How bad has someone tried to rip you off???!!!

Thats a good one mine had a brand new K - N filter tossed for a paper one. Some kid probably stole it at the oil change place. I checked the filter right before it needed it next oil change, it was gone and the last receipt stated the one she was charged for.

 

My former boss got totally ripped off by a firm called US Corvettes. He wanted to buy and import a Corvette to Germany but apparently there were "a few problems with the car you wanted - but what about this other car - you can have it a little cheaper?"

The deal was done, money was paid and the car was put on a boat. When it turned up, the chassis was bent and rivetted back together and it looked like the floor had been ripped out at some point. Zero chance of ever getting the car registered in Germany in that state, without fitting a new chassis, and it wasn´t ever going to be worth the cost of doing that. It was nothing more than scrap basically, with no chance of getting any money back. So thanks USCorvettes, you lying, theiving bunch of assholes!

 

Many years ago i had a 70 camaro that i rebuilt the entire front end on.Ball joints,tie rods, bushings,etc.
Being young and poor i did the tape measure front end alignment on it and proceeded to drive it that way for probably a year.
I then took it into Perfection tire for a proper alignment and was told the entire front end was shot and even if it wasn't the tires were too worn to do an alignment so i told them to forget it.
I then took it to a small front end shop called Expert alignment and after inspecting it Tom says front end looks great and not very old and would get alignment done pronto.I ask him what about the tires? He Laughs and says that the tires too worn is one of the tricks many shops use to sell you new tires and alignments are done off the rims anyways.
So perfections estimate was near 1000.00 and Tom did the alignment for something like 30.00
Needless to say i still go to Tom at Expert alignment whenever i need any front end work on anything i own and refer as much business to him as i can and to this day still badmouth perfection tire whenever possible.

 

About four years ago my girlfriend (now wife) had her o/t Rover fail it's mot (our annual safety check) because of a rusted out exhaust. She had taken it to her usual local garage who quoted her close to $700 for the parts and labor. I checked with a local parts place and got every thing for $180 including the cat. It took me 2 hours to fit, including going out to get Irwin nut removers (rust!) and despite doing it outside in the rain. Yes, she was worth it.

Many years ago a friend of mine bought a Lotus, early '70's model. The dealer sold him some expensive warranty (in my opinion there is no warranty good enough for the rate these can break down at) and he went away secure in the knowledge he was good to go. The inevitable happened only weeks later. He rings the dealer only to find the warranty only covered a 20 mile radius around the dealer! WTF! The dealer had sold it knowing he was 95 miles away.

 

I've had my share of run ins.
But here's one from a different perspective.

Had a lady come in to get her car inspected.
left front tire was bald, had cords coming out of it.
visibly could see the ball joint was bad and the wheel was at the wrong angle.
tie rod was also bad.
Checked her trunk, her spare was flat.
Told her car would not pass inspection, with the car on the lift showed her the problem.
She pled, no money, and she was getting rid of the car anyways.
Didn't want an "inspection" just wanted a sticker.
I refused, and already had scraped her expired sticker off.
She called a cop!
Cop came and talked to me, after I explained the situation he went to her house and told her not to drive the car until it was fixed, he would be looking for her.

 

Guy I know with bought an expensive RV off EBAY and flew out to the West Coast to pick it up. In the photos it looked beautiful and the description was perfect. My friend is no slouch so I am sure they had an exact conversation about conditon, verification. etc.
He gets out there and everything was a lie. Leaking this and that, more miles than stated and something definately wrong. Deal off and definately pizzed. He later learns the thing was probably a drug mule.

 

If this asshole that wanted to drive the car out plowed into your wife and kids killing them. You would be the dick knocking on my door wanting to sue me.

Letting a customer drive out of your shop with no brakes is insanity.

I did that to protect innocent people from being hurt. Not to be hard ass.

You obviously know nothing about liability of running a shop.

Also Trolls are not will not be tolerated here on the HAMB. Using multiple screen names will get you banned.

 

NYS Thruway now classes your vehicle by axles and by height. So I bought a used high top van a while back that turns out to be 7 foot and just shy of 10 inches tall. I figure I'll use the Thruway to get over to the one junkyard today to get a few bits for it. So get a toll ticket today that the tolls are like double what I'd usually pay, listed on the ticket, shows me classed as 2H. I figure they think this thing has dually rear wheels or something... no, it's too tall they tell me when I get off. Only ambulances are exempt from that, she says.

The height limit for the two classes is 7 foot 6 inches. Because I'm almost 4" too high I have to pay double? That's a rip off. It's not like this is a 2-ton box van or something. Just a high top conversion van with the sides made flat from the beltline up and about 15-18 inches added to the roof. How does being taller make a difference in the wear this thing puts on the road? I have a 3/4 ton Suburban that shows as weighing MORE on the title.

