A couple of weeks ago our car started making an odd noise. My husband takes it to the only service station in town and asks them to look at it JUST LOOK AT IT. We wanted to know what was wrong and if it was something that could wait. Well they call us back in an hour and tell us what our bill was. I asked my hubby why it would be so high just for looking at it (I have never had a mechanic charge me just to look at the car ) He asked the guy and he said it was for the front brakes.
I was a little irriatated bcause we had, had this same mechanic fix the front brakes about 10mnths ago, and I think brakes should last longer then that and we did not ask him to fix it we asked him just to look at it.
Well my hubby explains to him we were not expecting that kind of bill since we did ask to have anything fixed so we would have to pay him in smaller payments not one lump sum. The guy starts yelling at my husbands telling him we are trying to screw him over (even though we have spent alot of money in repairs and sevices there in the past year alone). My husband tells him he will be back on friday to make a payment and leaves.
So we paid the guy 1/4 of the bill on that friday (planning on doing so once a week for a month) then today we come home from picking up diapers for the kids, and we have a message on the phone about "we better come in and pay the bill for the brakes." I call the service station and tell him that we plan on paying the bill just like we said and that we did not ask him to fix it so the bill caught us off gaurd and we have already made the first payment. He started yelling at me and told me that we were jerking him around and that my husband had asked him to fix the brakes. I told him my husband had no idea what was wrong with the car so there is no way he could have told him to fix the brakes. He hung up on me.
My husband drives over there and he comes out yelling at him telling him "I just got off the phone with your wife and I am prepared to take you to small claims court." My husband tells him that we have the bill that proved we have been paying him so the guy starts yelling that he has done all these favors for us. My husband is confused and asks what favors. The mechanic goes on about how our car door was broken once and he didn't charge us. Well of course he didn't charge us! He told us he didn't do that kind of work and to take it to the body shop down the road. Why would he charge us?!? Then he said that time my husband ran out of gas and he can across the street to give us gas. Well we paid him for doing that, so how is that a favor. We will not be doing buisness with this man anymore once the bill is paid, but I am curious to see how other may have handled this.
Thanks for the responses. My cousin is very good with cars and works at the service station I use (intill I moved in with my husband and it was less convinient to get there) I will have him look at the brakes to make sure they are fixed. The reason we HAD been using this man is he is the only mechanic in town and my husband generally gets off work after 4 and alot of service stations or body shops in the area close at 5 and are not opened on sunday when he is off. Luckily his job has changed so are scheadule will allow us to get repairs done elsewhere.
After reading some more responses I did decide to fil a complaint with the BBB. And wait for the complaint to play out before I even think about paying more on these repairs we did not authorize.
Kerry: No of course I understand his point. Most mechinic around here will not give credit or set up payment plans because people are not paying on there bills, so I understand he may have felt that he was going to get screwed out of money. Its not so much that he did the repairs its more about the way he treated us (swearing at us and threatening to sue us even after we have made the first payment) that really gets to me. And it was the exact same part (two parts actually) on the brakes that were replaced again.
Sounds fishy to me...at the dealership where I take my car...I have to sign and initial about five or six different places when I tell them that they can do the work. They want permission in writing for everything they do or DON"T do to my car.
We told you about the "fill in the blank" and you don't want it fixed, initial here...you DO want the oil changed sign here...etc etc...
Uh if he fixed the front brakes 10 months ago I wouldn't be paying him a dime!
Then I would be taking the car to another shop and making sure he did fix the brakes. It sounds like he's jerking you around. I would be way too suspicious if my brakes went out that quick.
Your nicer than I am. I would not have paid him squat because you never authorized him to do any work in the first place. It is common practice to ask a mechanic to look at a car and give you an estimate before doing work. Lots of mechanics charge a fee for checking a car out (he should need to let you know about that fee upfront). My mechanic applies the fee to whatever work you get done, or if you dont get any done he just keeps the fee. I would not have paid anything, told the guy he did not have permission to do the work and if he wants to try to take me to court, then good luck to him! AND you are right, brakes should last more than 10 months unless you put a rediculous amount of miles on the car in 10 months. Did they come with a warrenty? This guy sounds crazy!
