Really a question about my bill for repair -.

Tiny
RAKASHA
  • MEMBER
  • 2009 FORD ESCAPE
  • 81,000 MILES
Really a question about my bill for repair - mostly labor, minimal parts. I had issue driving home, car stopped and wouldn't start again. Had to get it towed to dealer. Issue was electrical. Dealer said they had never seen the issue before - communication to a number of modules was non-existent and it took them a long time to troubleshoot - two to three days solid to find issue and another day to isolate to specific part to fix. The dealer was communicating with Ford and they have not ever seen issue either. Eventually by bypassing modules and wiring in harness they were able to start car and isolate issue more. Last module they bypassed was transmission module. The checked out modules and they were ok, it seemed issue was with wiring. They isolated it to wiring that looked corroded near the battery. I had my battery changed a couple months ago and they suspect the acid got on the wires and eventually caused this problem. They have replaced or fix some of the wiring in the harness and drove the car around it looks ok now. My issue is the bill and I have no way of knowing whether the trobleshooting they were doing was legitimate or they took way too long - I'm paying $2100 for basically labor, very little parts from what I understand (just told me over the phone, I haven't gone to pick up car and see details yet). Ford supposedly doesn't have set price for this issue because they have never seen it before. My question - does this sound legitimate? I have no way to know.
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 AT 6:56 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
DOCFIXIT
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,828 POSTS
When you signed work order was there an estimate of time needed to diagnose? General rule is check out time set an agreed upon if more time is needed then you would be asked to authorize Shop is bound by law that repair cannot exceed by 10% of the estimate
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Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 AT 7:12 PM
Tiny
RAKASHA
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
No, not really. I was communicating with them daily and I knew the hours they were spending on it. I also knew this would be expensive because it was taking them 2-3 days just to find issue. But I never got an estimate or a $ number up front on how long this would take. They just said they hadn't found issue yet and this was something they had never seen before. I'm sure they would say I authorized it by communicating with them daily and not telling them to stop or that I would go somewhere else.
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Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 AT 7:45 PM
Tiny
DOCFIXIT
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,828 POSTS
Yes your communication would be considered authorizing repair maybe you could show them a picture of your 10 kids and not being able to but Christmas presents for them. They may knock off some of the bill being the Season and all
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Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 AT 8:09 PM

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