To top it off, I go online to check this out, they say it's measured at the highest point over the front axles. So a box van with the cutaway van body cab (regular van roof to the B-post) pays the 2L toll then? Because my roof extension comes to within 3" of the windshield it's more money? I sent an email in to find out just how that works, it's not that clear online. In fact it makes no sense, since a lot of vehicles are a lot more than 7 foot 6 inches but will meet that limit over the front axle just by having a conventional cab and hood.

Meanwhile, anyone want to buy a '99 GMC van with 105K that runs real nice? I do too much Thruway driving to keep it and have to keep paying double. I don't know what else I'm supposed to do - cut the top off and section 4 inches out of it? I suppose I could do just that, it's only riveted together from new, but that's a hell of a lot of work.


Meanwhile, if you're under 7 foot 6 and have two axles, I guess you could weigh 20 tons on those axles and they wouldn't care.. ??? I guess it's to be expected, this rate system was rigged up by the same NYS Thurway Authority who raised tolls in 2008, then complained they weren't making enough money from them and needed to raise them again in 2009, because people were avoiding the Thruway and the high tolls. Hey, assholes, don't you think if you *lower* the tolls, people might use it more and you'd make more money? Are you that dumb??

 

I've been nickeled and dimed here and there, but nothing really severe. Mostly on stuff I couldn't do, so I really didn't give a rip. I was at the Jeep dealer yesterday. Lady sitting next to me was waiting for the oil change on her Cherokee. Girl comes out and gives her a laundry list of things wrong, blown head gasket, muffler bearing, turn signal fluid, etc etc, then tells her that a new air filter will cost her $29.95. Funny, it looked just like the one I replaced in my Commander that cost me $9.85.

 

So easy to solve your problem. Bag it. Deflate when going through the toll.

Do the EZPass lanes have height sensors? If not, that is another way out.

 

You said it Kevin. I fix all my stuff and get many calls at all hours from friends needing help or a trailer to get there rides home. Friends trip out when I tell them I need no money for helping them learn to do something as simple as rotate their tires or change a starter out lol. I tell them I know nothing. I am a dumb 24 year old, but I still get calls and friends cars get fixed lol.

Side note, I spoke to an original member of the SMOKERS car club of Bakersfield who grew-up poor and is now very wealthy with great wisdom from his experiences; he said to me, "Poor people gotta make do with what they have and learn to fix what they do not know how to." I tell this to my friends as we are all young and generally without any "real" money. I think I may have reached one of them recently with this message, maybe not but I hope so.

Today I went and had tires put on my o/t S-10. I took 2 brand new tires with me I have had for awhile and called ahead to make sure they had matches for the 2 so I would have all 4 changed at the same time. Quoted reasonable 76$ a tire. It ended up coming out to alot more then I wanted it to after everything but I was ok with the final price of 270$ and an hour wait was also part of the quote. I had to wait 3 hours which pissed me off severely. I have never waited 3 hrs for a tire change ever. Even when I drop my vehicles off and pick them up they call me way before 3 hrs have passed. They were not busy, all day trust me I was there during peak hours.

While sitting waiting an elderly lady is getting tires on her husbands truck. Mechanic comes in says 3 leaking shocks, 1 loose tie-rod and an idler arm is bad. She says "Ok", he says "2000$". Granted this was with tires also but I was like "WTF?". She says, "Let me call my husband." While on phone she mumbles to her husband, "Well guess we'll skip Christmas with the kids and no vacation next year." I was speechless when she said, "Go ahead and do the work", to the mechanic. The sales guy knew I was pissed when I saw my truck was finished. I stood in line for a few minutes waiting on him to quote a guy over 500$ for a set of tires, old man looked at him and said, "fuck you" and walked out. Blew me away to hear the old man just spurt that out. I go to the counter looked at the sales guy and did not say a word over the course of paying him. He tried to say thank you to me but it came out like a whimper. Needless to say no one I know will frequent that place after I pass the good word on about BIG BRAND TIRE on Rosedale Hwy in Bakersfield.-Weeks

-Weeks

 

listen to this, left fla. ,drove my 32 hiboy 3w to 88 nats in columbus,on way home was riding along and had a jolt on left rear , thougfht wow the tire went flat quick, then my tire pased me up and went bout 1/4 mile down road and through barb wire fence.axil broke off,called my friend in dayton and he came got me and toed to bill's rod shop in springfield.we pulled the other axil and it was also cracked.problem...rear was a narrowed 55chev rear w/5on51/2 ford bolt pat. bummer...bill went to a local junk yard and go 2 axils out a ford pickup w/5 1/2 pattern,he shortened ,resplined,machined the berring mounts on both axels[made a 55 chev axil] every surface was machined looked like pieces of art....new berings,installed..$230.00...thanks again Bill.......

