I spent time reading your post. Please Paypal me 10 CHF for this effort. Same goes for others posting on here.

Thanks

You chose to read the posts of your own free will, if somebody had asked you to read them it would be another matter.

When I bought my current car and needed some things sorted (which I exactly knew about) I just emailed about 9 garages, went personally to some 3 others and got all quotes for free (none of them had a problem delivering the quotes for free, the ones where I went in person did it on the spot in 10 min). However, before that, I had the car inspected (prior to buying) at a garage and paid 120chf for the service.

So, for me it's clear: car in the garage, being worked on (or inspected) = bill. Asking for a quote for an itemized list of services = free.

@jmf - good plan!

Before this incident - I was relatively naive to dealing with garages. So, question to you is ... so, you show up at one of the 3 garages and the mechanic doesn't say, "yeah, let me make a quote," but rather he says, "we'll need to take a look" giving you a fairly reasonable and technical reason.

I heard (on my subsequent visit - cause the story is long and twisted), "leave the car here cause we'll have to put the car up to see what part number exactly needs to be ordered." Had I not already been initiated into this stuff, I would have said, "yes, sir."

So, good for you, but what do you say when the mechanic tells you that you'll need to leave the car for them to give you an estimate?

Normally, to form a legal contract, there must be a mutual intention to enter into that contract.

Another example might be if I went to a friends house for dinner and at the end he asked if I wanted to try an expensive vintage whisky. If I answer yes and later he invoices me for a glass. OK. I did know it was expensive and I did ask for it, but I expected it would be free and part of his hospitality.

If you had the conversation in a Pub I could see your point, however the garage is offering a service by being there & being open, by accepting their offer to look at the car you have entered a contract to take a look on their standard business terms, you don't have to do the work there however they can charge for their time.

Don't assume anything in a a foreign country.

BTW do you have a car?

Simples: "how much would this cost?"

Option number two, if you don't want to leave the car: ask for a range (best/worst case scenarios). Surely any competent mechanic can tell you this without looking at the car.

Sorry, it's purely need-to-know

Ok this is from a study about garage estimates done in 2002 by A Bon Entendeur a TV Programme that is the reference for Consumer Rights in the french speaking part of Switzerland:

http://www.tsr.ch/emissions/abe/quot...es-a-bloc.html

Translation:
In principle a cost estimate is free of charge unless the customer was told in advance that it would be charged and how much it would cost. It is only at this condition that you would need to pay for it. Out of 14 garages tested we got 8 cost estimates free of charge, 2 cases of cost estimates where we were informed in advance of the cost and 4 cases of cost estimates that were charged without forewarning.

So irrelevant that the car was looked at (or not), irrelevant that you know exactly what work needs to be done (or not) the only cost estimates that can be charged are the ones where you were informed in advance of the price.

It's a pity that article doesn't supply source links to the consumer protection rights/laws i.e.: article numbers of laws which support their claim.

The OP would definitely have 2 feet to stand on in his argument with the garage over wether or not they have the right to charge him for a quote.

And lets not forget that was aired back in 2002, no telling what's been changed since then. Hopefully stronger consumer protection rights.

I would be very very surprised if this has changed.

I doubt there is any specific law about this. It is surely based on tradition and on the Art. 184 CO (which states that for a sales contract to be valid the buyer has to agree to pay the price set by the seller).

Thanks. This is also in line with my point above : there was no valid contract on which the invoice could be based.

By the way everything here for cars is very expensive, I brought my car with me, well not quite it came in a container and I came in a plane!! but i needed to change the lights to the correct dipping side so garage quote (over the phone - no charge for the estimate - was 300 per light plus fitting! so thats over 800 i guess at least. So as its a Korean car, I got a quote through family in Korea and the lights there cost 125k Won, thats about 100CHF, I bought them, shipped them, fitting by me, thats 3 bolts and one connector to undo, 10 minutes per light. total cost about 250CHF. Sometimes thinking outside the square saves money here.

Here's an article from K-tipp (consumer watch magazine) which discusses the large difference in prices between various garages and they also touch on the subject of estimates.

Hinzu kommt, dass ein Kostenvoranschlag nicht überall gratis ist. Viele Garagisten erstatten dessen Kosten dem Kunden nur zurück, wenn sie auch den Auftrag erhalten.


roughly translated:

In addition, estimates are not always free. Many garage owners will refund the customer's expense (estimate) only if the garage receives the contract to preform the work.


Unfortunately the article fails to say if the garage has the right to charge for the estimate without first informing the customer that such estimates come with a price.

source: http://www.ktipp.ch/themen/beitrag/1...s-Unterschiede

I think auto mechanic company did a great job on your car, they charge even less than market price because some auto mechanic charge 100$ per hour and they even don’t tell you what they have fixed in your car, I think you got lucky.

no one charges in $ in switzerland