Marvelous Marv

Okay, I had a little time on my hands over the holiday, and my car had been making a funny rattle from the door since the last time I had the door fixed (handle wasn't working right).

So I took the door panel off to try to find the rattle. It wasn't hard to find--the Numbnuts who fixed the handle only put three of the five bolts back on.

I'd also had trouble hearing the right channel of my stereo since I'd had some work done on the speaker enclosure. While I had things apart, I looked in there, and Numbnuts #2 must have thought my midrange wires were in the way. He'd just cut them and taped them off!

Numbnuts #1 was at a small independent auto repair shop; Numbnuts #2 was at a large stereo store that has multiple locations.

That got me thinking--about the mechanic (Numbnuts #3) who tightened down my valve covers so tight that he broke them, and then lined them with some kind of goop to try to make it last until it was too late for me to do anything . Same guy put a fuel pump in my car (it's the @#$ kind that's INSIDE the fuel tank) without a filter. That caused it to fail about a year later.

In retrospect, most of the times I've ripped off have been with auto repairs. I like and trust the guys I use now.

Short of entering auto mechanic school, I'm out of ideas to avoid getting ripped off in this arena.

Does anyone else care to post their experiences in getting cheated, and possibly advice on how to avoid having it happen?

(I did a search and couldn't find a similar thread. Somebody zap this if I've duplicated an existing one.)

Furry

Yep - the idiot who routed the rear windscreen wash feeder line to the front windscreen valve on my first car. Never mind that he was supposed to be replacing the battery...

I still haven't worked out how it happened. You're right, now that I think of it, it HAS been mostly repair shops that have bollocksed things up.

__________________
Furry is the leader of his own cult, the "Furballs of Doom". They sit about chanting "Doom, Doom, Doom".
(From a random shot in the dark by SirLance)

ngdawg

I have been cheated or attempted to be cheated several times and it's no picnic trying to make it right.
1. Plumber. Told me $85 for the housecall, then $75 an hour. High, but I was desperate. Fifteen minutes after the two barely-can-speak-english men arrive they hand me a bill for $276. I threw a fit, called their office. All they would do is knock off the housecall fee. So I fought back. I contacted the bureau that issues their license, lodged a complaint and within a year, their license was revoked. No money back, but satisfaction, nonetheless.
2. Auto dealer. Took the car in for routine service at 36,000 miles (Plymouth Colt). The dealer sends a postcard with check-offs of what should be done and I marked 'lube, oil change'. Upon picking up the car, they tried to charge me over $200 and I flipped. Seems they did a complete tune-up. I did not ask for one and that car didn't need one until 100,000. After yelling at the GM for being an incompetent for not knowing what service is required for the cars sold there, I had the bill reduced to under $100. Upon leaving, the cashier, trying to make light of my reign of terror, asked 'will you be bringing the car back at 100,000 miles?' I replied: 'Honey, the way you do business, this place won't BE here when it hits 100,000.'
I was right...

__________________
Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

Mephisto2

Nice stories ngdawg.

My "worst" experience of being ripped off relates to cocaine, talcum powder, 5 small plastic baggies, drunkeness and strange dealers you don't know personally.

The things you do when young...


Mr Mephisto

Hektore

About the valve covers, since I've changed my share of valve cover gaskets; when you put the new gaskets on they make this goop you throw on to make it seal better, so that may have been what you saw. There really isn't a reason to go back and do something special to one or even a few bolts since theres a bunch of bolts around the cover. Not that I'm trying to defend him since the repair shop should have torque specs on the bolts in a book somewhere so he must have been too lazy to go get them and the bottom line is he should told you he broke the bolts no matter what.

__________________
The advantage law is the best law in rugby, because it lets you ignore all the others for the good of the game.

clavus

I invested a bunch of money in a company's stock. It was a small company with great fundamentals. It was a local company. Not only was a making a smart investment, I was helping the local guys. I felt good.

The CEO was a thief. He cooked the books. He went to jail, but that didn't help me any. My stock became worthless. Five goddamn thousand fucking dollars.

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Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

Mephisto2

Or how about having to close your pet project for helping kids? That still makes me feel sad...


Mr Mephisto

guthmund

Recently?

