Car / mechanic advice - ripped off?

Lass at work took her car into a garage yesterday as it kept going dead. The garage replaced the alternator and charged her £250 for the work. Anyway, she's went to come to work today and it's been dead again so she's jumped it and took it to the garage who have called her through today saying it's the battery and it will be £60 for a new one fitted.

She's clearly been had here, should she be going to the garage and paying them for the battery but demanding they put the old alternator back on and refund her the £250? Or should she just be refusing to pay for the battery and cutting her losses?

I'd be inclined to go for the first option as it's pretty easy (99% of the time) to diagnose a battery / alternator fault.
 


I'd be asking for a refund on the alternator.
No doubt they will say it needed both
Even if they didn't know you would think they'd replace the cheaper part first.
 
Ok. My opinion as an ex mechanic. And please bear in mind that I stopped getting my hands dirty in 1995 when I left the trade.
If a vehicle came in to me that was dead, the first thing I would check would be the battery and connections.
In the 11 years that I was a mechanic I never once had to replace an alternator. They rarely malfunctioned. Also, I did all my mechanicing in the army where the vehicles took a bit of a hammering. We would regularly have the drivers come in saying that the alternator or the starter motor needed replacing. It was never the case with sn alternator and rately with a starter motor.
So in short, I think that you’ve (sorry she) has been taken advantage of in my opinion.
 
It should have been easy for garage to test battery and alternator to show either or both were faulty. Trying to prove it is another matter though.

Maybe ask for proof old alternator was faulty and ask them why they didn’t identify battery fault at the time. If a main dealer you might have some luck, if not then its going to be harder
 
Lass at work took her car into a garage yesterday as it kept going dead. The garage replaced the alternator and charged her £250 for the work. Anyway, she's went to come to work today and it's been dead again so she's jumped it and took it to the garage who have called her through today saying it's the battery and it will be £60 for a new one fitted.

She's clearly been had here, should she be going to the garage and paying them for the battery but demanding they put the old alternator back on and refund her the £250? Or should she just be refusing to pay for the battery and cutting her losses?

I'd be inclined to go for the first option as it's pretty easy (99% of the time) to diagnose a battery / alternator fault.
Which garage?
 
It should have been easy for garage to test battery and alternator to show either or both were faulty. Trying to prove it is another matter though.

Maybe ask for proof old alternator was faulty and ask them why they didn’t identify battery fault at the time. If a main dealer you might have some luck, if not then its going to be harder

My thought exactly.

Which garage?

It's in Peterlee Bracken Hill ind estate, not sure what it's called.
 
If the battery is fk'd she should defo pay the bill for a new one. I'd be asking questions about the alternator though.

Its possible both were fk'd - she should ask what made them think the alternator was fk'd in the first place, she should probably get someone (a man) to ring on her behalf.

I know of a few garages that blatantly rip people off so yeah this kind of thing happens a lot.
 
For a garage to replace an alternator they should have tested it.

When your battery keeps going flat and wont hold a charge, you buy a new battery, it's normally the reason.

Next, I'd test the alternator by putting a multimeter across it with the engine running and see what the power output was.

Should it still keeps going flat, I'd look for a draw on the battery when the car is switched off, but it would have to be something big.

In the past I've found that boot lid switches can break and cause the light to be on all the time.

Oh, and yes, you've been done there like.
 
She's been had. But aye, they'll bullshit that the alternator was fucked too
We cant say that without testing the old alternator - I know the garage and they are not known to rip people off.
 
Just say the car went to the garage dead. They stuck a good battery on to fire it up and tested the alternator with a multi meter and got 13v or so. Straight back out the door with a new alternator and the old battery recharged, it would be a fairly honest and easy error to make.

Yes they should have checked the battery voltage after a charge too, but everyone saying the lass has been ripped off are possibly jumping the gun, if the alternator has been dying for a while you have a good chance the battery has got it through constant low charge states.
 
And just to add to the shit situation, the garage will have sent the old alternator back to be refurbed and forever look like cowboys in the eyes of some now sadly.
 
We cant say that without testing the old alternator - I know the garage and they are not known to rip people off.

You don't change an alternator before testing the battery man. Could understand if they'd changed both but you don't change the alternator only when the batterys shagged
 
I've just had a chat with her and apparently the person who owns it is a family friend so it's a bit unusual like.
With respect to our resident mechanics there are some dodgy fuckers about. Once had a family friend do a cambelt on a 16v Jetta gti for me. Took it to an old mate next time as he specialised in performance, and I fancied treating it. He advised me to get the belt changed. Nuts had never been off. Would have brayed the ¢unt if not for the trouble it would have caused our lass.
 
What you have to look at is the garage having a decent reputation as it seems to have.
Any garage owner/'mechanic would know immediately a car would be brought back if they intentionally stuck an alternator on it when it was a dud battery, so what would be the point in doing that....unless it is either a mistake or the by a twist of fate they tested the alternator sending charge to the battery and saw it wasn't doing its job and assumed it was simply the alternator when it was actually both.

It can happen and to me it seems like a bit of sods law on the go.
They could be genuine so don't cross swords, just accept you got a new alternator and battery and should be fine for a long time to come...and still be able to use the garage.
 

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