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[arcturus]

Hi folks, seasonal greetings to one and all.   Question:  Is a verbal quote legally binding?  I ask because I took my Omega to the local dealership because it was pumping out heat and nothing else. I was given a verbal quote of £280. On collecting it I was pesented with a bill for £804.76. That's £524 more!  I had to pay it to get my car! Any suggestions or information will be gratefully received. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards, Arc.

[Taxi_Driver]

kin hell  

What did they change to run that kinda bill up   Sounds like the climate panel  :-/

Dont think you have any case unfortunately as it was a verbal quote.......they could deny they told you this and you dont have any proof. Think it will only be binding if they admit in a court of law that they quoted you that amount.......I dont think they would silly enough to do that!

However it was very unprofessional of them not to phone you and tell you they got the quote wrong and it will be now over £800.......do you want to us to proceed....etc.etc

Tho if it was me i would have argued they quoted me x amount and no phonecall informing me of price increase....and if their insisting on the new price......tell them to remove the part/s as you gave no authority to fit......unless you told em to fix it no matter what.

[Golfbuddy]

It's simple. A contract consists of three elements:

1. An offer
2. An acceptance
3. Consideration. i.e. some value could be monetary or some other value like a service or some other goods.

If the garage quoted you to do a job at certain price and you accepted then there is a simple contract. i.e. Offer, Acceptance and Consideration. If either party goes back on any part of the contract then it is considered to be frustrated and the one party can sue the other for breach of contract. In other words one party can sue the other to reclaim the amount that the other is out of pocket as a result of the breach of contract.

A few questions here:

Did the garage ask you to sign something that allowed them to carry out other work that became necessary when they were doing the original work on the car?

Did the garage phone you or contact you to say that other work needed to be done and did you give them the go ahead to do the work?

Did the garage say, 'It will cost £280 to that job'? Or did they say it will be around £280.

Have you got an itemised bill covering the £804.76?

If you have an itemised bill, are there other items on there that were not covered by the original contract?

If there are other items and they can't justify why they have done them they are in breach of contract and you have a case.

In conclusion, your best course of action is to contact the garage, in writing and with a recorded delivery letter, stating that you were quoted £280  to do the job and that you consider £804.76 to be unacceptable.

See what they come back with in their defence. Following that, a call to the local Trading Standards office to report it to them and then a claim through the small claims court is the last course of action. Make sure that you keep records of all communication, even verbal and write notes and sign and date them when you write them. All of this will be good stuff when and if you get to court.

Hope this helps for starters.

Martin

[tunnie]

Hi folks, seasonal greetings to one and all.   Question:  Is a verbal quote legally binding?  I ask because I took my Omega to the local dealership because it was pumping out heat and nothing else. I was given a verbal quote of £280. On collecting it I was pesented with a bill for £804.76. That's £524 more!  I had to pay it to get my car! Any suggestions or information will be gratefully received. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards, Arc.

No.

But to come back, do you:

A) have the name of the person you spoke to

B) did you agree to pay more if more work as needed?

C) Same as above, did you get get them to phone you if more work was needed

[Golfbuddy]

Hi folks, seasonal greetings to one and all.   Question:  Is a verbal quote legally binding?  I ask because I took my Omega to the local dealership because it was pumping out heat and nothing else. I was given a verbal quote of £280. On collecting it I was pesented with a bill for £804.76. That's £524 more!  I had to pay it to get my car! Any suggestions or information will be gratefully received. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards, Arc.

No.

But to come back, do you:

A) have the name of the person you spoke to

B) did you agree to pay more if more work as needed?

C) Same as above, did you get get them to phone you if more work was needed

A verbal quote IS legally binding, it's more difficult to prove, but it is just as legally binding as anything written down. A contract is a contract. There is no legal difference between a verbal or written offer.  

[Entwood]

You might find these links help ..

Buyers can obtain free advice from:
 
Citizens Advice Bureau  http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Trading Standards Department http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

The Community Legal Service http://www.clsdirect.org.uk

Which? Online Legal Service http://www.which.net

The OFT's Shoppers Guide http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Publications/Leaflet+Ordering.htm

and solicitors (who may charge). The DTI is not able to intervene in individual disputes.

[Taxi_Driver]

Hi folks, seasonal greetings to one and all.   Question:  Is a verbal quote legally binding?  I ask because I took my Omega to the local dealership because it was pumping out heat and nothing else. I was given a verbal quote of £280. On collecting it I was pesented with a bill for £804.76. That's £524 more!  I had to pay it to get my car! Any suggestions or information will be gratefully received. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards, Arc.

No.

But to come back, do you:

A) have the name of the person you spoke to

B) did you agree to pay more if more work as needed?

C) Same as above, did you get get them to phone you if more work was needed

A verbal quote IS legally binding, it's more difficult to prove, but it is just as legally binding as anything written down. A contract is a contract. There is no legal difference between a verbal or written offer.  

