Zarkoff500

Here are two emails I received from the owner (Candy) today regarding this issue (I had not sent her any email in regards to my dissatisfaction). My comments are in parenthesis: Today approximately 8:00 AM PST: Val ***** (receptionist) spoke with me last night and said that you wanted to know how I bill 4 hours on your car. All service repair shops and body shops bill by flat rate manual. The manual allows 1.0 hour of labor to determine what the issue is and what YOU had done incorrectly and push the car in the shop. than it allows 2.7 hours labor to remove the covers (you had the center cover on the car, so this means that the balancer has to be removed and cover removed and to re install your cam belts that you installed incorrectly. Than the manual allows .1each to remove and inspect and replace both left and right idlers, and .1 each to remove each tensioner's than we had to re install the fan that you removed and the skid plate .3, test drive the vehicle and reset the timing. So if you add all this together it comes to 4.4 hours per the manual, but I only charged you 4.0 hours of labor to do all of the above work and gave you a free tire rotation which should have cost $20.99 (Didn't they save money by not using any oil?), you wanted to exchange this for a free first time oil change, I agreed to that .It is the policy of my shop that we perform free oil changes on cars that are not leaking oil, that policy is clearly posted inside the office. So to make a long story short you actually were not charged as much as you could have been. I was in the car when my husband spoke with you the first day that you called (7.12) and I remember him telling you around $270.00 or $280.00 (she had previously mentioned that she heard him tell me four hours, now she says he told me an amount. On my receipt from 7.14, it says that I was quoted when they had called with the bill) and you also spoke to me several times prior to your car coming in the shop and you could have asked at that time, and than made your decision to bring the car or not. I do not appreciate the comment about ripping you off (I did say that billing for a set amount of time irregardless of the actual amount of time it took isn't entirely honest, but I did not say I was ripped off) and being dishonest, this is the way that the industry works; you pay for the time, skill level, and tools that a certified technician has invested. Candice C. Johns Owner Because I did not reply, I received this message at about 2:30 PM. Remember, yesterday she had agreed to stay until 5 PM to discuss this with me: Val I assume that you got the email from me this am. I will be leaving the office around 4:30 pm today as I have an appointment. The email is a very clear explanation. Candy Johns She then sent the original email again at 3:50 PM because I had still not replied. Val

I was not aware that it was WA state law to be quoted first (I figured it was as shops have most always done this with me in the past). I was never quoted time or money, only given the bill when the car was completed. I went there today to speak with the owner (Candy) and she was not there. The receptionist called her and they basically said that they charge 4 hours of labor for the timing belt job regardless of the time it takes. The receptionist didn't exactly agree with this practice, but said that lots of shops have this practice. Candy was nice enough to say she would stay later tomorrow so she could tell me again why I was charged what I was charged. So far it looks like I fumbled the ball pretty well by not doing enough research before I had the car towed in. I really do appreciate all of your replies (espically the mechanics as I get a better understanding). So far, I have had two places quote the work and both have quoted less time then I was charged.

The dealership quoted me 3.5 hours and an independent shop quoted 3 hours. When I had asked them why I was not quoted first, they said that they had told me four hours, but they had not. I do understand that if you bring in a vehicle that you have started work on it can be a pain to find everything but I had all of the parts in one location and most of the timing covers, skid plates and fan off of the car already. My reasoning was that they could just remove the remaining few parts, rotate the left crank 180 degrees to get the car running and then put it back together. Was this unrealistic thinking on my part?

The company is Suburb Service and they only do Subarus. I will keep the other place in mind. I did call two different places (dealership and independent) to get quotes on a full timing belt job (mine is less work) and both places quoted me less then four hours. I went back to the place on Friday and they had closed early. Monday I will return and "discuss" my case.

I appreciate all of your replies. It does sound like they are just charging a book rate. This is not a very honest practice. I have had the tensioners inspected on two occasions and they check out fine. I think the problem is that the left belt gets oil on it causing it to prematurely fail. I have had the front seal replaced and I am not sure if the oil is leaking from some place on top of the engine and working its way down or if it is still from the front main seal. The water pump has also been replaced within the last three years. I am going to check around and get some quotes on the same work to try and determine if I was charged a reasonable amount of time.

I'm the proud owner of an 85 GL Wagon 1800 4WD that likes to break timing belts. It has been through three timing belts within the last four years but this is not the main reason for the post (well it is actually, but we'll can ignore this detail). On July 3rd I was driving on I5 to Seattle and was about 2 miles from home and the revs dropped to zero and I made my way to the shoulder. I knew it was probably the timing belt again and had it towed back to my apartment. I figured that I could fix this as I did not want to pay a mechanic. I bought the belts and a Chilton (I had lost my Haynes which I liked much better) and got some help to try and fix it as I have limited tools. We worked on the car for about 5 hours and could not get it to run. We lined up all of the marks on the left and right cranks as well as the proper mark on the flywheel but had no luck. At this point my help and I were worn out and decided to have a professional make the fix because we both figured it would not be that expensive as we were sure we knew what was wrong. On the left crank, there are two marks for fun I guess and we had tried one of them but did not rotate it 180 degrees to try the other. I then had the car towed again to a local Subaru mechanic after hours and instructed them that the left crank was most likely off 180 degrees. Keep in mind that all of the skid plates, radiator fan, and all but the center timing belt covers were off the car already. All that the mechanic had to do was remove the crank and water pulleys as well as the tensioners and make sure the belts were on correctly, reassemble, make a slight distributor adjustment and road test (they did test the tensioners). I was told by the business that if all my car needed was what I had suggested, then I should have it back within two days. I received a call the next day telling me that my car was done and that the bill was $304. I had not been quoted (I did not ask as I had wrongly assumed that they would quote me before the work was started). I questioned the person on the phone as to why the cost was so high and they said it took 4 hours to complete the work. I am a novice mechanic but did not think that it would take nearly that long to complete the work that I had already started. I figured that in the current state the car was in, I could have completed the job in two hours or less with out the proper tools or know how. After a little though, I had called the mechanic back and asked why they did not quote me first and they became slightly defensive and told me that when I had originally called that they though I had been told 4 hours to complete the job. I said that I was not and they repeated again that they were pretty sure I had been told. Now I am angry as I feel that I have been ripped off. I had the complete timing belt job completed by another mechanic about 2.5 years ago (they provided the belts and had to remove all of the covers, fan etc) and the total came to $318. That is only a $14.00 difference and this time I had provided the $50.00 belts and given them less work to perform. I am going to return to the shop tomorrow and try to discuss this discrepancy but would like some input from you experts so I can have more facts on my side. Sorry for the long post!