Car trouble (mechanic)

[tloonya]

Please, help pronto!

June,10th we took car to the shop because it wouldn't start.
Have decided to tow to the nearest shop.
They said fixed.
Husband drove to the store and couldn't start it on the way back.
It took him 20 min to start it and come home.

We are driving another car now. Ours is sitting there at the shop waiting
for the owner to come and fix it because mechanic is not good with security and electrical of the cars...

Owner is not calling me back and not coming. Today I had hold of him on the phone and he promised to come and fix. I am calling, he is not there yet.

Whats my legal rights and what to do? I had paid $325 and I am fuming!!!

[kent]

Jun 15, 2013 12:14:32 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Please, help pronto!

June,10th we took car to the shop because it wouldn't start.
Have decided to tow to the nearest shop.
They said fixed.
Husband drove to the store and couldn't start it on the way back.
It took him 20 min to start it and come home.

We are driving another car now. Ours is sitting there at the shop waiting
for the owner to come and fix it because mechanic is not good with security and electrical of the cars...

Owner is not calling me back and not coming. Today I had hold of him on the phone and he promised to come and fix. I am calling, he is not there yet.

Whats my legal rights and what to do? I had paid $325 and I am fuming!!!

I don't think you have any "legal" rights at this juncture.  It's SATURDAY and the owner said he's coming in to fix it so chill out a bit - you could get a call in a few hours telling you it's ready for pick up.  If he doesn't call, let him have a few days to work on it - cars are quite complicated, especially when it involves electrical problems. He might find something else wrong (beyond what you've already been charged for) and charge you even more.

On the other hand, on Monday you can get an attorney involved at $275 an hour and screw around with that for God knows how long.  Patience grasshopper, patience....

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

So I'm guessing you are calling the shop to actually see if he's there, and he's not answering the phone.  So lemme see.....if I go in to work to do a special favor for a client, I'm not about to answer the phone.  The business is closed and I am busy fixing a car.  If I go and answer it to placate a hysterical client, it will only take me longer to fix the car and I don't want to be there in the first place.

It is Saturday, Looney......back off.

[tloonya]

It had been there since MONDAY!!! June 10th was MONDAY!!!
I dont care about his presious time of! He had plenty...
'Special favor'...that would be if I asked for back massage while he is fixing my car!

[Jaguar]

Go buy a new car, it's in YM style now.

[midjd]

Sometimes it takes a while to fix a car, depending on what's wrong and what parts are needed. (Although I'm not sure why the "mechanic" can't work on it). Since you have a loaner, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

If you're still pissed off Monday, return the loaner and pay the bill for any labor so far and have yours towed to another shop.

[tloonya]

I don't have a loaner, its my car.
We had paid for everything and it got stuck so we took it back and thats it.

[deantrip]

I agree, it can take a lot of time to diagnose and fix starting issues, it could be fuel, engine, electrical, or combination, it's a lot of trial and error and testing to figure it out, I have worked on vehicles for well over a month at times to find issues in the electrical.

[mmhmm]

As deantrip said, if you've got an electrical problem, you've got a time sink.  You're just going to have to wait until it can be tracked down and fixed.  Feel free to whine while waiting, but that's about it ... unless you want to have the car towed to a different garage for repair.

[NancysSummerSip]

Jun 15, 2013 12:55:47 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

Go buy a new car, it's in YM style now.

Of course! Will the money from all those organic veggies she will be selling....

[Deleted]

Jun 15, 2013 18:14:32 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Jun 15, 2013 12:55:47 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

Go buy a new car, it's in YM style now.

Of course! Will the money from all those organic veggies she will be selling....

Why not! 

"To be not to be" That's the question of the day.

The smart ones  never look down on others possibilities....   
That's what histories tells us. 

[NancysSummerSip]

Jun 15, 2013 18:25:36 GMT -5 @snowbird said:

Jun 15, 2013 18:14:32 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Of course! Will the money from all those organic veggies she will be selling....

Why not! 

"To be not to be" That's the question of the day.

The smart ones  never look down on others possibilities....   
That's what histories tells us. 

I thought it was going to be tomatoes, right?

[Deleted]

Jun 15, 2013 18:30:53 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Jun 15, 2013 18:25:36 GMT -5 @snowbird said:

Why not! 

"To be not to be" That's the question of the day.

The smart ones  never look down on others possibilities....   
That's what histories tells us. 

