I find it very worrying that Renault cannot manage clear menu pricing.
Indeed they should be able to advise almost exactly how much a particular job is going to cost because they have time schedules for every task... not just so they can quote customers but primarily in order that they can make warranty claims. Manufacturers only reimburse warranty based upon the labour time according to a fixed schedule... it puts the onus back on the dealership to ensure that they have fully trained service engineers plus any special tools required to do the job within the prescribed time otherwise the excess time and therefore cost is at the dealership's expense.
However, as with most things it still comes down to people so if you happen not to get to talk to the right one then you often don't get the right outcome. A worrying phenomenon I have found amongst car dealerships in general, not just Renault dealers, is that they seem to put people on the service desks who's knowledge is poor to non-existant. My nearest Renault dealer has a young girl on the service counter (I'm not being sexist here because there are plenty of women who do have mechanical knowledge)...she tries to be helpful (and looks rather nice) but is about as bright as a glow-worm's armpit when it comes to cars.... so what chance is there of her being able to understand the problem sufficiently well to be able to translate that on to a job card that the service engineer can use to work on your vehicle? Needless to say I took my car there once and have since travelled a further 25 miles to another Renault dealer that has people who know what you are talking about.
Going back to menu pricing.... In the Renault dealerships I've visited they have a board on the wall behind the service counter with standard prices for standard jobs for each model. The last time I looked at the price for changing a timing belt on an Espace it was, I seem to remember, £360 as Jag was quoted..... but you also have to notice the little word in front of the price which states "from". So maybe that dealer simply gave Jag the "from" price instead of the "to" price because it obviously varies by particular model and engine..... it comes back to the people thing again.... if they aren't clued up enough about the products they sell and service to realise that different variants have different prices for the "same" job then is there any wonder you get prices from the menu but only get priced for a starter but with no main course or sweet trolley?
The sad thing is that I'm not sure that I feel any better for having had that rant!!!!
Martin