Shop trying to charge me more labor after I've paid the invoice?

Invoice is nothing significant legally, issued only by one side of the contract. It may only have a meaning for the conclusion when it is accompanied by the copy of the original contract where the both parties agreed on what it was all about and AND the receipt of the money paid. The contract is concluded only if all the terms are satisfied: services rendered were satisfactorily performed AND what was agreed on for the exchange of the services was provided too (payment).
What some of you don't grasp is that you pay for what you agreed on the contract. Invoice is a mere reminder. You ought to pay with or without being invoiced.
Ethics is your measurement how good a partner in a business you are. If you're ok to screw TA, I have no guarantees that you won't screw me.

The hours of labour prior to work done at any repair shop are estimated and not bounding. If they exceed the original projected number unreasonably then you might object but if they are coherent with reality than you must pay. If they are omitted on the invoice, by error or oversight, and then they still want to collect, then you must pay.

 

Those of you who say don't pay even if it is legit are probably the same ones who are happy to drive off after not paying for the fuel because Mary Sunshine Lou at the fuel desk failed and errored to charge your card correctly. Is that not the same?

 

Careful not to fall off your high horse... it could hurt from that elevation.

 

There is a saying:
"If you are to fall off, it had better be from a high horse".

 

Okay, I think we have 2 things going on, a repair facility clearly trying make up for some previous loss, and whether or not to pay said invoice. The biggest lesson here, like I said, if you are going to engage in these kinds of business actions, where you are dependent on their services, sometimes with no other choice, like my mom used to say, "pay the 2 dollars and move on". Okay, mom was bit behind the times, but it's the lesson that SHOULD be learned here. These facilities have such a huge overheard, they literally HAVE to come up with bogus charges, because, amazingly, the "regular charge" wasn't enough. All you can do, is "pay the 2 dollars" and never go there again. Many newer drivers today have no idea what makes the truck tick, and ANY problem at all, no matter how minor, gets forwarded to some big faceless company, and they pay the bill without questioning. It's part of THEIR business. And to a point, that's okay, I'm not crying for PAM, it's when an O/O comes in, and gets that same treatment, is when the problems come up. It's never been any different, unscrupulous repair has been around forever. It was up to you to know the difference between a good mechanic and a gouger. I did most the work on my truck, but saw some lose their shirt, because they paid the dealer for everything, and didn't last, and THAT WAS 20 YEARS AGO!!!

 

If the OP would come back and say what all he had done then we’d be able to guess if $1700 in labor is reasonable or not. I’m thinking since he hasn’t been back to say then maybe he knows the labor charge was less than it should’ve been on his original bill.

 

I think he knows whether or not it was worked on 5 hours or 12 hours(rough estimates) whether its legal or not for him to pay, I cant answer that. Ethically morally, if they did work on his truck longer than they charged and he knows it, then id pay it.

He's asking whether its "right" not legal.

 

He said $700 which if the $4000 was only parts, the 700 would mean 5-6 labor hours, which is not uncommon or unreasonable.

 

And I am suprised so many don't have an issue saying it is ok based on the TA/Petro poor quality reputation and their dislike alone.

Maybe it is not right to go to place that is known for providing poor quality service for higher than desired charges, and hope for getting away without paying them in the first place.

I can agree that most of the time it is tempting but it is not right.

 

Right, but his original invoice had a labor charge of over $900 on it. It’s not unbelievable to think maybe he had a couple different things done or maybe a couple different people worked on it and he was only charged for part of the labor.

If they did make an honest mistake then that is their fault for not catching the mistake before he paid. If it is a legit charge and they made a mistake I know how I would handle it because I wouldn’t want to sit around waiting for karma to come bite me back.

 

If I specifically remind them and they don't charge I view it as a gift. After all they have one job at that point. That's to make sure they ring everything up. It's not my job to do theirs.
Last weekend I had this happen actually. Got a sheet of plywood, 10 2x4's and some misc hardware. Cashier only rang up 1 2x4. I didn't notice until I was home and looked at the receipt. Should I go back to Home Depot and pay for the 2x4's? Of course not. It's not me that made the mistake so it's not my problem to fix.