$130k service cost on 328 true?

I saw the invoices last night at one AM and wrote a reply but didn't send it. I was incredulous at the gall of this guy. The audacity to charge 8 grand for miscellaneous supplies is so over the top, after charging an incredible amount for every thing else.


Well the receipts for the work have been posted. I used to kind of take it in the shorts on shops supplies and finally started adding a charge for them on every bill. This guy has taken that to another level- miscellaneous supplies total eight grand. That's a LOT of nuts , bolts and carb spray. It's certainly kind of a grotesque set of invoices. Car has 32 valves and every single valve shim was replaced on a car with around 25K miles. This guy should be SHUNNED- not to be made out to be some super mechanic.

Donnie is missing another charge opportunity- somehow all of this work was done without disturbing the AC. Timing belts and bearings that had been done in 2021 according to the BAT listing were already bad. Maybe this "mechanic" doesn't DO air conditioning, so somehow managed to do timing belts and valve adjust with the AC compressor HANGING in the way? That's got to be good for another ten thousand dollar charge. Maybe the lost opportunity to charge for AC was part of the 6500 dollar valve adjust, which was really 7700 with the charge for the valve shims. Or the two pounds of freon was part of the eight thousand dollars of "shop supplies". Even today a 30 pound jug of R-12 is available for a thousand dollars- enough to service this car fifteen times.

 

I find it interesting he has specific labor charges (inflated beyond belief) and then in seemingly every page he has "Additional labor" at yet another outrageous amount for ???? His billing is so far from legal California Bureau Auto Repair would have a field day going through his invoices. And for those not familiar he is operating in about as low of an overhead cost part of California as can be found.

I also just spent half an hour on Californias web site and find no evidence he is licensed to do business repairing cars.

 

Which is ironic since Donnie Callaway was actually on Leno's show four years ago, showing off his white 1984 308

 

Well he is obviously a legend in the mind of some. I have been in this business for over 40 years, over 30 in California, consider most of the high quality American Ferrari restorers friends and prior to yesterday never heard of him.

And he is full of crap. There are a lot of odds and ends under his hood that is wrong.

 

I'd love to judge one of his jobs in a concours.

 

Yep, that's the word

 

It isn’t just this shop, it’s everywhere. I brought my wife’s Range Rover in for service, in addition to the regular service the “O” had come off the front of the car. He advised me that Range Rovers should only be hand washed, and that if they fixed it they would have to order the letters in a group, which was $500, the shop rate was $250 an hour so it would be $750-$800 to replace the “O”. He then told me to buy them off of eBay, use hand sanitizer to take off the old glue, and put it on myself. Great tip, bought them off of Amazon for $25 and installed it myself (they even come with a template and are an exact match to OEM)

At a commercial property we had a 100 gal water heater go bad, and the shutoff valve needed replacing. The 1” inline shut off valve, bought for $37 at Home Depot cost $2,100 to replace. His trip charge alone was $450.

The water heater we could buy retail for $6k, the quotes to replace it ranged from $15k to $21k, it took two guys one day to replace (price included the purchase of a new heater). Located on ground floor with easy entry.

One of my A/C units at my house went out due to a bad capacitor, one place charges $850 to replace it, I bought one from Ace Hardware for $50 and it took me 15 minutes to change it.

I can go on, but right now everyone that performs a service can charge just about anything and people will pay it. You bring your car into a shop that you trust and hope they do you good. I’m sure they didn’t start at $150k, it was probably, “we did this but we should really look at x” and the bill just kept growing.

 

It's very true and sadly, the phenomenon is perpetuated by a culture of keeping your best providers a secret from others. It's the same in many worlds (other cars/Porsche, fine watches, bespoke tailoring, etc...) where you have online communities and people just don't want to share information on who is reliable, how much they're being charged, etc... so you have new owners (like myself when I acquired my 308) who find themselves having to pick a service provider without much information or recommendations.

