Seeking Advice. Has anyone had bad dealings with Jimmy Deering/Mobile Works East?

[drum]

I am new to this community so please forgive me, as I am unsure of the proper protocol/ etiquette regarding the situation I find myself in. I however am at my wits end and do not know where else to turn.

I have had horrible dealings with Jimmy Deering from Mobile Works East. Has anyone else has had problems with him in the past?

In March of 2007 I entered into an agreement with Jimmy for him to do major service to my 1978 Porsche 911 Targa. He explained after examination that my engine was in critical condition and needed to topend rebuilt. He assured me that the job would take between 7 to 10 days and that he would do the job for $4300. I agreed to his terms and he removed the engine and left.

3 months later during the last week of June of 2007 he finally completed the job. I stayed in close contact with him during this period and he mentioned no complications and explained it had taken as long as it did because of personal problems he was going through. He also saw fit to raise the price of the job to about $6,000. I reluctantly agreed because I simply wanted to be done with the situation and get my car back.

After the rebuilt engine was installed, I proceeded to drive the car. Smoke came pouring out of the engine. He explained that the engine just needed a minor adjustment, which he claimed to have done. Again, upon driving it smoke poured out of the engine and again he made a “minor adjustment.” This happened several times over the course of 2 more months- each time resulting in the engine smoking excessively.

On August 2nd, I took the car for a test drive after one of his “adjustments” and was pulled over by a CHP officer and given a ticket for excessive smoke. The CHP officer explained to me that the charges would be dropped if I had the problem taken care of by the ticket’s due date of September 4th.

Since he caused the problem and I had already paid him, I asked Mr. Deering to please have the car fixed by that time so I could provide the court the proper proof and avoid the $817 fine. He removed the engine again but did not fix it .

After that I gave Mr. Deering a letter threatening legal action. He said he wanted to avoid going to court and that he would take care of it but to date he still has my engine, the car is not fixed, and I am at a loss of what to do.

This has been going on for almost a year!!! Please help!!! Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thank you very much,

[DW SD]

Man, this "blows", sorry for your experience.
Have you reviewed relevant threads by searching his name? I recognize his name and even generally remember folks being thrilled with the experience.

If something has changed, it is good to know.

Doug

[Drdogface]

Lordy, I'm sorry to hear all this. Jimmy used to live up here in Nor Cal and a friend and I both had him do work on our cars. He was always friendly and did expert work at very fair prices. I have no clue as to what could have happened with your motor or why he has stalled on the project. This is a total change of character from the Jimmy I knew up here. No help with your problem I know and I'm at a loss as to what to tell you to do. I guess you finally had to pay that whopper of a fine? I would add that to the demands and I'm sure you did.

PM me and we'll 'talk' more...

[RideShoot&Drink]

Yeah...I had very good experience with Jimmy as well, and that's why I recommended him to the post originator to do work on his car. Unfortunately, my friend has to go through this bs now...no Jimmy, no engine, car in pieces, and it's been almost a year!!!!! Not the way to do business, IMHO.

[RWebb]

He has a lot of favorable posts here, but I got the impression that he was soliciting people to put favorable posts up.

If he gave yuo a receipt when he took your motor (the last time) you might take that to Court. It will help if a neighbor would go and testify that there is no motor in your car, in your garage, house or anywhere on your property. Inoperable car, with motor sent out for repair might get the ticket quashed.

I can't imagine somebody would steal a motor in Calif. You can come down on them so hard there that they will never work again. And the motor is just not worth enough to support somebody's retirement.

Are you sure he promised a set amount for the rebuild? Was it in writing? Or did he just give you an estimate?

Good Luck.

Take everything written down to a lawyer and ask if it is worth continuing. You are in kind of a gray area re cost-effectiveness for an expensive professional like an attorney.

Also, for any purely oral promises he made... do you have a witness who heard him? That could help.

Calif. has a bureau that regulates auto repairs (unlike, say Oregon). You might contact them. Emphasize that he appears to have "stolen" your engine and tell them it is worth about $20,000. The correct term might be illegal conversion, a tort (and only a civil not a criminal action). I say maybe b/c Calif. might have special laws that crimnalize this after a certain time passes. A local attorney should know this.
also I think he needs to be licensed to do auto work in Calif. The Bureau might jerk his license.

