SteveSS
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What great satisfaction you must feel. Good work. Hell take his business and sell it.
My Mechanic is in Jail
- Thread starter Bruzilla
- Start date
Bruzilla
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Well, going back to the premise of this project, what I really wanted out of it was finding out what works and what doesn't, which is why I haven't missed having the car that much. I'm more interested in the experience and information than the car to be honest, and this is a LOT of good data to add to the articles I'm pitching to the Mopar mags.
We did essentially the same thing with the paint and body, and that deal worked out awesome, so sometimes you win sometimes you don't. What I found most interesting about this issue was my conception of the BBB was totally off. I've heard you can't always go by BBB reports because customers don't always report bad ones, but I've seen four reports, with numbers, that were filed on this guy before I started dealing with him and that should have been available for review when I did my check, and there was nothing! His record was clean as a whistle. How the Hell does that happen?
The BBB is absolute scam, don't trust them for anything.. It doesnt matter what that company says, all those grades are bought, I had a c- for years, 3 million dollars a year in receivables and 1 complaint over 6 years from a customer we could NOT verify existed, I have NO idea who the customer, but it had a case with a case number and everything..
So I have my OM call and they tell her the case is closed and to investigate it and put an end to further "mistakes" we would have to join for $590!!!! So I called back and flipped out, I told them if my name wasn't off of their sight in 24 hours I was giving it to my attorney and letting them deal with it... About 2 hours later I had an A, I called back and told her I did not want to be involved with them at all, and she said the best she could do was an A+, now that is ******* bull ****, PS I took the A+ because I wasted enough time on the phone with them...
In this world you have to have a good sense of character to do business, with out it you will be screwed. Bru, even if they give you all your money back and this guy gets jail time (unlikely, but hopefully) you still lost.. Most guys are tricked by the prices...
The only reason I even found out about the poor grade I had on bbb was, a customer called me for a price on a boiler, because we did a job for his father in law, I installed a complete 4 well closed look geo thermal system for his father in law, $80K system with passive solar, job came perfect and everyone was happy. This guy calls me for a basic boiler install $5500 oil fired buderus, he found someone to put a boiler in for $850 less, so he went for it, I honestly only priced it at $5500 because I wanted to keep the family happy, they just spent almost 100K with me, for a non commercial account that is nice... About a month later the father calls me and asks if I would meet him at the house, so I have no idea he got someone else, and I brought a copy of our work proposal and a work order form, figuring they wanted to schedule the job.
I get there and there is a steel tankless boiler sitting there all brand new.. So he explains the situation and how it has been nothing but problems, and the system smooked up the house, and the company owner told them it was their fault because they didnt mention a whole house fan, and all this other BS, so I pulled out my proposal and showed him right in the text it said "make up air system for negative air compensation", because when I looked at the job, I did the right thing and looked at the entire house, did a heat loss calc. checked it out with the thermal imager, etc.. SO what happened was, their old system had an electric water tank and since now the boiler ran to make hot water even in the summer when they ran the attic fan, it sucked the combustion gasses out of the flue and through the house all the way to the attic. MADE A MESS, mostly because it was set up poorly...
I told them the system could be fixed BUT it was going to surpass the money they saved very easily... I fixed it for them and they were happy, but I explained they got a lot less for their money, a steel boiler vs german cast iron, tankless vs SS indirect fired water heater, etc..
ANYWAY- I asked if it was something me or one of my guys did that made them go with another company? He said it was because of the price difference and that company had an A+ and I had a C-, lol!!! I then looked into it and that is when I called them and dealt with it, now I have an A+, lol...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw
Hopefully you get everything you lost back from this scum bag, BUT nothing will pay back your time. I know you mention the mopar mag articles, and this experiment BUT, for me to get get added stress making my life shorter, it has to be worth it, and saving a bit of money is not worth it in most cases, I do a bit research, find other customers, and most importantly shake the guys hands and look into his face, explain to him that I am going to hold him accountable for his work, he will never have to worry about getting paind but he has to do what he says he is going to do, I dont need any extra for free, I want to be fair to both of us, just keep it honest and do the work I expect from his description.
IN a LOT of cases I wont pay a dime up front if I am leaving something with them, so if I am leaving a block, heads, pistons, a complete engine, etc. I am not giving you a down payment, even my tranny guy, I drop off a tranny and he has to buy the kit and parts, I don't give him any money down, if you can not float $1000 in materials until th ejob is done, I will go somewhere else. Same thing with paint, when I used to pay shoppes to do my paint work I would drop off a $80K car, and you expect me to pay half the job, I will go somewhere else. IN my experience you get a better product when you hold all the money. and you keep them more honest.
