Seller Feedback Rip-Off Artist

[Lextreme II]

Here is something i would like to express my experience with a shop local to my work. I take my car there is because its very convenience. The problem with ISC but he changed TPS, MAF, crank sensor, cam sensor and few other things. The two stay costed my over $2,000 and the problem was not solve. From this prespective, really dont feel i should pay for the parts because of mis-diagnose.

Personally speaking, i should pay for what was broken. Changing all the parts and hoping to get the right one at owners expense is just unsound or unethical.

From now on i tell everyone work on my car. I only pay for what is broken. I would not pay for your mistake or Incompetence. What do u think? Do u have any bad experience with your mechanic or tuner? Please do tell so we can keep an eye on them. There are lots of Rip-Off Artist out there and especially we dont know much about our car. They can manipulate use like a kid. Secondly, we drive Lexus and the preception of Lexus owners are rich. Please feel free to give us their:

Company Name:
Address:
Phone:
Name of Mechanic:

That way our members know where not to go.

 

[lowboost]

This would be a good sticky or FYI.

 

[jibby]

Yes lex a simular experience to yours happened with me at TM Engineering, the owner Todd, had told me to change out the mass air flow and throttle body sensor, because of a lag or stall issue I was having in between 1000-2000rpm when I think he new what the problem was and it was in the piggy back unit which he installed. You know what he did he told me to change those parts, which I did and nothing happen, and then later I found out that he disconnected the piggy-back completely without telling me. Messed up my control arms too, etc... posted my worst dyno test while my car was running like crap on the club lexus forums to ruin my credibility, the list goes on. I am embarrassed about the whole thing and there is more. I will stop their. Thanks for the advise I was able to sell the extra sensors on ebay and not lose much, however I had to buy new supra lower control arms to replace my old ones with Todds new daisen bushings in them, which I gave him $750 for and they will probably end up in my trash can, another story I care not to tell. I speak the truth and am not trying to burn any bridges but these people need to be put in the public light so others don't have to go through what I did. I am still working on the problems with my car that Todd left me with. Thanks Todd!!!!!!

 

[Toysrme]

I tell people the same things all the time.
Obviously every mechanic/shop does it at some point, or another.
It's random troubleshooting until a problem is fixed, or "money" troubleshooting where you try to work in cheap items with labor - or expencive items.

 

[Lextreme II]

The problem with those shotgun diagnoses are costly and most of the electronic componants are not refundable. Honestly I dont think we should pay for their mis-diagnose. If this is how they do it. I can fix any engine with problems. Just change to a brand engine. If problem still occur, change the whole. Obviously, that is not how its should be done, but shotgun diagnoses are very very cost and upset a lot of people.

 

[cribbj]

David, maybe you could start another area (if you have the space) called Vendor/Tuner/Shop Experiences, and when people have something to say about a particular vendor, for example "Lextreme", they can start a thread with that vendor's name, and spill the whole story. This would also be the place for other people to add their own experiences with that vendor, and perhaps to hear the vendor's rebuttal if he thinks he's been done dirty.

New vendor, new thread. This would make it easy to search also, and you wouldn't have to read through 20 pages of one thread to find out whether Lextreme is an all right guy or not :veryhappy

Many forum owners won't allow this sort of thing for fear of being sued. Pity, because it's ripoff artists and other shysters that deserve to be exposed who would do the suing. There's a few sites on the 'net that call a spade a spade, but precious few.

"If you can't build a good reputation, try to keep the bad one from becoming public knowledge!"

John

 

[jibby]

Disagree with that last post!

I think the world should know what vendors or mechanics shops to trust and not, so they do not go through the same experience I went through. Some may call it defimation of character, I call it consumer aware business public reporting, and every thing said are honest accounts of a business that is not practicing good ethics. It will weed out all the bad seeds in this business which we lexus owners who have a real interest in modifiying their sc's within a budget would like to avoid. On a positive note perhaps providing public awareness will straighten out some of these bad dishonest mechanics. Lex you in the are right, don't listen to this guy John.


John

 

[lowboost]

Southeastern states of the USA. In Atlanta GA, we have a shop there named balanced performance. Im not affiliated with them, but I was a customer and my friend was too. We both had positive experiences with this shop. I highly recommend them!

www.balancedperformance.com

Jeff

 

[cribbj]

:wtf:

Hang on there Jibby.... you missed my point completely.

