I was charged $1700 for two Water Pumps

$150 diagnosis
$200 pump
$25 coolant
$400 labor
$22 tax
$0 contacting Toyota and getting her every penny back.

Her net cost: $0

Next week, Toyota corporate will be sending her a check for my invoice as well as the $180 the dealership charged her.

Who's tomatoes are better, mine or the dealership's?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I get annoyed when they can't get whose and who's right.

 

I didn't know you were fixing someone's work. We are all humans and I believe it goes both ways, a dealership also has the responsibility to fix a problem that another mechanic created. It does not mean the dealer or Indy shop has less qualified technicians to do the repair. There is justification to charge $795 to fix a problem that requires additional diagnosis time over a standard repair/replacement.

I'm not a fan of dealership labor charges, that's how they get their Stealership name. I still believe no Indy shop should be charging more for service. It's always great to have competition to keep prices in check, this goes with all industries. If you feel you've been overcharged for a service, you probably would think twice before going back to the same establishment. Same as if you've gotten exceptional service/price somewhere, you would continue going to that establishment. As a consumer, I would want the best value I can find with the best service.

 

These are prerequisites to actually being a professional in your field.

 

no question, that's why i like him. now if i could find the same thing for less money, great!
but i don't expect to. i consider myself fortunate.

 

yes, there are. i don't know his full backround, but it must be extensive. he can fix ost anything

 

If he doubled his prices, and you couldn't find anyone similar, would you still use him?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

i can't answer the hypothetical, but there would certainly be a cutoff point. dealers are mostly horrible, but they can usually do a reasonable repair.
there aren't many indy shops locally that can handle hybrids, and i'm not keen on traveling

 

I believe most mechanics that can service hybrids have doubled their normal fees. For any diagnosis, even for non hybrid related items, get the hybrid diagnosis fee. If there's a rattle, the charge is the hybrid $120 - $150 hr diagnosis. Has nothing to do with hybrid issues but it gets all grouped together if you drive a hybrid

 

supply and demand

 

Yes there may be truth to that statement.

The prices being charged for stuff no longer has a true market value to them anymore. Prices seem to be based on how urgent the customer needs their problem fixed and the price is adjusted accordingly.

 

around here, it's the same with building contractors. the busier they get, the higher the estimates go.

when it's crazy (as it often is, and is now) they will try to turn away business by overpricing it. but even that seldom works

 

In a nutshell: price gouging.

 

so eloquently put

 

I've also, now and then, had somebody highball a bid because they had as much work as they wanted to handle and didn't want to add my job. I guess their other alternative would have been to simply say "no, go away, don't want your business". Either way gets the message across.

I guess by submitting the inflated bid, they leave the window open that if I'm really in enough of a spot that I want them to do it anyway, they could agree to do it at a rate they'd feel compensated for the work overload. If they just said "go away", I suppose they couldn't be accused of gouging, but they might lose some customer goodwill that way too.

 

unfortunately (or not) there is really no such thing as price gouging. in a declared state of emergency, maybe there are laws, idk.

i have seen congress hold hearings on price gouging. ultimately a waste of time

 

Price gouging refers to when retailers and others take advantage of spikes in demand by charging exorbitant prices for necessities, often after a natural disaster or other state of emergency. ... In most states, price gouging is set as a violation of unfair or deceptive trade practices law

Yes Congress is broken, need some price gouging to fix them

 

ag-healey-issues-emergency-regulation-prohibiting-price-gouging-of-critical-goods-and-services

 

Exactly.

 

Whether it's tomatoes or auto repair - prices will vary wildly and there may or may not be a good reason for it.

Having been in both businesses - I can say that with confidence.

I'm sure we've all heard of a mechanic (for cars of any mechanical device) who is a "whiz" and can fix things better than most of his competitors. This guy will have a loyal following of repeat customers who adore him and will say things like "He's expensive, but he gets it fixed right the first time and doesn't jerk me around." He'll likely also have a waiting list or be hard to schedule time with. This guy will cost you LESS in the long run.

We also all likely know the guy who is a hack (to be as polite as possible), may or may not be any cheaper than the "expensive" guy on an hourly basis - but he's likely to replace a lot of parts that don't need to be replaced, not get the repair done the first time, and you may have other issues with him as well. He may scratch your car, leave it dirty, break things that were OK when you brought the car in, and generally not be a great business person. This guy will cost you MORE in the end.

Consider too that there are customers who are high-maintenance and you can never please, accuse you of damaging their car when you don't, and generally look down upon you. The former mechanic above - may not take these customers on at all. He doesn't have to.

Anyway - price alone is no indication of quality, training, workmanship, etc.

You would expect that a dealership should be better at working on technologically-complex cars like the Prius because of "factory Training". Unfortunately, the dealership doesn't send every mechanic to be trained. At my dealership of about 12 or 15 mechanics - I was the only one who went to "school" at the GM training center. The rest of the guys either didn't want to invest the time, or thought that they didn't need the training. That, or the dealers didn't want to spend the money to train more mechanics.

Independent shops need to pay for their own training - so they may need to charge more to cover that.

Anyway - like a doctor, lawyer, or plumber - a good mechanic is hard to find and worth paying for. As consumers we don't want to pay a mechanic or lawyer or doctor, but when you need one - you need one. We also need to know enough about the service we're paying for to be able to communicate intelligently with the expert working for us. If we don't do that, it will likely cost us more and take longer to get what we really want.