I thought it was going to be tomatoes, right?

It doesn't matter what she sells.  It's all of about one's effort and that's what I think.
Of Course result will be vary but who cares when one's satisfied with themselves.    

[Deleted]

Whats my legal rights and what to do? I had paid $325 and I am fuming!!!

You would think that since it's a machine it would be easy to fix, but that's not true. Let's say that you had a dead battery. It went into the shop & it sat there for a while until they go to it. Maybe they just waved a magic wand over it & said "problems be gone" & then tried it. Well it could be that during the time it sat there the battery built up enough charge that it started. Boom it's fixed for a short time. Not so easy to understand exactly what's wrong & as someone said electrical problems can be a bitch to fix. Give them time.

It had been there since MONDAY!!! June 10th was MONDAY!!!

Wow, that's 5 days ago, but only 4 working days ago. My wife's car is missing some & we were lucky to get it seen in 7 days (NOT counting week ends). Seen as in they didn't even want it in their parking lot before that. Sorry but Tloonya I think that your expecting a bit extra here from a service aspect. You have to realize that sometimes things can be complicated. Back in the old days I once had a broken coil it was new out of the box (had just been put on). My mechanic had been a mechanic for 20 years & have never seen a bad coil out of the box. I was shocked that he "guessed" the problem the first day. It happens.

Lastly my advise for this & general stuff is to stop thinking "Whats my legal rights and what to do?". Getting a lawyer is the LAST thing you generally do because it is so expensive. That's like saying Burger King gave me under cooked French fries so I'm going to spend $100,000 on a lawyer. Even if you win, you lose.

[tloonya]

Welll...I guess I had been spoiled and lucky and had never had car repaired for more than a few hours.
I went and spoke to a mechanic who said he will try his best on Tuesday. I went ballistic on him, he ran away and hid under the car he was repairing.
I am taking car to my reg mechanic. Screw this fk!

[kent]

Jun 17, 2013 10:46:40 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Welll...I guess I had been spoiled and lucky and had never had car repaired for more than a few hours.
I went and spoke to a mechanic who said he will try his best on Tuesday. I went ballistic on him, he ran away and hid under the car he was repairing.
I am taking car to my reg mechanic. Screw this fk!

Yeah, that ballistic approach is pretty much foolproof for getting positive results.

He probably thought you were some sort of loon that had a gun but doing what you did is a good thing - now you're back to square one and can start all over with a new shop.

I honestly wish you luck so you can relax before you have stroke over this relatively unimportant matter.

[toomuchreality]

loony-

In the last year, I have had my brakes fixed 2 times. Last Thursday they went out again. Completely out. Considering I have already paid a significant amount, on 2 separate occasions in less than a year, I was a tad upset (and scared) to have a problem with them again, although it has been a different problem each time. I had my car towed to my mechanic (who I like and trust, so am very loyal, and I never scream or go too crazy. I want him, to WANT to help me!). He did not disappoint me. Once again, something else has gone out, that has to do with my brakes.

I'm SO glad I didn't come unglued on him! It had nothing to do with the work they performed previously, so it wasn't his/their fault, and I would have looked and felt very foolish. The repair is going to be expensive for me. He knows this, and went out of his way to find me a used part. AND he is going to make arrangements with me to pay for the repair, so I can have my car back today (if the work is complete), when the policy is to pay cash at the time of service.
No, it has not been convenient. My daughter was married this weekend, and I found out last week that my father has less than 6 months to live, so I would have liked to go see him on Father's day. But still, that's very nice, in my book, and VERY appreciated.

Unless you were paying him to be at your beck and call, in addition to working on your car, he wasn't.
If the guy didn't scream back at you, consider yourself lucky!
In my opinion, you need to bite your tongue once in a while, so as to not cause yourself more grief. Especially when you don't absolutely KNOW what the problem is/was. Otherwise you may end up with your car not fixed, and them calling a lawyer on you!  -Besides not looking, or sounding like someone you'd be proud to be.

This is just my opinion. If your differs, it's okay. We don't have to share the same one, in order for me to be happy.

I hope you get your car fixed, and that you enjoy your day!

[NancysSummerSip]

Jun 17, 2013 16:17:09 GMT -5 kent said:

Jun 17, 2013 10:46:40 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Welll...I guess I had been spoiled and lucky and had never had car repaired for more than a few hours.
I went and spoke to a mechanic who said he will try his best on Tuesday. I went ballistic on him, he ran away and hid under the car he was repairing.
I am taking car to my reg mechanic. Screw this fk!

