Lying mechanics who don't return cars for years

[sugarwood]

Originally Posted by RWebb

People need to document things in writing (incl. Email or texts) and/or bring a witness f2f. In some states you can record phone calls or have a friend listen in w/o telling the perp. who has your car.

You then will need to go to court to get a court order (I don't know of any criminal laws here in the US, it is a civil issue, called a tort - illegal conversion).

States with strong consumer protection laws (Calif.) may have easier procedures.

Thanks for posting something the victim could have done in real life.

[asphaltgambler]

After the crash in '08 and the collapse of the auto industry I went to work a guy that owned a small indie repair shop. He knew very little about the business and after a few years in was losing his shirt. I was hired on with the agreement as a shop foreman, lead technician and 'consultant' to turn things around. Normally I would not have touched this crap 'gig' with a ten foot pole, but times were tough and it was the best opportunity out of very few.

The shop had @2200Sq ft of service area including a 2 lifts / pads outside. The place sat on a little over an acre. After cleaning house inside for a couple of months, I turned my attention to the parking lot which was almost full but of cars that never moved or worked on.

So I take the owner and had him walk with me, a legal pad and paper and went 1-by-1. Turns out that 90% of cars needed major surgery and the owners never gave approval OR came to pick them up. Some had been there over 2 years. One was a gen III Corvette. For each car I asked why was it here, why is it still here? The guy just gave excuse after excuse after excuse with one being the Corvette owner who happened to attend the same church as he.

So after the 'tour' I said to him very matter-of-factly the place looks like a junkyard because it is. I said one of the reasons that business was off is because of the awful 'curb appeal'. Who would bring a nice car and get it serviced at a place that looks like this? Owner just looked at me with a blank stare. I said further...….....you know the rent you're paying includes all the parking that these non-paying 'customers' are parking their vehicles on?

So I quickly approximated what each parking space cost HE was paying for per month and multiplied that by 24 months...………………..on my phone then showed it to him. I said this is what you paid to have non paying customers park their vehicles here the last 2 years. I then asked (already knowing the probable answer) how many of these still owe you money from the estimate / partial repairs...…..more than a few.

So in this case the reverse was what was going on from the OP. Most could not afford or did not want to repair these cars / trucks, they just ignored it and I guess figured they'd have to pay for towing and parking wherever their home was. So the owner never followed up and they took advantage of him.

It fell on me as he would not call these people. I went through each ticket(s), came up with a figure and called one by one. Told them we would not charge storage or % on the past due bill if the cars were picked up by the end of the week. Some asked if they could move forward on repairs I said yes if the current bill was paid and a 50% deposit on the recommended repairs. Silence on the other end...…………….

About 60 % did in fact pay the what was due and the cars were towed out. The rest I filed lien on
and were sold for scrap. We did pretty well on those as scrap metal prices were high at the time and we averaged @$450 / car including towing away.

[MrBonus]

You can search my posts to find my experience with my Ghia. Shop took 6 months to replace a damn high beam relay (so I could pass inspection) despite numerous protests, calling, and stopping by to ask when it would be done.

I always thought money was green but that apparently isn't the case in the automotive world.

[LakeCleElum]

Put my one owner 1969 911T in for sheet metal and paint 2.5 years ago.....Had most of it back a year ago, but just last week for the trunk lid, windows and hubcaps he had kept....Still owes me gas cap cover and fog light cover. Says he knows they are in the shop, just can't find them.

On the other hand, the price and quality of work was really good........

[asphaltgambler]

^^^^^^^^^^^ Sorry man, I disagree - no one's that good^^^^^