Most mechanics will now charge you a small fee to check out a car and see what's wrong. The charges should be posted, or they should inform you of the amount.
Since this guy is being such a jerk. Play the game. Tell him ok, since you don't like the payment schedule that we've suggested, just take us to court. Don't give him another penny.
I'd let him take me to small claims court. The burden of proof will be on him. He'll need paperwork showing that you okayed the work to be done. No proof? Not your problem. I bet you never hear from him, because he court will be a hassle that most people don't want to deal with.
you would do the obvious thing, get a lawyer, report him to the BBB and never go back again.
This is way too fishy. How do you know he actually fixed the brakes? Find another mechanic now and have him/her check the guy's work. Ask your friends who they go to, that's how we found ours. My guy would have NEVER treated us like that, your guy's a scam artist.
yeah no way paying him a dime. next time though make sure he puts in writing that you are only looking not doing the work.
ok a stand up mechanic would not have charged you to replace 10 month old brakes he put on, in the first place.
tell him please do take you to court - you can show them the first bill and the judge will be happy to believe you after seeing that, that you never asked him to fix it the S. time.
Well, why are you paying him anything? You didn't authorize the repairs, he didn't review any of the findings with you, and he has nothing signed with your permission to repair anything. Sounds like he doesn't have a leg to stand on.
As far as what I would in this situation - I can't advise you on that because I would not have gone back to a mechanic who clearly did shoddy work, and I would've had the paperwork showing I only requested a diagnosis.
A business that doesn't use a contract is not very intelligent, IMO - they are either out to screw others or will end up screwing themselves.
You had the brakes done already? This is a farce. Either he didn't do the brakes last time, or he hasn't really done them this time.
You need to take your car to a dealership and get a diagnostic done. You should never have paid this guy when you didn't give him permission to fix it. You should only have paid for a diagnostic. And he yells to get you to cave and give him money because you are either naive, or you have no backbone.
Again, do NOT pay the bill until you KNOW the brakes are fixed.
Dawn
I'd pay in installments like you plan to.
The threat to take you to small claims court is probably empty. It will simply cost him more in missed work time then the cost of the bill. Tell him "see ya there!" if he makes that threat again.
Save cancelled checks and a copy of the bill in case he puts a lien on your car.
Lastly, make sure you tell this story on Yelp!
I had a similar story.. I needed to get my car inspected but, i wanted to take care of it on my own. My hubby told me not to go there they will take advantage of me since they can see me coming a mile away. So i didn't listen i was mad at the comment. So i brought in asked them to just look at it.. so they looked at it they called me back in an hour they said it will be $660.00 to fix everything then my car will be able to pass inspection. I said what. I don't have them kind of money i want a list of what's wrong..
So needless to say i called my hubby and he said screw them... Call them back and tell them no way. They are crazy. So i was pleasant and said no and they said i just had to pay for the inspection and it failed so i paid 37.00.. So i went on line and i reported them to consumeraffairs and a couple of other websites.. They will get theres soon. So, My husband took my car to another shop that he knows of and guess what they passed my car and he just had to pay 37.00 dollars. So always go to someone you know. Report these people to consumer affairs and write a letter to your town about what happened.. Let people know about what happened.. Email a lawyer.. u will not have to pay for advice.
He had to fix a job that he already did only ten months ago? Do you still have that service bill? I would see what that contract was like and check the fine writing. If it says anywhere on there that there was a warranty on the parts and service for a minimum of a year then you shouldn't have to pay anything for the repair he did this time and he would owe you your initial payment back.
If you're working with this guy without contracts every time he does work for you, BAD IDEA and now you know for the future to always, always get things in writing.
