worked on either as I've owned more Japanese cars than French ones...
I've also had bad dealings with sky installers, boiler repair people, appliance repair people etc...apparently there is no money to be made in doing a good, competent honest job! Those that do generally love their job and have a passion for what they do (or are unusually contentious or fastidious) rather than seeing it as just something to pay the bills.
Whatever the situation was, there is no excuse for the amount being charged, and in my experience a willingness to overcharge and pad out a bill go hand in hand with a willingness to look for faults well outside the scope of what was asked for in an effort to generate more work.