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Hi, we took the advice of our mechanic to have our cambelt replaced which included the water pump but not the thermostat. This cost us $1300 which we paid the same day. The next day the car was driven, it overheated and now requires a new engine. The mechanic says it was a seized thermostat and was nothing to do with the work he had done on the car. Initially he said he would price a new engine for it and put it in at our expense. We have rung him today to find out what is happening and he now says he doesn't have the equipment to fit a new engine. Firstly, is it good practice to change the thermostat when doing a cambelt as this is what we have had in the past, and also did we get ripped off price wise as people we have spoken to have said the price we paid was very high? Do we have any way to dispute this with our mechanic or get our money back at all? This has been a very reliable, well serviced car until now and we had also just had some rust repair done at a cost of $1250 (at the advice of our mechanic). We are feeling a bit hard done by and would appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thank you.

Depending on the type of car, it's possible a cambelt and waterpump could cost $1,300.
However, for the engine to overheat and fail the following day seems too much of a coincidence to me, and I strongly suspect the mechanic didn't bleed the cooling system properly when he replaced the water pump, therefore caused an airlock in the cooling system and the engine to overheat.
The other thing here is that thermostats are very often wrongly diagnosed, and contrary to popular belief, they don't fail very often.
It's possible I'm wrong in my suspicion, but for the car to overheat so soon after the cooling system has been worked on, it seems likely that there's a link.

Thank you for your help.