Mot failure

[Dieselman]

no they can't but twelve 5min jobs =1hr

Is making money from providing a service not what they are in business to do?

It doesn't matter what the job is, if it takes some labour time there is a cost one way or another, thus the garage is at liberty to charge for that time.

Would you expect a tyre centre to repair punctures for free or swap tyres round, etc?

Do you work for free?

Anyway, I thought this thread wasn't about the garage charging for the work, but was about the possibility of headlights going out of alignment.
As Will said, MB dealers don't check headlight alignment at services, so any change could have taken a long while to happen.

 

[Will]

no they can't but twelve 5min jobs =1hr

So how much should they charge?

And where does this 12x 5 minute job thing come from?

Do you honestly think that they fail 10 cars a day (50 a week as you have made out) for misaligned headlights?

Crikey this is hard work...

 

[martyz]

So how much should they charge?
nothing for h/L alignment if it's just a tweak.or for filling washer bottle,the rest charge at as per hourly rate
And where does this 12x 5 minute job thing come from?

in one hour you can do 12 5minute jobs and at £10 for 5mins that equals £120 per hour true?

Do you honestly think that they fail 10 cars a day (50 a week as you have made out) for misaligned headlights?

probably not,but there is the potential, don't forget bulbs

Crikey this is hard work...

simple maths

 

[Will]

simple maths

No, it's not.

You're making assumptions and silly suggestions

You suggested that the garage are making £500 a week in headlight alignment - don't be silly

Please tell us a better way to "earn" £120 per hour,assuming a generous 5 mins to do the job,realistically though 10 cars a day per tester 500pw in headlight alignment well worth it to the garage.

It seems popular to suggest that the garage are being dishonest, and it also seems to amaze people that the headlights could actually be out of aligment.

Three questions for those people:

1) Why do they check the headlight alignment at the time of MOT testing?
2) When do people expect them to ever need adjusting? Bearing in mind that they are not usually checked or adjusted at service time - does it not seem reasonable to expect any adjustment needed to be noticed at MOT time?
3) Do you honestly think any testing station will base their business model around a £10.00 charge and failing 50 cars a week for headlight alignment?

No one forced the OP to pay to have them adjusted - I'm sure he could have adjusted them himself if he wanted. Why not ask MB to adjust them (where the car was serviced) rather than the testing station? - who after all owe no favours to the customer - they are a business, end of. You charge for work that you do.

Really can't see how this thread has reached 3 pages either? All because people asssume that the garage are dishonest and that the headlights didn't fail when tested...

I reckon if they had said they were out of alignment but adjusted them FOC people wouldn't have doubted that they needed adjusting - so it's all about the £10.00...

Ridiculous IMHO

 

[Sp!ke]

You can align the headlamps for free while you are standing idle waiting for other elements of the MOT process to complete. VOSA forces the process to take longer than required so plenty of time spare.

I wonder if the tester did this inside or outside the time it should take to do an MOT?

 

[Will]

You can align the headlamps for free while you are standing idle waiting for other elements of the MOT process to complete. VOSA forces the process to take longer than required so plenty of time spare.

That is if the headlamps needed aligning in the first place as opposed to the ooperator wanting some extra beer money.

That is the crux of this thread - the assumption is that because the garage legitimately charged for adjusting the headlights (with authorisation), that they are probably being dishonest.

Personally, to me this is ridiculous. No-one is going to bother running a business like that for a £10.00 charge.

Are you allowed to make adjustments to a car whilst the test is in progress? Surely that does not follow VOSA procedure?

You're wrong, sorry!

 

[Dieselman]

Are you allowed to make adjustments to a car whilst the test is in progress?

No, the tester isn't. They have to fail it then retest upon rectification.

 

[steve333]

Thanks for evryones views,admin can you please close this thread now,thanks.

 

[wemorgan]

Thanks for evryones views,admin can you please close this thread now,thanks.

They require a £12 admin fee for any closure (joke, sorry couldn't help myself)

 

[steve333]

They require a £12 admin fee for any closure (joke, sorry couldn't help myself)

Nothing wrong with a bit of light hearted humour Will,do they accept cheques?