 

Ya know..Nobody ever has a story about a good shop. I tell my guys all the time, treat a customer as right as you can and they might tell a friend, treat them bad and they will tell everyone.

 

Shops are few and far between that are worth a damn. We have a few decent shops here but If I told you I would have to kill you because they are off the grid essentially and 1-2 man operations with a secret handshake to gain entry. In all seriousness the shops I use are generally the mom and pop, but unfortunately they keep shutting their doors or going underground. I know and hang out with grey beards who have been there, done that and they like seeing me doing what they did 40-60 years ago and avidly instruct me on things I need help on.

It just sucks when you have to go to a "NAME"/Commercial shop and get treated terribly, then over charged or charged for parts/services never provided.-Weeks

 

It's hard to say this over a ford tempo, but a couple gallons of gas on that building and he would have been paid back with a smile on his face

 

You know the REALLY GOOD CONMEN's stories go untold, because the real good ones have us so snookered we don't even realize it!!!!!
A buddy at work was once telling me what his mechanic was charging him to do some routine stuff. I tried ever so carefully to tell him his mechanic was taking him for a "ride" but this guy was 100% convinced his mechanic is honest as the day is long blah blah blah. I mentioned to him that 90% of the people getting reemed propbably never even knew it. He still argued, "NOT MY GUY, Christ I've been going to him for 20 years!!!"

So I smiled and said OK sure whatever you say.

I never harped on him again, but every once in a while he'd ask me "ballpark" what certain repairs ought to cost. Eventually he asked me to refer him to someone which I did. About a year later he tells me - "ya know what - MY GUY - was raping me for 20 years"

I know.


We all take it in the shorts every once in while - probably nearly impossible to avoid. The sad ones are the ones we defend because they are so good at it!!!!

 

My dad is the classic example. Here's a guy who knows NOTHING about mechanics. He was going to a shop which my sister's boyfriend worked at, completely convinced he was getting a good deal, and would defend this kid's boss to the ends of the earth. He had no problem paying $1128.80 for a brake job on a Ford Festiva!!! He said the guy told him the rotors were special order and cost over $300 each, blah blah. I made a call to the local parts store, rotors were $18 a pop in stock, I told him I could've done the entire job for under $100. Those were the days when my dad didn't trust me to touch any of the family's cars. He said I'd probably try to hot rod the thing and try to make it faster. In his mind, I was a hot rodder, not a mechanic. To this day he still defends that jackass.

 

How bad has someone tried to rip you off???!!!

The key-word is 'tried'. If it worked, he did an exceptional job, I didn't even flinch.

 

Trolls? Multiple screen names?
It's pretty clear you are not only a sweetheart, you don't know what you are talking about. If others seem to have the same opinion about your business practices, that should tell you something.
Otherwise you are probably a nice guy...............

 

A rental car and me touched eachother once, rental with foregn driver went way to fast around a blind corner and swiped across my front bummper taking my licence holder off, her car got a scraped hub cap and pulled the bumper off. I put the bumper back on in the street. The rental company calls me up yelling and carring on about how its gunna cost all this money. I told him he was full of shit, and if he really needed a new bumper i would get one from my junk yard. He asked whitch junk yard. When i told him he couldnt appologize enough. guess my dad had been treatin the guy right for years. Asked me to not tell my dad what he said to me. Ive never anyone back pedal so fast.

 

I had that same problem with my mom's 2000 Volvo S70 when I took it in for scheduled mantinence

Dealer: "$1200 for the whole brake assembly.
Me: "For how many wheels?"
Dealer: "Driver's front"
I laugh and check the glove box for the old recipts because something sounds odd. I have 4 recipts, each exactly 3months apart reading (in order): $900, $1000, $1050, $1155. ALL FOR THE DAMN DRIVER'S FRONT BRAKE! I drove it to another dealer who told me that the brake was never changed (not even the pads) since the day it rolled off the line! to top it all off it only needs a new pad on both front wheels(covered under the protection plan! I call up Volvo of America and they shut down the dealer. It turns out I wasn't the first to be scammed.

 

I think maybe we're missing possibly the best single piece of advice given in this thread, courtesy of HemiRambler.

