Service Interval

[BeagleMum]

I guess the £120 charge per fault diagnosis is the catch 22, Dealers will make an Uber amount of money Charging for their fixed overhead purely investigating faults ?

is it me or should a good mechanic investigate a potential fault (particularly mechanical issue) to allow them to fully understand the issue & make a diagnosis as part of their work, which would naturally result in a charge for parts and Labour to rectify ?
I.e that’s how a garage make their money (by providing expertise, highlighting a potential fault through their expertise and experience then subsequently repair) not a flat fee of £120 to investigate a fault regardless of whether they can / will/ could fix it !
Are VW trying to have their cake and eat it In So far as the initial diagnosis fee is not being rebated against the cost to repair ? if they had not carried out the diagnosis they wouldn’t be able to quote parts and Labour for the repair!

example :
how many other businesses can do that . I.e make a charge to provide a quote to fix an issue ? If a builder charged to attend, diagnose an issue and provide a quote to fix the issue prior to them actually doing anything you would laugh at them and go elsewhere?

We have never had to pay for a quote from anyone, plumber, electrician, builder, window installer etc. we’ve never heard of anyone we know being asked to pay for a quote.

 

[Perfectos]

The “call out charge” is to cover the plumbers costs of coming to visit you, and may vary depending on the time of day and the day of the week / emergency etc, which offsets any potential loss of revenue due to the expediency required! It widely accepted that a call, out charge is for attending your property often in an emergency, not to routinely make a charge to carry out an every day investigation at their business address.

A plumber for example does not make multiple flat fee charges +£120 should there be more than one fault Presented.

The “call out charge “ is a fixed fee for attending your property on the understanding they will attend, only when they have attended and diagnosed the problem do they present quote to find and fix the problem.

Diagnosis of multiple problems does not attract multiple extortionate fees for each potential faults and fixes, (especially £120 to simply assess each potential fault)

investigate works carried out on behalf of a third party main contractor, to facilitate a major refurbishment, presumably to assist an architect/ engineer in developing a compliant project & to justify an engineered solution with an old building of unknown quality, thus allowing the third party professional to ensure they can provide professional indemnity backed by factual compliance required under U.K. law.
otherwise the project would not be allowed to progress as it would not be justifiable.
that is not the same as a spanner monkey at a garage working from a fixed facility on a bog standard vehicle trying to work out why the windscreen wiper is not working & charging an extortionate rate to cover a fixed overhead ! An overhead that exists wether the fault is diagnosed or not.
The reason for your paid investigation are an entirely different scenarios with a totally different agenda.

I bet you wish you could charge for run of the mill quotes?
particularly when your success rate in securing the work is not guaranteed
but you know as well as I, in your game you would be laughed off the tender list & you would never get on the tender list if you tried to impose a charge simply for compiling a quote.

 

[Amarillo]

The “call out charge” is to cover the plumbers costs of coming to visit you, and may vary depending on the time of day and the day of the week / emergency etc, which offsets any potential loss of revenue due to the expediency required! It widely accepted that a call, out charge is for attending your property often in an emergency, not to routinely make a charge to carry out an every day investigation at their business address.

A plumber for example does not make multiple flat fee charges +£120 should there be more than one fault Presented.

The “call out charge “ is a fixed fee for attending your property on the understanding they will attend, only when they have attended and diagnosed the problem do they present quote to find and fix the problem.

Diagnosis of multiple problems does not attract multiple extortionate fees for each potential faults and fixes, (especially £120 to simply assess each potential fault)

investigate works carried out on behalf of a third party main contractor, to facilitate a major refurbishment, presumably to assist an architect/ engineer in developing a compliant project & to justify an engineered solution with an old building of unknown quality, thus allowing the third party professional to ensure they can provide professional indemnity backed by factual compliance required under U.K. law.
otherwise the project would not be allowed to progress as it would not be justifiable.
that is not the same as a spanner monkey at a garage working from a fixed facility on a bog standard vehicle trying to work out why the windscreen wiper is not working & charging an extortionate rate to cover a fixed overhead ! An overhead that exists wether the fault is diagnosed or not.
The reason for your paid investigation are an entirely different scenarios with a totally different agenda.

I bet you wish you could charge for run of the mill quotes?
particularly when your success rate in securing the work is not guaranteed
but you know as well as I, in your game you would be laughed off the tender list & you would never get on the tender list if you tried to impose a charge simply for compiling a quote.

Exactly. I’m already paying for the service. Asking them to look at my rear wiper shouldn’t cost an additional £120.

 

[Perfectos]

Exactly. I’m already paying for the service. Asking them to look at my rear wiper shouldn’t cost an additional £120.

The cost to diagnose a faulty wiper motor would be greater than the cost of the new OEM replacement wiper motor part !

I wonder what would happen if you had just told them the wiper motor was bust and fuse needed to be replaced without “Diagnosis“?

naturally you would have parts & Labour to pay, but the result would be a potential reduction in your bill by £120 for the Diagnosis (thus covering cost of the replacement part) simply because you chose not to “diagnose“ a known fault, a fault you pointed out to them and the reason why it occurred.

they could not justify an additional diagnosis fee could they ?

Also Bearing in mind the fuse should do the job it was designed & intended to do, I.e. stop the wiper motor from burning out in an situation where it is restricted from moving & as a result causing the wiper motor to overheat to the point of burning out !
It would be the most expensive 2 pence part ever, let alone the additional Labour charge for removing and replacing the fuse!
(obs only if the £120 diagnosis confirmed the fuse was the issue, which would be the first thing to check anyway )

But that’s not in the dealers best interest is it ?

