Pity poor Robin, the car mechanic in RTÉ's Fair City. She suffered the worst fate of any professional, accused, albeit wrongly, of faulty workmanship.
Taking a car to a mechanic is the same as using any other professional, be it a doctor, solicitor or hairdresser. The work is as good as the person doing the job.
Thankfully, it's rare enough to hear of lessons hard-learned. Still, it's not unknown to come across drivers speculating, rightly or wrongly, that the mechanic might have been a little over-enthusiastic in the standard service and unneccesarily replaced the wiper blades and washer fluid.
Of course the opposite is much worse, and tales of mistakenly overlooked brake pads or air filters cleaned instead of replaced seem to be the stuff of history.
On the other hand, going by BBC documentaries, replacement parts have been a big problem in Britain. Angry customers complained they were charged for more expensive car-company-branded brake pads, spark plugs, air filters or fuel filters, but when they checked, the parts bore generic names like Mann, Mhale, NGK, or worst of all, looked second-hand.
A reader we spoke to told us how she took her car to be serviced at a local repair shop. When she collected it, the mechanic berated her for the standard of the brake pads, showing her a worn one he had replaced. He claimed he had replaced them all.
Afterwards, braking quality still seemed poor and three weeks later her brother examined the brake pads, only to discover that the supposedly newly-fitted pads were in fact virtually worn out. When she went back to the garage it had closed up.
Some of the highest price differentials between officially branded parts and the cheaper ones, bearing the original manufacturer's name only, occur with fuel injection pumps, that might need replacing every 40,000 miles, and air flow meters, according to one mechanic.
Of course, very few people probably go to the trouble of checking the part against the invoice and with things like the CV joints and oil change, it's very hard or impossible to tell if the cheaper or more expensive product was used, although when it comes to the oil, you always want the best, he says.
But for anyone buying a service, it's the labour costs that are of greatest interest. Main dealers work from standard average times for each job.Like the accountant working on a set of accounts, fully-qualified staff should be much quicker than the apprentice. However, you will never really know how long either spends on the job. So while the better man might do the job, it probably won't cost you less if he is quicker.
Labour rates in garages have increased lately, with more expensive insurance, equipment and staff training, and some now charge up to €100 per hour plus VAT. Smaller shops or independent mechanics with fewer overheads tend to be cheaper.
Probably because estimates for a job can vary, some of the insurance companies have insisted their aligned body shops use a new computer system with common parts and labour rates when estimating repairs. Of course, the customer may still use his own mechanic.
The key thing is that the customer believes they are getting value for money, which is quality work at the right price. But the pitfalls of service and repair are limited only to the parts of the car, the labour quality and costs, and the VAT calculations on the invoice.
There is no doubt that in the tiny number of cases when a professional has poor standards, the aces are stacked against most customers. When it comes to cars, it would be interesting to know if there is a difference when the customer is male or female, although what's certain is those who appear to know less are more vulnerable.
One Motors' reader described how while at college in Texas, she took her uncle's F150 truck for a typical monthly oil change. She was told the timing belt also needed to be replaced at a cost of $90 or "the truck would suddenly blow up while driving".
It was two years old with 10,000 miles and had recently been serviced. Suspecting that it was only in films where modern cars suddenly blow up of their-own accord, she had the mechanic phone her uncle, by way of a second opinion.
He owned a trucking company and believed that while a snapped timing belt is very serious, most should last the lifetime of the vehicle or certainly 90,000 miles, and no wear and tear showed up at a recent service. The mechanic acquiesced and merely said changing the oil should be enough.
Of course, it's not always possible to get a second opinion. Thankfully, in general, it seems customers are content with the service they receive or at least reported complaints are very low. If a customer is unhappy with any of the 1,200 SIMI members, they can go to its complaints service.
It took 1,500 calls last year, and most were sorted simply by the complaints officer, says chief executive Cyril McHugh. According to its annual report, 170 calls became official complaints and of these, 70 went to mediation or needed a recommendation from SIMI's tribunal, which is binding on the member garage.
The Consumers' Association receives about 250 calls a year on car repair and service.
Most are from customers chasing the repair on a recurring fault in a new car, sometimes for weeks, according to chief executive Dermot Jewel.
Although the number of complaints is minuscule compared to the volume of new car sales, it becomes a bigger problem if allowed to extend beyond the warranty period.
Cases that go to court usually involve an expert witness, such as a consultant engineer, to assess the work and apportion blame.
Jewel says that customers never seem to complain about the price of servicing new cars under warranty as they see it as an unavoidable cost.
George Campbell of the Transport Engineering Department at DIT, Bolton Street, suggests that people should familiarise themselves with the recommended service intervals for the car as well as with what the service entails and costs.
If only to enhance knowledge, scan some of the work afterwards against the list/invoice. When there are suggestions of unusual or major work or in the case of accident repairs, a second opinion might be sought.
Dealerships, independent shops and tradesmen working from home on a Saturday morning know that only satisfied customers come back, so quality control is important. Bad service, when discovered, contains the seeds of its own demise.
After all, if someone is short-changed once, it might be the service provider's fault; if it happens again, it's his or her own.