Batteries On The Road

Total ripoff!! and dishonest quoting – My son had a flat battery at Sydney airport. I phoned the number and was quoted $150 callout fee plus $300+ for a new battery. I said I won't worry about a new battery, how about just the jumpstart? He said , $150. So i call my son and tell him and said you book it in, here's the number. He calls me back, the guy told him $190. Then the service tech arrives , gets the ute going and says it's $190+GST...! first time GST was mentioned...!! So I phone the boss again and ended up in an argument, he denied saying it was $150 for the jumpstart, said that's just a callout fee, we make money from the battery so a jumpstart only is more. He wouldn't accept what I said, told me it wasn't my matter, he did the deal with my son who agreed to the price and he is not interested in arguing with me at which point I told him he was simply dishonest and he hung up on me.

This company offers a useful and prompt service but sadly the pricing is extortionate!!

If you ever need to use them, make sure you get the deal crystal clear before booking as it just grows arms and legs... Not impressed, I believe they are deliberately misquoting and not making things clear and then once they have your vehicle going they charge what they like because they've got you by then

Service was good. Price was astronomical. I do not recommend – I used this service on 31/12/22 to replace a flat battery in my 3yo Hyundai Accent. While I was very pleased with the service I received, I have to say I am still reeling from price shock at the charges. On my initial phone call I was told there would be a call out charge of $110+ gst, plus the the battery charge of approximately $270+ gst. I do not recall being informed that there would also be a labour charge applicable. The labour charge of $165+ gst only became clear once an invoice was later provided.

Firstly, in Australia by law you should quote all prices to the public inclusive of GST. When you are combining a call-out fee + product fee + labour fee, quoting each ex gst and with gst becomes very confusing to the customer.

The technician arrived within the quoted time and I opted to go with a higher capacity battery which would last longer. He calculated the call-out fee + battery cost + gst on his mobile phone and gave me price of around $450. I felt this was higher than I had previously paid for car batteries, but since I was far from home and he was already there I agreed to go ahead.

Once he had installed the battery my friend asked for the final price. There was some more calculating on the mobile phone and we were told $643.50. My friend stepped in and paid for me before I could raise a fuss. But I was quite confused how the price had jumped from in the $400s to over $600.

Upon receiving the invoice a day or so later I contacted Neil to ask if he had made a mistake whilst using his phone to calculate the fees - they were so high. He replied that he had not.

So I checked the model of the installed battery and cross checked the price online. I was charged $341 for a SuperCharge PSN55 which retails online for $159, so over 100% markup to the regular retail price. I would call that price gouging.

Then the labour charge. $181.50. If it had been made clear to me that this was not included in the call-out fee, I would have installed the battery myself rather than pay this exorbitant fee. If I conservatively say it took 1/2 hour to change a battery (which it does not - 10 mins max), then the labour charge is equivalent of $363 per hour for a relatively unskilled, simple task.

Further adding insult to injury, I later price checked the NRMA Battery Service to see what they would have charged me as a non-member. Turns out it would have been only $260 all inclusive. So Batteries On The Road charged nearly two-and-a-half times the price of their competition.

When I questioned the technician about the pricing I was told all prices were “set by management”. As there were no other contact details available I used the comment form on their website to share my experience. I got no response (it has been more than 3 months now).

I then made a complaint with NSW Fair Trading. The company cited “weekend call-out rates” and refused the partial refund I requested. However my primary issue was not with the callout rate - it was the undisclosed service charge and severe overpricing of the battery.

I cannot overstate how ripped off I feel from using this company. I would not recommend them at all on that basis