WAGS WELLINGTON AUTOMOTIVE GEARBOX SPECIALISTS

I don't recommend WAGS to anyone. The way they went about conducting business with me was atrocious.
I originally went to Diesel and Turbo, because I thought the noise which was coming from my gearbox was the Turbo. The guys at Diesel and Turbo were really good and managed to diagnose the Gearbox issue straight away and gave… me a write up of what was wrong with it.

I had my Ute towed home from diesel and turbo and did some ringing around to see how I would go about fixing/replacing my gearbox. I went into WAGS and showed the guy my jobsheet from Diesel and Turbo which specified the problem with the gearbox and I asked for a quote. The guy said $1500.

I then showed him an Auction on trademe for a rebuilt gearbox for $1750 and asked what his opinion was around me buying that gearbox and having it fitted by WAGS. He encouraged me to not go with the gearbox from Trademe because the costs would be less if I were to have WAGS rebuild it + WAGS offer a warranty for their rebuilds.

This is the point at which I should have asked for a written quote and not just taken his word for it when he quoted me $1500 verbally.

So I had my ute towed to WAGS and they began to tear down the gearbox. About $500 into the job I get a call from James(not the same guy who dealt with me originally) and he said that they have "diagnosed" the issue and that now it's going to cost $2700! I went into WAGS to talk to them about it. I asked why they didn't mention that it could cost this much at the beginning and they responded with "we didn't realize the engine was designed this way".... You'd think they would have checked the engine make and model first when quoting me the $1500?? I asked "Is this $2700 going to be final costs? are their definitely not going to be any other costs?" and the guy responded with "$2700 is the drive away costs, there will be no other costs." ...Wait, it gets worse.

So At this point I consider going with my old plan to order the reconditioned gearbox from Trademe and have that fitted, however WAGS were already $500 into the job. So they put me in between a rock and a hard place by luring me in with the cheap quote, racking up a $500 bill before announcing to me that they were going to be charging me $2700 now. I was hamstrung. I could have got the gearbox from trademe but paying for that($1750) + installation (~$900) + the $500 I already owed them for "diagnosing" the issue which Diesel and Turbo had already done. I decided to let them just finish the job at $2700 seeing as it was going to cost about the same plus what I had to pay WAGS.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, about two weeks later I receive a phone call from WAGS (thinking they'd finished the job for pickup) NOPE!! They were calling to tell me that there was yet another "unforeseen expense" they wanted to let me know about!!! Apparently they had to drop the front differential and remove the oil pan to access some seal otherwise there was a "high chance of a leak".... They told me it would be an extra $400 + GST to have this done. Once again I was hamstrung and had no choice really other than to give in and say do the work because obviously I didn't want an oil leak.

So at this point I am estimating the price to be $2700 + $400 = $3100... I waited about another week or so, so all up around 4 weeks for this job to be completed. I called asking how long it would take they kept saying the next day then calling me the next day to tell me it would have to wait till the day after that...

Eventually I get a phone call saying it's ready for pickup.

I go in and ask how it all went and he said good and proceeded to print off the jobsheet and handed it to me... $3,621.04!!! He charged me $3,621.04 and I was shocked. I hit him up about the quote he gave me for $2700 and mentioned that he told me that was the drive away costs and he just started denying that he ever said that and points to the GST column on my Tax invoice and tried to blame GST. I only had $3500 at the time, that was literally everything I had and I asked If I could pay the remaining $121.04 a week later and he had the cheek to say "No we have a blanket policy that all outstanding payments must be paid in full before customer can drive vehicle away" so he held my Ute hostage for $121.04 after mucking me around with the quotes 3 or 4 times and showed no sympathy whatsoever. I ended up borrowing the remaining $121.04 and took my Ute later that day...

Gearbox is not perfect either, First and third feel really hard to engage into and even my local mechanic said that WAGS have a bad reputation in the industry.

My advice for anyone who wants to go to WAGS? DONT!!

But if you MUST! - GET A WRITTEN QUOTE, DON'T JUST TAKE THEIR WORD FOR IT.

With a written quote you will have the ability to take them to court if they try this on with you.

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