BBB, Court or both? (vehicle, joint, brake, tires)
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Well my vehicles see a "mechanic" other than myself generally once a year for a state inspection and thats it. This is special case since I installed new steering components on my truck (4x4 solid front Dodge diesel) and needed it aligned.
I did a lot of research and seemingly found a place that could align my truck and also align it to my custom specifications and then provide a printout of the results. Everything looked great, I went and checked out the shop... very big, extremely clean, good equipment, all the technicians were clean and organized, etc... I was pretty happy with what I saw. So I give him my alignment specifications and special instructions for making particular adjustments and left the place, truck would be done by end of day. The whole thing was a flat rate of $85 ...sweet!
I get a call later in the day from the tech. working on my truck that he had put a box wrench to the lower control arm / caster adjustment bolt and snapped it. He then told me he would probably would have to cut the control arms in half to fix it or he could try and extract the bolt... My obvious answer was not to cut the control arms (what a f*cking idiot for even suggesting that to me) and I told him to try and remove the sheared bolt, if he couldn't, then just leave it.
So a while goes by and he calls up and lets me know that he was able to get the bolt out however since they broke the special bolt they could not get another one so they put a generic, non-adjustable bolt in there for fastening the bolt to the control arm to "at least get me on the road". So caster cannot be adjusted now. He then mentions like it was some minor detail that they could not adjust the camber to my specs because they dont have the special shims for the ball joints.
Ok... so at this point I just want my truck back from these worthless hacks. I get to the shop and he hands me a bill of $140 (mind you the original cost was going to be $85). They wanted an hour of labor to remove the broken bolt which was $90, then another $40 for putting it on the alignment rack and getting a readout and then... get this... like $5 for the replacement bolt!
I flat out said we need to figure something else out... I had been flustered all day about other things and just wanted my truck and go home at this point. He was trying to convince me that this 1/2" diameter bolt just broke without warning under the power of his scrawny arms. I showed him the cross section of the bolt and pointed out that it was completely intact before he removed it like a moron. He kept harping on the fact that he broke it with a box wrench and not an impact which is now going to come back and haunt him since that means he knew how much force he was applying to the nut but also he must have watched the bolt end move WITH the nut instead of remain stationary like it should have.
At the end of the day I ended up paying $90 to get my key back and their shop manager told me he didn't want to see my truck again.... My truck is now unaligned and I have to go buy this special $20 caster adjustment bolt from the stealership.
Before you say it... yeah I know I made the wrong choice and should not have given them a dime but it is what it is and now I have to deal with whats in front of me. Heres my plan of action:
Plan A - Since I was not able to talk to the owner about this incident I would like to at least give him the benefit of the doubt and clearly explain the situation while not trying to point the finger. I figure if he is a reasonable person he will see my POV and agree to reconcile.
Plan B - If hes going to be a pr*ck about the matter I will either take him to small claims court and/or report him to the BBB. I was looking at the BBB website and they seem to address nearly all of the claims submitted to them.
For the record, the bolt was clean and not excessively corroded... I will upload pictures later. Not only that but the other identical adjustment bolt in the same exact condition came off like a charm in 15 minutes using simple precautions and a can of penetrating oil.
Going to SCC over 100-150 bucks isn't really worth it UNLESS you want to make it about principal. Every state/county handles SCC differently so I can't give you advice on that other than you can possibly file out the forms online to save time and money. Just put your country name and small claims court in a google search. I know most of the CA counties are available online.
In SCC, the judge will ask before the hearing begins what measures where done to prevent SCC. This is where contacting the BBB comes in. I would contact BBB and see what happens. They are kinda slow from what I know but so is going to SCC. If BBB can't help you, then you go to SCC. Going straight to SCC can p*ss off the judge since you didnt attempt other avenues.
Nice...they broke your vehicle and want you to pay for it.
Honestly I'd just chalk this one up to: Shop I will no longer visit because they are incompetent. And just tell my friends not to go there and why.
My recent home garage experience:
I recently had to do a brake job on a car. When I went to take the front passenger side wheel off 3 of 5 studs sheared off of one side. The lugs were soooo flippin tight that I couldn't get them off with an impact. I had to move to a long handled ratchet. Not many other choices. I sprayed them with penetrating lube when I realized they were seized on there.
As best I can tell the clown that put the wheel on before me must have tightened it with maximum torque....this also possibly caused the rotor to warp and the brake pads to wear out prematurely on that side. The driver side was ok...the pads were just past the 'ready to change' mark.
Instead of the job just being a simple brake pad/rotor swap it turned into an ordeal changing the studs out. (which turned out to be not such a huge deal in the end compared to what I though it was gong to be).
