A brutal story. Now that it's just a memory for you I have to say the wheelbarrow part is extremely humorous!
I went as far as meeting with a lawyer but my primary concern was fixing the car right then. The most important thing was to worry about that first. I finally let it go legally, mainly because I just didn't have the energy AND I saved the car. Had I lost it, things would have been different. Believe me, though, I have gotten even. This story has been shared with many many people with full credit given to him and his shop. I got my money back and then some on business I killed for him. I was a freaken poster child around here for who NOT to go to. I still make sure people know here in town. As much as I possibly can.
Actually I am surprised he is still in business. I wasn't the only guy that had it bad from him. Not by a long shot. As far as driving customer's cars check this out; Same guy same shop. He had some 50's era Alfa (I forget which) for a while. Same story as me, months go by and things are not getting done. The owner is suspecious it's being driven around town and was a little upset about it because of it's value and all. Long story short, the owner leaves the country - which the shop owner knew BUT he had to return suddenly because of some family issues or something. Anyway he is out one day and PASSES HIS ALFA! Shop guy is out enjoying it. BIG surprise. SO that relationship didn't work out either. Guy goes for the car, nothing (or very little) had ever been done to it, etc. etc. Just unbelievable. I have about a dozen more stories like this too. Seriously, this guy is a real piece of work.
I just tried to find my original thread on this with the pics but I can only search my "thread starts" back to 05. Any ideas how to dig deeper for it? May 2003
I used to work for a guy like this. Cars would be parked everywhere, some never got worked on. There was a huge stock of used parts. I was there several years before I learned that cars were being restored using parts that belonged to other customers. I know one guy who still wonders where his new carburetors went (long before my time). On Fridays, if we had too many cars to park inside, he would hand out keys to everyone to take something home. On Monday, we'd hear how much fun his neighbor kids had getting rides in our best customer's cars. Once in a while the phone would ring and he'd come out with a few parts in his hands. "Go put these on so-and-so's car, he's coming to see how it's coming along". Nothing but theater. I could go on and on about crummy business practices I've seen first-hand and vowed never to emulate but the most incredible part was the shop did a good business serving former clients of the other exotic car shop in town that was even more unethical and undependable.
Its sad. I hear stories like this all the time. We would never drive a customers car without their knowledge and its only in the case of breaking in a new engine on the dyno etc. I have had good clients tell us to take their car out or take it home for a night. I just can't understand the scenario where that would make sense regarding all the liability.
This thread is a winner, it will likely be a week before we get any final good dirt. What a challenge for the new shop to try to determine what happened when. There is always the concern that the car had preexisting problems. Fascinating thread anyway, looking forward to findings. I still throw out my suggestion that involving the insurance company may be warranted if the owner is confident in his first entry.
My brothers car died on his way to my house on XMas a few years back. We pushed it into the local gas station/service center. It was a beater he had bought while he waited for a new VW to arrive and after his old land rover went off to heaven. The timing belt had broken... the guy said it would be a few days because he had to order parts. I drive by the shop on my way to work every day. I noticed my brothers car was never there. One day I pass it with a 60-ish woman driving. I called the shop and made up a story and ended up forcing him to admit his BS. It was his WIFE. He had fixed the car on the first day, but she needed a car for some reason so he BSed my brother and got a few days of time out of him, then told his wife she could use the car. Amazing.
It is my impression that if the OP only has $12K to gain from this he'll be lucky to pay his attorneys fees if lawyers get involved. If he has a small claims court in his state that would make sense.
It happens all the time. It took only a few minutes to search here and I found this steree install that destroyed an owner's clutch. Took a very long time for the work too. Appalling http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=202451
The head mechanic at a very well known vintage Ferrari shop on the west cost once told me this when questioned about driving a customers car. A Ferrari is like a hand grenade with the pin pulled. Its going to blow, you just don't know when, and you sure as hell don't want to be the guy driving it when it does.
Obviously a fair bit of poetic licence in the above! A experienced racing driver and I took turns giving mine a right good thrashing on track the other day and she didn't explode thank God! I can understand the adage though and certainly if I was servicing or carrying out any work on customers cars I'd like to think that if anything ever went wrong that it would be the "principle" of the business that was sitting in the seat at the time and that he had good reason to be there!
We used to do business with those guys before that Ford GT.....I actually dealt with them for about 5 years. It amazes me a shop like that with ford gt's and nice bmw's all the time would not have insurance.
