I've been ripped off, the question is how badly?
 

The job: Replacement of fuel pump and fuel filter.
The bill: $800.-

The shop refused to give me a bill separated in parts and labor. On my insisting they said verbally 4 hours of labor and did not show my old parts.

How badly was I ripped off?

was the work already done? i don't know if your w124 is set up the same way as my w126 put it should not take 4 hours to replace the fuel pumps and filter (on a w126). now the fuel pumps are a little pricey (bosch around $300 for the set i think). i would def. find another shop for future work.

edit: sorry just now saw it's a 96 E320, no idea how the setup is on those

Before things go much farther, post details on the car, we are just making a guess that it is the one in your sig.

Did they do any diagnostic testing?

Did they do any other work?

Did they give you any receipt? ( If not and they charged tax they may run afoul with the state. If they did give a receipt, post it _exactly_ as written. )

Any chance the person giving you the bill was running they own repair while the shop owner was away? ( In this case it isn't the shops fault, rather the employees fault. )

no more than an hour job when its on the rack.

Yes it was my 1996 E320. I was back from shopping then on the parking lot the engine cranked but wouldn't turn over. I had the car towed to the local shop, where I had had small things done like oil change or tire mounting.

I don't think that I can legally go against them since I had approved the job.
In hindsight I knew that they ripped me off but then too late, lesson learnt.

Thanks for all inputs!

Here is the shop to stay away from

David's Automotive Repair
4915 Branch Hollow Dr.
The Colony, TX 75056

Yes, it was my 1996 E320 W210.
I did talk to the owner himself, here is the bill:

http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/y...car_repair.jpg

no tax? did he work out a price with you or something?
sure did get ripped a bit though..

also another question, how does your 210 compare to the 124s

According to that they did the pump too... the pump isn't the cheapest part.

Is the pump in the tank on that model? I have heard from other makes when they go bad it is quite a pricey endeavor to get it repaired.

I forgot to mention that I came to the shop at 1pm to approve the job and at 3pm got a call from them saying the car was ready for pick-up. So there was no way that 4 hours have been working on the car, unless 2 hours were spent on finding the cause of the defect.

Ha! I had a thief do the same thing to me. I let him install new motor mounts in my car. He called an hour and 15 minutes later and said the car was done. He charged me for 2 hours labor and said with a straight face "that's actually how long it took me." It actually took him less than 45 minutes because I watched from a distance until he brought my car into the shop. That took 30 minutes. I just shook my head and paid the idiot.

Anyway, I say they got you good. Real good.

shops always go by how long the book says itl take them. the book usually has very liberal amount of time it might say something takes a hour of labor when it really takes someone 10 minutes lol it sux but thats just the way most shops run

Not hard to figure out....why dont you look up the cost for the parts online and then subtract that from what you paid and whatever is left over assume that was labor.

Like the others said, it's not a big job to replace the fuel pump (s) on our cars, unless it's an in-tank job. My fuel pump took about 45 minutes from start to finish and made an immediate improvement in the performance of the car!

Actually, the car was on the rack for an extra 30 minutes or so while he worked on some other vehicles. I don't mind, as these guys like to talk about stuff.

You got ripped off. They did not even itemize anything on the receipt. Labor $800, total: $800?!?!!

I bet they found a bad connection or relay, then took you for a ride for $800.

Recently they did a sting in NJ on home repair/appliance people. They found 8 of 8 places they called in to repair their broken A/C (they purposely damaged a wire each time in the unit) listed things that did not need to be fixed and vastly overbilled/scammed. Once place even put parts on the invoice that did not exist in the A/C system! And billed for them!

Pretty bad, I bet it happens all the time in auto shops as well, just like this incident.

There are fuel relays behind the battery that go bad or need to be reseated. You can wiggle them or replace them and you can be good to go. The fuel pumps are very expensive. Not sure if you have one or two in your car but I replaced both of mine (ordered them online...Bosch- $150.00 each and that was the best I could find). Took me about an hour after I got cover off not knowing what I was doing. They were underneath the car on the passenger side. So it is possible, if they actually did replace it or them, that it could be that much based on book.

