Jobs that garages wont take on

[Bren]

My dad's mk4 mondeo needs new front struts - unusually the garage he normally uses don't want to touch it.

 

Not sure why - I know he had an 03 passat before and that needed dampers which he partly did himself due to the complex set up - he removed the struts and took them to a workshop for them to fit the inserts.

 

Our vectra also seems to generate reactions from teeth sucking to "no" - where the engine/fuel system is concerned.

Fair enough - if the technician has grief dismantling/refitting it means jobs booked in behind get delayed.

However, as cars get more complex I would imagine these garages would be falling behind and suffer as a result.

Thoughts? Any garages said no lately? Is it a reflection of moderns becoming an utter PITA to work on?

[SiC]

No-one wanted to touch the cambelt on my Laguna V6.

 

Not sure why a garage would turn away a very regular car on what I'd thought be a routine job.

[Timewaster]

I thought the standard reaction to a job you don't want is to quote a stupid amount and hope they go away.

 

If they take the quote then you sub it out to some other mug.

[Split_Pin]

Better that than them taking it on and doing a half arsed job.

 

Pretty poor that they would turn a regular away, surely they could just work on it as and when and let you kniw that it wint be a quick turnaround.

[warren t claim]

Alfasud handbrake cable.

[panhard65]

It is always possible the garage don't think the car is worth spending the money on it and don't want to take his money. The nice thing about being self employed is you can pick and choose what you do. There are a few jobs and cars I just won't work on PT cruisers and original VW Beetles are on my black list.

[Guest Lord Sward]

I couldn't get anyone to do the clutch or an engine oil seal (it may have been rear crank or something) on my Rover 2200 TC.

[chrisjvm]

Goona 2 pez clutch...

 

Something about 'shearing subframe bolts'

[wuvvum]

Our vectra also seems to generate reactions from teeth sucking to "no" - where the engine/fuel system is concerned.

Not entirely surprised tbh - having experienced that engine in a Vel Shatis it is an absolute twat to do anything on.

[Tamworthbay]

I thought the standard reaction to a job you don't want is to quote a stupid amount and hope they go away.

If they take the quote then you sub it out to some other mug.

Standard in a lot of trades, my wife's cousin is a chippy and will quite stupid money if he doesn't want the job. They don't usually go for it, but if they do he gets a packet so wins either way.

[sheffcortinacentre]

Some "simple looking" jobs can be a nightmare in reality which the owner will baulk at the final bill,especially in these days of emls & limp modes that refuse to reset. also to turn a profit quick turn around jobs are sometimes the only option.

 

It can be frustrating for a customer to be turned down, but just the same for the small garage who needs a steady supply of work to stay afloat when lumbered with a vehicle that refuses to accept its been fixed.

[gordonbennet]

There must be times when a garage realise some jobs have a dozen possible alternative outcomes, none of them good, where they can be hours into a job and they then find whatever is failing has fucked two other items costing serious money.

 

Maybe they've been caught out before, customers with older cars simply vanishing and refusing to answer the phone or door, and they're stuck with a fucked worthless car and  2 days work down the U bend.

 

That's without the arse holes like that geezer with the Nissan pick up who simply jumped in his car and fucked off without paying.

 

This doesn't apply to regular customers obviously, but i daresay self employed mechanics get a gut feeling for shysters/chancers so are inclined to turn down work (or people) that might prove to be nothing but trouble, and i wouldn't want to upset a good customer by doing work on a car that i didn't feel was going to stay the course, cos you just know you as the mechanic are going to be to blame when something completely unrelated goes tits up 3/9 months down the line.

 

Tell yer what though, it works the other way too, being a good customer who pays up no questions sees you getting bloody well looked after at most places.

[Noel Tidybeard]

anything to do with a certain green luxury british waftobarge turbot!

[PiperCub]

^^ Think the first lines of GB's post are often the case.

 

Garages that have experience of a job taking way, way longer than the fabled 'Book' time, not through any fault of theirs (incompetence, laziness etc) but because some jobs fight you all the way (we all must have had them) with sheared bolts, fixings that won't shift and have to be cut or torched out, collateral damage caused because that's the way it was built originally etc - the list goes on. 

 

With the best will in the world, the garage often reasons that it can't pass on the whole labour/parts cost as it'll be miles more than quoted so can either have a fight with the customer and risk pissing them off, losing them and getting bad-mouthed, or suck up at least some of the extra cost themselves. Not an easy one. 

[cort16]

It is weird that sometimes it's impossible to give people money in exhange for work they advertise that they can do .

[PiperCub]

Fair point but sometimes you have to weigh up the quantity of potential hassle versus the profit you are actually going to make (hopefully). In business, you are kind of forced to I'd say. 

 

Also, in fairness to the garage trade, if they did turn stuff away regularly because it was too difficult, they'd not be alone, there was a thread on here some time back about builders doing similar - ie: they only wanted the simple, quick in-&-out jobs for a quiet life and regular money, not complex, time-consuming ones that will take weeks/months to yield any payment. I suspect this attitude is present in most (if not all) trades to some degree. 

[mk2_craig]

I've only ever had one job turned down and that was when I wanted an XR2 engine installed in a 1300 Fiesta Courier. In the end I did it myself with a couple of mates but looking back, nothing fitted without a bit of modification and things like the exhaust required custom fabrication, so I'm now a little more sympathetic towards the bloke than I was at the time.

