Help_needed Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Where do I stand, I dropped my car off at a garage this morning to be check over as its got a knocking on the front corner, so he calls me and tells me whats up. I go up at dinner to collect my car and they say that will be £15 please. Now when I dropped my car off there was no mention of it costing me to have a look. Am I in the wrong for challenging it or would you expect to pay even if not told? Please discuss thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anywebsite Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Do you expect people to do jobs for you for free? You should've asked how much it was going to cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Any fee for an inspection should have been made clear before hand. He was probably assuming that you'd ask him to do the repair, but that doesn't justify him making up a price that wasn't agreed on before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishcake Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 You really ought to have asked BEFORE the work was done. I think you got off lightly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeX Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 If you didn't agree an inspection fee beforehand, he has no leg to stand on. ask for your keys and if he refuses, take your phone out of your pocket and start dialing the police. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandad.Malky Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 15 quid you have got off lightly, a dealer would have charged you an hours labour ….. have you asked if the fee can be knocked off your bill if you have the repair done with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Help_needed Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 The repair would cost double what i can get it done for elsewhere and the police wasn't intrested as it was a civil matter not criminal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Sleeps Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I go up at dinner to collect my car and they say that will be £15 please. Now when I dropped my car off there was no mention of it costing me to have a look. Am I in the wrong for challenging it or would you expect to pay even if not told? This is interesting, if you're interested enough to read it. Contractual Obligations v. The Meaning of Justice An excerpt from Harvard Professor Michael J. Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? Benefit or Consent? Sam’s Mobile Auto Repair …Many years ago, when I was a graduate student, I drove across the country with some friends. We stopped at a rest stop in Hammond, Indiana, and went into a convenience store. When we returned to our car, it wouldn’t start. None of us knew much about car repair. As we wondered what to do, a van pulled up beside us. On the side was a sign that said, “Sam’s Mobile Repair Van.” Out of the van came a man, presumably Sam. He approached us and asked if he could help. “Here’s how I work,” he explained. “I charge fifty dollars an hour. If I fix your car in five minutes, you will owe me fifty dollars. If I work on your car for an hour and can’t fix it, you will still owe me fifty dollars.” “What are the odds you’ll be able to fix the car?” I asked. He didn’t answer me directly, but started poking around under the steering column. I was unsure what to do. I looked to my friends to see what they thought. After a short time, the man emerged from under the steering column and said, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with the ignition system, but you still have forty-five minutes left. Do you want me to look under the hood?” “Wait a minute,” I said. “I haven’t hired you. We haven’t made any agreement.” The man became very angry and said, “Do you mean to say that if I had fixed your car just now while I was looking under the steering column you wouldn’t have paid me?” I said, “That’s a different question.” I didn’t go into the distinction between consent-based and benefit-based obligations. Somehow I don’t think it would have helped. But the contretemps with Sam the repairman highlights a common confusion about consent. Sam believed that if he had fixed my car while he was poking around, I would have owed him fifty dollars. I agree. But the reason I would have owed him the money is that he could have performed a benefit—namely, fixing my car. He inferred that, because I would have owed him, I must (implicitly) have agreed to hire him. But this inference is a mistake. It wrongly assumes that wherever there is an obligation, there must have been an agreement—some act of consent. It overlooks the possibility that obligation can arise without consent. If Sam had fixed my car, I would have owed him in the name of reciprocity. Simply thanking him and driving off would have been unfair. But this doesn’t imply that I hired him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandad.Malky Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 The repair would cost double what i can get it done for elsewhere and the police wasn't intrested as it was a civil matter not criminal. Surely you didn’t expect them to do the “groundwork” for free and then you take it away to look for the cheapest price armed with the information that they have provided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Sleeps Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Surely you didn’t expect them to do the “groundwork” for free Surely they can't look at a problem and make up the price for the service afterwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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