Gotta love dirtbag mechanics

[nisreo]

So the other day while I'm at work, my friends grandfather calls me and tells me he is broken down in connecticut because his car shut off on the highway. He get's towed to the closest garage. After 2 hours they tell him he needs a fuel pump and fuel filter. Grand total- $800.

I told him to have his wife turn the key on while he was near the trunk to listen for the pump to run, it did. Told him to tow it back to mass to my work. They made him wait 4 hours for their tow truck to get back from some call.

They drop off the car at night, and I go in the next morning, 2 codes for MAF problems. Pulled the Maf off and it had a little debris in it. Cleaned it with electronics spray and was out in 10 mins. Basic diagnostics skills here.

Seriously, how are you gonna do that to an 80 yr old man and his wife?

 

[BigmacK192]

Some people just take advantage of anybody they can. It's bad for business, but for the most part, people never know what's going on. It's a sad situation.

 

[SScott]

That's messed up. Shop has to be either stupid or thieves...

 

[MustangLX-5.0]

Bulls***! I have mentioned it many times before, this is the sole reason I started doing EVERY piece of work to my cars MYSELF. Dirtbag mechanics is right. That piece of sh** shop back in 2003 that totaly screwed over my A/C , and I coudnt prove they did it, but I KNOW for a fact they DID...ooohhh that sh** really pissed me off. It's a friggin shame there are still shady shops out there who will take advantage of people. Worse part is, they take advantage of many women and older people. Boy, if I EVER catch a shop doing that to someone , I'll be jumpin down their necks and making sure everyone hears about it. What they do to try and make extra hours is ridicuous.. shameful. Greedy.

 

[Tanus]

Seriously, how are you gonna do that to an 80 yr old man and his wife?

some people just have no conscience, in fact lots of people. My mom gets free oil changes from the subaru dealer she got her car from. Every single time its in they say she needs something, she says no thanks then I look at it, and every single time they were trying to rip her off.

 

[Cobra912]

Bulls***! I have mentioned it many times before, this is the sole reason I started doing EVERY piece of work to my cars MYSELF. Dirtbag mechanics is right. That piece of sh** shop back in 2003 that totaly screwed over my A/C , and I coudnt prove they did it, but I KNOW for a fact they DID...ooohhh that sh** really pissed me off. It's a friggin shame there are still shady shops out there who will take advantage of people. Worse part is, they take advantage of many women and older people. Boy, if I EVER catch a shop doing that to someone , I'll be jumpin down their necks and making sure everyone hears about it. What they do to try and make extra hours is ridicuous.. shameful. Greedy.

WOW

 

[MustangLX-5.0]

When you're the one getting scammed, it's a whole new ballgame. You wanna hear the story? No? Well you're gonna hear it anyway..

In 2003 , A couple months after I just bought my 92, I was having misfire issues. Back then I wasn't as smart and I couldn't diagnose it as well. It was missing, I had checked all the plugs and wires. So I bit the bullet and took it in to a local shop here in town. Thinking it was a good shop because some people spoke good words of that place. Well, I get it in there thinking there was something worse wrong with it. Turns out it was just a couple of bad spark plugs not firing to their full extent. I had new plugs put in. Had the tranny filter and a flush done, along with an injector cleaning. An hour or so goes by, and I see my car sitting out in front of one of the bays running. One of the mechanics call me over and show me that everything is running great now. There are about 3 guys standing there over the hood of my car. Then one points out that my A/C isn't working and that one of the main hoses in front is leaking freon... and I mean Hissing out spilling orange freon. He then takes the drier plug and jumps it to make the A/C cllutch turn on, noting that the lack of freon is causing the clutch not to work. I'm shaking my head and these guys are looking at me like i'm some kind of sucker they're playin me for. I said I woud take care of it some other time. I looked at the hose, and it is a very smal indent, like some kind of tool wedged a tiny chunk of hose rubber back and punctured it. This .. IS BS! That is fresh. I HAD ICE cold AC up untill that day. That mark mysteriousy appears in the hose and I suddenly ose my freon after the car is done? Man, I frickin know one of those guys did that. That mark in the hose was never there. I went over that car the day I bought it. I knew everything I was getting myself into. I knew the condition of the body, the engine..etc.But thing is, I had no way of proving one of those dip****s did that. That was the last straw. NEVER again. Now I wi need a whole new compressor and drier ... AND lines because of that. It aint no cooincidence that my AC was working flawlessly up until the hour I get it back from that shop.. that cut in the hose just mysteriousy appeared.. yeah right.. bul****

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

The last time I had someone touch my car was when this "expert fox body mechanic" put the wrong size belt on my car and didn't route it right. THE BELT ROUTING IS ON THE RAD SUPPORT! He said I was full of **** and when I showed him he didn't say a word. I was 17 at the time and he was probably late thirties so that probably humbled him a little bit. That was the last time I had ever brought my car somewhere to be worked on and got into a shop and started doing things myself. I'm 24 now haha

 

[1987LXragtop]

no one touches my cars unless its warranty work. My lease on my van is up in December and picking up something used. No one will touch that but me either. Sucks that when youre 80 you have to rely on a shop and hope that they are honest. You should post up the name of the place. Karma will come back on them someday.

 

[5.0Droptop]

Those jerks knew he was from out of town and wanted to screw him over. They would have cleaned the maf and said they replaced the pump etc.

 

[90lxcoupe]

you should buy your grandfather a AAA premium membership, its like 100 bucks for a year and it includes 4 tows up to 100 miles each tow. Also they usually show up within 45 minutes of the call

 

[Stever89]

I see 'em everywhere and have been screwed by one or two myself, and I do 90% of the maintenance on my 5 cars/trucks.

Last time was years ago, stupid quick oil change jockey pried on the idler pulley instead of the tensioner on my wife's Chevy Blazer 2.8V6, which caused all kinds of problems, the main being the freakin' belt kept jumping off. The Blazer broke down on her on a busy highway, she called crying and pissed, I called the oil change place and he was there when I got there, we argued, he was a jerk so I kicked his tool box across the highway, sockets and wrenches scattering everywhere. Never went to them again to say the least.

I had a buddy with a 67 Mustang. He didn't know much about cars (whole nuther story) but the right rear wheel locked up. He told me he took it to Midas and they told him he needed a whole new rearend, about $700 bucks to fix it I fixed it for him for 35 bucks, just a wheel bearing.

 

[25thmustang]

What shop in CT?

Also I think they see a person who is in there for a one time "repair" and figure they can scam them out of $$ and won't ever see or hear from them again.

Sad you can't trust some people to give you honest advice.

 

[muh'stang]

there are businesses like that everywhere in many industries. Up untill a couple years ago a septic system around here costed 8-12 grand... the gov passed a new law regulating who can install a system, turning them into engineers of sort, and now the same thing costs $35k.
Same goes in construction, if you dont know what youre talking about a shady contractor can take you for thousands and still make you feel like youre getting an awsome deal.
I saw on tv where some business woman paid $80k to have her master suite remodelled. I just about choked, I only saw about $15k worth of material max...and she was totally happy to pay that much.

It puts me on the fence tho because a fool and their money are easily parted, ripping off an old man is terrible without a doubt and all who do it should be bum ravaged, but if some wealthy over spending housewife doesnt care to educate herself going into things, whos to say its ripping them off if theyre happy to pay that much?

edit: in regards to the OP, lying to someone about an unneeded repair to generate work is definately immoral, and afaik illegal.