Did you get an estimate from him before you approved the repair?

If you paid by credit card and feel like you got ripped off , you can dispute the charge and find out what the book rate for such a job and the retail cost of the part.

For a 1996 E320, I show the list price for a fuel pump to be $348. You may find it cheaper online yourself, but that does not matter as shops mark up the cost of parts. It's just part of their business.

You can check if your pump is new by simply looking under the car.

Here is some information from the attorney general that may be useful to you.

Good luck!!!

https://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/car_repair.shtml

Mitchell manuals list the labor charge for replacing the fuel pump at 1.0 hrs. and for the fuel filter at .6 hrs. They also list OEM parts prices: fuel pump at $195.00 and the filter at $40.00.

I can say that here in CA your receipt would be in violation of many auto repair guidelines set forth by the CA Bureau of Automotive Repair and you would be entitled to your money back. To get a quick and accurate answer to your question, I would call your local Better Business Bureau to see if Texas enforces their auto repair guidelines for shops like CA does. This would include writing a proper estimate, giving a detailed receipt and returning your used parts. You may also have recourse through some Federal guidelines. Here is an FTC link about auto repair with consumer complaint info at the end.

Taking the Scare Out of Auto Repair


Good luck and let us know how it works out.

Who paid for the tow? If they towed it figure $100 off the $800. $348 for the pump and $40 for the filter PLUS the 10% sales tax or whatever it is in the town, so thats $383 + $44 + $100 = $527 so out of the original $800 there's $293 in labor. Ouch! That stings a bit! Of course if THEIR shop labor guide calls for 4 hours labor then it comes out to $75 an hour which is probably the going rate.

I think I'd have a friendly talk with the owner, "You know Bill, you guys have/will be doing other work on my car. Don't you think this amount is a little excessive?" If he's a prick about it then pay up, move on and spread the information about him around. Small shops can only exist on the good things their customers have to say about them. He might explain it to you more completely also. We don't know where he got the pump. If he got it from the local MB dealer then it might have been even higher than the $348 which has been proposed.

Then again, he might be just a pirate, yaarrr!

The fact that all they did was write $800 even as labor and the total makes it very shady. A proper shop that is not scamming itemizes, and will have your used parts readily available.

I priced out fuel pumps for this car. They run around $170. Does your car have two? Many models do. Two at $170 is $340 leaving $460 for labor and other bits and pieces. The question then does it have one or two? It does sound a little pricey.
Why don't you call your local Benz dealer and ask for an estimate over the phone?
Anziani

Tow was a free tow by AAA. I talked with the manager in presence of the owner about half and hour, my modest success was that the owner went down from $841.- to $800.-

My car has one pump. Mercedes quoted $485.- plus tax. The rip-off was then about $280.- compared to dealer quote, wasn't it?

It seems to me that you paid $200 or more over what you should have as I really cannot see an external fuel pump taking more then 2 hours to replace. However, they could be calling the other 1.5 hours diagnostics which in all fairness could have happened.

They certainly should have given you a break down on the invoice and when they called for authorization.

And of course, if they did not, you should have asked for a price before you approved the work.

There are plenty of Mercedes Benz mechanics here in DFW. I hope that you can find one that you can trust.

They quoted $485 for parts and labor? If so, then you may have a leg to stand on if you dispute it. See the the state solicitor link that I posted earlier in this thread.

Thank you for your inputs. I'm considering filing a complaint with the Trade commission, the BBB and the local AAA. I appreciate your advice and insights.

Do it! I cannot stand businesses that try and try to get by like this. One I dealt with years back went under finally... now they reopened under a different name. :rolleyes:

It's bad enough trying to get the dealer not to eat you alive... Then have to deal with a mechanic that wants to be the dealer service department!!:P