This is why I don't let people touch my cars.

[protege]

All my complaints were dismissed as 'That's just the way it is'

There's always a solution...up to and including taking the bastard to small claims court

When I dealt with the "garage" over the damage to my MG, I tried to play nice. That is, I tried to talk to them about how I was unhappy with the repairs. But, the owner kept ducking me--he'd hide in his office, or was "out to lunch" whenever I stopped by (yet his car was in the lot ), and wouldn't return phone calls.

Sick of this, I wrote down a long list of things that I'd been double-billed on, repairs that weren't done right (or at all!) even though I'd paid for them. Found out that some of those things (missing horns, inoperative windshield washers) would have caused the car to fail the annual PA state safety inspection. In fact, any one of those things is an instant failure in PA. Yet, the car somehow had current stickers on it!

At that point, I knew I had him by the balls. I could now prove that there were some shady things going on--never mind the breach of contract issue. So, I took the laundry list of fuck-ups, and drafted a strongly-worded letter. Basically, I listed my complaints, and threatened to go after him...if he didn't take care of them. From what I was told, when the guy was reading the letter...the color literally ran out of his face Sorry asshole, you ripped me off. I don't get mad, I get even

In the end, not only was most of the repair work done, but also some jobs that I really didn't feel like doing--fitting MGB seats is a bitch, for example. I didn't get back everything, including some things that they'd "lost," but I chose to cut my losses instead. And no, I haven't been back.

Karma is a bitch though. I found out later that the shop has been having some issues, including not being able to keep customers. Gee, I wonder why

[Jay 2K Winger]

I'll admit, I've been scammed by a "Liffy Jube" before. When I took my car for its first oil change, as it happened. Me being a dumb kid, I believed them when they said I needed a transmission flush or whatever. It wasn't till I got home and related the experience to my folks that I found out I'd been fleeced out of $200+ of my hard-earned money.

I switched to another Liffy Jube, where I've been more sensible about what I allow them to do to my car. Thus far, haven't had any issues with them, but then, I have now acquired my Aura of Cynicism-And-Take-No-Bullshit, so it probably keeps them from trying to scam me too much.

[blas]

It always helps to either be good with vehicles yourself or have a friend/family member who can advise you.

Always remember that they have to "upsell", just the same as any other type of service people. While regular vehicle maintenance is a must and there are rules, there are also many lube stations and shops that will try to change those rules to sneak extra money out of people, unfortunately especially with women and people who are stereotyped to not know much about vehicles.

I always get my brother or my dad's input before I get anything done for maintenance, because I know some of those guys just want money, and the car really doesn't need this flushed or that changed for several thousand more miles.

[Tanasi]

My wife took her Exploder to Lubby Jiff to get the oil changed. She came back in about 30 minutes being a suspicious person I looked over the bill. The charged her for oil change, transmission flush, radiator flush, new air filter, rotating the tires, replacing a burned out brake light. Thing was all they really did was change the oil, didn't replace the oil filter and steal the K&N air filter that I had put in the previous month. I sent her back to get her money and the manager wouldn't budge. I went back with a LEO, I got the money back and the air filter.
The boy drives it now and he does all the maintenance himself. The wife takes her BAV to the dealer when Onstar tells her to.
I take my Escape to the dealer(still under warrenty) but my other cars and trucks I or one of the boys do the work.

[PepperElf]

i think i went there twice in va beach... once to just get a check engine light code read - they did that for free. another time for an oil chance. but before i accepted any recommendation i called dad.

for car repairs i went to 3 different places, all of which were good: the sears @ pembroke mall, the car dealer on va beach blvd, and some guy across the road from little creek base (he had good word-of-mouth reviews and... well hell he was walking distance from work lol).

the only bad work i've had was car inspections (never used the jiff tho) but... well .. actually i may have done a sightings on that one already.

[Andara Bledin]

My aunt had someone screw with her on car repairs once. She had to have her clutch replaced on her MG Midget, and the shop screwed it up pretty bad, but since she was a woman, they thought they could brush her off.

