legal question,help advice

Great to hear, you have more patience than me. You actually came out on top and learned alot. Don't look back and finish and drive your ride, Skip.

 

Always ask for a written estimate in an unsealed envelope and an extra piece of paper or two (so you can write down some notes). Then if he screws you, you can send a threatening letter to the president on his paper and in his envelope. Then let the Secrect Service and the Federal Marshall's office play with him.

 

Ha!!! Now thats some fuuny sh#t! Ha ha ha

 

Glad you got her back in the garage Big Dad! have a Bud Light and sleep well.

 

Its amazing what a little communication can accomplish.
Good to hear all went well. I guess he wasnt that bad of a guy at all.
Owed an apology by some? ( Not you Big Dad )

 

Glad you got your car back, even tho it cost more than it should have. It just isn't like the old days where you shook hands and your word meant something. It is apparent the shop owner took advantage of you, and when his customers find out his business will suffer. You are only as good as your word and that is very important in my way of looking at life.
So my hat is off to you.
Good luck on finishing you car.
JB

 

Glad you got her back!

 

tell me about it.

 

Somtimes it's hard to wear the other guys shoes, Calmly Talking ( debate ) - head to head was your best move & it seems like you guy's finished this ok, and no legal beagle made any money.

Cool.

 

You're a wise man. You took the moral high ground, did what was right and everything turned out OK. Even if it hadn't, you could still look at yourself in the mirror and know you did the right thing.

 

Thanks Don .. that means allot to me at this stage of my life

 

Big dad, I'm glad to hear it, as well. I know that you will be catching up on much needed sleep. You'll rebound from this & at least still be able to sleep at night. I'm glad you got her home.

 

WOW.

Big Dad... You're great. just freakin great. You and your post have taught me alot on how to change some of the standards of my shop.
I have been building and repairing cars since I was 13 (will be 31 in feb.) and I always feel like a turd when a project runs long, or myself or the customer ends up upside down in a project.

I understand that sometimes, it just takes as long as it takes to get something accomplished.(the "rusty bolt scenario" comes to mind-god has blessed me with a high immunity to tetanus...) others, either I or the customer gets a great idea right in the middle of the original plan which requires the 'ol "back up and punt" routine.

how to charge accordingly?

I have taken on a new habit-I ask the customer at what point do I stop.(dollar figure) and what do they want done. make a list.
I know my abilities, and can get a fairly close estimate from them. I have discovered that -alot of folks have no idea how long it takes to do seemingly menial tasks. -aligning sheet metal is a great example.- others, such as yourself, know that it's a crapshoot, and neither he nor I know what lives under that shady looking patch at the bottom of the fender.
however, we all know how long it takes to change out an alternator.

and we all know that unless you are using platinum brake lines, 2200 bucks to install brake lines is dang high. and my plumbing work is NICE.

I do nice work, and the job typically fits the bill. I could see a job getting out of hand by a couple hundred bucks, but nowhere near what you are talking about. at least not without alot of interaction in the mean time (I would have been on the phone with you about every 15 minutes.) we tally bills daily, and every time I "see one going south" I tell the customer up front what is going on.

but again, I deal with rusty,angry to still be alive cars. looking at your photos, that aint the same pony that kicked the fence down. I would imagine that the car in question isn't a "tooth and nail" argument when it comes to welding work.

I hope some of the guys that went the route of "I charge what I charge and that's the bottom line" realize that just because they can force it out of someone, it doesn't mean they have to.

good for you to have taken the high ground. one of these days, I hope to have a stable of customers as good as you. I have some, and I know I will reach more by keeping my practices up.
for the record, you did it right, and I still feel like the shop owner didn't.

now I'm gonna go finish my own personal stupid mopar project. from here on out...I will stick to oldsmobiles.

 

I'm happy for both of you. The "tone" of this post, at least for me, was headed in that direction almost from the start, wasn't it. Nice outcome.