Not to mention all the service providers who have no interest in returning phone calls or email inquiries. It's a strange culture cloaked in opacity, secret handshakes and the result is what we see here: going with someone who is recognized for working on Ferrari (for fear of putting one's car in the hands of someone who will ruin your car), and paying whatever they choose to charge. And I'm guessing there's an element of supply and demand too where those shops with better visibility have enough demand for their services that they charge a premium for their time.

I wish there was a sticky thread for Ferrari service providers in every state, along with recommendations, rate info, etc... but everyone loves to keep their cards close to the chest, it seems.

 

Sorry, I dont see it. Around here there is thread after thread and list after list of shops and mechanics people adore.

 

Well after living in California for 58 years and being in business for a number of those years I can tell you one of your issues is the state you live in. The costs of doing anything there is driven by your elected officials. To run a small auto repair I had 8 licenses all with annual fees and inspections. In Texas I have 1 with no fees. My insurance was considerably more as was nearly every cost. It gets so businesses have an attitude that spills over to the clientele who are seen as responsible for those elected officials.

 

Having reviewed the service invoices what really stands out (beyond the stratospheric prices) is the lack of transparency. Part of taking your car to an established shop are the records that come with the receipts. This includes cleanly itemized parts lists and breakdowns of tasks performed along with the hours per task. This is absolutely required when establishing the service history of a vehicle.

The receipts for this car are vague on both fronts. There is no indication what the hourly rate is (which I assume in California is a requirement) nor is it clear what specific parts were actually used during the service (again I have to assume this is a legal requirement as it is in most places). Unfortunately the service receipts are almost totally useless to a prospective buyer making the expense all the more wasteful. Add in the apparent fact that Donnie Callaway is not licensed in the state of California to be a mechanic and you have some real problems.

I ran into a similar issue dealing with an un-licensed mechanic in the Province of Ontario in Canada a few years back. I came to learn that not only was ALL the work the shop carried out not legally allowed I also found out that my car insurance could be in-validated by having it serviced by someone who is not licensed. Interestingly it is ok to service a car yourself without a license but when you pay money for it then the person has to have a license. I can only assume a similar situation could hold true in California.

For anyone interested I chronicled my experiences in the following thread:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/rocks-automotive-restoration-lawsuit.510685/

 

Records as you describe are required by California law. His bills are uncollectable.

 

So very true. As someone else mentioned above, you have one $1800 circuit board billed on 9-25-22, followed by another $2100 circuit board billed on 1-12-23. Is it the exact same part? Given the random invoicing, who knows?

 

Defines unprofessional. If you are not writing bills the average person cannot understand in detail you are intentionally hiding the truth.

 

Horror stories like this are why I am 90% DIY. I have so many dealers in particular try to rip me off in the past, I stay away from them. I had an indy years ago that did a lot of work for me. He could quickly listen to a car and tell you exactly what was wrong with it and give you all of the history of issues with that particular marque. He was a magician and very reasonable priced. He ended up quitting the indy business and managing a BMW/Mercedes dealer service department. We need more people like him in the business.

 

Been screwed by dentists. Never stopped me from taking care of my teeth. There are plenty of good service providers, people are just too lazy to use them.

 

Many other examples.

 

Tommy what did you do??

;-)

 

Aside for other reasons, this is why I am so happy with my gt4. I knew I wanted to replace so much on it. It was just time for major work to be done. I figured it would be 50-60K if I handed it off. I know I am no master mechanic. But if I research, I'm careful and certainly I may screw somethings up, but as long as I catch them, I would rather take my time and learn absolutely everything I can. Maybe I can do it all for less than $20K? If I mess up I can only blame myself. I also know my limits...

 

Mr. Callaway should avoid this at all costs. The BAT crowd will slaughter him....

 

This is way off the mark. Trying to claim diminished value because you agreed to pay exorbitant prices on service is just optimistic dreaming. Diminished value is for when something was damaged and you are left paying the price for the dirty history that item now has. It has nothing to do with overpaying for service.

If this were true just about EVERY car restoration ever done can claim diminished value to the owner