I'll start this by saying by my Disco has very rarely ever been to a shop for work. Only went in because I didn't want to fight with the lower ball joints. Had a couple of other things to put on a list, bill came to $2.5k.

Took a long time to get my car back. Over 2 weeks, after saying it would be a couple of days.

Collected car, cursory look underneath, everything looked fine. Drove 5 miles back to work.

Hour later noticed leaking fluid at both ends of axles. Gear oil from diff.

(On top of that the shop left some other customers key in my car, and their are a couple of dirty stains on my material door cards.)

Called shop, came to collect and said 'will have a look'.

Dude explained that they don't change axle seals as standard when removing axles for work, and that old seals might have got damaged when reassembling.

How annoyed should I be? Is this "one of those things"? Owner states he will see what the labor rate is to fix and will talk to me then.

Should I be expecting to pay 50% of the required work? 0%? Is it all my fault? Just parts?

As I say, my car never goes to the shop, I learn and do things myself, buy tools if needed to get a job done. The first time I trust someone else with it (and pay a significant % of its value)......... Grrr.

 

Both ends leaking sounds to me like neglectful work. I've had axles out countless times without damaging those seals. Furthermore, if they are not a standard replacement item they should still be a standard inspection item, and if they were near their end they should have offered replacement. I would offer to pay for parts which is like $15/seal and want the labor for free, personally.

The damage to your interior is also irritating. Sounds like this shop does not take great care with customer vehicles. Up to you if you want to pursue having them have those cleaned or replaced.

What were the "couple of other things?" $2500 is a hell of a lot for ball joints and "a couple other things."

 

Both upper and lower ball joints.
Both rear hub/bearings assemblies.
Drain and fill trans.
Alignment.

My instinct is also parts only.

Dude was very much - "It's not your fault, its not my fault. Lets see what it takes and we'll talk."

 

They supply parts I assume? That could be reasonable depending on the parts cost.

 

I'm hoping that they only charge me for parts to do the work (plus 1 hour to pull them out and knock new ones in). Not charge me for labor to go back to where they were 2 days ago + parts.

I would have expected them to suggest swapping cheap axle seal while in there, which is a no-brainer decision for any client.

I'm assuming this is a more common issue with garage work than just my case.

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation, with a LR or anything else?

 

I have been lucky. I generally do my own work but sometimes I am busy or it is an AC system. Since I do most of my own work, I don't really have a regular relationship with a garage.

Here are the tells. Look for a place that always is over-flowing with cars, but the cars change every few days. Then call them with something relatively straightforward that won't disable your car to see "when they can get you in" Ideally it will be a week or two out. These are signs that they are trusted and have lots of repeat and word of mouth business.

Reading your situation, if I had to pay full labor for seals that either they ruined or just didn't notice were bad, I would go elsewhere. If they offer to cover the labor....Hard call honestly. I still might go elsewhere. What else might they mess up.

 

So, this played out. We came to an agreement that he covered the labor to go back to where they were in the job, in order to swap the seals. I'll pay the labor for that work + parts.