Quote:
Originally Posted by Benz Dr.
Not that I dissagree with you here but then there's the other side of this:
Guy brings a 190SL to my shop for some repairs. I ask him where he wants me to start and he says to make it driveable. The car hadn't run in years which means doing all of the brakes. The carbs were worn out and the fuel tank had a mountain of crud in it. The worse thing about this car was that it had old bias ply tires on it that had been flat for 20 years. He inflated them and drove it to me like that, a trip of at least an hour or more!
Once the new fuel started to soften all of the crap in the fuel tank it plugged everything in the fuel system. He wouldn't accept that as a viable reason for me to have the tank cleaned because he drove the car to me and it was just fine when he droped it off. The car had one working brake, no working signal lights, no brake lights and 30 year old bald tires when he drove in with it.
I fixed everything to the point where it would run and drive to a safe level using a set of tires and rims I keep mounted for situations like this. He refused to let me install new tires on it and insisted upon driving it back to Detroit the same way he brought it to me. So I insisted that he sign a waiver before he left stating that I would not be responsible for anything that happened to him or the car, due to the dangerious condition of the tires. He signed it and left.
A day or two later he clalled me complaining about the car and said he was going to bring it back to me. That was at least 10 years ago. Never saw him or his car again.
Not the same thing of course but I fix what needs to be fixed on old cars. Newer stuff is a bit different but we only work on older cars so inspecting brakes is part of the program. I never go further than brake pads if the car needs them and sometimes brake hoses. I would let the guy know if it needed rotors or brake drums.
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The difference is that you were in contact with the customer, and he authoized the work you recommended.
Goodness knows that in a 30 year old vw there is work and to spare tht you can find to do. My rage was based on the owner just deciding to do whatever work he found on an obvious project without calling me, at which point he would have discovered everything was being swapped anyway, and the work was both unnecesarry and pointless.
On top of that, being aware of all the cars shortcoming personally, since I've put it together and sent them this job since I didn't have time to do it myself, they set me off by spinning a tale about safety and me endangering my life, ect. After being caught padding the bill.
It was sort of squalid, the kid knew that I knew he was making up a lie about the rear wheel bearings being loose, but still went through with it. Yet they didn't decide to do some real safety repairs as the front struts are blown out, and the strut bearings are so worn out they are rattling around. What clarly happened is they picked a repair to not tell me about that was just a few hundred more that added to the bill, but didn't double it.
Irritates me because these guys know their stuff and do a great job, seems stupid to me to add sme unethical businss practices padding the bills without contack as a regular policy. It was clear that the son of the owner was caught between his father's action, and trying to explain himself without demonstrating that he knew perfectly well it was a bs move. End of the story is that if the kid had his own shop, id take stuff to him, but I can't trust the owner to deal openly with customers, so they lost my business