My mother took her car in to get the oil changed. Decided the $20-$30 was worth it rather than wait till I got around to look at it. Guy broke the hood release while he was doing it, didn't bother to tell anyone. Found out about a week later, called the shop. The guy remembers the car and my mother. Swears that the release was already broken (It wasn't, I checked the fluids not two days before Captain All-Thumbs got a hold of it).

The kicker...They'll be more than happy to fix the release and all it's going to cost is $50 for the part...They'll waive the hourly charge because...well, my mother is just such a good customer.

I have a lot of stories... I once had the tires on my truck changed to a brand new set and somehow the guy managed to put a hole in one of the brand new tires before he mounted it on my rim. Did he replace it with a new one in stock? No, he just put a patch on it. It wasn't a very good patch because less than a week later the tire goes flat. All I can say is thank goodness, I'm such a packrat and kept the receipt.

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No signature. None. Seriously.

laconic1

Oh, man. Stories like these are part of why I don't work on cars anymore. I got tired of people who automatically assumed I was a sleazebag thief because there are plenty of other dishonest people in this industry.

clavus

Thanks. That's just a loss, not money stolen.

Besides, we are still in a slow, lazy death spiral. Not yet dead. There's still a chance someone will walk up to me with a $70,000 check. (not much of a chance, but hey, it could happen)

__________________
Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

Marvelous Marv

I understand your point. Just to be clear, I don't automatically assume that. On the other hand, I normally have only one person at a time work on my car.

When too many things went wrong, the mechanic I switched to pointed out the things like no filter on the fuel pump.

I also wasn't clear earlier. My valve COVERS, not the bolts, were broken from overtorqueing. It was a Jeep, and they were plastic. Thus, the reason for the goop liner.

Martian

I have a similar story which is the reason I do all the work on my car myself. A few months ago someone broke into my car. They smashed out the window to get inside and take my cd player. I decided that I didn't want to deal with cleaning up the mess and waste an afternoon replacing the window, so I took it to a local body shop. They told me that the fron window guide was bent and needed to be replaced. Funny thing is, it wasn't bent when it went in (I know this because the window went up and down without any problem at all) and it's next to impossible to bend it smashing in the window; the glass breaks before the steel guide rail bends. So somebody must've rolled a car over it or something and decided to take the 'like that when I got here' approach. They offered to replace it at a hefty price but I told them no, thanks and that I'd do it myself. I still haven't gotten the time to replace the damn thing.

trib767

I was scammed on ebay back in 1999-2000 for a PC. It was a very professionally run thing based in Florida with helpdesks and call centres for tracking your "order". That is, until one day it all went dead, checks cleared but no PC. There was a big thing on it on the TV and the FBI was involved. I have since left the US and put it down to experience.
My own fault for being gung-ho about the dot com boom at the time...

Marvelous Marv

You just reminded me of a timeshare experience. A Fortune 500 company sold it to us, and many more people. As a matter of fact, they sold more weeks than they owned.

In the bankruptcy, we were offered 50 cents on the dollar, or a timeshare somewhere else.

We took the somewhere else.

Siege

I can relate, cept that it didn't happen to me personally, and switch cocaine/talcum powder with marijuana/oregano

One that hits a little closer to home is what happened to my Uncle. Anyway, he took his car (a mercedes benz sportscar, don't remember which kind) in for service or something.

Genius mechanic decides not to return the car as soon as the service was done and decides to go joy riding or some garbage... maybe pick up chicks or something (I heard he was a teen or early 20).

Anyway, cops pull him over, ask him for license and registration. Obviously, the car is not registered to him and the car is then impounded... That wouldn't be such a big deal, except for the fact that my Uncle had to go all the way to the impound lot to pick it up. The part where my Uncle feels ripped off is that Mercedes Benz is unwilling to cover the impound fee, despite the fact that it was THEIR employee that got the car impounded.