Heads you loose tails we win.

in this instance the dealer looses out on goodwill and future business from the customer who feels ripped off ?

Did they charge you £120 to diagnose your tyres need changing ?

 

[Amarillo]

The cost to diagnose a faulty wiper motor would be greater than the cost of the new OEM replacement wiper motor part !

I wonder what would happen if you had just told them the wiper motor was bust and fuse needed to be replaced without “Diagnosis“?

naturally you would have parts & Labour to pay, but the result would be a potential reduction in your bill by £120 for the Diagnosis (thus covering cost of the replacement part) simply because you chose not to “diagnose“ a known fault, a fault you pointed out to them and the reason why it occurred.

they could not justify an additional diagnosis fee could they ?

Also Bearing in mind the fuse should do the job it was designed & intended to do, I.e. stop the wiper motor from burning out in an situation where it is restricted from moving & as a result causing the wiper motor to overheat to the point of burning out !
It would be the most expensive 2 pence part ever, let alone the additional Labour charge for removing and replacing the fuse!
(obs only if the £120 diagnosis confirmed the fuse was the issue, which would be the first thing to check anyway )

But that’s not in the dealers best interest is it ?

Heads you loose tails we win.

in this instance the dealer looses out on goodwill and future business from the customer who feels ripped off ?

Did they charge you £120 to diagnose your tyres need changing ?

The tyres were included in the FREE vehicle health check that I pay for with the service.

 

[WelshGas]

So, you are saying your Dealership would charge you a £120 Diagnostic Fee + Repair costs if you decided to go ahead with the repair.

In the past with other manufacturers I’ve been quoted a Diagnostic fee, which if it indicates a fault is cancelled if I go ahead with the repair, never a Diagnostic Fee + Repair Cost.

 

[Amarillo]

So, you are saying your Dealership would charge you a £120 Diagnostic Fee + Repair costs if you decided to go ahead with the repair.

In the past with other manufacturers I’ve been quoted a Diagnostic fee, which if it indicates a fault is cancelled if I go ahead with the repair, never a Diagnostic Fee + Repair Cost.

No, I didn't say that.

Already in for a service, they wanted £120 extra to tell me if the rear wiper motor had burnt out or if the fuse had blown. They made no mention of whether they would or would not cancel the £120 charge if I then paid for a new fuse or replacement motor.

 

[WelshGas]

No, I didn't say that.

Already in for a service, they wanted £120 extra to tell me if the rear wiper motor had burnt out or if the fuse had blown. They made no mention of whether they would or would not cancel the £120 charge if I then paid for a new fuse or replacement motor.

Then I suggest you should have asked.

 

[Azteccamper]

I take my Cali to an independent mechanic annually for a service. He asks if I know of any issues that need looking at and if so I tell him. He then services the car, checks it over and will call me with any extra findings and quote me a price that’s in addition to the ‘normal’ service cost. Isn’t that how it works?

 

[WelshGas]

I take my Cali to an independent mechanic annually for a service. He asks if I know of any issues that need looking at and if so I tell him. He then services the car, checks it over and will call me with any extra findings and quote me a price that’s in addition to the ‘normal’ service cost. Isn’t that how it works?

The question to be asked is, if you didn’t agree to the work to be done, would he have charged you extra for the Diagnostic work that he carried out?

 

[B J G]

I take my Cali to an independent mechanic annually for a service. He asks if I know of any issues that need looking at and if so I tell him. He then services the car, checks it over and will call me with any extra findings and quote me a price that’s in addition to the ‘normal’ service cost. Isn’t that how it works?

An assumption

Dealer diagnoses problem and part(s) required and cost.

Customer then goes away to get parts replaced by an independent source who has no need to diagnose.

Dealer provides a free service?

 

[Amarillo]

Then I suggest you should have asked.

To be honest- it didn’t occur to me to ask. I saw the charge not to repair the rear wiper and decided I didn’t want to pay that much for the rear wiper not to be fixed.

 

[Perfectos]

FIXED PRICE VOLKSWAGEN DIAGNOSTIC CHECK​

This is a 30 minute initial fixed-price diagnosis of a fault on your car, covering: a road test or guided fault finding, contacting you to discuss the findings and providing you with a firm quotation for the repair, or advise if extra investigations are needed for complex issues with an estimate for additional diagnosis.

 

[pjm-84]

So, you are saying your Dealership would charge you a £120 Diagnostic Fee + Repair costs if you decided to go ahead with the repair.

In the past with other manufacturers I’ve been quoted a Diagnostic fee, which if it indicates a fault is cancelled if I go ahead with the repair, never a Diagnostic Fee + Repair Cost.

Always had this apart from once.

Charging cable for a GTE. We told them it wasn't working, they said no we need to diagnose it. £75+VAT. Okay but its not working. Later that day we get told the cable doesn't work, we say we know, what's wrong? They said they didn't know, they tried it on a car they have and it didn't work. We said oddly the same happens on the car we have. They agreed that the Diagnostic fee was probably a little unfair in this instance. Lead not covered under warranty as its not part of the car.

£800 for a new one....Lol and no.

 

[pjm-84]

I've asked the difficult question of VW about participating dealers. I don't believe they have any, otherwise I would have had an answer by now