[eddyramrod]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/derelictscotland/35924761960/in/photostream/

[PiperCub]

^^ Craig:

That doesn't surprise me to be honest. Most regular garages wouldn't touch a job that would almost certainly require some form of fabrication and modification work as they usually are neither staffed (skill-wise) nor equipped for this type of thing. Most don't like modifying anything as it can open a whole can of worms and endless return visits unless the place is experienced in this work as that's primarily what it does. 

[sierraman]

A lot won’t do clutches, for the simple fact everyone just wants to pay for the actual clutch part, you are ‘robbing’ them once you ring back saying the flywheels goosed and the crank end seal is pissing out. Plus the fact these days it’s a good minimum half days job.

 

Intermittent electrical problems, again good luck getting someone to sort that.

 

The cusp of it is turning away work that’s time heavy and gives little actual result, that’s to say stuff that requires a few hours of investigation and potentially at the end a diagnosis. Might cost the customer say minimum £80, but no concept of the overheads involved in a professional diagnosis like your time and the cost of constantly having to keep on top of diagnostic tools.

[Broadsword]

One day a garage I had used for years turned round and said "we're not touching cars anymore". Vans only from the point onwards. Interesting move. The last thing I had them do was an alternator and remove a seized locking wheelnut off a Saab 9-3. They did the alternator in less than an hour from what I recall and turned their attention to the wheelnut. Although undamaged, it simply would not move. It took them two hours to get it off and I wasn't charged over the hour's labour. I wondered later if that pushed them over the edge. I cannot adequately express my hatered for locking wheelnuts. They are trouble 100% of the time when I come across them.

[sierraman]

Probably got an agreement with a fleet management company, that’s where the money is. Nobody stood saying, ‘Well this hasn’t been changed’ etc.

 

The two big problems are people’s expectations and money. People can’t understand why it’s a £5-600 job swapping a clutch. It’s like the premises are free and you are working with tools from the Poundland. Penny to a pound they’ll know ‘someone’ who’ll do it £50 cheaper on the driveway working for the equivalent of £5 an hour.

[PiperCub]

So their choice is an unenviable one, they can suck it up and keep the goodwill of a customer or charge, piss them off and suffer the resultant bad-mouthing etc., which the honest garages don't need or want as it's bad for business. 

 

I'd imagine most garages have been told 'Fuck off' when someone suggests they pay for a diagnosis. As SM says, many folk have no idea of the cost of diagnostic tools and software plus the training to use them properly which has to be recouped somehow. 

[colino]

It really is a combination of things:

1.  Ramp time is finite.  Quick, repeatable jobs earn money.

2.  Known bastard jobs throw the book time out of the window and both the mechanic and the proprietor are less than happy.

3.  Many garages are tied to local retailers and only do the basics to sell on cars or get them an MOT.

4.  The trade is being populated by "technicians" who repair cars by remote diagnostic machines, really only charge for the diagnostic, knowing the poor owner will never translate into a full book price repair.

5.  Coupling all 4 above, the convergence of them mean a frightening fix price is generated to get you in to your next  financed car.

[cort16]

I could understand if it was non standard stuff or electirical diagnosis on a Peugeot 207 but for bread and butter stuff I would expect at least them to quote especially if they're a regular.

 

The customer is going to find someone else to do the work and is likely to take all the subsequent more lucrative work to them .

[twosmoke300]

Nice to actually read some people defending garages for once in here !

I take on most jobs apart from welding marathons- I'll do a couple of patches on sills or an exh bracket etc but I bloody hate welding old cars. Bosses perk is being able to say no !

 

I'm flat out busy so weird / less profitable jobs have to be fitted in on my terms and left with me. Also I don't quote for modification / one off stuff.

 

I do send merc diagnostic stuff away tho . Mainly cos they are a twat to work on and I'm friends with a very good specialist

[twosmoke300]

Not sure about the mk4 but mk3 mondeo struts aren't a nice job and are the reason I now have a £1700 spring compressing station .

You have to be careful removing the strut from the car not to bugger the lower arm Rear bush and most struts are seized solid in the knuckle these days .

Once the strut is off the spring has loads of preload and doubles in length when taken off . Just to make it even more fun the damper sucks back in all the time .

 

Another cunty spring is Citroen c3's . Again the preload is crazy and it's a curved spring .

 

Easiest springs - always vauxhalls . If you can undo the top nut ( Astra h I'm looking at you )

[simmo]

A lot won’t do clutches, for the simple fact everyone just wants to pay for the actual clutch part, you are ‘robbing’ them once you ring back saying the flywheels goosed and the crank end seal is pissing out. Plus the fact these days it’s a good minimum half days job.

 

Years ago when I worked on cars one chap I worked for always quoted competitively for clutches.  His theory was people would phone around to get the best price, if he won the work, done a good job you should get the trust and their other more lucrative work.  Also if you do a lot of the same sort of work you can get a lot quicker at it and can complete quicker than the book time.

[twosmoke300]

I like doing clutches . Not on vivaros tho

[djoptix]

I can definitely sympathise with the garage(s) here, I think that the place some garages fall down is communicating to the customer. But, to be fair, they have no idea of how much the customer knows about cars, and I am constantly amazed at how little some people know, so there you are...

 

At the garage I used up until last year when I moved house, the proprietor knew I was into older PSA diesel stuff and over time we'd had a few chats about bits and pieces which I'd like to think meant that he knew I wasn't completely clueless. This meant that when I asked about doing the rear arm bearings on a C5, he could simply say "that job will probably be a cunt and not worth us doing".

 

However, I have no sympathy with garages who just read fault codes, replace some part that may or may not actually be the problem, and then send customers on their way knowing that they'll be back next week with another fault code, that'll be another £300 please. They can fuck off.