If a resto shop is charging $20K for a job, you drop off your $50K car and hand them $10K? That is crazy, even if they have to buy materials, if the shop isnt liquid enough to do it or doesnt have the credit to get your parts, move on... You will find someone who will take it with no money, that shows confidence in their work and the things they promissed you. NOW when you hold all the money, that guy is going to do what he says,
1- he wants to get paid as fast as possible so he will make sure it gets done in the time you agreed on
2- he is going to do a good job because you hold all the money
NOW granted there are guys out there that you can pay 100% and they still do great work and they get it done on time, BUT they are rare, sadly... I strongly recommend doing it this way, especially on the first business transaction, once you know a guy, and you did business a few times, then you know their character, BUT don't be surprised if they surprise you the first time you pay them up front, lol...
So I have my OM call and they tell her the case is closed and to investigate it and put an end to further "mistakes" we would have to join for $590!!!! So I called back and flipped out, I told them if my name wasn't off of their sight in 24 hours I was giving it to my attorney and letting them deal with it... About 2 hours later I had an A, I called back and told her I did not want to be involved with them at all, and she said the best she could do was an A+, now that is ******* bull ****, PS I took the A+ because I wasted enough time on the phone with them...
In this world you have to have a good sense of character to do business, with out it you will be screwed. Bru, even if they give you all your money back and this guy gets jail time (unlikely, but hopefully) you still lost.. Most guys are tricked by the prices...
The only reason I even found out about the poor grade I had on bbb was, a customer called me for a price on a boiler, because we did a job for his father in law, I installed a complete 4 well closed look geo thermal system for his father in law, $80K system with passive solar, job came perfect and everyone was happy. This guy calls me for a basic boiler install $5500 oil fired buderus, he found someone to put a boiler in for $850 less, so he went for it, I honestly only priced it at $5500 because I wanted to keep the family happy, they just spent almost 100K with me, for a non commercial account that is nice... About a month later the father calls me and asks if I would meet him at the house, so I have no idea he got someone else, and I brought a copy of our work proposal and a work order form, figuring they wanted to schedule the job.
I get there and there is a steel tankless boiler sitting there all brand new.. So he explains the situation and how it has been nothing but problems, and the system smooked up the house, and the company owner told them it was their fault because they didnt mention a whole house fan, and all this other BS, so I pulled out my proposal and showed him right in the text it said "make up air system for negative air compensation", because when I looked at the job, I did the right thing and looked at the entire house, did a heat loss calc. checked it out with the thermal imager, etc.. SO what happened was, their old system had an electric water tank and since now the boiler ran to make hot water even in the summer when they ran the attic fan, it sucked the combustion gasses out of the flue and through the house all the way to the attic. MADE A MESS, mostly because it was set up poorly...
I told them the system could be fixed BUT it was going to surpass the money they saved very easily... I fixed it for them and they were happy, but I explained they got a lot less for their money, a steel boiler vs german cast iron, tankless vs SS indirect fired water heater, etc..
ANYWAY- I asked if it was something me or one of my guys did that made them go with another company? He said it was because of the price difference and that company had an A+ and I had a C-, lol!!! I then looked into it and that is when I called them and dealt with it, now I have an A+, lol...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo8kfV9kONw
Hopefully you get everything you lost back from this scum bag, BUT nothing will pay back your time. I know you mention the mopar mag articles, and this experiment BUT, for me to get get added stress making my life shorter, it has to be worth it, and saving a bit of money is not worth it in most cases, I do a bit research, find other customers, and most importantly shake the guys hands and look into his face, explain to him that I am going to hold him accountable for his work, he will never have to worry about getting paind but he has to do what he says he is going to do, I dont need any extra for free, I want to be fair to both of us, just keep it honest and do the work I expect from his description.
IN a LOT of cases I wont pay a dime up front if I am leaving something with them, so if I am leaving a block, heads, pistons, a complete engine, etc. I am not giving you a down payment, even my tranny guy, I drop off a tranny and he has to buy the kit and parts, I don't give him any money down, if you can not float $1000 in materials until th ejob is done, I will go somewhere else. Same thing with paint, when I used to pay shoppes to do my paint work I would drop off a $80K car, and you expect me to pay half the job, I will go somewhere else. IN my experience you get a better product when you hold all the money. and you keep them more honest.
If a resto shop is charging $20K for a job, you drop off your $50K car and hand them $10K? That is crazy, even if they have to buy materials, if the shop isnt liquid enough to do it or doesnt have the credit to get your parts, move on... You will find someone who will take it with no money, that shows confidence in their work and the things they promissed you. NOW when you hold all the money, that guy is going to do what he says,
1- he wants to get paid as fast as possible so he will make sure it gets done in the time you agreed on
2- he is going to do a good job because you hold all the money
NOW granted there are guys out there that you can pay 100% and they still do great work and they get it done on time, BUT they are rare, sadly... I strongly recommend doing it this way, especially on the first business transaction, once you know a guy, and you did business a few times, then you know their character, BUT don't be surprised if they surprise you the first time you pay them up front, lol...
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