If you're dealing with a shop for the first time, or feeling even the least bit suspicious of their recommendations, tell them that you want the mechanic's, the service writer's and the manager's or owners's signature (assuming that they can write) on your copy of the repair order before you'll sign an authorization to make any repairs. If they refuse, or even balk at the notion, you shouldn't feel bad about taking your business elsewhere. The repair shops have no qualms about demanding your signature on their paperwork!

This probably doesn't give you any legal protection, but it's pretty unobtrusive and should give you some insight into the people you're dealing with.

Somebody give HemiRambler a "gold star" out of petty cash!

 

How bad has someone ripped me off? I'd rather not say, too embarrassed... but I will comment that Marty at Eelco could use a bit of an ethics adjustment.

 

Of course this is mostly Off Topic, when referring to taking a car into a dealer for repaiors. I know literally hundreds of 'rodders, of all types, and know of none that have a repair shop to do their day to day maintenance, brake work, etc.

More likely than not; When the car is turned over to the service manager, if the list of discrepancies is accepted offhand, the customer is getting screwed. All that I have ever dealt with, including one I worked for, exaggerate condition with the sale of new parts, jacking up the total with additional labor that really isn't necessary, as their objective.

I can't imagine the pompous gall of a facility insisting that I can't drive my own car away based on their evaluation of it's condition. I don't believe those types of stories, reject them outright.

 

Just a couple weeks ago . Buddy has a "2000-2005 somewhere in there" dodge minivan . Rear brakes "discs" needed done and it needa a hub assembly on the pass rear side.

Local shop quoted 1700 bucks.

I shit you not , and its not like we are a big town , only 5000 people so you wouldnt think he would be trying to rip people off .

after 125 dollars and 30 minutes it had new brakes and bearing hub assembly in our shop.

 

Heres one where i actually got revenge on a dealership once.

Was looking for an old truck just to beat around in . Went by the local dealership and there is an 86 chevy halfton 2wd , just one of them good ole trucks that dont give up . Its in really nice shape , fella was about 70 years old that traded it in and used it to deliver rural mail. Had a crappy repaint on it done by the neighbor kids practising with thier new hvlp but , it was a good runnin solid truck .

So i walk into the dealership and get a knbow nothing salesman , tells me it has that reliable old 350 in it , after looking i informed him that 5.0 sticker is screaming 305 lol. Then i get informed that is got a 4:11 towing rearend package . " really , in an 86 half ton ..... thatd be a first that i had ever seen . and after showing him that it was actually a 3:08 one wheel peel he fully understood he wasnt going ot pull one over on me .

Standing in the lot we haggled a bit and i got the price from 1400 down to 1200.

So i said i wanted to take her for a test drive.

Now this old truck had dual tanks , and i seriously have not seen one of these old chevs that wouldnt vapor lock when switched . so i get about 5 miles from the dealership , flip the switch and like clock work , truck vapor locks and dies , coasts to the side of the road. I give it about 10 minutes and call the dealership , tell em thier truck has left me stranded. Salesman is almost in a panic and says he will send someone out to get me.

Well the guy next to the roadside was mowing lawns so i ran over real quick , got some gas in a soda bottle , dumped it down the carb and fired the truck up and passed the salesman on the way back to the dealership .

When i got out i acted all pissy , ............... Longer story short . I got the truck knocked down to 600 bucks and drove it home , never had a problem with it for the 4 years i owned it.

 

I think this puts you into the same class as the folks we're complaining about.

 

a transmission shop in Central Illinois has screwed so many people that I can't begin to tell all the stories here. Let's just say that anyone I know that has dealt with him eventually get's the shaft. I have heard stories, or been the victim of bad deals ranging from used, worn, or missing parts in a "new rebuilt transmission", to changing stories from one person to the next when parts are sold, to selling off parts that are paid for when no work has ever been agreed upon. It's vast enough that as soon as you start talking to a car guy from around here, eventually a story comes up on how they got porked. It is a shame that there are still enough suckers to keep him in business. The thing is he's helped me out of a jam, then screwed me on the next deal. Used to be a good friend of ours as well. Makes you wonder what motivates people.

 

5window

AMEN !

 

RIGHT ON BROTHER!!!! I have done the same in my shop. Had a guy with a COMPLETELY shot wheel bearing...like the wheel would wiggle 2" back and forth. I quoted him $250 to replace the hub assembly...and he told me to get bent!!! WTF, that was CHEAP for that repair. Later I was told he had the other side replaced by another shop a few weeks before and they did it for $500. I was half as much and he told me to get bent to my face in my own shop. I was so pissed I told him he would tow the car away and almost called the cops on him when he got in my face.

Some people are just idiots....but I totally agree that $1000 is at minimum twice what any total brake job should cost.