000-000-0000 · closed Sundays
Before you spend anything
Five stages, the same every time. The point of writing them down is that you can see where the decision points are — there are three, and you make all of them.
Ten minutes
What it is, what it does, when it started and whether it moves. Enough to say whether it comes here or we come to it, and roughly what the first hour will cost. If it is obviously somebody else's job we say so on the call.
One hour, charged
The rate for where it happens, published on the rates page. The hour is measurement, not guessing: supplies, grounds, voltage drop under load, and a scope on anything that is not behaving. If the fix takes under fifteen minutes it happens inside the hour.
Same day
What was measured, where, and what it means. Then the cost to put it right: the hours, the rate, the parts at cost plus the published percentage. You can take that away and have somebody else do the work, and some people do.
Same day to ten days
Soldered and sealed or crimped with the right tool, supported where it rubbed, and photographed before it is wrapped up. If it turns out to be worse than the note said, work stops and you get a telephone call, not a bigger invoice.
Thirty days
Photographs of what was done and a drawing of anything that was added, so the next person is not starting from nothing. Any repair we made that fails within thirty days is looked at again without another diagnostic charge.
The three decisions
A job that goes wrong for a customer almost always went wrong at a point where somebody could have been asked and was not.
Made on the telephone, before anything is charged. We will say whether it sounds like a workshop job or a callout, and roughly what the first hour costs. Occasionally we say it sounds like something you can check yourself in five minutes, and then we say that.
Made when the diagnostic hour ends, with what was measured in front of you. If the answer was found, you get the cost of putting it right. If it was not, you are told that rather than sold a second hour, and you can take the note anywhere.
Some people take the written note back to their own garage, and that is a legitimate thing to do with it. It is measurement rather than a sales document, which is why it is worth something on its own.
What you are actually holding
At the end of the diagnostic hour there is a sheet with what was measured on it: which point in the circuit, what the reading was, what it was under load, and what that separates. Not "electrical fault found" and a price.
That matters for a reason beyond politeness. A measurement can be checked by somebody else. A verdict cannot, and a trade whose product is a verdict is a trade you have to take on faith — which is precisely the position most people are in when they hand over a vehicle they cannot diagnose themselves.
Anything repaired is photographed before it is wrapped up, and anything added is drawn. Both go to you as well as into the folder, because the next person to work on that vehicle may not be us.
House policies
One hour at the rate for where it happens, agreed before it starts. If the fix takes under fifteen minutes it happens inside that hour. If the hour ends without an answer, you are told so rather than sold a second one.
No part is bought on the strength of a fault code. The circuit is measured first, and what the measurement was is written down where you can read it.
If a job is going past what the written note said, it stops and you get a telephone call. You will not find out from the invoice.
There is no supplier rebate, commission or bonus behind any part fitted here. If there ever were, this sentence would have to come off the website, and we would rather keep the sentence.
Anything added is drawn, and anything repaired is photographed before it is wrapped up. It goes to you as well as into the folder, because the next person to work on it may not be us.
A repair we made that fails within thirty days is looked at again with no further diagnostic charge. That is a warranty on our work and not on the rest of the vehicle.
No names, no photographs, no testimonials. Every case study here is a composite of several jobs and is labelled as one on the page.
Very little, and none of it is a form. What actually helps is the history: when it started, what was done to the vehicle just before it started, what has already been replaced trying to fix it, and whether anybody has read the codes. The last one matters more than people expect — a code that was cleared and came back is a different piece of information from a code that has been stored since March.
If somebody has already worked on it, say so. It is not a problem and it is not a judgement; it is the single most useful thing you can tell us, because a previous repair is frequently the fault rather than the history of it.
You can stop at the end of the diagnostic hour. You pay for the hour, you keep the written note of what was measured, and you are free to take the vehicle and that note anywhere else.
The first hour · $145 here · $185 where it stands
The symptom check takes about three minutes and gives you a written summary of which circuits would be tested first and why, with the hours and the published rate against each. It is an indicative scope and not a diagnosis — nobody has seen the vehicle — but it is a better opening than a blank contact form. If you would rather skip it, the telephone works.