has mike satur ripped me off? hydrogas pump up..

[houlsby]

iv been for my hydrogas pumping up today, had a few quotes from small local garages and one from satur, was told on the phone it would be 25 quid for it to be done.. £40 by most of the locals. so, took it to satur as hes only a couple of miles away.

after waiting for almost an hour i saw my car being driven round the carpark by his mechanic who then drove back into the workshop. who after another half hour came into the waiting room and told me that one side of the system was lower than the other.

20 mins or so later, he comes in to do my invoice..

£82.80

when i asked why, he said that it was because it had to be pumped up to 500 psi on the passenger side. and that the price the woman had quoted me on the phone wasnt right and that i was wrong.

now, forgive me if im wrong.. but, i was halfway through making a pump out of a bottlejack so i know that its hardly difficult to do it on the machine.

the invoice he gave me says;

hydrogas fluid, £12 plus vat

labour £60 plus vat

is this really justified? or have i been ripped off?

[Dell]

IMOH the answer is yes big time

[Tim.]

Don't know what happened in your particular circumstances but I've never heard of anyone being charged as much as £85 for a simple pump up on an F.

[markmanuel]

i had my f done in 2008 it was 40.00 all in. mark

[redbeard57]

I was quoted £25 per side by a local service garage, but paid £35 all in recently (Nov 08).....I would suggest that Satur's are charging almost main agent labour rates these days

[stux99]

OMG
Had ours done local...£20

[PHLEB]

As per my comment on .org

Mine cost me £17.50 in December - way too much!!!

[Green Squirrel]

I and many other *F* drivers have known Mike from day one of the *F* - for me that is since 1996 - and I have never ever known him to *rip off* people.

For example last year (2008) my boot lid got stuck whilst returning to London from Scotland so we phoned Mike for advice and he suugested that we drive via Barnsley and he would look at it, we did this and after a while at his workshops he got the lid open for us. Asked how much we owed and the reply was nothing as it used no materials and only a quarter of hours labour.

I would suggest that you check again as to what he did!

[MGsteveT]

Just for the record - as an MG technician with his own company i would never slate another (competitor) company and lets face it Satur is too far away from me to gain any benefit from doing so and even i've purchased parts from him to fit to my customers cars but i have had customers that have had issues with him.
Official MGR times for Height check and adjust is 30mins.
We charge £25 for a pump up as we can do it in 20 mins and the fluid is fairly cheap so we incorporate that into the cost, he is entitled to charge £12 for the fluid but £60 labour is a bit steep unless he's on £120 an hour!

Steve

[petevick]

Just for the record - as an MG technician with his own company i would never slate another (competitor) company.....

yet in a not too subtle way you have.

[Green Squirrel]

Two sides to every story!!

Just been speaking to Mike (on a completely different subject) and this 'chap's message' was mentioned - got a different angle from Mike!

[James Curgenven]

The best thing you could have done would have been to query it with Mike directly as to why £60 was charged for labour. I'm sure he'd have been happy to explain why (as any business should do if they want to keep customers).

[colintf]

I guess its only fair to ask Mike the question and post reply on here?

[PinkJay]

My local garage charges me £25. And he lets me get the tape measure out and bounce the corners etc etc. He only bills me once i'm happy with how the car's sitting. thought about buying a pump myself as every year alternate sides go down on Cassie once the hot weather hits her. No probs at mo - but then -11 degrees aint gonna upset the hydrogas as yet - lol.

[MGsteveT]

Just for the record - as an MG technician with his own company i would never slate another (competitor) company.....

yet in a not too subtle way you have.

No Slating, i'm mearly pointing out that the official MGR time for a Suspension height check and adjust is 30mins, which means he's charging £120+vat per hour!

[happychappy#1]

is this really justified? or have i been ripped off?

Thats probably how this chap felt with your actions:-

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=256703

[petevick]

Just for the record - as an MG technician with his own company i would never slate another (competitor) company.....

yet in a not too subtle way you have.

No Slating, i'm mearly pointing out that the official MGR time for a Suspension height check and adjust is 30mins, which means he's charging £120+vat per hour!

only if thats all that Mike did, which of course we have no idea what the total was for.

[AndyG]

I have just received my pump from "liquid Levers Innovations"

1 Gallon of fluid £11.46 + Vat

Machine holds 2 litres.

WE think Mike is Pumping the price up

[redbeard57]

surely, the answer to this is before you have any work done you ask for a cost estimate?? If you are then unhappy with the estimate you go elsewhere.....that is the way I work anyway.
While I have never has any work done by Mike Satur, I have had parts from him and when in one case there was a serious problem with the parts supplied it was replaced immediately, no questions asked and before the faulty parts were returned.

[m9fdb]

I have dealt with Mike many times over the years and he has always given me a first class service - he has been around MG's for years and i think it is more than his reputation is worth try and rip someone off.

If you have an issue though i think you should discuss it with MIke and not on here as their maybe a perfectly good reason for the cost - as they say there are two sides to every story !

Also out of interest if you think you were being ripped off why did you pay the said amount ?????