This **** always boggles my mind cause I know plenty of legit car builders who are having trouble keeping the doors open. . . while someone's throwing $60k at some hack.
Is there a section on here that we can post past troubles at shops? Ive had a couple and worked for a couple.
Sadly, this sort of behavior is all too common in this industry. Even some of the "big names" in the industry are not running clean shops. I know, I have worked for several.
This don't sound right at all to me. The problem happened 4 years ago - 2009?- and they are just getting around to investigate it? You kidding me? And they throw the guy in jail? This is an established family run business that, i presume, have the ***ets to cover any liabilites. If it is a true restoration then that means all the parts are restored or replaced to a 'like-new' condition. When the owner gets in the car and starts it up it'll be just like driving it out of the showroom for the first time. It will cost well over $60K to get it there. And it makes no differeance costwise if it is a cool desireable car or not. The engine and drive train might be sitting in crates at machineshops waiting for final payment. I wouldn't hang this guy yet. He might be stupid but that don't make him criminal. We aren't hearing all there is to the story, that 4 year gap suggests a lot to me.
Love the way everyone is an armchair lawyer/legal expert. Too much time spent watching Court TV or Judge Judy me thinks. I would like to think the fact he was arrested was based upon evidence of wrong doing and not simply a car being delivered late or not to the client's expectation. I am sure the truth will out in time. I will agree though with prior posters...innocent until proven guilty.
First off it doesn't matter whetther it was a " desirable " car or not. Time and materials is time and materials. I don't charge any different rate for a VW Bug then I do for a 356 Speedster. Second, it seems like many of you think 60,000 is an absurdly high number for a restoration, without knowing what condition the car WAS in and what the owner wants in the end. 60k isn't out of line for a 100% resto. NOW neither of my above statements are in defence of the arrested. I don't know the whole story any more than anyone else here. We don't know what the contract was about, we don't KNOW the parts were stolen and sold. Yes, he has been arrested which says there is something of substance, but I get tired of people jumping to conclusions without knowing any facts. Jkeesy has it right, my shop is completely open to the owners. I do detailed billing, and when I am done with a job I will have well over 200 pictures of the car every step of the way. this shows the customer and any future buyers what has been done, and it also protects me in the event someone makes accusations about the work I did. I guarandamntee you every person on this forum who owns a shop has had to take money form a customer at one time or another and spend it before they got any work done on the car. Particularly in the last 5 years. The difference is I ( we ) have worked our ***es off late at night and on weekends to get the work caught up. A seperate " ***** and gripe " forum is a bad idea IMHO. One ***hole customer says something negative and everyone remembers that, despite there may be hundreds of happy customers. For some reason the complaining customer is always believed over the shop. The customer IS NOT always right. And no, I don't have any unhappy customers at this point, and hope I never do, I just know what it takes to achieve a well done car and what it costs to get there, and it seems several here have no idea what it takes, but are quick to tell you how they, or someone they know has been " ripped off " by some ***hole scam of a shop.
I had to be flown back to the other side of the country, where I moved from, to testify in a criminal trial against a former employer, for fraud and tax evasion, 7-years AFTER the crime, and 5-years after I moved across the country.
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