$500.00 repair???

[jlbota]

I wouldn't stand for that for one second...Being a Mechanic I know some things are labor intensive but I would never ever charge someone that kind of money for tightening bolts on a steering column. These tractors are not that difficult to work on. I would never charge someone that kind of money with consulting them first. Thats just bad business...especially after he told you it wasn't a big deal.
I would call your credit card company and contest the payment. Its not that I am saying not to pay them anything but they need to be more reasonable about it.
I guess it makes me glad I can work on my own things..I really hate to see people get overcharged for stuff.
Good luck with this....
Just my 2 cents.

 

[N80]

$500 might not seem big to them in terms of typical tractor repairs, however when there is such a huge disparity between the task accomplished (tightening some bolts) and the labor/price to do it (6+ hours) then I think it is incumbent on the dealer to warn you ahead of time.

The first thing I do is stop payment on the credit card, although that is far easier said than done, I'm told. Then I would find out the exact details of the repair and make some calls to other dealers to find out if this is in the ballpark. If it is an unfair price, I'd go back to the dealer with the other quotes and try to come to an agreement and would tell them you will contact the BBB and possibly an attorny if you can't come to an agreement. If the price for the work is consistent with other dealers, I'd still work through the BBB becasue I think a $500 repair should get prior approval.

 

[rox]

tim,
I would contact the consumer fraud department for your state. I don't think you hae to jsut "eat" a big bill like that. Consumer Protection inestigates consumer fraud, like car mechanics who claim to fix things they never fix.

Hopefully you will get some back up information on this forum which you can reference in your official complaint.

 

[ZackaryMac]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I guess it makes me glad I can work on my own things..I really hate to see people get overcharged for stuff....)</font>

Funny. I am also a mechanic, and work on my own stuff, for the simple fact that, same as you, I hate to see people overcharged for work done, including me. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I work at a MF/Kioti dealer, though not as a tractor mechanic. After looking at a few Kioti tractors, it confuses me how it could take that long to do the job. In fairness, they obviously aren't the same tractor as yours, though probably not too different.

$500 isn't a large bill at a tractor shop, but it sounds big for your repair. If it were me, there would be a lot more probing going on.

 

[nasdaqsam]

AG (attorney General), BBB, consumer fraud dept. all good suggestions but most require a massive amount of leg work and time with very little being done for your efforts. Most people are really mad when something like this first happens then lose interest after a few days or weeks. Bad businesses know this and couldn't care less. Good business will fix this issue before it gets that far.

Fact is these services are largely paper tigers and have no real ability to do anything unless "you" can prove fraud. The AG and BBB can do almost nothing unless the business has had a major amount of complaints, even then the AG can usually only close them for a short period of time until they clean up their act. The BBB can do nothing but give them a black eye and few actually call the BBB to check on a service dept. before using them anyway. The consumer fraud div. needs absolute proof. You could go to small claims court and fight this but again you need proof they didn't put the hours in. Can you "prove" they didn't work on it for 6 hours? Probably not. Bottom line is you need to talk to them and work it out.

Most businesses are more afraid of bad publicity than the AG or BBB.

 

[Alan L.]

I think the BBB can be very effective. You file a complaint, giving a detail report of the incident, and the BBB puts the complaint in their file. They are notified and must respond to avoid having a tainted record. Depending on the resolution, they can have a bad mark on their record which can be harmful, and would be really stupid on their part not to correct it.

I once put in a BBB complaint on a new car dealer for switching radios from a nice looking factory radio on a new Mazda pickup (1986) to a cheapo Electorlux or something radio between the day I made the deal and the day I took delievery. I received a $200 check in the mail from the dealer about a month or two later, this being the amount they had charged me for the radio. They never asked for the radio back, but it was trash anyway and I had it replaced myself.

 

[DannyD]

First look over the tractor and see if you can find the bolts they tightened up. Take the covers of etc. on the tractor see how easy or difficult it is to get to them. I could probably have my BX 23 apart completly in 6 hours. And I am sure I could find the bolts to tighten the steering. Anyway, then trailer the tractor and take it up to them asking them why it took them this long to simply tighten this or that bolts. This way you have a first hand knowledge of how long it took you to find them and get to them.

The advice on the BBB is great, use it if you dont get settled this way.

 

[Bird]

<font color="blue">( I think the BBB can be very effective )</font>

I think it's better than nothing, but not much. It's been several years since I was really familiar with the workings of the BBB, so my knowledge is dated and could be wrong. However, in the past, you could file a complaint with the BBB, they would send a copy to the business complained about. That company may or may not respond. If the company responds, a copy of the response is sent to you. If you are satisfied with the response, then no "black mark" against the company. If you write back to the BBB that you are still not satisfied, then it goes in the file as an "unresolved" complaint. Either way, that's basically the end of it.

Now when someone calls to inquire about that company, that company will have a clean record with the BBB unless there are at least three or more unresolved complaints on file. And then the BBB will only tell you there have been some unresolved complaints. For the BBB to actually warn anyone about a company, that company must have a long, long record of fraud.

So while it may be better than nothing, I see the BBB as not even quite up to the classification of a "paper tiger." /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I have actually filed a complaint with the BBB three times in my lifetime. Each time I also sent a copy directly to the company I was complaining about. In one instance, the company corrected the problem. In one instance, the company never even responded, but after hundreds of complaints and even lawsuits, the company folded their Dallas operation and left town (still operating in some other states). And in one instance the company just flat lied and denied everything, so I guess they have a black mark on their record, but I never checked to see if they're still around or not.

 

[HGM]

The point you need to remember is that we dont know what they did. This is why you need to get with them and find out what they did, like Danny and I have mentioned. It seems excessive, but if you through a couple of broken/rusted bolts in there and the need to extract them, or a worn bearing and race, 6hrs could be fairly reasonable, though a little high. Give the dealer the benefit of the doubt as far as the charge untill you find out what they did. The BBB sounds great, but I dont think I have ever looked into a bussiness through them, so I doubt many others do either. If you get too worked up about things before getting all the facts, you'll end up making a mistake in most cases.

 

[ByronBob]

Who might this nice dealer be? If you'd rather not answer in public please PM me....