A friend needs help- Please read

A friend has been overcharged for some work done on his car after agreeing to a quoted price, he left his car to be fixed but when he came to pick it up they told him he needs to pay nearly $4000 extra or they wont give him his car.

What can he do? He has offered to pay an extra $1000 ontop of the quoted price ($2500) but they said no way... they cant just keep his car surely. He isnt from town, he travelled here to pick it up and is now stuck with this problem.

Who should he go to? I think the poilce would offer some advice but I dont know if dept of fair trade is the way to go ....

hmmm any ideas how we can help ( its DH friend) and We are looking for a better approach than just going and taking it ... as we dont want any problems ourselves :)

DFwho is a mechanic said that the police would allow him to take it. They cant keep the car from him as it isnt theres. For it to be that much over the quoted price and the fact that he has offered a payment arrangement the police would even agree to go and take the car.

The mechanic would have to seek other measures to get teh rest of the bill, ie. debt recovery agencies if a payment arrangement did not suit.

HTH

Out of curiosity what did they do to the car to cost that amount of money and how long did they have it for?

The mechanic should have called the person before any work further work was carried out. My mechanic may suck too, but we always get a phone call if something else needs to be done.

Definitely take it to Fair Trade or Dept of Commerce (whoever the governing body is) - for that kind of work he should be provided a written quote before any work was done.

definitely call Dept. Fair trading, and they will direct you to the proper area if that isnt it... definitely not right! like others have said, he can definitely take his car back! He definitely should have been notified before any more work was done that wasnt on the quote! and im also interested as to what could possibly cost an extra $4k!!! should get a brand new engine for that!! :O
I daresay that if they're trying to rip him off by charging an extra $4000 ONTOP of the original quote, that the original quote was probably a rip off too :/

For a mechanic to do any work to a car they have to have a signed repair agreement outlining works to be done, if your friend didn't sign for the work to be done then he is legally fine to refuse payment.

So he should be able to just go get it then....... Thanks ladies, Ill talk to Dh about it now and see whats been happening with it all :)

Hey M2R what ended up happening with your friends car??? Would be interesting to hear what happened lol.