Suzuki service - was I conned?

I have a Suzuki Carryvan and this went in for its second service today.
I was charged the 'standard' £264 and looking at the Service Sheet this included 2.9hrs labour of about £184.

Now I delivered the van to the garage and they phoned me to say it was ready for collection. This was just under 1.5 hours later.

I questioned this and was told by the receptionist that they have to charge the amount stated or they wouldn't make any money on servicing.

Was I turned over? If so its a call to the manager tomorrow, then Trading Standards on Tuesday.

chris, thats standard for the trade I'm afraid

there's loads of ways they could "manipulate" the invoice, i.e. it could just say 2nd service then the price (to hide the labour rate)

if they wanted to hide the labour charge then it would be added straight on to the parts so at least you know their labour rate now.

as for the 2.9 hours labour and being ready after 1.5 hrs, the could have had a super efficient techie on it or else 2 techies at the same time

just make sure that the price quoted before the work matches what you were charged, afterall, some garages I have worked in could have done it in 1.5 hours but left it lying for another couple of hours before phoning you so at least you got it back in a reasonable time

this is one of the reasons i wouldnt take my ford ranger back to the supplying dealer. i bought the truck new at the end of november from Birchwood ford in Eastbourne and have received very poor if non exsistant after sales back up. i asked to get a price for the first service and was quoted £249 off a sheet. i then asked what was involved in the service and their service manager said he would have to ask a mechanic as his computer was down.( ford dealer 6 miles awy quoted me £110 for the same service) i asked why there was such a difference in price and they said they would come back to me! after 5 visits to ask what was involved in the service i gave up and ended up going to the local nissan dealer and having it serviced there! . i'm still waiting for a warranty claim to be resolved by birchwood 4 months after agreeing the work.
ford have to honour the warranty because the servicing has been carried out by a qualified and competant person using genuine ford parts! (cost £80 all in for what amounted to an oil and filter change and a load of checks!

A simple way round would to do your own servicing, may not look good if your selling it on but if its just an oil change, brake bleed or just some checks pick up a haynes and do it yourself. Im sure everyone has a techie friend who would help for beers

But eventually more complicated things would need servicing and for this I would find a local small garage that tend to charge less and tell you more

Anyhoo just my 2 pence

Just coz they all do it doesn't mean to say it's reasonable.

I think you've got a valid complaint. Basically they have fabricated time spent and they can't justify it.

[tigersaw]

This is an industry wide con. They charge a 'book time' .
They could easily claim two people worked on the service to justify the hours.

I think they charged you extra because you have a van.



Just kidding. Par for the course I'm afraid but it is a rip off.

Well the manager is out till after the bank holiday, but I spoke to another helpful person.
Here is how he described the situation.

"Suzuki assess each workshop job in 6 minute segments, so a certain service would be made up of a number of these segments. Suzuki work on the assumption of manual tools etc.
Now my Dealer apparently has very efficient mechanics with air guns etc and are able to do the job in half the time, so they can charge the standard time and are 'rewarded' with the extra profit".

He did not sound at all convinced by his own argument, so I invited the manager to ring me on Tuesday.

I feel a crusade coming on

they could always say that there were 2 men working on it, doubling the labour charge.

Originally Posted by bikageboy

they could always say that there were 2 men working on it, doubling the labour charge.

They could indeed say that, but they would be inviting a visit from the Trading Standards people who could carefully scrutinise the time sheets for their mechanics?

Its a line of argument they may not want to enter into.