I just got my airplane back from annual, and one of the issues I had reported was a rough left mag (Bendix dual mag). I dropped the airplane off on a Monday for the quoted one week inspection, and on Thursday they called me to let me know they could not diagnose the mag issue without opening it. Since they don’t perform mag maintenance, they asked if I would like it sent to a mag shop for overhaul at a cost of €1k. This seemed very reasonable, so I immediately agreed.
Two and a half weeks later the shop called to say the mags were back (Tuesday), and they would install the next day and do a ground run (Wednesday). They called me mid-day Wednesday to say everything checked out, and I picked it up Thursday morning. So the airplane was in the shop with the mags a total of 4 working days, during which they also completed the 32-hour annual inspection.
A few days later I got a bill, with a €2300 line item for the overhaul and another 28 hours of labor for magneto inspection, for a total of >€5k. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a few hours for removal, installation, and testing, but I can’t understand what would require 28 hours and even when in that time period they could have performed so much labor. And in any case, more than doubling the overhaul bill and spending 28 hours after quoting 1k (with zero communication about it or expectation management) seems crazy.
Now I feel a bit stuck, because on the one hand I don’t want to refuse to pay a bill for work actually performed, but on the other hand I agreed to do the overhaul based on the 1k price. Had I known it would be 5x that amount I would have asked more questions before just committing.
Thoughts on how to handle this?
What was the overhaul shop’s diagnosis of the mag problem?
They didn’t offer a diagnosis.
dutch_flyer wrote:
I can’t understand what would require 28 hours and even when in that time period they could have performed so much labor
Neither can I, there’s something fishy here.
First suggestion, pick-up the phone, and/or just go and visit the shop, and ask for some explanation. Be sure to understand which part of the bill covers the mags work, and which the annual. And don’t pay anything until the matter is cleared up. Ask for the work report of the mag shop, there must be one.
For information, troubleshooting and mag(s) removal, 1-2hr.
Installation, timing test, another hour. That would be on your maintenance org.
They sure should have informed you, and the shop doing the mag(s) work inform them beforehand. Still, 28 hours, even overhauling both mags, is plainly not possible.
Not sure what the legal frame in NL is, but there surely is a limit to how much an allowance as such can be exceeded.
Overhauled Bendix mags retail for <1K$…
A friendly conversation may reveal an error in the invoice, which could be for many reasons.
Obviously for your sake, I hope that’s the case.
This happened to me, too. Was quoted 800 for overhaul, that sounded astonishingly cheap. Later the bill was wayyy higher, however I have intentionally forgotten the amount (if not these are reasons why I could sell the plane one day) Started a thread here in October about that, but my resume of the replies here is that that was the way it is.
28 hours for magneto inspection? That’s 3-1/2 days labor and completely nuts. After a half day they should have given up and committed to overhaul, instead of wasting time. The ridiculous amount of time wasted should now be at their cost.
To me it’s another lesson in why one should source your own parts and overhauls independent of the mechanic doing installation and removal. Then ideally physically watch the guy doing the work. Also skip the field “inspection” completely in most cases. Just remove, send it out for fixed price overhaul (or submit as a core) and replace.
Thanks for the input. You are all validating what I suspected but didn’t know for sure. Now I can speak more intelligently when I call them.
On a different angle: even if you are faced with somebody who you think has not been honest, it is a good idea to give him a ladder to climb down on with dignity. So call him and suggest that maybe a mistake has been made 
Peter wrote:
On a different angle: even if you are faced with somebody who you think has not been honest, it is a good idea to give him a ladder to climb down on with dignity. So call him and suggest that maybe a mistake has been made
Wise words.
“Looks like a mistake was made on my invoice. It’s marked as 28 hours for a mags overhaul, which is obviously a mistake. I suspect it was 2.8 hours and the decimal point was just missed by whoever was doing up the invoice. I was quoted €1K” 
