First Service Cost - Major Shock!!

[Phil M]

The details say oil change, grease all areas that need it, prop shaft cleaned and re-greased. I'll give them a call monday and ask for a full break down and the hourly rate. I will explain that future services depend on it and may have to name and shame. Not that its difficult to work out as there are only 2 dealers in Cumbria.

Phil M

[samt]

For that, even with putting the laptop on the engine and gearbox oil change should take no more than 2 hours.

Even if you allow £60 for oils and grease. That is still 6 hours labour @ £50 per hour, which can't be justified.

Hopefully its just an admin error, and they've charged you a flat cost for a full service by mistake.

Let us know how you get on.

[Poly]

I've moved the etec stuff here: http://www.rib.net/forum/f36/the-ann...ate-69768.html

[Andy C]

I paid £132 for the 20 hour service on my Mercury 115 in June this year.

That was from the dealer that I bought from, I think there is a lot to be said for building a relationship with a workshop you trust.

[Phil M]

Rant time.........

Spoke to them today, well, a girl there who wasn't in the service department. The hourly rate is £65 +vat. Expensive for what you get (our design engineers get charged out for less than that), but apparently reasonable for mechanics. They have spent 4 hours doing the job. I had asked if they knew how to set the smartcraft gauge to take an input from the fuel/water sensor as, although the fitting and wiring was detailed, the smartcraft setup wasn't covered in the instructions (it is a mercury supplied smartcraft ready filter with the correct plug to fit the "tank 2" input). Apparently the guy has spent quite some time trying to figure out how to do this and I have no idea if he managed it or not. I suspect from some of the notes on the job card that he didn't. I know I asked for them to look at it but I didn't expect it to cost me £150 I assumed they would know what they are doing or would give me some warning that they were going to try to bankrupt me.

Without that, service would have been £202, assuming 2 hours labour.

When I mentioned to the girl that it was cheaper to service an Audi she said it was because "it's a boat". I may have lost it a little here. Apparently an outboard is far more complex with more expensive parts than a car, even though it didn't require any parts. The audi long life oil is just under twice the price per liter compared to the stuff I have been charged for.

I'm going to have a chat with the service manager tomorrow and see what they have actually done. Hopefully I can at least work out if they have programmed the gauge or not. I won't be impressed if they have charged me £150 for nothing.

Time I guess to look into a new service center.

Phil M

[Xk59D]

you shouldn't be paying for them not knowing how to fix something they are meant to support, that is part of the learning curve for being a dealer of any product.

sounds like you are getting somewhere though and i expect they will come to some agreement with you. that is an expensive hourly rate compared to everyone around glasgow area...location probably has a lot to do with that though.

[Dirk Diggler]

Originally Posted by Poly

I imagine local dealers will be more flexible on price when you actually buy the engine from them - saving a few hundred on an internet engine is not always the best long term plan.

[Maximus]

Time I guess to look into a new service center.

And get a quote too?...takes the guess work out

[Phil M]

Originally Posted by Maximus

And get a quote too?...takes the guess work out

Yep. Normally I would but i was in a rush and just forgot. Schoolboy error and a lesson learned!

Phil M

[Nightfisher]

Hi all, Anything "Marine" is two to four times the cost of most all other engines. The first thing to do is test and buy the motor. The SECOND, buy the Service Manual for that particular engine.

[Turbodiesel]

It's definitely not a self service warranty!! You get your standard warranty pretty much regardless of what you do service wise. But you will loose your extended warranty if you self service. So when your Merc or mariner goes to the main dealer its logged with Merc, once your standard warranty is out they extend it for free, the. If you get it done again they extend it for another year up to a max of 5 years.

[Turbodiesel]

I was thinking about this today as you do and to be fare on the dealer, they have done the 20hr service at what ever the price was but they have also had to rectify a fault. Now we get loads of new boats coming into us that have installation faults from the boat builder. I had one the other day and it took me about 3 hrs to find what had been installed wrong it was a loom plugged in back to front. Sounds easy but trying to remove all the looms from under the console and floor took me forever and then put it all back together again so it looked good took ages. So what I'm saying is yes 2hrs is nothing to try and find an install issue. But who should get charged? The dealer has spent a few hours on it, and if they installed it they should front the bill. If the boat was fitted out by another company someone has to pay the bill. So maybe if it was installed by a Mercury dealer or boat builder the people who fitted it should be paying. Or a warranty claim should be put in for the work. Either way as a dealer I don't think the customer should be paying. It should be the person that fitted the thing but then the dealer who fixed it has to then spend ages chasing the money. It happens to us all the time. Hope that garbled message makes sense!!

[Phil M]

I spoke to them and they have charged me 3 hours labour for the service and 1 hour to rectify the "fault". As it turns out, and in my defense, the set up for water separator alarm on a "G3" smartcraft engine is simply a case of plugging the sensor in to the harness. There is no need to modify any settings. What they have done is clear the tank 2 calibration. The tech had a go, as I did, at setting it up as per earlier systems, but then called Barrus to confirm this was not required. I can deal with the time doing this, but 3 hours for a 20 hour/3 month service still seems a lot.

Phil M

[Turbodiesel]

Wow 3 hrs for a 20hr service! I reckon I can do that in about 30 min to 45 min tops!