Yeah, that ballistic approach is pretty much foolproof for getting positive results.

He probably thought you were some sort of loon that had a gun but doing what you did is a good thing - now you're back to square one and can start all over with a new shop.

I honestly wish you luck so you can relax before you have stroke over this relatively unimportant matter.

Probably? It's in her name!!!!!!!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jun 18, 2013 7:39:53 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

loony-

In the last year, I have had my brakes fixed 2 times. Last Thursday they went out again. Completely out. Considering I have already paid a significant amount, on 2 separate occasions in less than a year, I was a tad upset (and scared) to have a problem with them again, although it has been a different problem each time. I had my car towed to my mechanic (who I like and trust, so am very loyal, and I never scream or go too crazy. I want him, to WANT to help me!). He did not disappoint me. Once again, something else has gone out, that has to do with my brakes.

I'm SO glad I didn't come unglued on him! It had nothing to do with the work they performed previously, so it wasn't his/their fault, and I would have looked and felt very foolish. The repair is going to be expensive for me. He knows this, and went out of his way to find me a used part. AND he is going to make arrangements with me to pay for the repair, so I can have my car back today (if the work is complete), when the policy is to pay cash at the time of service.
No, it has not been convenient. My daughter was married this weekend, and I found out last week that my father has less than 6 months to live, so I would have liked to go see him on Father's day. But still, that's very nice, in my book, and VERY appreciated.

Unless you were paying him to be at your beck and call, in addition to working on your car, he wasn't.
If the guy didn't scream back at you, consider yourself lucky!
In my opinion, you need to bite your tongue once in a while, so as to not cause yourself more grief. Especially when you don't absolutely KNOW what the problem is/was. Otherwise you may end up with your car not fixed, and them calling a lawyer on you!  -Besides not looking, or sounding like someone you'd be proud to be.

This is just my opinion. If your differs, it's okay. We don't have to share the same one, in order for me to be happy.

I hope you get your car fixed, and that you enjoy your day!

I had a similar experience a couple summers ago with my a/c. It stopped working 3x over about 4 weeks and each time it was a different problem. At the end, the mechanic only charged me for parts and ate the 4 hours it took them to get to the evaporator.

[Bob Ross]

Jun 17, 2013 10:46:40 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Welll...I guess I had been spoiled and lucky and had never had car repaired for more than a few hours.
I went and spoke to a mechanic who said he will try his best on Tuesday. I went ballistic on him, he ran away and hid under the car he was repairing.
I am taking car to my reg mechanic. Screw this fk!

Good idea.  I hear it's also smart to yell at people who prepare your food.

[toomuchreality]

Jun 18, 2013 14:21:11 GMT -5 Bob Ross said:

Jun 17, 2013 10:46:40 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Welll...I guess I had been spoiled and lucky and had never had car repaired for more than a few hours.
I went and spoke to a mechanic who said he will try his best on Tuesday. I went ballistic on him, he ran away and hid under the car he was repairing.
I am taking car to my reg mechanic. Screw this fk!

Good idea.  I hear it's also smart to yell at people who prepare your food.

I know, huh?     

I seriously have to think that people who go crazy on service people, must not stop and think of all the horrible things that someone could do in retaliation, and no one would ever know. SCARY! I worked with a guy that got mad at our boss, so he urinated in the lemonade. GROSS! But it could happen in just about every field, not just the food industry. All it takes is one little slip of a sharp tool, or a twist here or there. Maybe an extra zero gets added, or deleted to an account, or a paper/voucher is conveniently lost. (Ooops!) The possibilities are endless. Then at some later point, the person is so screwed! And all for a few minutes of uncontrolled rage. I find it hard to believe it would be worth it.


Whenever I make an error, I am always SO grateful, when the other person doesn't lose it on me!
And when someone does, I have to wonder what it is they get out of it.
Maybe they think it's funny?   How they could, is beyond me.  
Although I have laughed at them for saying stupid things, and thinking they were being so smart, a time or two.

I had a similar experience a couple summers ago with my a/c. It stopped working 3x over about 4 weeks and each time it was a different problem. At the end, the mechanic only charged me for parts and ate the 4 hours it took them to get to the evaporator.

