Bet You Can't beat this one!

  A friend took a radiator from a WD45 to a dealership to have it repaired.  The names of the parties will remain unnamed.  There was no discussion of price.  The radiator was repaired and returned in nice repair except the top outlet was in the wrong place so he had to doctor the hood to get the hood on the tractor.  Later, the dealership called with the bill of $1,800 for the repair.  Yes, the dollar amount is what was charged for the repair.  SOMEONE HAS NO CONSCIENCE.  My frend does not intend to pay the bill as you would expect.  Oh well, live and learn.

I believe the got the decimal in the wrong place. $180 is about right for a repair. Have had re-cores done for $500 and $700....

Sugarmaker wrote: Price should be agreed on near the front end of the job.

$1800? Tell him to keep the radiator. Either he will come down to a reasonable price or you could buy another one much cheaper.

BTW, I bought a new one a few years ago. Can't remember the price but it was less then $500  It was less the the cost to repair it. Also I had a forklift radiator [special] repaired 2 years ago it was about $450  More then the new WD radiator.

 3 years ago I took the radiator out of my dads D-17 D for repair. They boiled it, fixed a few tubes and fix the tank. The cost was $200.00.

Edited by DennisA (IL) - 17 Dec 2016 at 9:14am

I always want to know what I will write the check for! 

I would sell the guy a radiator with the rest of the tractor for less than 1800. I can see fault on both sides here.

I just had a 1750 Oliver radiator rebuilt, totally re-cored, it was pretty rough. Was just over $700, and we discussed it before just doing it. I simply cannot see where anyone could justify billing someone 1800 for any radiator, much less for one that goes in a $1000 tractor lol!

This stuff happens. Ordered belts and a "Special Nut" for my mower. The belts where a great price but the price for the "Special Nut" was not available. I figured no more than $5 for the nut. Got the belts and the nut and the price of the nut was $58.00. The dealer was very good and gave me full credit for the nut. Still what a hassle to get it corrected.

I've got a JCB skid steer loader that needed a couple tiny little rubber buttons that cover the switches for the hydraulic and two speed controls that are on the right hand joy stick.  Called the dealer, had to order them, couple weeks went by, nope, not here yet, month later, "they're here, though you might not want them".  Drove the 50 miles to the dealer, three little yellow pieces of rubber in a plastic bag maybe  2 inches square.  Parts guy told me to sit down while he looked up the price, $75!!!!!!  I told him sorry, I just couldn't pay that much.  Told me they checked the price twice to be sure it wasn't a typo or something.  I offered to pay for shipping them back.  He said no, they would put it on the bulletin board with the invoice for a while. 
I found an entire right hand control for my machine on ebay last month for $20, $13 shipping included.  I sent the seller another $20 bucks for his trouble.

Id would take it back and tell them to eat it as the top outlet is in the wrong place. I would get an estimate from anouther repair shop and price of new radiator. Small claims will side with owner if he has multiple repair quotes. Id atill make them fix the outlet.

The first thing I would do is go to the dealership and CALMLY try to settle this. I would take a copy of the bill, pictures of the problem with the outlet that did not allow the radiator to be installed properly and some estimates for a new radiator. (of course you have to realize that these "replacement radiators" are foreign made and not copper. You have to be able to compare apples to apples.)

The problems I see with this whole deal is that

1. He accepted the radiator and didn't notify the dealer of problems until after he received the bill.

2. There was no "contract" (agreement on what repairs are being done and costs). When you hire someone without a contract, you are pretty much giving them permission to do whatever repairs they see fit and bill you for those repairs.

If the dealer is reputable, he will probably work with him. If the dealer won't negotiate with him, he should get an attorney to write a letter to the dealer (ASAP) that the repairs made were not satisfactory and the cost was exorbitant. If this ends up going to court, your friend is going to need some documentation (before the court case), that he tried to arbitrate this with the dealer. Otherwise, it's going to appear that it is just a matter of non-payment and it will strengthen the dealers case.

Edited by WF owner - 18 Dec 2016 at 6:04pm

All hear say ,what is the REAL STORY.

And should not have changed anything and taken it BACK to Dealer when it was not correct.