A Mazda 3 owner took their car to a repair shop they usually trust to fix the alignment, only to receive a bill much higher than expected.
The owner shared the situation on the r/AskMechanics subreddit and explained that the vehicle is a 2016 Mazda 3 with about 150,000 miles. They expected only to get the alignment fixed, but when they got the car back, they received a bill for $500 more than expected.
According to the post, the original estimate was roughly $100 for the alignment, but the receipt showed an additional $500 in charges for a control arm and ball joint replacement. The car’s owner said they never gave the shop permission to do these repairs and were not contacted beforehand.
The owner said the bill was unexpected and that they couldn’t afford the additional expense. They also said their wife had recently worked on the car and believed the control arm was perfectly fine.
An Unexpected Bill
I took my car in for an alignment. The mechanic replaced the control arm and ball joint without asking. What are my options?
by
u/ImpartialInsights in
AskMechanics
In the post, the owner says the shop offered to give them a ride home and return the Mazda 3 to their house once the alignment was finished. But the owner wouldn’t be home when they dropped off the vehicle, so they agreed to have the shop leave the receipt in the glove box and pay the next day.
The owner got home around 5 p.m. that day and found the bill in the glove box, as they had agreed. That’s when they noticed the receipt listed additional repairs, including the control arm and ball joint replacement.
According to the owner, both parties verbally agreed to the original $100 alignment estimate, and the owner said the shop never provided paperwork for them to sign. If they had known the parts needed to be replaced, the owner said they would’ve sourced the parts themselves and had their wife handle the replacement.
Users Gave Some Interesting Insight
The owner said they were going back to the shop first thing the next day but didn’t want to ruin their relationship with them. They asked others if this was normal for a repair shop and what they should do next.
One commenter, who said they worked at a repair shop, said this was not a normal situation. Whenever someone brings a car into their shop, they sign the initial estimate for the service they brought the car in for. If additional work is needed, the customer must approve an updated repair order.
Another commenter said that some places have laws requiring customer approval when repair costs exceed the original estimate by a certain amount. The exact requirements depend on the location.
The Owner Gives an Update
The post was eventually updated, and the owner said their wife didn’t see any new metal around the control arm and ball joint area. So they’re now fairly confident the parts weren’t replaced and that the issue may have been with the receipt rather than unauthorized repairs.
There were no further updates to the post at the time of writing, so it’s still unclear what happened at the shop, why the additional charges appeared on the receipt, or whether it was simply a mistake.