Took my car to National to swap from summer alloy wheels to winter steel wheels; that'll be £70, Sir. We have to charge you for tyre disposal, valves and sundries, even though we are not replacing the valves or disposing of any tyres.

They seemed genuinely surprised I didn't take them up on this offer.

Took it to local garage, £10 all in!

Wow is that even legal? For them to charge for services not being rendered I mean. What a rip off! Glad the local sorted it for you properly!

Well, to start with they only have to charge for valves if they're fitting new ones, and don't have to charge for tyre disposal even if task them with doign that.

So they want to bill you for work they aren't going to do? There's a word for that - Fraud.

 

Might be worth a letter to head office re: the manager.

If you were just swapping from summer to winter wheels, why pay someone to do this ?

 

Dont you have a jack & wheel brace so you can D.I.Y.  or search out a local friendly Briskoda member who have these , pop round & borrow them to do it.

What a rip off, i only use local independent places.

You voted with your feet, they gave you a quote and you thought it was too much.  They can't be done for fraud as they didn't do any work on your car.

They have their right to put people off by quoting prices that someone will not accept.

 

Their business is retailing tyres, doing repairs etc.

Many places have no interest in the hassle of swapping tyres they do not supply, gubbed beads etc, or changing wheels winter to summer & being used like a Garage, and the trouble some customers can cause.

 

Plenty of Garages will do that, & lots of Tyre & Exhaust places where Employees do Wheel or Tyre changes on the side,

unbeknown to the Senior Management or the Company.

Cash in hand, no invoice or receipt.

There you are getting work done often with no come back if something happens to go wrong.

 

george

I get my winter/summer wheels fitted at my local tyre place. They check the balance and pressures

I ask the price. " a couple of beers should do it " I'm told

Usually drop the lads £20. And that's for the wife's car as well

Ah, but the wife may 'drop in' between times to see the lads for some servicing.

Ah, but the wife may 'drop in' between times to see the lads for some servicing.

, she's got too somewhere as he's on a lifetime ban

Edited 2 November, 201312 yr by seboni121

Ah, but the wife may 'drop in' between times to see the lads for some servicing.

 

 

, she's got too somewhere as he's on a lifetime ban

 

There all Blind      :yes:

Out of principle, I'd never use any commercial brands like National, ATS etc.

 

Best to find a local VAG specialist as they have better knowledge and will charge less

You can't blame them for trying.

 

For every guy that walks away another will stump up the £70.

 

The guy charging a tenner would have to do 7 times the work to make the same money.

After all that's been said, I would have swapped over the wheels myself, can't think why Fin69 did not do them himself.

After all that's been said, I would have swapped over the wheels myself, can't think why Fin69 did not do them himself.

 

I'm 60+ years old.

It's November.

Outside it's cold, dark and raining.

I can earn £10 in about 45 minutes, or less than the time it would take me to change 4 wheels on the drive.

I'm too old for this ****.

 

No brainer.

My drive is unsuitable to use a trolley Jack (it's difficult enough to use my Karcher Under Chassis Cleaner!). The entrance to my drive is adjacent to a busy taxi office. The street outside my front door is the main access point for Polish lorry drivers delivering building materials for a new school. And for some reason they prefer to reverse their lorries down that street instead of doing a 3-point-turn!

Hence paying the £10.