Did I get had by the performance shop

[95strokerPSU]

I need some opinions on the bill I got from the performance shop I go to and what happened afterwards.

I had my car flatbedded to "the shop" because I couldn't get the distributor. Turns out the oil pump shaft had come loose. They initially said they're going to have to jack the engine, remove the pan, and reinstall the shaft....$400-$450. Later that day one of the techs calls me and tells me he was able to use a magnet to reseat the shaft and that everything was fine. They charged me $237 to fix the oil pump shaft, install the distributor, install #1 spark plug, and connect plug wires. I paid the bill without hesitation because I thought the oil pump shaft must have been a lot of work.

Well last weekend I had to tear the engine apart to replace an intake gasket and again the oil pump shaft came loose. I decided to try to get it back in myself and got it done in 5 minutes with a bendable LED light. So this got me to thinking, how do they come up with $237 for that and installing the distributor when it took me a total 30 minutes at most.

I called the shop Monday and talked to the office guy and said he would talk to the owner and the tech and call me back. I called back Tuesday, same reply and no call back. I call again today and he tells me it took the tech two hours, so I ask to have the owner call me, no call.

My first question is did they bang my bill and then second what should I do about it? I've been thinking about putting a stop payment through my credit card company until I at least hear from the owner. Thoughts?

 

[blksn955.o]

Maybe the "book" time said thats the time needed. Here there is a book time that is the avg. time to fix a given item. If the shop does it in under the time and the worker gets to work on something else he is a good mech. and brings in more money for himself and the shop. IF the time goes over they still have to charge you the book time and they basicly get less per time worked.

The gov. and shop assoc. put the books into use IIRC to ensure a fair/avg. amount of time to charge someone for a job. Add the labor rate a shop will charge (50$ on the LOW end) and it adds up fast.

Also did that total include the tow?

 

[donkey_punch]

if you think they gave it too you, then the worst way to get back is go somewhere else.

but on something like that it's still hard to say. you never know maybe it did take the tech 2 hours. who knows, could you honestly do it again in the same amount of time? the first time i had to replace my distributor it took me a day and half to get it out and in and squared away. now i could do it in less time. but you will never know.

you also have to figure in the 2 hours + overhead. do you happen to know what they charge per hour?

 

[95strokerPSU]

There were three seperate charges, $85 for the tow, $300 for the SCT, and $237 for the other work in question.

 

[95strokerPSU]

Hourly rate is $75 from what I remember

 

[mo_dingo]

I put bearing grease on the oil pimp shaft to keep it in place when I am installing the dizzy. It really helps to stop it from moving around, plus it doesn't hurt the motor.

Any experienced tech should have had that dizzy installed in 5 minutes. They definitely overcharged you IMO. For them to quote you to remove the pan to realign the pump shaft is inconceivable. The only time that would be necessary is if the shaft fell out of the pump.
Scott

 

[urban96]

seems a bit steep, even if they had to do a bunch of troubleshooting, but if the tech is good he woulda cought it quick and known how to fix. Also since you were spending good money on other stuff with them you would think that they would cut you some kinda break on an easy fix like that

 

[MI95Cobra]

well...did they put in any new parts??? i agree w/ blksn95 they charge by an estimated book time nowadays....

 

[red95gtconvert]

Yeah by looking at your nice ride they probably thought they could stick it to you, now if you drove up in a 72 LTD the bill might have been alot less.

 

[Pokageek]

I think they stuck it to you. In my O:

That is the same thing MD performance did to me. They should have known the first thing to check when my car wasn't running right was the MAF. But instead they did a check on the whole car and charged me $1300 to tell me the maf wasn't programmed right. I will NEVER use them again.

 

[ProKiller]

i don't know. it comes down to if they did a good job or not. if your not satisfied with their work then i would complain but if you were fine with the work they performed, i would just let it ride.

#1 spark plug takes me a good 30 min alone to do. when i put my MSD dizzy in it took me and my dad a good 2 hours to get it in there and wired up and the timing dialed in. figure toss in the 30 min it took you fix the oil shaft. thats 3 hours worth of labor. i would just not go back there if your sour about the deal. chances of you getting anything out of them is slim to no way in hell

 

[trav_19]

yes shops all now work off of book time thats your billing so if the tech is good and can get it done in 30 mins when it says 2 hours thats how the shop makes money...

however you need to think about trust factors and what nots...when i got my 93 i took it to a shop to have a lot of work done it was gone for about a month....i supplied every part and i got a labor bill of 1200 bucks...i was kinda shocked because all along he kept telling me he was going to take care of me and what not...he was sorta a friend too...soo you know.......i paid it and left.....most of the major stuff i was coming in and seeing like the internals and clutch assembly so i figured cool everything going good.. after i got it back i started looking around and noticed some stuff wasnt done that was said to be done...mostly little stuff old fuel filter was still on when we cracked my rear end it had never been opened....so i lost 2 bottles of royal purple and friction moddifier...every part i sent never came back but i found out that some of them never went on my car....so once i see all what didn't get done....about 6 months later...it was in storage so spring time i looked it over....he closed the shop and moved out of state...so im guessing i wasnt the only person he was playing with.

 

[HGFireHazard]

I was told by PHP when I went there to have my dyno tune that they needed to pull off the throttle body to set the TPS voltage.

I'm not entirely surprised, but it ticks me off that it happens. That's why it's good to know a good deal about your car, especially how long things take. When in doubt, the cheapest mechanic (so long as you don't break more stuff...) is yourself.

 

[mustang6tee8]

They have to go off book time.. aka 'flat rate manual.' the individual shops dont make up how long it takes to do something, its the manufacturers. not much you can do really... thats why i do all my own work.