Thats not the issue here, its the amount of time quoted to do each job. We are $97 here and in this region thats right in line.

 

5. manual tranny fluid = 1.3 hrs = $125.00
6. differential fluid = 2.1 hrs = $197.50
5. Retorque Rear End = 0.7 hrs = $62.50

These are terrible ripoffs. It should only take 30 minutes to change these fluids! Other shops will quote a MAX of 1 hour, but it's to be expected to be done in 30min. How did it take longer than 10 minutes to torque down some bolts???

You got raped on a variety of other things too. $130 dollar oil change?! Are you fking kidding me?

 

That is the kind of thing that makes it hard on every one in the business. It does cost money to run a shop with high end equipment but that is way out of line. I could maybe see the blower install if the used kit was a mess and they had to reengineer everything but they should have told you to get another kit if that was the case.

The more I look at it the more it blows me away.

 

You would be doing everyone a service if you posted the name of the shop so the members of this forum can stay away

 

You guys know what you are doing, And by the time if correct this guy dont have a clue. That was the point where I was coming from.

 

That's insane!

 

$21 spark plugs?

 

Shop materials? They had to buy tools to work on your car? Was this all done in Tijuana?

 

They think you're a joke and have x2-3 the amount of time it took. Go in there and give them hell. You really should have got an estimate before you gave them the car. 12 hours for an exhaust is ridiculous(it's a shop they have a ****ing lift lol).

18 hours to change the brake fluid, add a BAP and tune the car? Maybe they sat the car on the dyno, closed the shop up and came back/tuned it in the morning and they count the amount of time it sat on the dyno.

30 hours for a S/C install by a shop is ridiculous. I know the V2 isn't self contained but damn taping the oil pan can't be THAT hard

 

OMG. I would be livid.

 

Just give the shop a link to this thread and tell them you're going to post their name on here if they actually try to charge you that.

 

when I had my 04 gto, I installed my vortech supercharger in my garage by myself with hand tools and no lift, and it took me no where near 30 hrs!!!! and vortech didnt send me all the parts either. they had to send me 5 or so parts but they were freee.

 

Appreciate the responses. Even managed a laugh at the "Astroglide" comment. This is pretty much what I was expecting. I have argued with the owner over this bill and told him it was double my “worst case” scenario. I did do some research before I brought it in. He seemed to have a good reputation (in business since 1977) and told me he had installed these kits before and had done “lots” of header installations. Initial estimate he gave me for the supercharger installation was $2,000 - $2,500. Everything else was (what I thought to be) easy activities for a performance shop. I did try to get pricing updates along the way and was unsuccessful. Just the surprise bill yesterday.

I realize there are better kits and better installers but I really got in over my head with this mess. Bought the wrong kit from the wrong forum member then picked the wrong installer. I actually picked a much better installer (Davenport Motorsports) who is local but they couldn’t get me in until the fall. So again - my fault for being too anxious to get this stuff installed.

I am now into email correspondence with the shop owner. I asked yesterday if he minded me posting his bill on this forum and he didn’t care. At the time I chose to leave names out as I was not on a witch hunt – just some realistic install times. Now maybe it can be used as a warning to other potential victims.

The posts regarding the shop rate are correct. This is the going rate in the city.

I did send the link to this thread to the shop owner today and after seeing some of these responses he has reduced: Tranny fluid change by 1hr, Diff. Fluid by 1.7hrs and header/tunnel plate install by 2.6hrs. Total reduction of about $500. Now, for $6,337.72, I get to pick up a car that doesn’t work right and still needs a cooling system flush, brake fluid changed, catch cans installed, boosts-a-pump installed and the final tuning and dyno.

Apparently, it has some kind of “safe” tune on it so they could start it and move it in and out of the shop. Can anyone tell me if I can safely limp this to another shop?

 

The time was ridiculous for the diff and tranny fluid.
I built custom ramps to get my car 18in off the ground and installed my full exhaust system in the time it took them to instal it.
Spark plugs were wild, along with the oil change.

Please let us know the shop this is pretty insane how they took advantage of someone like this.

 

wow, you got robbed.....

I charged my friend an EFI live cable and 500 bucks to do headers, and a paxton kit on her 08...

um...every line of his bill is so out of left field it isn't funny...

at least 70 hours of work into this thing? ie. 2 full 5 day weeks?

I probably could have had that all done in 18 hours by myself (depends how much beer it involves)

I own a business, realize its meant to make a profit, but just because they took forever to figure things out, doesn't mean you should be stuck to pay it.

hell the price on plugs? he should be using copper plugs at 2 bucks each, not platinums at list price. 117 for an oil change in parts? h'mm last time I hit the store mobil 1 is 7 a quart, 5 or so for a delco filter...

if you're around NYC let me know if you need anything done on your car, I can always use the cash

next he'll charge you storage and look to put a lien on the car and it not even tuned right....wow.

 

Robert you and I have been there with the same shop before havent we... Sorry to hear about you bill that was way overpriced in my opinion.

 

Okay, I have to chime in here..... I am the Wrong Forum Member who sold him the Wrong Supercharger Kit as stated in a previous post.