__________________
"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

--Kevin Smith

This part just makes my posts easier to find

Ralli

I work in a car dealership, in the service dept to be exact. Alot of people come through the place, and I always find, that they prefer to come to us because we are honest in what we do. We keep them informed on what is happening with their car, and give them an approx price before hand. During the course of the day, if the price accelerates, we give them a call to inform them, and let them know what is happening. I always find that if we are 100% honest with them, they will keep coming back again and again. Some people, often my female customers, have stories of their previous mechanic trying to rip them off. Just the other day, I had a lady come in with her car. She said that she had a service done by someone else, who advised her that she needed nearly 800 bucks worth of extra stuff done to her car, mainly oil leaks. She asked me if we could check her car to see what it needed. In the end, we only found one leak, where the other place found about 5. Our leak was just a hose. which in the end cost her 50 bucks. She was very happy at what we found, and now we have a customers for life. She told me that with our services we may charge that little bit extra (being a dealership and selling genuine parts, we cant avoid it), but we doo an excellent job. I was happy with this.
A word of advise, if you are unsure on what the mechanic or person is saying needs to be done, get a second opinion. It cant hurt.

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~RALLI~

canuckguy

not really a rip off per say but....i bought a small crossover network off ebay, about 100 bucks in cost, not that expensive. anyway i get the package delivered to my wifes work, she calls me at home to tell me it had arrived and the box was big. odd since the crossover part i bought could have easily fit into a shoe box, my wife said this box was big. so i get her to open it as i wait on the phone, i hear a scream and picks up the phone and tells me in the box is hair wigs, 8 of them. crazy stuff. so i do some tracking about and find out at customs they had put the wrong label on my package and switched it with hair wigs. the wigs were going to a cancer treatment center so i had ups pick that package back up. never did get my crossover network as ups "missed placed it" i tried to get my money back from ups, but every time i complained to them, all they would do is place a trace on it. after 18 traces i gave up.

oh and on ebay, when it says "untested" that means it does not work.

Disk_Pusher

My worst case of being ripped off has been from former roommates. Finding honest people in Fresno is like trying to find a pepsi machine in Antartica. Thankfully our management is letting us have the sweetest revenge against our current roommate. He's left without paying back money he owes me (he missed rent once and utilities twice, his girlfriend didn't pay her portion of rent twice, all in all it comes to about $1000), but his stuff is still here. Mangement is allowing my SO and I off the lease while he will be stuck as sole holder on the lease - and they've agreed to charge him for EVERY problem in the apartment, which will total about $5000-$7500 according to them. Never mind that we've TOLD HIM how to get out of the lease, but he's too damn lazy or stupid to submit a 30 day notice to management.

We gave him every chance to pull his weight, and he thinks that now that's he's run away to Stockton he's scott free. He and his little dog (I mean, girlfriend) are con artists, and they are about to get screwed royally just as they deserve. I only wish I could see the look on his face when his wages begin to get garnished and he realizes that by being honest, and paying his debts, he could have avoided having his credit and rental history trashed as well. I'm glad my management company is ruthless with scumbags like him.

CMH

This isn't my most expensive, but it's the funniest:

I had just gotten back into town after a long day of driving (tired, not thinking clearly) with a used disposable camera. I took it to the local pharmacy to get it developed. "Would you like the one-hour development?"

me: "Uhh sure ok"

"Ok, we are close to closing time so we'll get it back to you tomorrow!"

me (drowsy): "huh ok".

The next day I was livid and got a refund .

chance

I made the mistake back when I was younger and bought some pot from someone I didn't know. He was in the passenger seat and ripped my keys out and pulled a gun. Luckily I grabbed it before he shot me (or whatever he planned on doing) and he jumped out of the car. I gave him the $350 before any of this happened so when he jumped out, he still had my money. I was too scared to ask for it back. So yea....I got ripped off.

clavus

I hope you kept the gun.
I hope it was worth more than $350.

__________________
Ass, gas or grass. Nobody rides for free.

viejo gringo

just bought a 2002 Dodge van from a dealer...he said there
was no extended warranttee---got home and found the 7 year
75K extended warrantte in the glove box---took it back to the
dealer and he said that it would have to be checked, because
sometimes they are cancelled...
sure enough--"it was cancelled- he Said".

something did not sound right when I got home, so I called the
800 number---and sure enough, it was good and transferable..

I am waiting for the paper work to come back, and then I am taking it in and show the owner how one of his guys tryed to screw the old gringo....don't get mad--get even.....

