Rant time.

I don't understand these guys who ferret out and start doing repairs without calling the customer. It just blows my mind, had to tear some poor kid a new one because his father committed him to 3 hours of pointless work on my car.

So the back story, I have an 86 VW diesel. Since I was busy with some other projects and work, I figured, hey, ill farm out the timing belt on this car and have it done by a nearby shop that specializes in VW and MB.

Now, in relation to the story, the car is currently a rolling restoration project, and not a daily driver, has no interior, is missing everything but the dash as im doing lots and lots to it over time. The fact is that it was blatantly obvious its not a DD, and of course I made this clear shooting the ***** with the vw guy there.

Call the place, kid on the phone says "we're just buttoning up the brakes now" What?
owner of the shop authorized without calling me hundreds of dollars of rear drum brake service on the car, and doubly ridiculous as I am upgrading it all to calipers and rotors anyway.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Most places that is the shop's loss if they perform unauthorized work.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Do you know why he did the brakes when all you wanted was a timing belt? That's a helluva miscommunication! Yeah, I was gonna say pay him at cost for the brake job just to be a nice guy, but if you were going to upgrade, then I wouldn't pay him anything. Best thing you can do, is try to work out something with him rather than go yelling and screaming. Piss him off too much, and he might not easily give you your car back.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

You didn't authorize the work, they didn't ask if you wanted the brake job, don't pay for it.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

oh I didn't pay for it, don't worry.

I feel kinda bad for the kid, because he was the victim of my wholly understandable rage.

They did the timing belt, and did a valve adjustment for me, then the owner of the shop went hunting for work, had his guys take off all the tires and look over everything, found a dragging rear brake shoe because of a broken pin. (i know because I saw it beforehand myself, im totally aware of all the issues with the vehicle)

Then he proclaimed it a safety issue, and told his guys to fix it adding something like 300 dollars to the bill for 3 hours of labor and parts taking apart the rear drums and adjusting.

Then he left for the day.

EDIT- what really drove me nuts is I heard the whole gambit of excuses from the kid, up to and including "your life shouldnt be worth 300 bucks" My response being "bull****, save that crap for someone else, no tires were about to fall off, and I don't want to hear about it. "

the thing has new wheel bearings on all corners, and they were all correctly adjusted immediately prior.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

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.

It was an interesting story but not the same at all.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Yesterday I sold off the engine from my 82 300CD. We pulled it out and I separated the tranny off to keep.

First I found a bolt missing on the tranny. When I got to the flywheel I found that all twelve bolts were only slightly more than finger tight.

This is from when my Indie did the transmission transplant about five years ago.

I am goiing to have to have a talk with the shop owner.

The buyer is going to put it into a jeep. He showed up with a Dodge ram like mine but his has 4WD, a gigantic lift, a package on the engine and a 4 or 5" straight pipe.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

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

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Oh for sure. He knew what I was doing but wouldn't let me do it.

One of many I'd seen over 20 years. Many moons ago when I was a service writer at Sears, we checked suspension/ brakes,etc, wrote the estimate then it went to the shop for repair. This was Christmas Eve 91/92 maybe. 79 VW Dasher diesel wagon drives up sounding like a cow bell. "That will be my 'up' to check out" I stated. Sure enough,I get paged. "CHECK BRAKES." I get in. Brake caliper sitting on the passenger floor. Not a new or rebuilt one. A BROKEN one. Push the clutch n brake pedals. The brake pedal goes to the floor with a WHOMP! easier than the clutch. I nurse it onto a lift and pull the wheels. Right front- solid rotor paper thin from destroyed pads gouging it. Rears- shoes gone,wheel cylinders pissing fluid. On to the left front. Now I know where that caliper on the floor came from. After the friction material on the pads were gone, he continued to drive it to the point the rotor was so thin, the friction surface if the rotor BROKE OFF the hub surface and was spinning on the half-shaft like a hula hoop. Gave him a (cheap) estimate of $700 for: calipers,rotors,hoses,shoes,wheel cylinders and master cylinder. Declines and tells me he has$100 available in his card and wants to drive the car out. I told him that within the law,the only way that car leaves is either repaired or on a tow truck. Flips out but I left the car on a lift and told him to come back on December 26tg with a tow truck. THAT'S how you do it properly. Not go ahead and fix it.

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Sharing my partner's 2012 Forte 5dr SX til I find my next 123 or 126..
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Do I miss being a service advisor ???

X2!

My primary mechanic runs a small garage and always creates a statement of work which is handed to the customer before any work begins. I have witnessed him requesting a signature with some customers.
Another copy of the SOW is placed on the dash. When the work is completed a detailed invoice is provided.

Maybe he has been burned in the past but having the paperwork describing what will be performed eliminates any misunderstanding.
Never had a problem with this repair shop and they always call if something additional is required.

Its all down to good communication.

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'86 300E 5 speed
'71 Triumph TR6
'46 Cushman Scooter
'41 Ford 9N tractor

Nineteen eighty five was the last year for adjustable valves. You needed a special tool and shims to do it if I remember right. Nineteen eighty six where the first year of hydralic lifters. In my opinion you may have an earlier engine in that car. Or it is before the 86 model year. Or they cheated you by claiming a valve adjustment.

Man, this is the main reason why I ran from the auto service business as soon as I could. I used to be a service writer for Pep Boys (yes, I know ).

In every location I worked or had association with there were writeups and repairs for things that never had to be touched.


The very worst I saw was seeing another service writer scheduling an oil change, four tires and an alignment on A CAR WHICH WE HAD JUST SERVICED FOUR MONTHS PRIOR. I had it in for an oil change and alignment prior to this service and recognized the car on the ticket.

The service writer who convinced the owner (the wife this time, the husband brought it in before) decides to upgrade the oil change to synthetic, do a brake inspection, replace the wipers, do a battery service and charge an hour diagnosing a "tick" he apparently heard the engine making.

Now it's my job to have her pay for the work and pick up the car (next shift). She's trying to figure out why the bill was so high, and I explained what was done. She shrugs her shoulders, pays and leaves.

I get the husband back in the shop right before we close. Thankfully the previous service writer had stepped back in because he'd forgotten something. After getting the service manager involved we found out that the service writer had never looked at the car before it was pulled into the bay. Old tires had PLENTY of tread, oil was just changed by the owner the week prior, brakes had plenty of meat and no noise, and alignment was just done four months ago (the tech said nothing needed to be adjusted anyway).

It got even better when we found out that there was NO OIL IN THE ENGINE, which turned out to be the "tick" that the service writer tried to have diagnosed.

We ended up refunding everything but the cost of the tires and hoped he didn't decide to sue us. Even gave him back his old tires. I never saw that car in the shop again.

And the service writer got a slap on the wrist.

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Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat

I recondition w123/w126/w124/w140/r107/r129/ steering boxes!


1984 300D "Elsa" odo reset 6/2011 147k
1983 300TD "Mitzi" ~268k OM603 powered
1995 E300 "Adelheid" 262k [Sold]