This is one of the problems with somebody that does not own a shop - they guy works out of a van, so it can be hard to nail down some real estate to grab onto. He may will own a house tho. An attorney will be able to find out a LOT about him and can get a private investigator on it for the really hard stuff.

[the]

That sucks! Doesn't california have a million regulations for businesses? Is he a licensed/bonded business? Any kind of bond or insurance to go against? Does he have any assets to recover against? From his website, it doesn't seem like he even has an address.

Having some dude rebuild your 911 engine out of the back of his van . . . hmm.

He does seem to make a lot of hay about "endorsements" by Pelicans, including using Wayne's Pelican logo on his website. Wayne may want to take care of that.

http://porscheworks.tripod.com/index.html

Anyways, good luck. This seems like a very tough situation.

[Drdogface]

FWIW, I will tell you all that when he lived up here in the Sac area he did great work, including rebuilds, and everyone I spoke to or read posts by were very happy with him. I never was solicited to give recommendations.

Having said that, however, it does seem that things may have changed. I do know that he was very sick and hospitalized for quite a while. I'm sure that set him back quite a bit. Perhaps this is part of the reason which is far from a good excuse.

Yes, Ca. does have the Bureau of Automotive repair, a division of Consumer Affairs. They do license automotive businesses and have strict regs.

I hope for your sake and his that he 'snaps to' and gets your engine back and working right asap. I have also emailed him privately to see if I can get his attention and a reply to this thread.

[RWebb]

Huh - that looks like Daryl's animation on his web page too!

I wonder if he has permission to use that? All original works are copyrighted... could be big trouble.

[livi]

Sorry to hear about your situation. Sad indeed. Naturally I have no knowledge of this guy what so ever, but I must say his web site kind of puts me off. Not very humble. Doesn´t mean a thing of course.

[MobileWrks]

Resonding from blackberry on the road. So sorry for the quick typo..

Orig Est: Started at $4800. Finalized at $5620 A list below is what was done..

Rebuild full top end w machining heads.
Replace clutch
TT tie rods
Install short shifter
R&R engine
Full major service engine, and chasis

Parts:
Cap, plugs,rotors,Clutch kit, Case studs,rebuild kit, ring set,Koax cable, TT tie rods,short shifter,NEW ALT, read hood shocks
SUBLET to mahine shop: $1300
ADDED AT NO COST: 964 cams,LATE P&C's, Porsted heads with race valve springs..


Spoke to customer last week, and have agreed to have engine done by Feb 1st. 3 days later this post appears..

** Engine is being rebuilt doto overdriving on fresh engine, which didnt not allow to break in proper.**

Jimmy Deering @ Mobile Works East

[EarlyPorsche]

You are lucky to be working with someone who you can contact and will post up here and has so many positive results. This seems like something went wrong in the engine rebuild but does not mean the engine rebuilder was working with bad faith. I say give him this last try and if it doesn't work out post back. We will wait to hear from you guys after February 1st.

[N11Porsche]

Since more than a few Pelican posters have had great experiences using Jimmy Deering's services, maybe, we should cut him a little slack until all the facts are out. The complaining poster (who may or may not be right in this matter) has only 4 post on this forum.

Already, we have Pelican members posting about copy-right infringement on Jimmy's website. Another poster doesn't like "the looks" of his website.

Pelicans have posted about buying illegal copies of the PET cd's, no one ever made an issue of how unethical that is. Or our members that post about having two exhaust systems - one for everyday driving and one for the smog test every two years - "no problem". Now all of a sudden, after 1 post from a new poster, members decide to slam Jimmy Deering.

We don't know who's right or wrong in this matter so maybe we should use some restraint in our remarks. YMMV

[Jeff Alton]

Originally Posted by MobileWrks

**Engine is being rebuilt doto overdriving on fresh engine, which didnt not allow to break in proper.**

Jimmy Deering @ Mobile Works East

What do you mean? How was this determined to be the cause of the issues?

What is the direction you gave the customer for breaking in the motor?

Good on you for taking care of the issue.

