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Advice Please! Car Repair Rip-Off! Police Involvement?
I want to relate a story that happened to me last year. At the time I
didn't think too deeply about it but a friend of mine told me I should have raised some serious hell over this whole incident. My car, an older model,has had it's share of problems requiring fixing. I had decided to take it to a certain repair shop by another "friend" who had gone there once or so. Since the car was almost up for inspection, I decided to take it to the place recomended. They told me the car would need over $700.00 of work to pass inspection, and they told me what things in particular needed done for the car to get a sticker. I signed off on the work. When it was time to pick up the car, the head mechanic told me they were out of inspection stickers and that they'd have one for me if I stopped back in a few days. Since my car's old sticker was still good for a few more weeks, that didn't seem to be much of a problem. I paid them over $700.00, they gave me a receipt that detailed the work done as well as listing "state inspection" on it, and I was on my way. I just didn't have a new sticker In the next few days, my "newly inspected car" broke down on me a couple of times. Once in the parking lot of my job after work, and the other time when I was at a local store. I was of course very upset, since I just paid so much for the car to be fixed. On the final time it broke down, I called this car repair shop and was very upset. The mechanic agreed to come out to check over my car, which he did. He was then able to start it, and said nothing was wrong. He then told me how I owed him $40.00 for coming out to check on the car. At this point I refused to pay, since he had mentioned nothing about this on the telephone. I was also very upset that my car was still "going dead" after I paid him so much money to fix a number of things, including the starter, AND get an inspection. What happened next is something I would like to know your opinions on. When I told the mechanic I wouldn't pay any more money to him (remember also, I still didn't even have an inspection sticker), he took his tow-truck, planted it in back of my car, and blocked me in!!!! I told him I still wasn't going to pay him, so he then stayed in his truck for about 20 minutes looking all mad. Then, he went to a pay phone, and called the local police. When they arrived, the police officer took my name, and then the mechanic smiled at him and said "you know me" and the officer didn't ask him his name or anything. After we both told our stories to the officer, this cop informed me that unless I paid this mechanic the $40.00 he (the cop) would confiscate and impound my car!!! Was the cop allowed to threaten me with this?? All I had in my pocket at the time was about $22.00, so then the cop turned to the mechanic and said "is this amount OK?" The mechanic said yes, and I then gave ALL of my money over to this creep. I got in my car, and we all went on our way. Needless to say, the cop was also a big asshole and talked to me like I was some piece of ****. Now remember, at this point I still don't have an inspection sticker, even though I paid to have my car inspected, have a receipt listing the inspection that was done, and paid this mechanic over $700.00 to done one. Here is what happened next. A couple of days later, I drive to the mechanic's place of business to see if they finally "got" their inspection stickers in. The mechanic angrily tells me to get the hell out of his property, and says I'm NOT GETTING AN INSPECTION STICKER!! He then tells me "your car FAILED inspection" now get out of here and never come back. When I show him my receipt, which lists ALL the work that needed done for me to pass inspection (which I paid them and was done), AND the part on the receipt that says "State Inspection" he started to move forward like he wanted to grab it from me. I lunged back, and told him I was going to call the police. His response? "You think the police are going to listen to YOU" "Don't make me laugh" "Now get the hell out of here and never come back" I was very upset at this point, and thought to myself that maybe this clown had some kind of scam going with the police. But I also didn't think the police would listen to me after that cop treated me so terribly. So I went to another mechanic (a garage recomended by a relative). They told me that my car would need over $500.00 in work to pass inspection. So I signed off on the work, paid for my SECOND inspection, and got my car a few days later. It cost me $1200.00 to get my car inspected two different times. Can people please give me their opinions on what happened and how I handled it? The first mechanic place really screwed me over, and what about the cop's actions? What could I have done (legally) to the first mechanic? Were my rights violated? Should I have fought this? How can a place tell you what you need done on your car to pass inspection, you pay to get all that work done, and then they refuse to give you a sticker and tell you that your car "failed" inspection? And how can the police get involved in something like this and threated to take away my car? |
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