I recently paid for my bobcat to be diagnosis for some concerns I was having. since the cost was so high I declined the repairs at this time. My question is Is it common to be charged for them to reassemble my machine back to the way it was brought in to them or am I being ripped off?
Would your machine be considered a piece of "Compact Equipment".? Skid steer or compact track loader by any chance.? If yes then you need to be posting in the appropriate section. Try clicking on the report icon and ask for it to be moved. If a shop or dealer partially disassembles a machine in order to conduct a diagnosis then they have every right to invoice the customer for their disassembly labour. If the customer then rejects their quotation for repair at that point he has the option to either take the machine back in a disassembled condition or pay the labour hours for it to be reasembled. YMMV.
Pretty much any shop I've been at operates like that. Diagnose and quote. If customer declines repairs then the re-assembly labour gets charged to the workorder. That is unless the customer decides to take it back as is and do the work themselves.
I'll add that if you come back in six months, even after paying the first bill and making no complaints, you will be at the back of the line to get repaired, and they won't hesitate put a more urgent project in front of you in line. If the economy and labor situation change, they'll get it done. If not...
In the final conversation, you would have told the shop to put the machine back together. You pay, nobody works for free !!
And don’t forget the sign they have that says any items left over 30 days or not our responsibility
I moved this to General Industry Questions because we aren't told what type of machine the Bobcat is, and really, the replies reflect what would seem to be common practice throughout the industry, regardless of equipment type.
How much time does the shop have into this ? And what is their "Shop rate" ? You expect work for free ?
How much time does the shop have into this ? And what is their "Shop rate" ? You expect work for free ? If they don't charge customers for estimate work, your repair work will be much higher, to pay for all these "Free Estimates Work".
we don’t work for free, you made the decision to decline repairs. we had a customer come in with an old dozer wanting an undercarriage. After approving the quote and we stripped it down and found that there was a lot more work needed the cost of the work exceeds the value of the machine and they backed out. They are having to pay to have it reassembled with the old parts.
There's 3 options here you man up and pay to have it repaired and move on Pay to have it put together in the shape it is Come collect your pile of what now would moreless be scrap iron. If you ask the repair dealer or what ever may buy it off you and repair and flip. In any regard the best option is get it fixed because either way it needs it and you won't be moreless fired As a customer.
in fairness, if you expressed concern before about potentially not wanting it fixed, they could have given you an estimate for tearing it apart to find what the issue was, like JD955SC said you never know what you'll find, so that might not have occurred to you or them. The older it gets, the less current knowledge there is on the specific model, and the more possibilities, that's why there's dealers and then there's independent shops that do different sorts of work. Or like the old dozer undercarriage, there should be a warning of what the potential is for more work, it's not unexpected even, but then heavy equipment does not have the same rules as automobiles, consumer protection is for consumers, have to put your big boy pants on to play with heavy equipment.
One could argue there's more potential for things to go wrong on a heavy equipment repair than an automotive one. Most passenger vehicles aren't out getting banged up and beat up working in dirt, rock, mud etc all day long.
weve got two dozers side by side, identical twins getting undercarriage. one was easy and quick to strip down. The other took a huge set of oxygen and acetylene tanks and a big rosebud to get apart but you wouldn’t have known it just looking at it. The problem machine had been run down at the beach and the fasteners were rust locked to the caps and corrosion welded in firmly. Through much skill and patience I only broke one off down at the surface and had to drill. Several broke the bolt head at the surface of the cap but I got them off.
We're all bored so tell us the story. What is it, why did you take it in and what did they come up with for needed repairs? What was the estimate and then how much to put it back together broken? Inquiring minds want to know. Joe H
We either give it back in pieces, charge to put it as back together as possible or if you don't want it we sell/scrap.
I think the dealer/repair shop should mention the costs involved if the estimate requires taking things apart and putting it back together. No surprises then. I was informed it was $285 to strip the wheel motor down from my skid steer to inspect it and that it's usually cheaper to buy a new motor. As far as something like undercarriage I think it would be good to have a list of any and all potential problems that would add to the cost. There could easily be $1000 or more in extra costs.
The only time an estimate should not cost much is when the service tech walks out and has you start it up and move it around and says, "I think this is the problem", any more diagnostics is going to cost this amount. And then that person gives the pricing details. That way you only pay what time was spent guessing at the problem.