Cheers

[Airkooled82]

If any of you knew who Jimmy is and how he is you will understand!. He works all hours of the days, and chooses to help out those in need.
He doesnt charge for ever washer, nut bolt when he installs things in your cars..I have had Jimmy come down several times when he was up north, and NEVER!!!, had a problem with him.. Great guy, and i never dout him.
For several pelican to slam him, and not even know how the Mobile Works guys help us from what they have been doing..

LOOK at all the parts installed, and added.Thats alot for $5600

FYI he told me what to do and not to do when i got my engine back. I did so, and never had a problem with both my Carrera and or the SC.. There are facts not being said about why he is rebuilding it, so i also think its wrong for other to judge what you dont know..

BTW: Our host gave Jimmy permission to use that logo as a link for his site as an affiliation to link this board through his..
Plus, that website is old, and is going to be redone late, and not a priority to some!..

[MobileWrks]

Originally Posted by Jeff Alton

What do you mean? How was this determined to be the cause of the issues?

What is the direction you gave the customer for breaking in the motor?

Good on you for taking care of the issue.

Cheers

When first leaving for road test. I gave him all the do's and dont's to keeping engine well off, and solid. No high revs, keep the shifting smooth, etc.. We drove off at the first stop sign as we left we made a right turn. Back end got sideways, rpm hit 6k. I told him if he drives that car like that, i will void the warranty!!.. NOW here we are.. Also im not saying he is going to pay out of pocket, but from what i seen on tear down, and cond of it, its has been doto over agrresive driving.
I got pictures, bad parts, and alot of time from analysis on why it is like it is..

[RideShoot&Drink]

Gentlemen,

I'm a friend of the original poster, and I'm aware of some details on what's happened.

I've been a customer of Jimmy and was happy with the results, just as many others on this board. Therefore, I recommended him to two of my friends, one of them original poster.

I can say that, what has happened is described accurately in the original post, and I'm a witness to it. It is especially disappointing because I had totally different experience with Jimmy's services.

Facts are that there was an agreement, money paid in full, paid on time.

Facts are that job wasn't done right, car is engineless, engine god knows where, and soon it is going to be a year since it all began.

Now the question is how to fix that? Would you be happy? I know I wouldn't.

Greg.

[Jeff Alton]

I feel your pain Jimmy. I have broken in all but one of the motors I have built for this very reason. The one fellow who broke his in had very specific instructions and we had talked at length about how I would like it done.

This is a tough one......

Hope everything works out and the customer ends up happy.

For the record, you did some work on a car that has one of my motors in California. The owner was happy with your work.

Cheers

[johndglynn]

Originally Posted by EarlyPorsche

You are lucky to be working with someone who you can contact and will post up here and has so many positive results.

Definite +1 on that, Porsche independents live and die on the reputation they hold with Pelicanites etc.

Jimmy, think about not giving stuff away free mate and just getting the work done on time

Good luck to both with sorting this amicably.

[drum]

Gentlemen,
Thank you every one for replay. Just want to give you some update for what happened after I’ve posted my add.
The fact that he promised to fix my engine by Feb 1 today doesn’t means lot to me because I’ve had so many promises since March 2007.
I’ve heard so many reasons why job is not don I even didn’t bother Jimmy during the Christmas holidays season, hey we all people right?
For all this time that Mr. Jimmy Deering keeping my engine was a problem for me to contact him. Today I’ve got some voice and txt messages from him saying in very “nice” form that he going to drop of my engine in
pieces after all this time I was waiting and money that I’ve paid up front
and being more then nice and patient.
Really sorry that I’ve contact Pelican with this and not with something more optimistic.

[MobileWrks]

After getting coming to an agreement, and a date to finalize its really frustrating to see this topic. ALL day yesterday I've called, and called and called.. No answer!. So I texted and texted. Still no reply. So trying to solve this issue has been ongoing by both my busy schedule as well as his.. It seems to me poster. Just wants to attack me on the board as opposed to settle person to person matter. So, I will wait for his call, and go from there....

All time in delay has been from me being hopspitized for 6 weeks plus.. Also some time of recovery.so hopefully he will call and let me know what we are going to do..

Jiimy