I can certainly understand your position - I've been in similar situations. Getting some kind of resolution w/o going to court or similar is worth it in avoiding the time, $, and aggravation carrying on the dispute would cause. And burning bridges behind you rarely turns out well.

 

 

You are correct, but...IMO, the alternatives would have been a lawsuit or pouring more $ into the black hole that leaving it there would have been. I think it was wise for him to cut his losses and get out of the situation.

 

They have the car back now. 15k plus the amount of time this sat (and it still doesn't even run!) seems well within "lawsuit" bounds.

 

 

Some major issues with lawsuits are:
o They are time consuming
o They often wind up recovering less $ than they cost
o They are major stress creators for everyone involved

So, IMO, unless you have an attorney on retainer or there is a HUGE amount of $ involved, lawsuits are very often just not worth it. And, in any case, there is no way he would recover the whole $15K. Maybe he could get back half of that after a year of hassle. So, depending on his financial situation and how much time he has available, just letting it be and moving on may be a very reasonable decision.

I would probably do the same. It's just not worth the hassle and time lost.

 

I'm not a lawyer and I'm hesitant to post anything that could be taken as legal advice, but I'd be considering small claims in this case. No lawyer required, and you still have a fair chance.

I'd at least take my case/documents/etc to a lawyer and have the case reviewed. Its normally free, and they will give you a honest opinion on your options and chances of success.

 

Small claims court is a good idea. However the one time I tried that to recover ~$600 that a guy had stiffed me for some racecar parts I sold him, the claim got screwed up in getting the correct jurisdiction, and after months of F'ing around with that I just gave up. It wasn't worth the time and hassle. If it had been a couple of $1000, I'd have kept at it.

 

$15k for the work you have described and car still not running it's a lot of cash. You could had gotten a running spare fd for that amount. Sorry for your loss.

 

Looking in-depth at the bill, those guys should be ashamed of themselves IMO.

Going into extreme detail on the bill describing every little thing you do doesn't justify charging an extreme price.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread.../#post12385274

hmmmmmm?

 

Do the rotary community a favor and post the shop name so we can all make sure we dont get had.

 

It was posted a few pages back. synaptic in New Hampshire.

 

take a look at my link...kinda similar

 

Yea 2 case . In a similar time frame ? You 2 should team up and sue the guy . Do the community a favor honestly

 

This is a problem we have in the North Eastern part of the Country! Almost non existence of good rotary shops. I'm also a customer of this establishment. The only difference my car is running. Spoke too soon. I went to my storage bunker last week to remove the battery for winter storage. Started the car up to move it, and it started leaking antifreeze. Now I need to trailer the car back to them 4 hours away. At least he said he will check it out in the spring! I too was charged storage fees after they started working on my car. They put it on hold in the back room for months. He started working on it Oct 2017, put it in the back until Jan 2018 when he did 23.5 hours of work. The catch is I was charged storage From Oct17 thru March 2018. I got charged 217.75 labor hours of service. It was a lot of work don't get me wrong. The end result is it took them 26 MONTHS to do 218 hours of labor. I felt that my car was held hostage, bit the bullet and paid a lot of money!

 

Thanks. I feel blessed be in Fl. I have two great rotary shops near m . Pettit Racing and Kilo Racing. I used them both depending on my needs.