Problems with a shady shop

C

coldfusion11

Forum Member
So here is the story....

My neighbor friend has a buick lesabre with some problems. She wanted to take up to a local shit hole shop to have them take a look at it to see what was wrong with the front suspension. She was planning on having them tell her whats wrong and then have a mechanic (myself) actually do the work. SHe took the car in and said "hey can you look at my car blah blah blah" they said ok sure we will call you. No mention of having to pay a fee to look at it and nothing listed in the store on a sign or anything.

SHe went to go pick the car up and they said well that will be 50 dollars. SHe declined and said that there were no previous agreements on charges or anything like that. Now they wont give the keys back until she pays. She is already working on borrowed money.

What is the legality of this? Could she call the police and say that they have her car and wont give her the keys back or what? Technically if there was no preauthorizeation for any charges they cant do anything but be pricks.

I was going to offer her to use a couple of my free AAA tow miles and just have the car towed out of the place at night but then they would still have the keys lol...yes/no?
 
tell her to call the state automotive licencing ofice file a formal complaint


Section 4-3
WRITTEN ESTIMATES
4-3.1 Requirement. A repair facility is required to provide a written estimate in each
instance when the price of the diagnosis, service or repair of a motor vehicle will be $20 or
more (MCL 257.1332). The price of the estimate must reflect as closely as possible the actual
cost of the repair (see Waivers, Section 3-4, for possible exceptions).



http://www.michigan.gov/documents/title2_20317_7.pdf
 
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So she thought they'd look at it for free? They should have told her up front what it would cost to look at it though.
 
82hatch said:
So she thought they'd look at it for free? They should have told her up front what it would cost to look at it though.
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I asked her if they were going to charge her to look at it becuase that is normal protocol and she said they didnt say anything. Not a yes or a no.
 
Some shops will give a free inspection on underbody stuff/brakes. (pretty easy to diag)

You being the mechanic should have been able to diag the car, and fix it... Not sure why it was even taken to the shop to waste their time?
 
Call police, they will meet the owner of car there, keys are returned. Easy as that. I've seen it a bunch of times. As long as she did not verbally agree to a fee or sign something she's good. It's illegal to withhold someone's auto for work that was not agreed upon.
 
coolymcoolster said:
I think I'm missing something here. No shop is going to diagnose a car for free.
Click to expand...

I have had a local shop that specializes in suspensions do a diagnoses more then one time for free.When they called me with estimate I would decide if it was something I could do if I needed them to do it. If I could do it I would just go pick it up. They never charged me to look at it. I know most shops do charge a diagnoses fee if it's motor work or electrical work though
 
Thanks for all the lovely info guys im going to print out these documents and this forum and look at it with her and see where to go from here. I know its 50 dollars but I dont have time for shady ass bullshitting shops that fuck with people mostly girls.
 
They wanted 1200 bucks to replace front strut assemblies (quick struts) and lower balljoints on a a 1997 buick lesabre. Ill do it for her for 300 parts on rockauto and 200 labor.
 
I always have cars go to belle tire. They don't charge to look at anything and will tell you what's wrong with suspension components.
 
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