Learn About the Service Department

Is An Appointment Needed?

Appointments are highly recommended for the fastest turnaround. We make appointments for the day and guarantee your vehicle will be worked on the day of the appointment. This is very popular and appointments are often booked-up a week in advance.

Making appointments involves turning down other potential clients once we reach capacity for a day. We ask that you call to cancel any appointment you cannot keep.

We also invite you to drop in or to have your vehicle towed in whenever you need to. If you do not have to have the vehicle looked at on the day you drop it, we often can work it in among appointments. This may take a few days but is often a lot sooner. If we get ahead of schedule or someone cancels an appointment any vehicles left with us are put into the first available spot.

How Much Is the Diagnosis?

We bill for diagnosis, like all work performed by Royal, by the amount of time spent, or actual time billing. Our service rate is $160.00 per hour and we bill in 1/10 hour increments. For example:

0.1 hour is $16.00

0.2 hour is $32.00

0.3 hour is $48.00

0.4 hour is $64.00

0.5 hour is $80.00

and so on.

Because we are highly trained, well equipped and work as fast as possible our prices are quite reasonable. Many diagnoses take an hour or less. The client is also always free to set an amount, at which time we will stop and call with our findings. At this point we can also normally predict accurately how much additional time might be required, if any.

Our clients have come to like this method very much. It not only saves money, it also fixes vehicles right the first time. We think you will agree, Royal, it's the place to go.

Why we don't quote prices without seeing the Vehicle

One of the largest and most persistent complaints against the auto repair trade is a lack of trust. Largely this stems from being quoted a price and then being charged another, usually much higher price. There are many places that use this tactic on a regular basis. The fact is, without knowing what is wrong with the vehicle there is no way to quote a price.

Instead, Royal Ford will perform a professional inspection, an accurate diagnosis and then give you an exact price, before any other work is done. The best part is we charge only for the actual time we spend checking the vehicle. No guesswork, no deceitful practices, no surprises, just a great job, done right the first time and at a fair price.

Pick-up and Drop-off options

Royal Ford has several provisions for "early bird" or after hours pick up and drop off of vehicles. In our three overhead doors is a mail or key drop. This can be helpful when dropping off a vehicle before hours. Since Royal ford pre-writes appointments, you only need to attach your name.

If you did not make an appointment, please also provide your phone number(s) and the things you would like us to check on your vehicle. You can also drop your vehicle off the evening before it is to be worked on. If you like, you can also pick up the following day or at your convenience.

Leave your receipt in there for after hours pick up, a lot of folks like to pay , online by a link that is text to you after the work is completed or by phone. If you have another set of keys we can lock your keys in the vehicle and you can pick up at your convenience or you can pick up the keys later, if you prefer. Out of town clients can also pay by online if they prefer.

Some of our regular clients also leave a set of keys with us. This way they can drop off whenever they like and we can simply leave the vehicle locked out front when finished.

At Royal, our job is to make your vehicle repair as convenient as possible.

Actual Billing Time

With most things, it is taken for granted that the price listed is the price that will be charged. For instance, if a piece of meat is listed as $8.00 per pound and weighs one half pound, the cost will be $4.00 This may seem like common sense.

At Royal Ford we agree, this is common sense, we sell professional service by the hour. If we spend one-half hour, we bill for one half-hour, at a pre-quoted rate. In most cases we can very accurately estimate the time required, once we have examined the problem. This is how we estimate cost. We diagnose the problem with the vehicle, determining the extent of the repair and the time required. With this, and based on our experience we can now quote a price that is fair to all concerned. Should the repair take less time than expected, we charge for the actual time spent.

There are sometimes cases where the amount of time cannot be known before checking further. Such a case might be diagnosing a check engine light. In these cases we quote a range or let the client set a limit. When the limit is reached, we stop and report exactly what we know at that point. In most cases we will also be able to predict how much longer we are going to need.

Our customers love our billing methods and find it saves them a great deal of money. We feel it addresses one of the largest problems in the auto repair trade, the practice of "flat rate" billing. With flat rate billing, a guide is used to determine how many hours are to be billed. The client then pays this amount without regard to how long the vehicle is actually worked on. For instance if two hours is specified, two hours is billed, even if the job is done in one hour.

We feel this is wrong and encourages shortcuts and in some cases dishonesty. We feel this is a root cause of the lack of trust so many have for the auto repair trade. It also has a profound effect on the people who work under the system. When people are bribed with cheese, they may start acting irrationally with a bribe with additional time. Our thought is, actual time billing is a far more accurate and honest way of doing business. Our clients agree and we think you will too. Honest, actual time billing, we think it's an idea that is past due.