DJ Happy

I got ripped off by a taxi driver in Saudi who said that he could get me pot and deliver it to me (nice). I used him a few times and he was good to his word. Then one time he gave me a sob story about how he had a massive phone bill and couldn't afford to pay it, and he asked if he could borrow $200 to cover it. I was very wary about this, but lent it to him anyway as I didn't want to piss him off and sure enough, every time I tried to call him after that the "line is very bad, can't hear you, who is this, hello?........." But the thing that really annoys me about that was that had he strung me along a little longer, he could've taken me for thousands. He was greedy and missed out. Amateur.

KingOtter67

I came into a little bit of money through stock options and decided to look for a business I could buy into, run itself and bring in some money.

So a friend of mine found some tanning salons for sale, pretty cheap. $30,000 for 2 of them. We got the books, we looked and it seemed like it would be pretty easy to make money there. We even divided the numbers by 4 and said ok, even if it makes 1/4th of this amount we'll be ok.

I lost everything. House... bankruptcy... nice cars... you name it. It wasn't pretty.

Sigh. I should have looked into it more, but it was extremely misrepresented.

__________________
KingOtter
You can't push on a rope.

dualman7

When i was about thirteen, my parents took me to a theme park along with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. We had been living in the country for about two years. My dad was asked by someone to try his luck at the game where you throw a ball in the bucket and win a prize. As he kept making his shots, the employees would tell him that if he makes 1 more, he gets an even bigger prize. After about 5 minutes we tried to leave, but were told by six very nice 250+ pound gentlemen we owed 65 bucks, but had won an incredible stuffed animal, which was as big as my palm.

mikec

mine is rip off / drama.

my clutch went, so I brought it to Bruno's tranmissions (father in law's recommendation) to get repaired.

gets repaired, car is driving like shit. I bring it back for another one, and he's taking his sweet time fixing it. we have a phone call something like this:

me: fix the fucking car already
him: I have other cars to fix too
me: if you fixed mine right the 1st time we wouldn't even be having this convo

finally gets done, drives good for a few days, then I'm accelerating on to the highway, (insert horrible metal screeching sound) - the trans siezes. I bring it to my original trusted mechanic, and he reports there was no trans fluid - none!

had to get a rebuilt trans, new clutch and flywheel - about $2000.

I sue Bruno's, win, and when the deputy sheriff goes to get money from his bank accounts, there's none.

now for the drama - 3 years after this happens, the motherfucker who I sued starts dating my wife's aunt (who left her husband and 3 kids for this scumbag). awesome right? well because I don't want to make a scene at family functions, because I will confront him, I stay away.

I just brought the case back, a few months ago, and we were trying to get the money again. In the meantime, he got diagnosed with cancer, and just died on Friday 06/03. Now I'm hoping I can attach to his business to get my 2 g's. fucker. burn.in.hell.

__________________
Until the 20th century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see, and hear. Since the initial publication of the charted electromagnetic spectrum, humans have learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear is less than one millionth of reality

Marvelous Marv

That's scary. One good way to evaluate a business is to verify that what they SAY they're collecting matches what is deposited at the bank.

It's not perfect, because they might be running other income through the same account, but it's often a tipoff that something's not right.

Sorry to hear about it.

Marvelous Marv

Wow. I've never been to a theme park where you didn't have to pay in advance to play the games.

Marvelous Marv

Don't forget you can get the court to award you interest. It's usually simple interest, and the rate's not great, but it's something.

KingOtter67

That's absolutely what I should have done... asked for bank records, too.

Personally I think the guy probably sold drugs through them... not that I'm so against it... I just don't know how on earth they stayed afloat. It took less than a year for them to bring me down. They only made enough money to barely cover employee expenses.

I'm sure he would have said, 'Most of our income is in cash, and we don't really put it in the bank anywhere, so you won't see half of it.'

At which point I would have said, 'Then no thank you.'

Oh well.

__________________
KingOtter
You can't push on a rope.

Marvelous Marv

Yes, the other thing that worked against you was that you used your own money.

Believe me, if you had applied for a bank loan for that business, the bank would have jangled all of your alarms.

Hope I'm not sounding like a know-it-all. I've gotten screwed over too--I'm just posting in case it helps someone else.

