Getting paid without the argument: what to record before you touch the car

Most arguments over a workshop bill are won or lost before the car goes up on the lift. If you can show what the customer agreed to, and when, you get paid. If you cannot, the law is on his side, and it is on his side for almost every job you do.

That is not because customers are dishonest. Most of them are not. It is because a conversation at the counter on a Tuesday morning is remembered differently by the time the bill arrives on Friday.

Why do bills turn into arguments?

You know how it goes. The customer drops the car off and says the brakes are making a noise. You tell him it is probably pads, maybe discs, “around two thousand, depending”. You open it up and the calliper is seized. You phone him, he says “do what you have to do”, and on Friday the bill is R4,800.

Now he remembers “around two thousand”. He does not remember the phone call the way you do. His brother-in-law says you should never have gone ahead without asking. And you are standing at the counter with a car you have already fixed, parts you have already paid for, and nothing to point to except your word.

Nobody in that story is lying. The problem is that the agreement only ever existed in two people’s memories, and memories drift in the direction of whoever is paying.

What does the law actually say?

The Consumer Protection Act deals with this directly, in section 15, and most workshop owners have never been shown the wording. In plain terms:

You may only charge for repair or maintenance work if the customer agreed to it in one of three ways. Either you gave him an estimate and he then authorised the work. Or he declined an estimate, in writing or some other recorded form, and authorised the work anyway. Or he set a maximum, “go ahead up to R3,000”, and you stayed under it.

The estimate itself is free, unless you agreed a fee first. You may not charge for preparing an estimate, including the diagnosis and the stripping and refitting it took, unless you told him the price of the estimate beforehand and he accepted it.

You may not go over the estimate without asking. If the job turns out bigger, you have to tell him what the extra will cost and get his go-ahead before you continue.

It applies to practically everything. The threshold for section 15 is set at R1, excluding VAT. There is no “small job” exemption worth talking about.

The regulations also say what a proper estimate contains: a breakdown and a total of what will be charged, how long the estimate is valid, and how long the customer has to collect the car and what happens if he does not.

None of this is new. It has been the law since 2011. What it means in practice is simple: when the bill is disputed, the question is not whether the work was needed. It is whether he agreed to pay for it.

The five things to record before you touch the car

None of these takes long. Together they turn “my word against his” into something you can show.

1. The car as it arrived. Mileage, fuel level, warning lights on the dash, and any damage that is already there. A few photos on your phone at the counter, before the keys leave his hand, settle most “that scratch wasn’t there” conversations before they start.

2. What he asked for, in his words. “Noise from the front left when braking” is better than “brakes”. If he only asked you to look at the brakes, you have not been asked to do the clutch, however badly it needs doing.

3. Which of the three routes he chose. An estimate, a ceiling, or no estimate. And if you charge for diagnosis, the fee and the fact that he accepted it, before anyone picks up a spanner.

4. The estimate itself. The breakdown, the total, how long it stands, and the collection terms. Handwritten is fine. What matters is that it exists and he saw it.

5. How he said yes, and when. A signature, a reply to a message, a tick on a form. The date and time matter. A written “yes, go ahead” is far easier to show later than your memory of a phone call.

What about the phone call halfway through the job?

This is where most of the arguments actually start, because it is the moment the job changes and the paperwork usually does not.

When you find the seized calliper, stop. Tell him what you found, what it will add, and what happens if he says no. Then get his answer in a form you can show. If you phone him, which is often fastest, follow it with a short message: “As discussed, replacing the front left calliper, R1,650 extra, total now R4,800. Please reply YES to go ahead.” Wait for the reply before you carry on.

It feels like an extra step on a busy day. It is also the step that decides whether Friday is a payment or an argument.

After the job: two rules that protect you as well

Old parts go back to the customer. Section 67 says the parts you remove must be kept apart and returned to him in a reasonably clean container, unless he says he does not want them. Warranty and insurance work are different: there, the parts go where the warrantor or insurer tells you. Showing a customer the worn pads is also the quickest way to explain a bill.

What you fit carries a three-month warranty. Under section 57, every new or reconditioned part you install, and the labour to fit it, is warranted for three months, or longer if you put a longer period in writing. That warranty does not cover misuse or ordinary wear and tear. Which is another reason to know exactly what you fitted, with part numbers, and on what date. When a car comes back in month two, the record is what tells you whether it is your problem.

The same habit pays off well beyond the counter. If you want warranty and service plan work, which independent workshops are allowed to do (see our piece on servicing in-warranty cars), the people paying for it will ask for exactly this kind of record before they pay you.

What to do this week

You do not need a system to start. You need a habit.

• Make a one-page check-in sheet. Mileage, fuel, warning lights, existing damage, what the customer asked for, which of the three routes he chose, and a line for his signature. Print a stack and keep it at the counter.
• Make one rule for the workshop: no spanner without a yes. Nobody starts work, or extra work, until the yes is recorded somewhere.
• Photograph the car at the counter. Four corners and the dashboard. Thirty seconds.
• Keep the messages. The “YES, go ahead” text is worth more than any argument you will ever win at the counter.

Most customers will never ask to see any of it. But the ones who do are the ones who were going to cost you the most, and now the conversation is short.

SymplTorque builds workshop management software for South African independent workshops. This article is general information about the Consumer Protection Act and is not legal advice. If you have a specific dispute, speak to a qualified attorney or contact the National Consumer Commission.

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Sources: Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, section 15, pre-authorisation of repair or maintenance services · Threshold for pre-authorisation of repair or maintenance services, regulations · Consumer Protection Act, section 57, warranty on repaired goods · Consumer Protection Act, section 67, return of parts and materials · National Consumer Commission, explanatory note on section 15(3), estimates for repairs and services