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Ok I'm not going to take legal inside at this point because the shop is now closed and I don't have the owners information anyway, nor do I have proof of what they were doing, but just for the sake of obtaining knowledge..give me your opinion.
I use to take my cars to a mechanic shop in my area, I thought they did good work. To make a long story short, one of the mechanics at the shop, I started having him come past my house to do work for a cheaper price like a mobile mechanic. After he stopped working at the shop, he admitted to me that the shop use to messed up people's car or lie about something being broken in order to make more money. He said they did it to my car as well while he was at my home doing a repair. He claims he never did it and it was the crooked owners decision too. I believe him though. Their prices were pretty low which I why I went their in the first place.
This is why it pays to have some knowledge of car repairs, I would take an auto repair class at the local community college if it wasn't 15,000 dollars!
So back to my original question, what action would you guys do if a former mechanic for the shop you sometimes took your car too, admitted to you that they mess up cars or tell people lies to make them spend more money for auto repairs? Besides not going back, what could you do legally?
Honestly, I don't think you can really do anything about it. You have no proof and no, a single ex-employee talking about it while working on your car does not count. Chalk it up as a lesson and move on.
not enough evidence to pursue legal action against the former shop owners. now if you got ALL the mechanics on board to make similar claims, then you might have a case.
as for the previous owners information, that is obtainable from your local city business license section. you might ahve to jump through hoops to get it though.
Automotive classes at a college dont cost $15,000.
At one time I couldn't afford a mechanic. I bought a set of tools and the repair manual (actual physical book repair manual) and read it. I started troubleshooting and doing my own repairs. While I may not do all my repairs, when I go to a shop I know exactly what's wrong with the vehicle.
To sue someone, you need to be able to show an out of pocket loss, normally. So, that's what you'd have to prove.
It doesn't sound like you felt ripped off, ever, and that they did good work on your vehicle. So, taking that to court, along with the employee's statement that the former employer was actually ripping you off - just seems pretty weak to me. So, I don't think you'd have a case to sue them, based on the above.
To sue someone, you need to be able to show an out of pocket loss, normally. So, that's what you'd have to prove.
It doesn't sound like you felt ripped off, ever, and that they did good work on your vehicle. So, taking that to court, along with the employee's statement that the former employer was actually ripping you off - just seems pretty weak to me. So, I don't think you'd have a case to sue them, based on the above.
Well what they did was charge cheap prices...but come up with other stuff while your at the shop for a nice cheap price, but in the end if they lied it ended up costing more.
For example lets say you went to get a SWAY BAR installed, most places charge you 90, they'd charge 69.99, while doing the sway bar work they say "you need an alignment as well MR. NOMORESNOWFORME"...most places charge 89.99 for an alignment they charge you 79.99, but you really didn't need the alignment.
Basically they would tell people they needed work done that they didn't, do it cheap, so you feel good, but in the end you still wound up spending more money.
absent showing that you sustained a loss due to the alleged business practices by the shop,
you have no case.
Even if the former employee from the now closed shop claimed that specific work was done on your car that didn't need to be done, that's his "opinion". There's a lot of times where it's a judgment call on the part of the shop to do work beyond a specific "broken" item to be pro-active about future repairs.
For example, it's considered "good practice" when replacing a timing belt in many engines at routine maintenance intervals to replace good functioning idler pulleys or water pumps which are accessed at the time. Yet these parts are not absolutely needed at the time of the timing belt replacement. Similarly, suspension related items may be a "good practice" when replacing a certain worn out component. Or a distributor rotor might be a good thing to replace with a failed distributor cap. Or a battery cable when replacing a battery. Or some questionable vacuum hoses when replacing climate controls or other components, or an expansion valve when servicing an A/C system that otherwise had been performing OK. Or replacing a fuel filter when working on a FI system item like a failed injector. And so forth.
A shop owner has to balance "good practice" and needed parts with the judgement of durable repairs or doing things which might alleviate the likelihood of a comeback and/or duplicate labor in the future.
In the eyes of some "mechanics" ... the affiliated parts weren't needed and he could opine that they were a "rip-off" for the customer. It can really be a matter of professional judgement and experience.
OTOH, if the shop was actively damaging components on a car so that they would create failed items, that's a different story. I have seen some shops do that, like squirting diesel fuel on motor mounts to attack the rubber so that the mounts would fail in a diesel car. But that's pretty rare business practice, in my experience. And you'd still have to "prove" that this type of damage was done to your car to have a claim and that your car's motor mounts failed prematurely requiring you to spend money to replace them.
IF the shop is "out of business", even with a good case, you might have difficulty recovering any damages. Your best hope would be that the shop had a E&O and/or legal liability insurance policy in force at the time that you could look to for funds.
Well what they did was charge cheap prices...but come up with other stuff while your at the shop for a nice cheap price, but in the end if they lied it ended up costing more.
For example lets say you went to get a SWAY BAR installed, most places charge you 90, they'd charge 69.99, while doing the sway bar work they say "you need an alignment as well MR. NOMORESNOWFORME"...most places charge 89.99 for an alignment they charge you 79.99, but you really didn't need the alignment.
Basically they would tell people they needed work done that they didn't, do it cheap, so you feel good, but in the end you still wound up spending more money.
Dude replacing a sway bar is about the easiest thing you can do. It's literally unbolting a part and bolting the new one back up in place. You could simply say no I don't need a alignment as the car drove straight and there was no abnormal tire wear at all when I drove here.
Shops can tell you need all sorts of work.
There is a word that stops all unnecessary work. Simply saying No thank you that service is simoky not in my budget at this time. Hopefully maybe next time but right now the car drives fine.
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