Mich,
3 times in such a short period! That seems crazy. But it really does happen. I'm glad they finally got it all fixed for you. It was nice of him to not charge labor.
My guess is that if you would have been a screamer, he would have charged you for every penny he could think of.




It seems like it would be exhausting, to be so angry all the time.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jun 18, 2013 17:01:03 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

I had a similar experience a couple summers ago with my a/c. It stopped working 3x over about 4 weeks and each time it was a different problem. At the end, the mechanic only charged me for parts and ate the 4 hours it took them to get to the evaporator.

Mich,
3 times in such a short period! That seems crazy. But it really does happen. I'm glad they finally got it all fixed for you. It was nice of him to not charge labor.
My guess is that if you would have been a screamer, he would have charged you for every penny he could think of.




It seems like it would be exhausting, to be so angry all the time.

The first time my a/c died (in the middle of a KY summer), they had my car all day looking for the leak. Conclusion was that it was likely the evaporator, which they had to take the dashboard out to get to. Since they had to send away for it, and it was a $300+ part, they filled me up with refrigerant and let me are my car home. Turned out, it was not the evaporator, but 4 x $1.50 o-rings. Over $300 in labor, $6 in parts! A/c works.

A week later, no a/c, so I take it back. It was a leaking intake/outtake tubing this time. $200+ bill.

A few weeks later, again no a/c. Repeat of first, only this time it was the evaporator. So only had to pay for the $300 evaporator, the shop ate the labor of taking my dashboard apart a a second time to get to it.

It was frustrating, but screaming at my mechanic wasn't going to help. He fixed the problems as they occurred, they just all occurred in a short time.

[tloonya]

Wanna know the end?
My mechanic said (after he saw the car) that this is definitely a bad starter and when I came back to the moron he insisted he had never seen a bad starter in 15 years of his life!
I wanted to hit him with a hammer so his red dot on his had would become...green or royal blue!!!!!!!
However I had conteined myself and said  i have a $50 evaluation slip here from independent shop.  (I paid $50 for your stupidity!!!!!!)

So he put a new starter next day (mind you car wasn't working for 7 days because of an ONE HOUR JOB he didn't do)...and when my DH came to pick the car up he apologized. HOWEVER he said 'guys who sold him a started told him that starter wasn't so bad'....and i am like WHAAAAAAAAAAT?? It was good, it just didn't start the car?

Why some people think they can do the job they can't

[Deleted]

One the other hand....

My wife was experiencing the same problems as once before (clogged intake) when was the result of carbon build up. Made the appointment & told them what was wrong. Took the car in & expected the bill to be around $250. The mechanic told me that we were WRONG & all that happened was that something came unplugged (I love technology). They plugged it in & drove it & it was fine. Total cost for wasting their time was ZERO, yes, no charge. So the important point here is once you find a good....honest mechanic you stick with him until either he dies or you die. Oh & if you have a bad mechanic you keep looking.

[Opti]

June,10th we took car to the shop because it wouldn't start.
Have decided to tow to the nearest shop.
They said fixed.
Husband drove to the store and couldn't start it on the way back.
It took him 20 min to start it and come home.

We are driving another car now. Ours is sitting there at the shop waiting
for the owner to come and fix it because mechanic is not good with security and electrical of the cars...

OK, I'm a bit confused on the order of events. Did the car come out of the shop on the
10th and then was brought back later in the day? If this is a small shop, was the owner working that week? Is it just the mechanic and the owner?

I had electrical issues with my old Honda. The problem was never determined or resolved.
While it frustrated me it was much worse than what you describe. It would not restart in a 20 minute timeframe. However, for reasons never discovered, it would somehow reset and be like normal somewhere after an hour or more depending. Any time the car eventually starts like it did for your husband it is much much harder to troubleshoot. If it doesn't fail all the time the same way it takes someone very special and perhaps lucky to find it.

[toomuchreality]

Jun 21, 2013 13:57:00 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Wanna know the end?
My mechanic said (after he saw the car) that this is definitely a bad starter and when I came back to the moron he insisted he had never seen a bad starter in 15 years of his life!
I wanted to hit him with a hammer so his red dot on his had would become...green or royal blue!!!!!!!
However I had conteined myself and said  i have a $50 evaluation slip here from independent shop.  (I paid $50 for your stupidity!!!!!!)

