Does this service bill look fair?

[gfuller]

Hey guys, I just wanted to get your opinion on a bill I received/paid for a timing belt replacement on a Yanmar 6LP-STE.

As you can see, the total bill was $2017.47 for parts and labor. The labor was billed for 11.5 hours. The job took the mechanic 4 hours. I called the boat yard to ask why I'm being billed for 11.5 hours of work when he was only there for 4 hours (I also had to drive over an hour round trip to get a belt they forgot). When I asked what the other 7.5 hours of labor were for, the owner of the marina stated that it was for "estimate preparation" and "parts lookup".

Please share your thoughts on this and let me know if you think I was treated fairly as a new customer. Seeing this was onsite work, I paid in full ($1800) before the work started and then they added an additional $217 and ran my card for that without my authorization for what appears to be shipping charges for the Yanmar parts and????

[Serenity]

I had the timing belt replaced for $1400 ( 6 hours labor @ $125) and the valves adjusted, parts and labor, including bay test for $650. Total was $2230.00. It appears the labor rate is higher than Long Island

[Halcyon]

Back in 2014 I paid less than $2,000 for TWO timing belt replacements including tensioners and new air heaters.

SKMBT_C364e17050311000.pdf

[Pitou]

The upside: The job is done and your onward for the season with your new boat.

The downside: 7.5 hours to source parts is thievery, but without a written estimate prior to the work beginning it's hard to fight the bill without putting a stop pay with your credit card company on at least the unauthorized charge.

If it took them that long to prepare an estimate and source such a small job they're thieves or incompetent. It should have only taken 30 minutes for a mechanic to prepare the parts list and a desk jockey maybe 30 to 45 minutes tops to lookup part numbers and make the phone call to order parts, especially as they're a "Yanmar Gold Plus Dealer". $80 to $90 might be fair, but not $675 at a mechanics rate. Everything else on that bill looks okay. The only other yard I've heard of charging for estimates and sourcing through their parts dept. as "project management" has two yards located mid-coast. This practice is not the industry standard.

With the improving economy it looks like a few yards up your way are now employing an attitude of "let's fleece the customer"!

I's consider going a little further south to Kittery Point Yacht Yard for your future service work as they are also Yanmar dealers and stay away from 40N, 70W.

Get yourself on the water ASAP and find some peace that only being on a boat can bring.

[gfuller]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't want to think I was being unreasonable. I did let them know how I felt about the bill and they refunded $217 (the extra charge) which was better than nothing.

Kevin - you make a good point. The boat is on the water and at least we can enjoy it now... or the week after next when it finally stops raining! Thank you for the recommendation in Kittery, I'll look into them for sure as I'm certainly not going back to Yankee.

This group is awesome. Thank you all.