I'm in 100% agreement with the idea of airing the good & the bad about vendors, and I hope David understood my post even if you apparently didn't.

I was simply suggesting an organised way of doing it, and pointing out why some forum owners don't/won't allow this kind of thread on their forums.

I admit to poking a little fun about "if you have enough space", because I think given the opportunity, we all have some horror stories about vendors that we'd like to air, and this area could quickly grow pretty big....

Read it again, and then tell David to not listen to me if you still think I'm wrong.

John

 

[verylost]

In New York, shops are required by law to ask for your permission to do any installations and fixes and to give a reasonable estimate of the final cost. If the owner does not agree, he can take his car elsewhere.

Is it different in California? Do shops do the work without the owners permission?
Everyone here has so much knowledge about their car. I know I wouldn't let a shop make a diagnosis on my car. I tell them what's wrong, bring them the parts, and give them the instructions to install what I have. I never leave it up to a shop to figure out what's wrong.

 

[jibby]

Yes some do work and tell the owner one thing and do another, LA is place where it very difficult to find a reputable repair shop. I use to own a used car dealership in LA, go to auctions, dealing with many shops, and from all my years in the business for every ten one may be an honest in my opinion. I would rather pay more and have the job done right then having to re'do the same job later.

 

[george]

guys i work in a work shop and can honestly say that we, or any other shop i have heard of in the area do not purposly rip off a customer. i really hate it when people have comments like the ones above about workshops, because there are alot of honest mechanics out there who get put down because of some peoples bad experinces. lextreme maybe your mechanic did or didnt rip you off, but keep this in mind it is very hard to diagnose electrical problems, so yes sometimes it is guess work but its an educated one, some times your spot on other times way off. its bad luck what happened to you but i find it very difficult to believe that the mechanic ripped you off intensionally. im sure most of you on here are very switched on when it comes to your cars, next time you have a major electrical problem instead of taking it to your mechanic try to fix it on your own, youll very quickly discover the complexity of modern cars.

 

[Cobra]

Sorry, I don't think it should come down to guess work. If I pay hard earned cash for a professional to fix my car then I would expect him to know exactly what he is doing.

 

[svpmx83]

I suggest that if you use a shop to work on your car - that you insist that all replaced parts are returned to you.
1. you have proof that work was done and the part was worn/boken
2. If the replaced parts were not faulty - you can put them away as spares or sell them

Many years ago when I worked after school at my dads workshop, we placed all the dead parts in plastic bags and presented them to the owner when they came to pay the bill. It made it a whole lot easier to justify our work and the vehicle owner was able to feel confidant that we did our job properly.

 

[george]

cobra i agree with you, im not saying that its all guess work, but no one knows everything.

 

[jibby]

A New Dealership master mechanic knows everything about the cars they are selling, I dought there is little guess work that goes on in those garages. Then again who wants to pay delearship pricing to do their repairs.

 

[Lextreme II]

A general mechanic shop might make mistakes. If the person or shop put his reputation as Lexus Specialist, then its not an excuse he gets it wrong. You are paying big bucks for his expertise and now you are paying big bucks for his mis-diagnoses?

 

[jibby]

Well said, and I can't agree with you more!

 

[qca]

having been in a toyota dealership gives a different perspective as how too aproach diagnosis in there cars . the overall aproach to solving problems is very methodical, very step by step with the best equipment available but this doesn't always work.
i have personally spent over thirty hours trying too sort things like security systems that keep unlocking as soon as you walk away from the car and other strange problems that no one person world wide may see again
wether in a dealership (any brand) or an individual private business like my own,
there will be strange one off problems, they are very time consuming if you don't have the equipment and basic trouble shooting knowledge it will cost heaps
yet somtimes it comes back too elimination via substitution
your technician should never charge for parts or labour that is not authorized by you.
if new parts are fitted and dont solve the problem they should be removed and the original part put back at no charge .

 

[jibby]

This is true, having said that the dealership repairs that take 30 hours or so did infact repair the problem I bet and did not charge the customer for diagnostic repair time or test parts that were not needed. Am I right ?