Debt Free

If you've had the misfortune to spend a ton of money on car repair lately, you may have actually looked closely at the invoice from your autocare provider to find out why the hell it was so large. After all, spending thousands of dollars on something like a new transmission, clutch or rear end (unless it's really drooping lately) is no fun. You've probably got better things to be spending your money on.

You may not be able to do anything about such charges as the ubiquitous “core charge” found on so many auto repair invoices. That's the fee charged for your old, crappy components they're pulling out if they're too badly decomposed to rebuild or remanufacture. If the parts can be rebuilt, you usually get a credit for the core charge. Ditto the environmental and disposal fees. Those are imposed by the EPA, state and local jurisdictions. These days, to help mitigate the costs of responsibly disposing of everything from old oil and coolant to tires and batteries, you'll usually be charged a disposal fee of a few dollars. It's probably a small price to pay to help avoid a big environmental mess down the road, don't you think?

There are some fees you might be able to do something about, however. That's especially the case for those mysterious “miscellaneous” charges often found on auto repair bills. Just what are they, anyway? Well, usually they are a bit of extra profit for the repair facility to make sure they make money and to help cover those extra parts they needed for the repair and couldn't bill you for. These include all the various things such as wire ties, paper floor mats, miscellaneous screws and nuts, and connectors that may be needed to complete the repair.

In many cases, however these extra fees on your auto repair can be substantial. To make matters worse, you're probably completely uninformed beforehand and unprepared for them. When you agreed for the $149 transmission service special, they probably failed to mention that there would be another $9.96 on your bill in such charges. Now it's a $158.96 transmission service special.

This is an area where, if you're not one of the “why can't we just all get along” types, you have a good chance of getting the repair facility to drop the charges. You need to point out your dissatisfaction and explain that a satisfied customer will be a repeat customer, while a dissatisfied customer won't. That usually does the trick, but if it doesn't, you can get a little more forceful in your request. To avoid putting your foot in your mouth, however, make sure you read the fine print on the offer and the scope of work before the work begins to make sure it wasn't stated you'd receive such charges. $9.96 saved is $9.96 earned, right?