And you think YOU'VE had to deal with massive suckage...

[MattW]

Hmm the 'Sunday Sun' ? Thats a new one on me...

Quality of journalism aside, if the story is a good representation of what did happen, the police were totally in the wrong. It is a civil dispute between a customer and the mechanic and the should have refused to act upon the complaint at this point and instead redirect the customer to Trading Standards. The customer should have been prosecuted for dialling 999 for a non-emergency complaint (if it did happen).

Drivers who have work done on Land Rovers should expect four figure bills.

[crazylegs]

Ok,

Until such time as the mechanic attempts/succeeds in bring this to court we will not have the full details available to us.

I would imagine that (as there was no reprimand by Prof Standards) that there are insufficient grounds to sue on this occasion.

However I will say that as has been pointed out this is a very one sided article and having attended multiple civil disputes (although peoples behaviour is never 'civil') I can honestly say every always states that they acting impeccably, if you were to speak to the Officer and ask him about it (however this would be unlawful under Official Secrets Act, Data Protection Act and other legislation) I'm sure it would sound like a completely seperate incident.

[FuzzyKitten99]

First off, I want to say I do not agree with the arrest for breaking no crimes. He really didn't do anything that warranted actually getting arrested.

However, that said, I don't know if anyone else here caught the price of that 'brake job', but 1127,00 GBP (=$2054 USD) is a little high (ok, farking outrageous) for what I assume is just a simple brake job.

Now the story didn't say what he had done for brakework exactly. The story seemed to state that he just had brakes "put on" based on the wording.

Land Rover or not, no brake job I have ever had, has ever cost that much. Ever. I have only had brakes and rotors replaced professionally only once, and that was before I met my husband. I think I paid about $120 USD. Otherwise my husband just does it himself. The most any brake-related repair ever cost was the brake lines on our Cadillac, and that was $1600, for parts ($50 worth) and about 12 hours' worth of labor due to the complexity of custom-bending them.

If he had only a simple brake replacement, and rotors done, the most he would probably pay $650USD (350,00)parts and labor for both front and rear axles, just based on parts costs here in my own state (i used www.autozone.com to estimate costs for a 2005 Land Rover Range Rover, though I don't know the year and model of the one in the story).

Brakes, regardless of car maker, are all the same set-up on every car and they all operate the same way. My husband has always replaced our brakes and has done the brakes on friends and family members' cars, and they all range from your basic 1989 Ford Tempo to a 2004 Jaguar X-Type. So it isn't that difficult. I am not saying you should attempt to do it yourself if you have no clue, I am just saying research the cost of the parts alone, and find out what labor is charged hourly to avoid getting ripped off.

I can see where the customer balked at the cost of the job. However it sounds like the mechanic either gave a low estimate and didn't call to confirm any additional costs, or the customer just wasn't paying attention.

[Rapscallion]

The phrase used was 'quotation', which is a written, pre-agreed cost for the work involved. If the sundaysun used the word correctly, then the customer sucked mightily in agreeing to one price and then demanding another.

What baffles me is that the police admitted to the reporter that they had told the disputants that it was a civil matter, but didn't arrest/caution the customer for wasting police time.

Rapscallion

[crazylegs]

What baffles me is that the police admitted to the reporter that they had told the disputants that it was a civil matter, but didn't arrest/caution the customer for wasting police time.

Rapscallion

It would depend on the reason why the call was put in in the first place, if it was for the mechanics behaviour then as an arrest followed...

[Rapscallion]

Hmm, true. The final part of the tale, the dispassionate version given by the police, doesn't say why they were called. Just that there was a dispute over a bill.

Thinking about it, they wouldn't have just turned up for someone who called the police and demanded someone come over and reduce a bill for them. There's far more to this than the mechanic is letting on, methinks.

Rapscallion

[Ree]

Already posted dear.

Please use the report button when you notice things like that. (Please see my signature.)

I don't know how many more times we can make it clear that, unless you guys tell the people on this board, who can actually do something about it, you are wasting your time and thread space making posts to tell members when they have posted a duplicate.

We can't fix it if we don't see it and you don't tell us.

[clod75]

See... my thing is... Even IF the mechanic was angry, and raised his voice, hell, even if he said "Fuck off then, take your piece of shit car and get lost!" That is NO reason to call the cops. jmho

I have seen way way worse, and no one else called the police, kwim?

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Nowhere, and since it didn't happen, there's no issue here.

“He called 999 and an officer actually came down and told me I had to drop the price."

Direct quote from the article.

So it did happen and it was an issue.

M

[Rapscallion]

The question is why he called 999. Was it because of the mechanic's assertion that the guy wanted a lower price, or was it because the mechanic reacted very unfavourably to the demand for a lower price?

Rapscallion

[Pedersen]

Now, here's the part I'm distinctly not understanding.

Everybody is latching onto what they believe to have been bad behavior on the part of the mechanic. But I'm not so sure of the relevance of the mechanic's behavior, when taken in light of a particular portion of a statement in the article. To, wit:

an officer actually came down and told me I had to drop the price.

This piece, right there, is what is most bothering to me. Customer agrees to price, garage does work, customer changes mind, wants to pay less, and the police order the garage to lower the price?

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

Full stop.

The mechanic in question could have had a gun and been putting bullets into anything that moved. He could have been been as polite as Mother Teresa handing food to a poor person. Or anywhere in between.

What business does any member of any police force have in telling someone they have to lower the price of already agreed and performed work?

I don't know if the guy deserved arrest for his actions that day, as I wasn't there. I do know that no one is disputing that an officer told a member of the general public that he had to charge less for the work he had already performed.

That's the part that still rankles. And if I had been told that the officer did nothing wrong by the department that is supposed to oversee police, you would barely be able to measure the time between my receiving that statement and my finding a lawyer to file a suit.

[Rapscallion]

What I see is the mechanic saying that he was told by the police that he had to drop the price. What I also see is the police saying that it was a civil matter and not their responsibility. We have a member here who knows far more about the UK policing than I ever want to know, and the department doing the investigation doesn't take any shit.

I'm open to this being not as open and shut as the mechanic says, but in no way does that excuse the vehicle owner from demanding a lower price once the work was done.

Rapscallion

[One-Fang]

I'm wondering what the customer said to the cop. It's extremely unlikely that a police officer would even want to get involved in this dispute, let alone would actually say "lower your price". Perhaps the customer was complaining about some kind of illegal ripoff that he perceived the mechanic to be doing, and that's why the cop said "lower your price".

We won't know. There's not enough information here to really say what actually happened.

[crazylegs]

We won't know. There's not enough information here to really say what actually happened.

And with UK law as it is we never will.

UK officers are taught (and it is continually drummed into them) that an arrest is the very last option to be used. Always.

To be arrested for a breach of the peace for a civil matter is incredibly rare, it was probably done to prevent a further breach and let tempers calm down (remember he was released with a no charge decision by the CPS).

The article featured is simply a one sided discussion by the mechanic telling the world how nice and fluffy he is, how many times have we all seen customers become raging arseholes yet tell management they are all fluffy puppies and rainbows?

I've never heard of the paper before however its weekday equivilent (as well as the other red tops) take great delight in taking a story about the UK Police Service and making it look as awful as possible.

Please remember we only have one side of the discussion here and with that it's incredibly hard to see what really happened.