Warning: RS Cars of Flitton, near Bedford

[zedhex]

I recently had RS Cars of Flitton put my 944 turbo through its MOT. It failed on a corroded hard pipe on the nearside rear, an out of adjustment wheel bearing, and the headlights were not aligned correctly. Normally I do all work on the car myself, but this time I was working overseas and didn't have the time. I told them to fix the issues, and get it through its MOT. I expected that they would spend about 3 or 4 hours on the car, so the bill would not be too high. I got back from work, and checked my email. I was quite astonished to find that they had taken 13 3/4 hours to complete something which I could have done myself in half a day. The total bill was over £1300. When I went to pick up the car, I told Richard Shrive (the owner of the business) that I was really not happy to pay that much for something which should really not have taken so long. He wouldn't budge, and insisted that it had really taken that long to do a simple task of changing the hard pipes to the rear brake. I was absolutely furious, but I had no choice other than to pay the money and take my car back. To be fair, there was one email from him halfway through the job saying that it was a bit more complicated than he expected. He didn't give me any kind of estimate of the number of hours, so I think he was expecting me to read between the lines.

So what do you guys think? If a garage takes 3 times longer than expected to complete a job, do they have a right to charge for their lack of ability to perform the work in reasonable time? I don't think so. If you're dealing with RS cars, make sure you get a full quote or an estimate from them in advance. Otherwise you may find yourself being hit with nasty bill.

[FarQue]

I suppose the question is: what is the Porsche Set Time for the jobs carried (based on a new car without any fastener corrosion issues etc). Armed with that information, you'd be able to gauge whether the garage has been particularly fast or slow carrying out the work.

[MichaelW944]

I've heard various reports of this nature about this particular garage. Can I suggest you contact Kev at DW Performance and he'll be able to answer any questions you may have. He's only in Wellingborough so maybe worth taking the car over to him to have a look at the workmanship etc.

[Toby944]

Might not be the same brake pipe (as mine is non turbo) but there is one at the rear that needs the back axle dropping in order to replace it so does require a wee bit of time (not defending 13+ hours though!). I had this done recently by a garage I trust that I've been using for 12 years for my 944. I'll dig out the invoice and let you know how long it took them if you'd like?