| rev:text
| - Never going to Conrad's again. I've been going here for years. Today is the last time. I brought my 2008 Lexus RX350 in for service. They checked it out and said I need two rear ignition coils. Said that it was about a three hour job. They said that while they were in there that they recommend doing all three coil in back.
They quoted the three coils at $110 each. Said that they found the cheaper ones, the more expensive ones were $170 each they said. I told them to proceed. Out of curiosity I Googled the part and found it online for $22. I went back to them and asked how they arrived at that price for the part. They said it was set by corporate. I said I get that you're going to mark up the parts but how do the justify charging over five times the online price.
They then began to double talk me about quality of the online part, you don't know what you'll get, you can't trust some sites, what happens if you need warranty service on the part, that's a special online price, no legitimate local parts stores sell them that cheaply, etc. I still didn't understand how they can charge 5x the price that they are widely available online, that's pretty outrageous, in my opinion.
So I wanted to see if, indeed, they did sell at local parts stores for the price he quoted. I called some local stores and found the exact act part for $42.85 - almost twice the online price, but still much cheaper than Conrad's was going to charge me. I told them to take the car down, I can't pay 5x the price for the part, I'll get the work done somewhere else. The guy said, hold on, they'd check with corporate to see if they can buy that part, but that they will want to mark it up if they use it. After a few minutes they came back as said they'd charge me $52 each for the part. A $10 mark up from the local parts store price and 2.5x the online price, but the car was in rough shape and I really didn't think it would make it anywhere else so I told them to proceed.
To make matters worse, when they showed me the estimate with the new parts price, they again gave me a labor estimate of about 3 hours. They said they charge $102 per hour for labor. They started working on the car at 12:35 and finished at 2:30. A little under 2 hours. When I got the final bill I was charged $353.60 for labor. I asked how that was possible - that's the labor charge for 3:45 hours of work. They said that they used Mitchell's Repair Estimate software and they charge according to the estimate, no matter how long it actually takes. I said that was nonsense. I said that they can't charge me for hours that they didn't work. The said they are sorry I feel that way. So in order to get my car back I paid this fraudulent charge and went on my way. However, this isn't right. I was not quoted, nor did I sign or otherwise approve a fixed-price repair. They showed me an estimate for labor - 3 hours, and quoted me a per-hour labor rate - $102. They have no right to charge me for time that they didn't work. This is fraudulent. I can't imagine how many other people they scam this way.
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