Tbird

How'd I know you'd post in this thread??

KingOtter67

Absolutely. I consider it an investment in my 'education'. Albeit the tuition was a bit steep.

I did learn a LOT during the process. And plan to go back into business again... as soon as I have capital again..

__________________
KingOtter
You can't push on a rope.

meembo

My divorce was the biggest rip-off I ever experienced. I was set up after 15 years and I never saw it coming. Monetarily? I lost my cars, my house, my retirement (all but $4500), and virtually all my possessions. And it cost me over twenty-thousand bucks for the pleasure. I am going through bankruptcy court this month as well. I kept primary custody of my kids, though, so the sting is quickly remedied, but not easliy forgotten.

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less I say, smarter I am

fewy

I won over 1500 dollars at an online casino about 3 years ago playing blackjack with 25 to 100 dollar hands. The day I tried to cash out the manager contacted me by email asking verfication of id. She asked me to send a copy of my driver's license and the credit card I used to make the chip purchase. I sent all the documentation requested the very next day. This is where there stalling started, at first they lost the documentation and I had to resend it. Then the person who sends out the money went on vacation for 2 weeks. After a little more run around they stopped taking my phone calls and didn't respond to my emails. Basically since this online casino is outside of the US I can't really do anything to get my money. The lesson I learned is sta away from online casinos.

Siege

Agreed. My friend was $350 up playing online poker. Now he's $400 down. It's just too random (having everything based on a computer). Why not go to an actual casino?

__________________
"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

--Kevin Smith

This part just makes my posts easier to find

iccky

What online casino was it? I play a little bit of low stakes poker online but its with a fairly reputable place (Poker Stars) that has a bunch of World Series of Poker winners stumping for them, so I think I'm ok. Still, let us know where we should stay away from .

canuckguy

I just bought a new house, just moved in two weeks ago and had new HD satellite installed. Well the weather just turned warm so I thought I would turn the Central air on. Nothing, tried even getting the furnace to come on, nothing. Checked all the usual things, no blown fuses..etc, the A/C was getting juice. Called out a service rep and discovered the freaking line from the thermostat and the furnace/AC was cut.
And it was a clean cut too, in a area of basement that was only accessed by the TV tech guy, the cable going to the thermostat looks just like a regular cable tv type line (coxial?). grrr. not that i got ripped off, just i know the cable dude cut the line because he thought he could tap into the line that goes to the second floor, once he cut it he realized it was not a cable line and just left it. effing retard. cost me 80 bucks to have the service call too from the AC people.

Charlatan

Last August I took the kids to the cottage...

I got up early (5am) to pack the car. My last load in the car was some essentials which I loaded into the front seat. I was about to get out of the car when I noticed my Treo on the driver's seat and thought, "that's just an invitation for a smash and grab."

I picked up the mobile, locked to car and went inside to wake up the kids and make a coffee. The sun was still down.

In about the time it took to make the coffee (stove top espresso) and pour it, I was back outside to take the dog for a walk and toss his bag of food into the back seat. When I was shoving the bag into the back something didn't look right in the car. A blanket I had tossed in the back for my son to sleep on was moved... it was then that I noticed my glove box was open and all the things I'd just put in the front seat were gone!

Five to ten minutes was all it took for theives to steal the following items:

My laptop (I was going to do some work at the cottage)
About 40 of my favourite CDs.
My brand new Persol perscription sunglasses
A portable panisconic DVD player (borrowed from work)
$30 in change kept in a leather pouch
My knap sack (into which all but the DVD player and CDs were stuffed)


I was devastated. Insurance covered the loss but it just really sucked.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

streak_56

Most of the mechanic stories make me glad that I know somewhat of what I would be doing under the hood. I personally have been ripped off by my mother more than anyone else. She said that when her and my Dad would get divorced that she would give us 100 dollars a month out of our child support. I thought it was a sweet deal, until it stopped because she had expenses like taking a trip to Tennesse and North Carolina. *shakes fist*

When I confronted her, all I got was.... it's my money to begin with. Yea.... I'm living with just two different pairs of pants, and all but one torn/ripped shirt. Obviously clothes was not good enough of a reason.