I took two cars in. One car for an inspection and oil change, the other car for an inspection and air conditioning diagnosis.
I was told on one of the cars the serpentine belt needed to be replaced before the car could be inspected. I was also told a bunch of other stuff they wanted to do for a bill around $400.00. I checked several vendors who sell the serpentine belt for my model and year of car, the highest price I got was around $24.00. SpeeDee charged me $49.99 for the belt and $40.00 to put it on. They padded the cost of the belt and the labor.
The other car was taken in to have an inspection and air conditioning diagnosis. I was quoted a price of $49.99 for the diagnosis service and $39.99 for the inspection. When I picked up the car after they verbally told me the total bill would be over 1 grand, they had added an additional $75.00 charge to see why the engine light was on. This charge was never discussed with me and I never authorized this $75.00 charge. The prices they quoted to replace some hoses for the air conditioning were double what I paid for the same parts at a parts store.
On a written estimate I got when picking up this car, they had wanted to charge me over $50.00 of labor to replace a part that took about 7 minutes to take off and replace (my husband did it, it was very simply). I believe they saw a woman coming and their eyes balls changed into dollar signs. Once "my husband" asked that the estimate be faxed to our home, suddenly they were calling and saying the car was ready to picked up and we had not declined the services they recommended on the faxed estimate. I guess they just assumed a man would look at the estimate and think it was crazy. One part they wanted over $300.00 for we found for $139.00. They also told us the Ford dealership was closed so they did not have part numbers for the parts listed on the estimate. So I am guessing they made the cost for the parts as well.
Unauthorized charge of $75.00 and padding the costs for parts and labor. Trying to make deals with me if I would authorize all the work they wanted to do on both cars, whoopie.
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