Raven
Santa Cruz,#2Author of original report
Mon, February 27, 2012
Wow - do you have family working there?
To not know you don't need the entire housing for thermostat is embarassing to the auto shop. Everyone knows this and has nothing to do with a cheap part. It is unnecessary parts. Now who has emabarrassed themselves? Go find something else to do. Secondly, I am selling the vehicle and have told them as such. Why would I want the most expensive parts for a car I won't have in a couple of weeks? They knew this going in. I am 50 years old and have obviously had a lot of cars and worked with alot of shops. What they did is wrong and clearly fraudulent. Hope you get a life soon.
Bubba Lee
REd Deer,#3Consumer Comment
Mon, February 27, 2012
Of course they mark up parts
A automotive repair shop will go broke if it only charge labour.
The other thing you should know is when you have a car repaired at a good shop they are NOT going to use the cheapest part available in most cases.
The repair shop has a goal of repairing your car in a way that it will never fail in that way again. To do that you buy the most long life or most reliable part available.
So we take the Cheap thermostat at $16.99, I won't instal that because I know you will be back in less than a year mad at me so I instal the $24 ish (shop cost) name brand part and I need to mark it up to make any money at all so $45.00 ish parts cost and an Hour plus top up coolant $150.00 and you don't need to change this again for the life of the car.
Next The 02 sensor.
This is an emissions and fuel economy critical part.
This is also a fairly risky part to change on many vehicles. Extra risk means more markup.
Preferred part supplier, Original Vehicle Manufacturer. If that is not available a noted brand name.
So you get charged $145.00 rather than $110.00 for the part and it doesn't need replacement ever again.
I do have a question, Did they offer to not charge the diagnostic fee if the repair was done there?
Unless you are a skilled mechanic you just ripped yourself off.
Hope you enjoy embarrassing yourself on the net. Cause you just did.