Agree with ya there Mr Budgie........but a court will only agree if admitted in court or small claims.........been there...done that....the silly mare admitted it and i won the case  

[Golfbuddy]

Hi folks, seasonal greetings to one and all.   Question:  Is a verbal quote legally binding?  I ask because I took my Omega to the local dealership because it was pumping out heat and nothing else. I was given a verbal quote of £280. On collecting it I was pesented with a bill for £804.76. That's £524 more!  I had to pay it to get my car! Any suggestions or information will be gratefully received. Many thanks in anticipation. Regards, Arc.

No.

But to come back, do you:

A) have the name of the person you spoke to

B) did you agree to pay more if more work as needed?

C) Same as above, did you get get them to phone you if more work was needed

A verbal quote IS legally binding, it's more difficult to prove, but it is just as legally binding as anything written down. A contract is a contract. There is no legal difference between a verbal or written offer.  

Agree with ya there Mr Budgie........but a court will only agree if admitted in court or small claims.........been there...done that....the silly mare admitted it and i won the case  

Hence the suggestion to write to the garage and to make written statements about any previous and future conversations. What are the chances that the garage will go all the way to court?? It doesn't cost that much these days to go to small claims court so there isn't much to lose.

Of course, it is important that the garage didn't say something like, 'It will be at least .....'.

Time will tell.

[tunnie]

but the garage can just say that converstation never took place, or the amount was never mentioned  :-/

[Golfbuddy]

but the garage can just say that converstation never took place, or the amount was never mentioned  :-/

Correct, but that would be a lie. The question was, 'Is a verbal quote legally binding?'. That's what the courts are there for in these cases, to decide who is telling the truth.

 

[tunnie]

but the garage can just say that converstation never took place, or the amount was never mentioned  :-/

Correct, but that would be a lie. The question was, 'Is a verbal quote legally binding?'. That's what the courts are there for in these cases, to decide who is telling the truth.

 

got ya  

[Danny]

but the garage can just say that converstation never took place, or the amount was never mentioned  :-/

Correct, but that would be a lie. The question was, 'Is a verbal quote legally binding?'. That's what the courts are there for in these cases, to decide who is telling the truth.

 

but that also means they could decide the garage is telling the truth

[Golfbuddy]

but the garage can just say that converstation never took place, or the amount was never mentioned  :-/

Correct, but that would be a lie. The question was, 'Is a verbal quote legally binding?'. That's what the courts are there for in these cases, to decide who is telling the truth.

 

but that also means they could decide the garage is telling the truth

That's very true! The main question here is, was the original quote an 'offer' to do the work at the said price? If it can be proven that it was then it's a simple case. These things are not so simple but the standard of proof that the claimant has to prove is that on the balance of probabilities, in other words that there is a 51% probability that the defendant was in the wrong or liable, the contract was made on the basis of the original quote. The garage would also have to prove that there was a contract to carry out the work for the higher sum which may be equally as difficult.

Whatever the outcome here, the lesson to be learned is to make sure that the terms of the contract are clear to all parties. Agree a price for the job before work commences and make it clear that you are not prepared to pay for extra work unless it is agreed before they go ahead.

[arcturus]

Many thanks for all your help. The full story is as follows: Took the car to the Vauxhall garage as my usual repairer did not have a diagnostic computer which would be needed to set the sensors. Called into the Vaux garage on a Saturday morning, explained the problem, and the nice man brought up the part on his computer screen. The part was £80 plus vat, labour, should get change from £200, but the technical manager would be in on Monday and he would ring with a more accurate quote. This he did, and this is where the £280 comes from. I agreed to this over the phone and arranged for the Omega to go in on Wednesday. On collection I was informed that Vauxhall had sent the wrong part and booked the car in for Friday. Arrived late afternoon and this is when I was given the bill for £804.76. That evening I wrote to the Managing Director complaining (recorded delivery) and eventually received a letter from their Retail Operator admitting that there had been a misunderstanding internally about which part had been ordered. He even admits, and I quote: "I fully understand your astonishment when you collected the car, it was the same for me as I understood you knew the final price" unquote. At no time did I give permission for Downside Motors to carry out any work which would amount to more than £280.
I contacted Vauxhall UK M.D. who put me onto his Executive Support Team. After various communications the bottom line was, as this is not a manufacturing fault we cannot help in this matter.
I stress again that at no time did I authorise any other work to be carried out. I did not receive any communication from Downside informing me of the cost.
The component that was replaced is a Aircon Control Unit. V0009196979. Regulator-Electron.
So there you go folks, as has been said, make sure everything is in writing before going ahead with any repairs. It's a difficult situation 'cos the heating system woks fine now!
Thanks to all of you who have replied, and thanks for your comments and suggestions, some of which I shall explore. Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year. Regards, Arc.

[Kevin Wood]

Sounds like you have a written admission that they didn't agree with you the final price before starting work.

It is not reasonable to run up a bill for 800 quid if the customer is expecting 280. I would reiterate that this was the case and ask for them to reduce the bill or you take further action. After all, if they'd called you and said it'd be 800 quid you'd probably have done what I would have done - pay them for their diagnostic work and pick one up the part 2nd hand...

I guess there are several people you could contact for advice. See if the garage is a member of a trade body or somesuch. They will no doubt be interested in the service you recieved...

Kevin