So he put a new starter next day (mind you car wasn't working for 7 days because of an ONE HOUR JOB he didn't do)...and when my DH came to pick the car up he apologized. HOWEVER he said 'guys who sold him a started told him that starter wasn't so bad'....and i am like WHAAAAAAAAAAT?? It was good, it just didn't start the car?

Why some people think they can do the job they can't

Glad you got your car fixed loony.

I wanted to hit him with a hammer so his red dot on his had would become...green or royal blue!!!!!!!
However I had conteined myself and said  i have a $50 evaluation slip here from independent shop.  (I paid $50 for your stupidity!!!!!!)

Sorry you felt the need to be 'not so nice'.  Good for you, to  contain yourself. That's what adults do, when they are acting like an adult.

HOWEVER he said 'guys who sold him a started told him that starter wasn't so bad'....and i am like WHAAAAAAAAAAT?? It was good, it just didn't start the car?

When a mechanic gets a part, especially a used part, they have to rely on the party they purchased it from, for it's condition.

when my DH came to pick the car up he apologized.

That was nice of him. Did you apologize for your behavior?

So he put a new starter next day

Why some people think they can do the job they can't

Clearly he could do the job.

Any time the car eventually starts like it did for your husband it is much much harder to troubleshoot.

Yep. I've been told this more than once. 

So the important point here is once you find a good....honest mechanic you stick with him until either he dies or you die. Oh & if you have a bad mechanic you keep looking.

A good mechanic that you trust, is worth waiting for, and worth your loyalty. It would have to be a MAJOR emergency, for me to take my car to someone other than my regular mechanic. In fact I can't think of a reason I would, off the top of my head. If it's that big of an emergency, I don't have time to get my car fixed first!
One of the nice things about going to the same place all the time, is that they know what work has been done to the car. And that they did the work, unless you work on it yourself.


Ugh. My mechanic put a used part in, to fix my brakes. Got it all put back together, then found out that the part was bad. Since the part is no longer made, there isn't one available in the state I live in. We are now waiting for a replacement to be shipped. On top of that, I got a call from my mechanic yesterday, there is something else wrong with my brakes, in addition to the $400 repair they're already doing! That sucks.    But at least they found it now, while they're already working on it. So it won't cost me as much to fix that, cuz the car is already taken apart. Plus I won't be without a car again to repair the other problem. And the newest problem didn't get a chance to ruin the work or parts that are currently being done.
But most of all, I'm safe!  (and so are others!)

Sometimes you just have to take a few deep breaths, and look for the silver lining. Being negative all the time is not fun for you, and it certainly is not fun for the people you interact with!

Negative people can suck the energy right out of you. Energy vampires.

[tloonya]

NO! Mechanic was the one who apologized!
Why would that another way around?

[tloonya]

Jun 17, 2013 16:17:09 GMT -5 kent said:

Jun 17, 2013 10:46:40 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Welll...I guess I had been spoiled and lucky and had never had car repaired for more than a few hours.
I went and spoke to a mechanic who said he will try his best on Tuesday. I went ballistic on him, he ran away and hid under the car he was repairing.
I am taking car to my reg mechanic. Screw this fk!

Yeah, that ballistic approach is pretty much foolproof for getting positive results.

He probably thought you were some sort of loon that had a gun but doing what you did is a good thing - now you're back to square one and can start all over with a new shop.

I honestly wish you luck so you can relax before you have stroke over this relatively unimportant matter.

And my favorite:
It seems like it would be exhausting, to be so angry all the time.

Maybe it is because I had to do following in 20 years:
came to this country at age of 26 and had to:
learn the language
meet the man
give birth
buy the house
get married!!!!!!
go to school
find job (for 11 years my salary went from $50K to $40 per hour)
lose job
stay married!!!!!!!
open business
stay married!!!!!!!!!!
putting child trough college
get farm...

Do you really think I have nerves left to let some screw up person who knows nothing about cars (but wants to make money because he had heard that mechanics are rich!) to get away with my money and my time  

[Opti]

Maybe it is because I had to do following in 20 years:
came to this country at age of 26 and had to:


Had to

Do you really think I have nerves left to let some screw up person who knows nothing about cars (but wants to make money because he had heard that mechanics are rich!) to get away with my money and my time


Then why are you using this guy at all? (Its not in the script you got at age 26 is it? )

[tloonya]

I had used this guy because towing is to the nearest shop and he is basically around the corner from my house. And I didn't mind because there used to be a good mechanic there.