The surprise $14,153.28 estimate.
2016
Maybach S600
The surprise $14,153.28 estimate.
The owner of this Maybach brought it in for service. It needed a new rear wheel and somewhere in the car there was a loud squeak. Something needed to be diagnosed.
So the car manager found the right shop to bring it to, considering how special this car is, and got an email with the estimate.
Invoice before 830Wednesday –
$14,513.28
Invoice after 830Wednesday –
$3,400
Remember: auto shops aren't your friends ❤️
Remember: auto shops aren't your friends ❤️
After reviewing the estimate, the vehicle manager called the owner to discuss it. He was furious. Half of the items on the list had already been taken care of during the car’s warranty, and he had bills for all of the work done.
On top of this, this actual shop was the one that did the final pass on the warranty work on the car and didn’t flag some of these major ticket items on the estimate to be replaced.
The vehicle manager gave a call to the service advisor that was working on the car.
The video report.
The service advisor had indicated that the shop had no record of the car being there, and that everything he wrote in the estimate was true to what his technician had told him about.
When asked about one issue regarding a leaking valve cover gasket, a line item that would be around $3,400, the service advisor said that it was leaking and that if we didn’t replace it the valves would “go bad.”
When asked what evidence he had that a leaking valve cover gasket would cause the valves to go bad, he simply said that this is what his technician told him.
Red flag. A call was needed to the service manager.
The tech showing the “oil leak” that was coming from the engine, that would “make the valves go bad” if we didn’t replace them.
Anyone in the industry knows that a leaking valve cover gasket will not make the valves go bad.
A $3,750 part of the bill which was avoided.
With the service manager on the line, it was noted that the owner had all of the documentation from the previous work that was done, and questioning why the estimate was the way that it was.
The manager responded by saying he saw the discrepancies and that he would talk to the service advisor about this and call back.
About an hour later he called to apologize and explained that they had adjusted the bill as necessary. The car for sure needed control arms and new belts (verified separately) but all of the other items were taken out.
The $14,513.28 bill fell to $3,400, saving the owner $11,113.28.
Needless to say the owner was very happy with this outcome and got his car back on the road without being taken advantage of.
