Issue with Mechanic

[joestram]

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping some people can help me with some ideas about how to get my Alfa back.

I sent it off to the mechanic back in August to get some small things fixed. I am still waiting for it to come back to me!

I keep calling and dropping by, and they guy keeps saying that he is sorry but he had to put it aside and he promises to get it fixed by the end of the week.

He has used that excuse about 20 times and I keep giving the guys deadlines, however, am yet to have it back in my garage.

I have obviously had enough now so am hoping someone can give me some assistance in getting the car back, I guess with some way of mildly threatening the mechanic. He is in his late 70's so I don't want to give him a heart attack, but am after some mild legal threats.

Is anyone in the industry that can help with this advice?

Thanks

Joe

[Jekyll and Hyde]

I must be missing something in this post.  Surely if you want your car back, it's as simple as paying for any work completed to date, and driving/towing it away?

Or are you attempting to force him to work on your car?

[joestram]

Hi,

I have paid him $1600 to date as he needed to get parts and I needed to pay for things that he had worked on since he first received it. I paid that about 5 months ago.

The car is now in worse condition that what I gave to him, the front has been dismantled, some engine components are out for repair.

I hired him to make the car roadworthy, but instead he has gone the other way.

He also mentioned to me that someone had driven into the front right fender of the car while it was parked in the carpark and has since needed to repair that damage. He wouldn't have told me about it if I didn't notice some fresh paint on some masking tape they forgot to remove.

I want to force him to complete the job so I can take possession of the car again and enjoy driving it.

Thanks

Joe

[AJH159]

Hi Joe,

This sort of thing can be extremely frustrating.
The best thing to do is to lodge a complaint with the relevant Fair Trading or Consumer Affairs body for where you live (I didn't check sorry).
They will contact the mechanic to facilitate a resolution and this is often just the call to action that is required.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things can be fixed when the right triggers are pulled.....
Good luck!

[Steve S]

Try that or just cut your losses, pick it up, pay someone else to repair it. How long is it going to take and what is that worth to you? Try an insurance claim for the damage.

You could try and claim compensation through the correct channels if you see fit.

[Jekyll and Hyde]

Hi,

I have paid him $1600 to date as he needed to get parts and I needed to pay for things that he had worked on since he first received it. I paid that about 5 months ago.

The car is now in worse condition that what I gave to him, the front has been dismantled, some engine components are out for repair.

I hired him to make the car roadworthy, but instead he has gone the other way.

He also mentioned to me that someone had driven into the front right fender of the car while it was parked in the carpark and has since needed to repair that damage. He wouldn't have told me about it if I didn't notice some fresh paint on some masking tape they forgot to remove.

I want to force him to complete the job so I can take possession of the car again and enjoy driving it.

Thanks

Joe

That would have been useful information to put in the first post... My question would be in regards to the $1600.  You say you've paid for some parts, and some previous work - have you paid for any work not yet done, or parts he does not have there?  If not, I would still suggest (as has Steve S) the easiest thing to do would be to have the car towed away, with all the removed parts and new (unfitted?) parts put in the boot.  Although it's not clear what you mean by 'front dismantled' - if this means it can't have wheels refitted to roll it around, you may have to ask him to loosely refit enough components to make it roll again.

With regards to the panel damage, I gather from your statement he has already had it repaired?  In which case, the only thing he has really done wrong here is not telling you at the time.  I can understand you being less than impressed, but human error means accidents happen, and at least it happened there, not in a supermarket carpark where someone just drives away and leaves you with the bill 

Trying to 'force' the completion of the work, depending on the manner chosen and the nature of the person on the other end, could potentially have undesirable side effects.  However, you may also find that if you ask him to get it ready for a tow truck/trailer to pick up to take to another workshop, work may suddenly start progressing again, as long as you're not nasty about it.  Perhaps something along the lines of you know how busy he is, but you really need to get the car going again so that you can drive it to work as your other car has failed.  The other possible outcome from this could well be that he's more than happy for you to take it away, which would suggest he's probably lost interest in working on it - in which case, wouldn't you be better getting someone else to finish the job?

[Nate Dog]

m usually for polite reasoned discourse, hut next months the 1 year anniversary of you dropping your car to him,
That's just silly.
Rock up with a car trailer and insist he loads it up for you. If he hasn't finished it yet he'll never do it.
Cut your losses and take the car elsewhere, i gaurantee you he's already put this job in the too hard basket a long long time ago.

Nate

[extraball]

fair trading ombudsman

[massiveluvbuddy67]

m usually for polite reasoned discourse, hut next months the 1 year anniversary of you dropping your car to him,
That's just silly.
Rock up with a car trailer and insist he loads it up for you. If he hasn't finished it yet he'll never do it.
Cut your losses and take the car elsewhere, i gaurantee you he's already put this job in the too hard basket a long long time ago.

Nate

These are wise words...cut your losses. You are not Robinson Crusoe on this one.

[TeresaJane]

I think claiming your insurance is the best bet here. There are many cases where people compensate their vehicle damage through insurance and here when I say damage that doesn't mean damage due to accident. Damage due to anything are compensated. Try it, may be you can get lucky.

[joestram]

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments.

Just an update, it was my birthday on the 28th June and I went to see the mechanic 3 weeks beforehand to get an update. He promised me it would be ready by my birthday.

I turned up on the day after my birthday and surprise surprise...it wasn't ready.

I had enough and lodged a complaint with consumer affairs. They started to investigate and guess what....there has now been a remarkable amount of progress on my car!

I went to inspect it today and it looks like it has only a few minor things left...It is looking really good!

Anyway, trying not to get my hopes up again, but its hard when the car looks like its almost ready.

Thanks guys.

Joe

[Nikola78]

Can you please tell us which mechanic is that?? Just in case..

[colcol]

Or possibly not tell us the name of the mechanic, as it may have legal implications, while not wishing to take sides, there are 2  sides to every story, and sending an email or talking at an Alfa club meeting is fine, maybe in the future use Alfa Romeo Service providers in the Alfa Club Magazine.
For work done on any cars you need to give a timeframe to when the car is going to be ready, Mazda 3's are Australia's biggest selling car, so there would be plenty of spares around and knowledge to fix them, older Alfa Romeo's can be sometimes hard to get parts for, so they can spend time just sitting around waiting for the bits to arrive, just saying two sides to every story, Colin.

[Evan Bottcher]

Yes please save me the hassle, and don't call out the company/indivdual by name... share it privately if you like.  Thanks.

[VeeSix]

Been thru this rubbish a couple of times with smash repairers, promises of times and dates for completion but taking your money and screwing you around, if you have forked out $1600.00 already and it has taken him this long and they are all upended promises already, not acceptable, needs to get his act together, if he can not complete it in a fair amount of time he needs to say no in the first place, go back, tell him what you think of him and just take your car, hes screwing you, screw him!