First of all, the kit that I sold this member was 100% complete. I removed the kit from the car myself, carefully wrapping each component in brown butcher paper and put it in a large plastic crate. I delivered the crate in person, and he and a friend had a thorough look at it when the sale took place. That sale took place 7 months ago (last November.)

About two weeks ago, I got this email...

G........,

Not sure if you remember me or not - I bought your supercharger kit last November. Kit was not as complete as you advertised. It is now week 5 in the shop waiting on parts from Vortech. I'm now being told part of the boost-a-pump is missing. Do you have the module that mounted to the dash? I'd like to avoid another 5 week delay.

D......

I responded to him saying that there were no pieces of the Kenne Bell Pump left in the car. I also said that I was having troubles installing an STS system in my new car. (totally unrelated)

He responded...

I wish you had not sold this thing to me as well. I definitely would not have purchased this kit if you had been honest. Not sure what your point is about your turbo kit as I was not invloved with that transaction.

I'm seriosly considering small claims court on this. I will have the detailed bill tomorrow and I've asked to have the pieces that were not "absolutely complete" split out separately. I handed over the bin to the installer as it was received from you - everything still wrapped.

Here is how you sold the kit to me:

"This system is absolutely complete and in great condition. It has the Polished Finish, and also includes a Crank Pinning Kit, Oil Pan Drill and Tap Set, a full set of 8 - 60lb fuel injectors, 8- correct heat range spark plugs, and also a Kenne Bell Boost Pump.

The system was installed on a Corvette C5 and used for approximately 7000 miles before being removed when the car was sold. Everything included in the original package from Vortech is included in this kit. This means that all bolts, clamps, hoses, adapters, belts connectors and even the air bridge are included, along with the Supercharger, Air/Water Heat exchanger, and Intercooler. Please note, however, that the vehicle will require a computer tune. There is no Flash Programmer included with this kit. "

My response to that email was as follows...

Small claims court???? Are you kidding me? You bought this off of me 7 months ago. It was a complete system. It was on my last Vette, and it worked perfectly. I took the parts off and wrapped them up myself, and every part that was on my car went into that box. I sold the car before I sold you that kit, so I cannot go back and look for whatever you say is missing.

As far as the Boost Pump Module goes, I looked it up on the Kenne Belle website, and the pieces are in that picture were in the kit. Here is the picture.

He responds...

you take offence?

thanks for making my decision easier.

So now I stumble across this thread, and it is making me a little annoyed. First off, as everyone can see, whomever he took this to is a friggin' criminal, and obviously doesn't have a clue what they are doing. When I originally had the kit put in my car, it dropped off on a Monday morning, was installed and tuned by 4:00 Tuesday afternoon. It was maybe a 12 hour job. 70 some odd hours of labour to do a supercharger install is rediculous. I don't know why he needed to spend $168.00 for spark plugs since I included almost new correct heat range spark plugs with the kit.

I really don't know what else to say. In my opinion if it took them 70 hours to do this much work, they can probably find all of the so called missing parts rolling around on the floor of their shop. I gave this member a great deal on a complete kit. The only reason I even sold it was to pay my lawyer.

Sorry to air my dirty laundry on the forum here. This member is totally getting screwed by this shop. They have wasted a ton a time and a ton of money. I just want to clear the air and make the point that this system was awesome, and complete when it was handed over last fall. Again, I don't appreciate being referred to as part of this problem.

Garrett Smith

garrett@b737.ca

 

^^ that sucks, and I have been through the same thing. I sold an sts turbo kit off my 04 gto to a guy for cheap. a few weeks later a get an email from him saying the turbo was shot and he was going to be contacting a lawyer!!!! i was like WTF??? i used the kit for maybe 3k miles and it was perfect when it came off my car.

I tried calling the guy writing anything and when or if he would get back to me he always left me hanging, this went on for about 1 week untill he emails me one day saying the shop wired up the oil pump wrong and it wasnt working 100% and thats why the oil was comming out of the turbo....... mind you I told him thats prob what the problem was.

 

No excuse for this type of BS.I'm sorry to hear what you are going through.If it's any conciliation I know guys that have more than this invested in their cars and have bigger problems like a blown motor.Like I said it's no excuse for what has happened to you.I think we have all got it up the *** at least once in our life time.Fight it all the way.Park outside the guys shop with a sign saying "want to get ripped off?Come on in."
I sure wouldn't take the shops word that those parts were missing.
Good luck.

 

To the OP:

Are you "young"?

When I was a kid I brought my TA to a shop to have the rear replaced with an aftermarket 9". The shop had the car for 3 days and tried to charge me 40 hours of labor to swap the rear!

Mind you, this was my friends father's shop!

I guess they thought I was a dumb kid with some $ in my pocket.

"Uhm.. how can you charge me for 40 hours of work when you've only been able to work on my car 24 hours? You only have one mechanic! "

Let's just say I got the hours reduced significantly

No matter what happens you should post the name and location of the shop. No one would want to find out the hard way how they conduct business