William operates a small Euro auto repair shop: his uncle and son help - he replaced a failed steering rack on my Audi Q5 TDI in 1 hour. Alignment at his friend's shop nearby took him 30 more minutes.
William allowed me to order refurbished part on my own, which I appreciate: that saved me ~$2k (Buyautoparts.com) vs buying all new parts for ~$4k.
The reason this is not a 5 star experience is poor communication & inability to quote accurately: I did not receive a quote printout before the work started - I asked for it, but William said he'll give it to me at the end (my recommendation to you,
get a printed quote before the work starts).
I was waiting inside the office and was glad this work was done 3+ hours sooner than I was told when given an estimate few days ago - (many hour labor estimate was good justification for high price quote I was given).
The original quote (emailed & texted) expired before I came in. When the job was done - William asks me to pay the total price of ~$1650: I wasn't going to pay that, so I challenged that quote and he was kind enough to lower it to $1434.
Naively, I hoped he'd give me a little break on the original quote of $1350, because the work was done so much quicker than he estimated: William tells me that I'm paying fixed price for the work, not labor per hour. Okay, he charges ~$1000 per hour of labor & still can't honor the price he quoted me?
I'm a man of principle - trust & honor mean a lot, that's why I requested a quote by email (to prevent misunderstanding and surprise up-charges at completion of work) - that's the only reason I got upset when he demanded $1600+ when the job was done.
I was unhappy that the final price was higher than I was promised, so I paid with my credit card, thinking since there's no cash discount and the price is higher than I was quoted anyway (even though I brought $1350 cash with me).
Come to find out right after I paid & finally got a printed invoice that William didn't tell me there's a 3% fee for using the credit card - he should've asked how I want to pay for this - I would've been happy to pay the $1350 in cash, but I was not asked that or got an explanation why the final price was higher - all he said was "that's the price in my computer".
I should have also insisted on taking care of alignment on my own, saving myself $80 - few alignment shops I called nearby quoted $90 for 4-wheel alignment on my Audi.
This work by Autobahn wasn't done at a lower price than competitors & the experience was a little frustrating... read more
