Problem with mechanic

A main stealer would have probably found about 50 other things to change and charge you labour at 2 or 3 times the rate of your current guy.

With electrical problems I would always go to an Auto Electrician instead of a mechanic. Car electrics are complex and can be tricky to fix. That said when trouble shooting anything, you can be fooled into thinking somethings a problem when it isn't. A false positive. If its a once off then I wouldn't hold it against someone. However if its habitual then I'd have a problem with. Main dealers have a habit of swapping parts (at your expense) and not spending much effort at diagnosing a problem.

What the mechanic should have done, was let you know a new lock may/maynot fix the problem and are you willing to pay for the lock if its not the problem? Then again he might have been sure himself and just been caught out in this instance. That said it shouldn't have let it go to 9 days before passing it to an auto electrician.

Yeah, the whole 9 days without a car saga is what's really pi***ng me off here.

On top of that the car is only a month old (to me) so is still under warranty.
I bought it in Donegal so the repairs were done by my mechanic in Dublin with the dealer in Donegal to reimburse me.

I already know from talking to the dealer that he has an issue with paying for the lock if it wasn't actually necessary to change it so either I tell the mechanic to take a hike as far as the lock goes or I fight for it with the dealer!!

You should have acted dumb, said nothing and just handed the bill to the dealer. Better still let the dealer. talk to the mechanic. Both are making it your problem, when its the dealers problem really.

aircobra19 said:

Better still let the dealer. talk to the mechanic. Both are making it your problem, when its the dealers problem really.

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I've suggested to both of them that they should talk but neither are interested in speaking to the other.

Car will finally be fixed tomorrow, when I will eventually find out the final invoice total.
Could be close to €800 as opposed to €300 original estimate which was agreed with dealer at the outset!!

Before I pay mechanic I will forward bill to dealer. If he pays up then I will pay mechanic but if the dealer starts whingeing about the lock then I will tell the mechanic I'm not paying for the lock and he can contact the dealer if he wants to himself

Have you arranged with the dealer to reimburse you for your time without a car?

Seagull said:

Have you arranged with the dealer to reimburse you for your time without a car?

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There would be more chance of this fella walking down from Donegal and carrying me around on his back!!!

ive a funny feeling you wont be getting ur car back of the mechanic till you pay him!¬!!!

i think the dealer was very fair with you. he would have been within his rights to ask you to bring the car to him for repair. it is not his fault if the mechanic you picked was not capable of doing the job.

xt40 said:

i think the dealer was very fair with you. he would have been within his rights to ask you to bring the car to him for repair. it is not his fault if the mechanic you picked was not capable of doing the job.

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When the car was bought the agreement was that if a problem arose that it would not necessitate me travelling to Donegal to get it rectified.
When a problem did arise the dealer told me to get the car sorted in Dublin.
I asked him to nominate a garage in Dublin but he would not , instead he told me to use 'whoever I normally use'.

I agree that I was foolish to bring it to this particular mechanic, I should have just brought it to Belgard Motors and been charged through the nose, but at least the dealer would have potentially had less cause for complaint!

I should have just brought it to Belgard Motors and been charged through the nose

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Why would you care you werent paying for it? And at least your car wouldnt have been off the road for 9 days.

people seem to forget you cannot - especially with automotive electronics - always tell in advance that X will or won't fix the problem. A lot of new cars, cannot be diagnosed by conventional means, and main dealers now operate a swop-it-and-see policy, because it takes too much time to do it the other way. Annoying, I know, but mechanics are stuck with the results of fantastic marketing depts in car companies who design uber gadgets..........but never with an eye on how to fix them.

And, unfortunately, Audi's do suffer from electronic maladies. I have had 2 TT's since 00, so I know - but central locking, window mechanisms, instruments, MAF's, are all prone and subject to sudden, sporadic and occasional total failure. Sometimes they have to reload software into the car to do it - sometimes they get lucky. An independant mechanic can do no worse, imho.......

You could argue that if the mechanic spent hours and hours trying to diagnose it in advance, by dismantling the door etc, he'd have had to charge you the price of the lock, in labour, just to see if it actually was the problem. And you'd have to pay that, either way. I don't know what garages charge where you are, but main dealers around here are now charging Eur90/hour.

I'm quite sure the mechanic in question wants to 'get out' of this situation, as do you, and a middle ground can be found, which your selling dealer will have to pick up the tab for. Ultimately, it's his problem, as it's his warranty.

galwaytt said:

You could argue that if the mechanic spent hours and hours trying to diagnose it in advance, by dismantling the door etc, he'd have had to charge you the price of the lock, in labour, just to see if it actually was the problem. And you'd have to pay that, either way.

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You 'could' argue that point but unless you were the mechanic in question, you'd be told where to go in no uncertain terms...

It's the mechanics job to fix the problem, not replace everything in the same loop 'just to be sure' and charge you for the lot. If it's a 25c part and he replaced a €50 part first, then that €50 is not a labour charge, or a parts charge. If he tries to charge for it, tell him if it wasn't broken, you're not paying for the replacement and I defy any solicitor to argue with you. He can happily remove the new part and replace the original working part and that's what trial and error is all about. He'll know for the next time and he becomes a better mechanic because of it, but you shouldn't be footing the bill for his 'practising' !!!

Pique318 said:

Y....It's the mechanics job to fix the problem, not replace everything in the same loop 'just to be sure' and charge you for the lot. If it's a 25c part and he replaced a €50 part first, then that €50 is not a labour charge, or a parts charge. ....

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Sometimes, it can be cheaper to spend €50 on a part than spend 2 days trying to fix the exact problem. If people are not going to pay for your time in figuring something out, or you can't get parts on a return basis then some jobs simply become uneconomical to do. That said there should be a point when a mechanic/dealer realise is no longer economical to fix the problem, or its beyond them to fix it within budget and stop there. Which is why you should agree a fixed price beforehand and ask to be contracted should it come to light that the job will exceed this. A quote or estimate shouldn't be a complete fantasy.