As for why he's suddenly flipped his $#!@, I suspect he's having a rough time in his business lately or probably at home. The short fuse is a sign of a bigger problem that he's just taking out on you guys, unfortunately. Make sure, though, that when your business is finished with him that you calmly let him know that you'll no longer be doing business with him because of his attitude and poor treatment of you. That you would have been happy to come to arrangements with him and kept his service otherwise, but as it is you won't be recommending him to people. He ought to be fearing word of mouth.
Everything connected with business should be in writing, in advance... even in a small town... even if it's the only service station in town.
If it were me, I'd think about calling a lawyer. If there were a Better Business Bureau in town, I'd call it, too. Is the man *on* something? Good businessmen don't scream at their regular customers.
As the owner of a service shop which tends to do a lot of quick freebie stuff for our customers it sounds to me like there was a misunderstanding when it was dropped off. Just playing devils advocate here. I don't know you so don't take offense ok? His thoughts are... Why take it to him if you can't pay for a repair unless you wanted it done free. When he stopped what he was doing to find the problem in your car, it probably pulled him away from a job that IS going to net income to pay his overhead. Once you get deep enough into some problems and it needs a part,sometimes its easier to put the part on than to put it back together...esp if its a safety issue..also, when it comes to brakes, there are several components which can go bad and its not always at the same time. He may have fixed a diff component but knew this one could wait because he was trying to sve you money. You say you have never paid to have a car checked and that he's been ur car guy for a while...so I'm assuming that means he's checked into probs without charging you before...so I dunno. I guess from the other side of the coin, just remember he has bills to pay too. What did you expect him to do? Brakes are a safety issue. You have kids in that car. Would you have really not had him fix it if he told you 1st? If your employer told you that just because the work you did wasn't something they knew about you're not getting a paycheck, eventually that might make you. A little mad. Now keep in mind, this is just me pitching for the team. I don't know you and I don't know him, but if he hasn't screwed you over before, chances are he was having a bad day and there was a lack of communication on everyones part. :-) happy MothersDay!
First of all, you always get something in writing when you drop you car off re the scope of the work to be performed so there is no argument about what you asked for and what you didn't ask for. With no paperwork it is your word against his and in that case, I probably would have done like you, tried to make payments.
Next time, get a written estimate that spells out exactly what you are authorizing the shop to do. They cannot charge you for work you did not authorize.
I have to agree with a lot of the responses that you have gotten so far. I would not have paid him anything since the work was not authorized and I definitely would not pay him anything else.
Actually you may want to contact a lawyer or do some research on your own. I believe that all auto shops are REQUIRED BY LAW to give you a WRITTEN ESTIMATE before doing any work on your vehicle...with the exception of say an inspection.
I have lived in a lot of different states and I know that everytime I have ever taken my vehicle anywhere to have work done (with the exception of say oil changes and/or tires rotated etc) there has always been a written estimate of charges BEFORE any work has been completed and I have always had to sign that estimate either approving them to do the work or declining the work to be done.
I would not pay this guy anymore money until he can provide you with the signed estimate and authorization to do the work. I would also let him know that if he wants to take you to court he is more than welcome to do so and that you will be filing a counter claim.
Totally sounds like this guy is totally taking advantage of the fact that you and your husband obviously have NO mechanical knowledge at all. (Sorry but it is pretty easy to identify the sound that brakes make when they are going bad, so if you are unable to do this then your mechanical knowldege is very, very low.)
Therefore he is using your lack of knowledge to take full advantage of you.
Don't pay him another dime and quit taking him phone calls.
Good luck!!
I probably would have walked off when he started yelling. I would have tried to come up with all the money if I could since he was acting like that. If I could only make payments, i would have kept doing that till it was paid. Like you said, i would never go back. I don't think brakes would act up 10 months later unless you were very hard on your brakes. Maybe hes been screwed over lately by some other people and thought you all were going to do the same thing.
