I PUT my car in to the garage for the head gasket to be replaced. I asked for a quote first but instead of this the mechanic did the work and has invoiced me £5,500.
I would never have agreed this amount but they won’t release my car unless I pay in full.
V.N., Bournemouth.
Consumer rights lawyer Dean Dunham replies: That’s a big bill to be presented with but there is good news. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 protects you in this position, recognising that rogue traders often fail to agree a price and then attempt to rip off the consumer after the service has been supplied.
Section 52(2) of the Act says that where no price has been agreed or communicated by the person or entity providing the service, before the contract is entered into, the consumer is only obliged to pay a ‘reasonable price’ and no more.
In this case, it means you will only have to pay what a reasonable mechanic/garage would have charged for the work. My advice is that you obtain a written quote from three reputable local mechanics/garages for the same work. You could then offer to pay the average of these three quotes, although to be on the safe side, I would advise you to pay the amount that is equal to the highest quote you received.
Once paid, you can demand the release of your car. If the garage refuses, you will have two potential routes of redress.
The first is to ask if the garage is subscribed to an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme and if it is, to file a claim.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 protects people in this position, recognising that rogue traders often fail to agree a price and then attempt to rip off the consumer after the service has been supplied, writes Dean Dunham
The second, is to take your case to court and seek an order for the car to be released to you and potentially for compensation. In either case, you should invite the garage to release the car to you so that the legal argument is defined to whether you have a legal obligation to pay the amount invoiced or the reasonable amount you have paid.
Finally, if you do end up going to ADR or to court, it is important that you get all of your evidence together before you do so. Importantly, you will need to have clear evidence that no price was communicated by the garage before the work commenced.
I took out a year’s subscription for a monthly beauty box, but decided after the first six months to cancel it.
I’ve telephoned to do this countless times but they keep on sending me the boxes and taking money off my card each month. What can I do?
B.B., via email.
Dean replies: You appear to have two problems here. The first is that you have attempted to cancel the subscription ‘verbally’ as opposed to in ‘writing’ which is what the terms and conditions of this subscription will require.
The second problem is that it sounds like you are paying via a continuous payment authority, which is a method of payment collection where the vendor charges a debit card as opposed to taking the money from your bank account via a direct debit.
Continuous payment authorities can be troublesome as consumers often report they are difficult to cancel. Also, they do not offer the same guarantee as direct debits and give the vendor taking the payment more flexibility about when and how much it takes from your account.
That’s why I always advise against setting up this method of payment for the likes of subscriptions and loan repayments.
The good news is that consumers are perfectly entitled to cancel a continuous payment authority at any time, even if they still owe the vendor money. In the first instance you should notify the vendor, in writing (and include the date) that you wish to cancel the continuous payment authority and if possible, the contract — in this case your subscription.
From this date, the vendor is not legally entitled to take any further money from your card and if it does you will be able to request that your bank claws the money back. You will also be entitled to recover any associated costs such as bank overdraft charges — hence why its important to cancel in writing so you can provide evidence to the bank of what date you cancelled.
As well as notifying the vendor you wish to cancel the continuous payment authority you should notify your bank, again in writing. Some banks deny these requests unless you can prove you have no further liability to the vendor. But banks have no authority to do this, as the Financial Ombudsman has determined on numerous occasions.
