Avenues of Recourse for Repair Overcharges

Question: Our local mechanic estimated a new air-conditioning compressor for our car would cost about $300 and fix our air-conditioning problem. When my wife picked up the car, a bill was presented for $782. We received no call from the mechanic. Is there any recourse in this situation?

Answer: This is an open and shut case of consumer fraud. Under state law, a garage must provide an itemized estimate for work and may not exceed that amount without the customers’ authorization.

The law states: “No charge shall be made for work done or parts supplied in excess of the estimated price without the oral or written consent of the customer, which shall be obtained at some time after it is determined that the estimated price is insufficient and before the work not estimated is done or the parts not estimated are supplied.”

Moreover, the law requires the mechanic to provide on the work order the date, time and details of any oral authorization given to do work beyond the original estimate.

So, if you show up to pick up your car and the bill exceeds the estimate, not including sales taxes (which are never included in the estimate), the customer is faced with several choices--none of them very appealing.

First, you should dispute the bill. Under the law, you are required to pay only the charges in the estimate. In the case of your compressor, you would want to see whether the work order gave a detailed breakdown of the additional work. Chances are the additional money was pure padding and you should not agree pay it. Skillful negotiation may help work down the amount, and you can always dispute the balance later on.

If the mechanic will not release the car unless you pay the full amount, however, it is essentially being held for ransom. You can decline to pay the bill, hoping to resolve the dispute through a consumer agency before you pay. But at best a government office will take weeks to help, and there is no guarantee it can help.

So, unless the bill exceeds the value of the car, it may be better to pay it and seek a refund later. In any case, you don’t want to get involved in a physical altercation over control of the car, and you have to keep in mind that the mechanic can file a lien on the car for unpaid repair bills.

You should, however, immediately call the Bureau of Automotive Repair at (800) 952-5210 and file a complaint.

The bureau will contact the shop owner within 30 days. If you contact the bureau with a desperate problem, sometimes a call can be made immediately to attempt to resolve the dispute, but don’t count on fast action.

The bureau can help to settle the dispute, but it cannot order a shop make a refund. Ultimately, it can rescind a garage’s license, which it does about 100 times a year. There are 40,000 garages licensed in California.

You can obviously sue the garage in small claims court, which handles cases under $2,000 in damages. Your signed estimate will be strong evidence on your behalf, but the garage may very well claim that you orally authorized the additional repairs and produce a phony work order showing that authorization.

Another course of action is to see whether the garage is a member of the Automotive Service Council or the AAA Garage Approval Program, or if its mechanics participate in the Automotive Service Excellence program. All these organizations can help resolve disputes. If the garage isn’t a member of any of these organizations, perhaps you should look for a new one that is.