Servicing gripe.... or am I being a tad silly here?

[Cal44]

Long story short I had my car mot'd and serviced today by a garage that I trust to do a good job as I have used them before. All is fine and the car passed with no advisory remarks. Great! Except that on the bill I have been charged £3.40 for screenwash....this wouldn't be such a problem if I hadn't topped up the bottle only 2 days ago and maybe used the sprayers twice at most! Must be very expensive screenwash! It's not the money I'm bothered about...more of a trust issue that has been created.

Now there is a question here and not just a rant. Does anybody know if they would empty the screenwash bottle for any servicing/safety check reason and then fill it back up again? I'm going to pay the invoice as I simply don't want the aggro over a few quid but feel that's not really the point...

Cheers!

 

[Salim]

Abit cheeky at least they itemised it lol, most will top it up but the charge is already in the bill if you needed it or not.

Edit. No reason to empty the bottle except use it on MOT.

 

[F6HAD]

Technically nothing wrong with charging it but agree, it leaves you with a sour taste really.. a bit like if they also charged you for a cuppa while waiting in reception.

 

[Goodluckmonkey]

Have a polite chat with them and see what they say.

Was rather peed off a while back when the wife's civic was failed on a fractured drop link, that I'd only inspected 4 miles previously when I'd fitted new pads and deemed OK.

They wanted £85 to supply and fit, so i took the car back, bought the part, jacked it up to find that the cup had been separated from the body.

Phoned the garage, spoke to the tester and asked him what the deal was without explaining my findings. He explained it had a slightly cracked rubber boot, and that there was no damage to the body. Transpires he's ticked the check box below the one on the form, and the thing was separated because he'd received mixed messages about whether he was repairing it or not afterwards from the office.

Genuinely believed him and he was polite throughout. The garage have had my business for a decade now, and have never been less than totally honest with me.
What I thought was them trying it on seems to be a genuine error that just wasn't explained to my wife as most people just pay the money and have the garage sort minor problems.

I'd let them explain first. Just in case.

 

[apintofmild]

I've had the same thing in the past, back when I had a new car I wanted to keep the stamps up on. Think it's cheeky, unless they've put in half a gallon.

On another occasion I was also charged £18 quid for a litre of top up oil in the boot I neither wanted or needed (the brand / spec had changed and they were essentially palming off their old stock). Took my business elsewhere.

 

[Cal44]

Adding a few quid for screenwash is one thing but 18 quid for oil that you don't want is pretty bad.

On reflection I've decided to let this go...life is too short and to be fair the garage picked the car up from me, saving having to make other arrangements to get to work and back, and also washed and hoovered it too. Didn't notice they had hoovered it until next day as was too dark. Also dressed the tyres.....so as the song goes I've let it go and to be fair how many other garages that are not main dealers do this sort of thing.