We're
all aware of the auto repair scams revealed on the news. But excessive
car repair prices are usually much more subtle.
Auto repair - So...are there any fair prices we can trust?
Learn more about prices on car repair
Here's the article....
Car Repair Prices: How You Are
Ripped-Off Daily - Under the Radar
Most
people are
aware of the glaring auto repair pricing abuses: service centers
overcharging
$100’s even $1000’s for repairs, or
charging
for service that was never done at all. To be sure, this still happens
every day.
However, there are many other techniques which involve
flying just low enough to avoid detection. Savvy repair shops
increase the price just enough so as not to set off any alarms.
It’s become so common that it’s not just an
accepted
industry practice, but even service customers have accepted paying
higher prices.
Knowing how
ingrained
price-gouging is within the automotive service industry, it’s
shocking (although understandable) that even service customers have
succumbed to excessive car repair prices. I frequently hear repair
customers’ state:
“Yeah,
I know I was ripped-off, but my car’s fixed now.”
Or,
“I know they charge too much, but they’re
convenient.”
This is insane! To accept excessive car repair prices is to allow its continuation. The
difficult part, of course, is how to stop it. Given that the automotive
service industry is so big and powerful (and so frightfully necessary) how does one battle such a force?
Perhaps the
first thing
to understand is the degree to which this type of stealth-like
price-gouging occurs. A two-decade undercover investigation reveals
that 98% of all repair shops (dealerships, local shops, and franchises)
are scamming their customers in one form or another.
The
following exchange,
between a service manager and service advisor, provides an idea of the
“scope of scamming” below the radar.
A service
advisor asked
his manager how to bill more hours per month, which is another way of
asking how the advisor can make more money. The service manager
casually stated:
“Simply
add an additional two tenths to every ticket you write.”
In other
words, every
customer the service advisor “helps,” he was
instructed by
a superior to add a “little” extra. So
if the labor rate is
$100 per hour that would equal $120 for the client.
$20
doesn’t sound
like much. However, whether it’s an overcharge of $0.02 or
$20,
it’s too much. If you visit a shop practicing just this strategy
alone
(there are hundreds of strategies, many applied simultaneously), you
may end up getting overcharged $100's by year’s end.
What’s
really shocking is that being ripped-off by $100's over a
year’s time is minor!
Try
$500-$5000! Learn More
To learn more about eliminating repair scams Click Here
-Theodore P.
Olson ©
http://www.repairtrust.com/
MLA Style Citation:
Olson, Theodore. "Car Repair Prices: How You Are Ripped-Off Daily Under the Radar" RepairTrust. 23 December 2006. http://www.repairtrust.com/articles_dim_underworld.html
APA Style Citation:
Olson, Theodore. (2006, December 23). Car Repair Prices: How You Are Ripped-Off Daily Under the Radar. RepairTrust. http://www.repairtrust.com/articles_dim_underworld.html
Chicago Style Citation:
Olson, Theodore. 2006 Car Repair Prices: How You Are Ripped-Off Daily Under the Radar. RepairTrust (December, 23), http://www.repairtrust.com/articles_dim_underworld.html |