So she picketed.

They threatened to have her arrested or sue her, and she told them to, "Bring it."

Then they found a way to squeeze her car in to the schedule and they fixed their screw up.

^-.-^

[boringscreenname]

This past summer my husband was driving home from work, and one of the seals on the transmission blew and dumped fluid all over the road, then promptly died.

We called a towing/repair company. They replaced the seal, and gave the car back to us saying they test drove it and everything was fine.

So my husband picks it up and barely gets a couple miles down the road before it starts riding rough, but the repair shop was already closed so he couldn't just take it back. So a couple hours later he comes to pick me up from work. I notice the car is handling really rough and on the way home the dashboard starts lighting up with a huge yellow triangle and an exclamation mark, and a warning about the transmission.

So the next day we took it back to the shop, and turns out the transmission was completely shot and had to be replaced. They still charged us for replacing the seal, even though that didn't fix our problem and the car was back in the shop 8 hours later. They didn't offer to lower the price or anything.

They did give us the transmission (used) for free and only charged us for labor. But I was still pretty pissed off about the situation considering I was 9 months pregnant at the time, and could've gone into labor at any time and that was our only car.

[Midorikawa]

So, I gave the car a once over, dug around in the rats nest of fluid lines on that side of the engine, and can't find ANY trace of where this is coming from. It feels oil based, so coolant is out, and it's not brake fluid, either (different feel) I'm thinking I'll just take it back, ask to know what the hell they did to the poor thing, and see if they fess up.

Beyond that, I can't find the location of the oil. it's coming from somewhere, as the engine is still coated in oil of some kind. Damned if I can find the source, though.

[Shalom]

Can you absorb some on a paper towel and see what color it is? That might give you an idea where to start looking.

[Frantic Freddie]

You could have a pinhole leak that only shows up when fluids are under pressure,hard to find sometimes.

[LadyAndreca]

My car used to belong to my father-in-law, who likes taking it to the dealership it was bought from, new, sixteen years ago to brag about how it's still running despite there being nearly 300,000 miles on it. Except for oil changes, I still ask him to take it into that shop for all non-urgent repairs. When the entire rear light assembly went out because of a sheared wire, for example.

When the radiator went, though, I had to limp it to a closer mechanic. I STILL think they overcharged, and it didn't need all the brake work they insisted it did. But one of my husband's coworkers insisted they did good work, and I wasn't exactly going to mess around with bad brakes. I do have to admit I haven't had any problems with the brakes or radiator since.

[dbuzman]

So, I gave the car a once over, dug around in the rats nest of fluid lines on that side of the engine, and can't find ANY trace of where this is coming from. It feels oil based, so coolant is out, and it's not brake fluid, either (different feel) I'm thinking I'll just take it back, ask to know what the hell they did to the poor thing, and see if they fess up.

Beyond that, I can't find the location of the oil. it's coming from somewhere, as the engine is still coated in oil of some kind. Damned if I can find the source, though.

2 more possibilities are power steering fluid or clutch fluid.

[Midorikawa]

2 more possibilities are power steering fluid or clutch fluid.

It's an auto, so clutch is right out. I did crank the steering wheel around a few times, and didn't notice any new fluid after wiping it off. It only seems to show up on long drives, unfortunately, which means that the fan and driving 70MPH on the freeway blows the fluid all over. :-(

[wolfie]

It's an auto, so clutch is right out. I did crank the steering wheel around a few times, and didn't notice any new fluid after wiping it off. It only seems to show up on long drives, unfortunately, which means that the fan and driving 70MPH on the freeway blows the fluid all over. :-(

Transmission fluid? A lot of slushboxes have a transmission cooler mounted at the radiator (usually in front, but sometimes built into). If they nicked one of the lines to that, you could be getting transmission fluid onto the engine.

[Raveni]

The very first time I went to get my oil changed... I was silently swearing through the doors at the kid taking my tires off...

Wait, why were they taking your tires off to change the oil???