The boy in DC has been driving the 98 Cad. Calls me the other day and
says the brake light has come on, brakes are a bit mushy, so I tell him
to take it to a shop. He does that today. They give him a quote of
$703. I call and talk to the guy. $80 for rear pads (I put new ones on
the front not that long ago, they are like $20 a set). $88x2 for rear
rotors which may be sorta reasonable, fluid and flush for $139, and $227
for labor. Their labor rate was for 1.7hr. $48 for "shop fees" which
includes rags and brake cleaner, a standard charge. Total BS. I guess
that sorta adds up with taxes and such. Reluctantly after going over
the fluid/flush number (how hard is that?) I tell them to go ahead since
he needs the car and has no time to deal with this stuff and the car has
not required a lot of work over the years, so whatever.
So then they call him and say there is a problem with the a brake line
leaking. I am thinking maybe a flex line. I call them back, the guy
says a front hard line is cracked or something and is leaking, which is
why the pedal was soft. I ask what that will cost, he tells me the
total is now $1228. Over $500 to replace a hard line? WTF??? So I
tell the guy that seems quite excessive, a line is maybe $30 and how
long to replace it? $500 labor to replace a line? Then he tells me,
well, you know, we have to do flairs, and those are hard to get right,
then there is blahblahblah.... I tell him to move the car out, my son
will come get it and take it somewhere else. Then he starts in, "Well
if you don't want quality work done that's your choice...." and I hang up.
I am just so angry at these guys trying to screw over customers who are
sorta over a barrel. The brake line thing is probably BS too but what
are you gonna do? My wife had a patient who worked for a dealer as a
mech, and then for an indy, he would tell her these stories about how
they would "find" problems and jack the prices up, then do nothing to
the car but charge for it. He said it was just standard behavior on all
these guys he had ever run across. He finally quit and does work for
people on the side, cash, and said he was making OK money and happy he
was doing the right thing.
So anyway I told him to go find a Sears or a Midas or something to do
the brake job, how hard can that be and it won't be anywhere near
$1200. I know, Midas and Sears, but.... Hell I could ship my tools and
fly up there and still be like $800 ahead.
--R
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