$130k service cost on 328 true?

He is not an expert mechanic like he and a few other say. A few others that are trying to cover their reputations by saying that about him I might add. He regularly sent things out to have them fixed by other more knowledgeable and expert mechanics. He sent me an invoice for $18K in parts at the beginning. When I started asking questions about some of it because I could not and would not pay that for things I wasn’t aware of, it became obvious to me he had not even inspected the car. He said the fuse box was fried. I am looking at the car now and have put 7000 miles on it since he told me that, and the fuse box is fine. Isn’t and never was fried. He wanted to charge me extra for keeping my old shocks- $200 per shock. He wanted to remove my AC compressor and just “hold onto it” for me. No no no.

 

Much more common than you know. I had a client with a BBi and was keeping it on the east coast for a while when the transmission ran into problems. He took it to a very well known shop in that part of the country. They gave him an outrageous estimate to fix. At owners behest I called to ask about it. When I finally got the story from them turned out to them a transmission was a piece of alien technology. They had no idea what was wrong and were going to remove it, crate it and send it to the west coast for repair, marking it all up along the way naturally.

 

Kept all of the parts he removed from my car without ever even showing them to me, despite my asking for them to be returned.

Told me my oil cooler was shot (early on - before I knew better than to believe that). Told me he threw it away because it was “trash” and couldn’t be rebuilt. In my experience oil coolers are rebuilt all the time (and I doubt it was even a problem - the overheating issue was due to the radiator).

Told me his “expert” had rodded out my old radiator. He hadn’t.

Replaced my totally functional (already upgraded since my car is a 308) 328 fans with 348 fans without my say so. Kept the 328 fans.

Upon being unable to fix my car, and despite running several tests in front of me that said they were fine, announced that my head gasket was blown because it’s the only thing that could cause the car to overheat. It wasn’t.

Told me he’d “work something out with me” to repair my head gaskets. Pass.

Then told me he had a “friend” who would buy my car cheap for parts. Lolol

That’s not even all of it.

 

2 violations of The California Automotive Repair Act of 1968 right there alone.

The oil coolers really are throw aways though. One of those rare instances he was not lying.

 

This is great. Now instead of saying "WTF do you think you are? Jesse James?"
I can say "WTF do you think you are? Donnie Callaway?"
I knew there was a silver lining.

 

hahaha well even a broken clock…

He also said I would never be able to find a replacement except “oh I think I have one but I wouldn’t let it go for less than $2000. And yeah even for that I wouldn’t sell it. Maybe.”

 

I just came back to this after seeing the Bloomberg article calling out many in this very thread as a reference. Per the references to Matt Farah, as a social personality he will likely address this. Per his experience with Donnie, it was probably very different class of service than many others on here. He always said he paid a hefty price tag but he got good work and end results. He drove an audience to Donnie as customers. If all of this is true, which I am not doubting any experiences here at all, Donnie knew his public avenues for advertisement would need to share positive feedback. Matt is usually a very accountable guy and cares about his reputation. Anybody sending him their real experiences would be taken into account in his public facing statements. Donnie also has his Countach so he might be holding back until he got his car returned. As noted above, it is easy to hold property hostage in California.

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

 

The first pre-trial conference isn’t scheduled until 6/4. Donnieboy would do well to use that time to make things right with his defrauded customers to enhance his chances for a plea deal.

Thanks, Joe.

 

I suspected as much. I wonder if Farah ever disclosed that in his videos. I think I know the answer….

 

My neck of the woods...wonder what shop

 

Amen. If he was receiving discounts in return for the exposure he gave this crook he should have disclosed it and it would have been legit. Otherwise his reputation is no better than any of a hundred other YouTube “personalities” as far as I’m concerned.

 

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As recently as last year the many-years-ago respectable Road&Track described Donnieboy as “a master Ferrari technician.”

 

Sweet Jeebus what a mess.

 

I never heard of Connie Callaway before that 328 story here. As soon as I read this car story I could tell righ away this guy was a guy to stay away. How can that keep going after so many years ?
It remind me of a shop in the Toronto area.
I spoke to him once and knew right away he was a big bull sh...

 

I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to pass himself off as a member of that Callaway family…..”Reeves? Yeah. My brother. I taught him everything he knew about cars. Golf clubs too. Yep. I’m a certified golf club designer and engineer. I work on Ferraris because I like it. I don’t need the money.”

 

Since he is in the clinker, we should go to his shop and see what we can dig up, maybe hes got some owners parts that we can return to them . I would bet hes got stuff stashed all over the place. Just a thought. maybe the cops have it all sealed off. He does not look like the type who would be all over Europe buying expensive artwork, good grief Charlie Brown.

G

 

Im also a little confused. How could he try and sell a Ferrari that belongs to someone else ? How does that thought even occur to someone, let alone to actually try and make transpire ? I must be missing something, please forgive my ignorance .Im also bewildered how somebody that he has screwed over has not taken matters into their own hands .

Ive always said being a Ferrari mechanic / shop owner is a license to steal. ( Shops on here not included.) This guy really fits my description .

G

 

Oh now I know what's going on here, I've followed The Smoking tire on You tube about 3 years ago, amazing, I read the article just a day or 2 ago about the restoration scam and then I remembered something like that on Ferrari-chat ! oh my goodness, what a story ! the part where they mentioned a service bill of 130k for a Ferrari 328 immediately rand a bell and then I came back here, OH MY GOSH, can't believe it's the same guy ! he really looks like an honest guy....

 

Its pretty easy to tell actually. If they spend most of the time telling you who they know and how good they are.....they aren't.
The good ones let their work speak for them.
Self promoters need to.

 

Threads / people like this is what ruins the brand over and over and keeps new users away from buying the cars and keeps prices depressed. Very very, unfortunate situation

 

There are charlatans for every brand. The best way to find a competent, honest shop is always personal referral based on first hand experience, confirmed by multiple customers. The last thing you want to rely on is YouTube “experts.”