My wife and I have just returned from Bilbrook Garage. Given some of the favourable write-ups we'd…read moreseen and that it's local - really local - coupled to the fact my wife wanted to give another garage an opportunity, she called to drop off her car this morning.
As she drives almost 100 miles to-and-from work daily, my wife takes preventative measures to ensure her car is properly roadworthy and doesn't employ price only when deciding who she employs to service and fix her cars. We both get the "false economy" maxim and she genuinely prefers to 'shop local', where possible.
So, having dropped it off this morning on the way to a hospital appointment, she explained that the brakes felt a "little gritty". Around midday, she received a call back saying the pads required changing and the rear tyres would require replacing. The brakes would cost £190. She called me to ask whether this sounded "about right?" and I said that it seemed somewhat higher than usual, just for pads.
So she called our usual guy, Tim, at Budjet Exhausts in Chillington Fields (just off the Wolverhampton ring road) who said they would charge £110 fitted. Armed with this knowledge, she called Bilbrook Garage back and spoke to the same guy who's tone had now changed markedly - he was now dismissive and terse. When questioned, she mentioned the quoted price; his reaction was "No way, not a chance. I'll take it off the ramp and leave it on the road." and all-but-put the phone down on her. She didn't expect him to meet the price but nor did she expect to pay an 80% premium!
As she's under considerable personal pressure right now and didn't fancy any confrontation after her hospital visit, she asked me to collect her car - "See what you think", she said.
I walked up and, after he'd finished chatting with his visitor, I said I was here to collect my wife's car, to which I was told:
"We can't even source the £uckin' parts for that much! No £uckin' way." :-o
He was visibly annoyed.
I told him that my wife too had thought he'd insinuated she was lying and asked him not to. After all, it's not our fault he can't source a better deal from his suppliers. Rather than call potential customers "liars", I also suggested he simply call the guys at our usual garage and get a quote for himself. This was met with, "If you think you can get it done for that much, £uckin' good luck to you". As I walked off, he continued to mutter to himself, peppered with a "£uck" here and a "£uckin'" there!!! :-o
So, apparently expensive, coupled to dire customer service, replete with a foul mouth too...
...just what we've come to expect from far too many UK garage mechanics, really. :-(
Unfortunately, I can't comment on the quality of the work undertaken because, unsurprisingly, we never actually got that far! They may be good at their job; however, we'll just never know. Such a pity ... but it looks like we'll continue to use our usual mechanics despite the fact they're not exactly down-the-road for us. And the car wasn't parked on their premises or on the road, it was around the corner, on the local pub car park, squashed a bit too tightly for my liking in-between 2 other cars.
PS I called Tim just to double-check the prices my wife was quoted, in case she'd made a mistake: front and rear pads £110 fitted. She's booked in this Friday. ;-)