Moral: All that would never have happened if somewhere up the line someone wouldn't have screwed up and overtightened the lugs on that wheel.
And to reply to your poll, how about none of the above. Why are you looking for someone to blame? Bolts break every day. Did you expect them to remove a broken bolt for free?
Granted, the situation probably could have been handled better but I suspect the shop manager was pushed to the point of just telling you to take your truck and leave.
Nice...they broke your vehicle and want you to pay for it.
Honestly I'd just chalk this one up to: Shop I will no longer visit because they are incompetent. And just tell my friends not to go there and why.
My recent home garage experience:
I recently had to do a brake job on a car. When I went to take the front passenger side wheel off 3 of 5 studs sheared off of one side. The lugs were soooo flippin tight that I couldn't get them off with an impact. I had to move to a long handled ratchet. Not many other choices. I sprayed them with penetrating lube when I realized they were seized on there.
As best I can tell the clown that put the wheel on before me must have tightened it with maximum torque....this also possibly caused the rotor to warp and the brake pads to wear out prematurely on that side. The driver side was ok...the pads were just past the 'ready to change' mark.
Instead of the job just being a simple brake pad/rotor swap it turned into an ordeal changing the studs out. (which turned out to be not such a huge deal in the end compared to what I though it was gong to be).
Moral: All that would never have happened if somewhere up the line someone wouldn't have screwed up and overtightened the lugs on that wheel.
I think you need a new/better rattle gun. Even Arnie would need a cheater bar to out torque my Ingersoll-Rand. I-R seems to make the best rattle guns.
I do know what you mean, when I have had to resort to having a shop do the mount/balance of tires (prefer to use a machine at another hard-core motorhead's home) I bring just the wheels and tires. I'll bolt them to the hubs, thanks...particularly in the chain shops, I have seen nimrods who not only overtorque but go in a circular pattern rather than a technically correct criss-cross. Excellent way to warp the hub, disc, wheel, whatever.
Forgot to mention that I personally like to put a *touch* of anti-seize lube on lug bolts/studs.
Going to SCC over 100-150 bucks isn't really worth it UNLESS you want to make it about principal. Every state/county handles SCC differently so I can't give you advice on that other than you can possibly file out the forms online to save time and money. Just put your country name and small claims court in a google search. I know most of the CA counties are available online.
In SCC, the judge will ask before the hearing begins what measures where done to prevent SCC. This is where contacting the BBB comes in. I would contact BBB and see what happens. They are kinda slow from what I know but so is going to SCC. If BBB can't help you, then you go to SCC. Going straight to SCC can p*ss off the judge since you didnt attempt other avenues.
Thank you for that piece of information, if I cannot resolve things with the owner then I will go to BBB and then to SCC. As far as money and time goes this is going to be totally about principal. If he does not reconcile with me I will make it my goal to waste as much of his time and money as I can. I never let people walk away without a scratch when they want to play dirty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gimme3steps
A solid front end with a lower control arm?
And to reply to your poll, how about none of the above. Why are you looking for someone to blame? Bolts break every day. Did you expect them to remove a broken bolt for free?
Granted, the situation probably could have been handled better but I suspect the shop manager was pushed to the point of just telling you to take your truck and leave.
Yes, its a coil suspending axle. 4 control arms (2 pairs of parallels) and a track bar.
I am only blaming those who are entirely responsible. I drop the truck off in good condition and I get it back in pieces. If he couldn't budge the bolt he should have called and informed me. Instead he used poor judgement, broke the bolt and THEN called me. Not to mention I was able to remove the other bolt myself in minutes by not approaching the problem like a blockhead. At $90/hr labor costs (costs that were irrelevant to my service job in the first place) I would expect competent technicians.
Actually I never even spoke to the shop manager, that was the funny part. I only spoke to the technician who had done the work to my truck. He was instantaneously short with me and tried to shift the blame onto me for some unknown reason. I was extremely cordial with him and never raised my voice but we both knew he f*cked everything up... poor little guy couldn't even look me in the eyes, was stuttering over his sentences, had poor arguments, hes guilty for sure. Anyway... we discussed the matter for several minutes and then I politely asked to talk to someone with more power. Instead he left the room and came back after 10 minutes and told me the owner and supervisor were gone for the day and that so and so manager said that. I had enough at that point, I wanted to plunge the broken bolt into is forehead. Never said an ill word to the guy nor did I give him a nasty tone... he was still just generally unreasonable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gimme3steps
Do you have a IR Titanium? Best damn impact I've ever owned.
Honestly, I'd let it go and move on.... Life's too short to waste on a bunch of morons and 90 bucks! I would however give a call to the owner and let him know...
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