How to CATCH THE DISHONEST REPAIR SHOPS in action.

[Monty Howard]

Hello auto tech’s and Auto owners!

I am not an auto tech but my son in law is, we speak very often and I know of as much as many of you when it comes to dishonest, questionable, and out right fraudlent behavior at many auto repair shops. I feel for each technician having to work under those conditions, especially when you are ask to do things that compromise your principals and sternly given the choice to go along or out the door especially WHEN YOU HAVE A FAMILY DEPENDING ON YOU.

I may have a solution to some of this, maybe alot of this behavior, at shops encouraging bad or fraudlent work for auto owners. [b]Remember when we began to see prosecutions of babysitters really pick up, after hidden audio video cameras began being placed in homes. We can do the same thing with our vehicles and watch denying shop owners change their tune once they realize they have been caught in such a way they can not deny what they have done.
[/b]

I know some of you will see this and think “Great now someone wants to watch over my shoulder.”. I can tell you I don’t like the idea any more than many of you will, but for the honest technicians it can lead to great reviews and booming business. I recognize those who are trust worthy deserves more than this from a customer and that a bad shop may be forcing them to do things under the threat of job loss, what can they safely do and keep a needed job? This question is one every technician should know the answer to, seek protesction under your states whistle blower laws and expose fraudlent business practices. If the state does not have laws in place to protect whistle blowers contact your state senators and request this legislation be drawn and voted on, in teh mean time report what you know to law enforcement and work with them, when safe, to catch these bad shops. The main thing here is to report dishonest practices so you have a defense for yourself. The only other alternative is to join the shop in the dishonest practices risking prosecution or silently leave them reason unknown. No one should put themself in harms way by threatning exposure to dishonest shops, silently and confidentialy report them.

The problem auto owners face is massive and many shop owners have grown greedy causing customers undue financial and mechanical harm. Cities, States, and Federal government do not operate frequent enough stings, many are cash strapped to operate them, and customers are not allowed to observe work in progress. The rules imposed by big insurance and most shops, good and bad, to not allow customer to observe work in progress is fuel on the fire of dishonesty. In essence nothing is done to stop this practice and it is rampant all across our nation. Fact is sometimes even the best and most honest of us need to join the crowd and help insure these bad practices come to an end. We should be helping our Grand Fathers, Grandmothers, Moms, Dads, and children have an honest experience at the auto shop and every other kind of business, service, and government office they must frequent.

Are you bold (caring is a better word) enough to stand with me, exchange ideas, and get involved with your community to help eridicate this lack of ethics and crime against the public? If the answer is YES then please get involved in this thread, help us develop some methods designed to catch those who take our hard earned money for little or nothing at all.

Seeing families financially suffer because they were forced to spend $2000.00 on brakes, or hundreds on absolutely nothing at all, while some bad shop owners are out enjoying wild weekends, on their boats, or going to the local strip bars, and buring through cash like there is no tomorrow nearly makes me physically ill. It is an injustice toward all people rich and poor, especially when the alternative for fradulent repairs many time is pay or we keep the car, remember the mechancis lean, they will use it against you.

Topic

[Monty Howard]

Here is an example of what I am hopeing to see develop here.

1. Way’s to avoid dishonest and honest dealers who overcharge for work done. Anything customers can do in advance to avoid problems.

2. Places to install small audio video cameras and other devices devices designed to monitor work in progress on your auto. Including how to keep the equipment clean when not being used.

3. Links to places where devices can be obtained to allow wireless recording and monitoring of work in the vehicle. If you know of tiny, nearly undetectable, cameras that can silently be controlled to follow and focus on work in progress let us know.

4. Fool proof ways to hide and install monitoring devices. Remember, many times auto batteries are disconnected to facilitate work. You need an independent source of power.

5. Solutions for those who work in the auto repair field to help them out of being backed into corners when asked to do fraudlent and deceptive things by shop owners. It is especially important to help protect the honest technicians from retaliation due to their proper personal business ethics.

I hope the community does not find this forum thread disappointing, it has been placed here because in a short time I have come to have faith in this forum and the folks who frequent it. We all have our daily obligations and some of our time, when made available to help others, I see as a special part of our personal responsibility.

[dave]

https://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/2-General-Discussion/44502-almost-got-ripped-off

I will even drop some names here: the shop that wanted to do a $1,000 fuel pump was Raeben.

The shop that did the work at a reasonable price was Car-X.

These facilities are located in Evansville, IN.

It pays to shop around.

[Monty Howard]

Thank you Wrench Turner, I an sorry this happened to you and I can say I know what it feels like. Especially after visiting several shops in my area in Tampa, Florida. Just Brakes, being one of the most outlandish of all. Their claim was the adjustment hole in a non disk standard brake assembly was in fact a hole caused by damage where parts had come loose and punctured the drum. Repairs needed were to replace all brake lines and components at a cost $2000.00 or above as a begining rough estimate, actual repairs could go higher if needed, they wiould call for approval before going above this price. We left without any work performed. Later I watched a national report on TV about the same company ripping folks off in Georgia I think. I must note: Just Brakes is or was a franchise company at the time and this may not apply to all Just Brakes facilities. I do not desire one bad apple, or two, to spoil the efforts of all locations, some may be honest franchise owners. My caution is to get a few estimates for any work required regardless of where you go for any kind of auto repairs.

Hopefully here we can start developing a deterrent methods to help protect us with work we do allow unknowingly at bad auto repair facilities.

[dave]

Best thing to do, when it comes to specialty areas of expertise when you know you are out matched and really don’t know anything about the field… is to play ‘one against the other.’ Then you can turn it into a game of ‘expert vs. expert’ and you reap all the benefits.

it’s a common court room strategy.

[John B Kobberstad]

n9zn-extra is that an amateur radio extra class callsign??

[Monty Howard]

[quote=”johnbkobb” post=56845]n9zn-extra is that an amateur radio extra class callsign??[/quote]

Johnbkobb, your one attentive man, yes sir it is an amateur radio extra class callsign.

At this juncture in life, electronics design is my first love, to me there is nothing more thrilling than to draw a circuit, build it, and watch it do it’s thing. Metal fabrication is a second love, the only thing I am missing is endless money. My hobby shop, the way I want it, would easily cost well over a million dollars to assemble. CNC equipment isn’t cheap and I am not wealthy.

For myself technical study and exams are fun. When others enjoy novels, or watching sports, I enjoy reading technical books cover to cover and getting hands on. This also accounts for why I took a look at a computer in the mid 1960’s, plenty of technical reading there, and after college began a computer career as a Silicon Valley pioneer. An episode that lasted until I watched companies invent mini computers and eventually personal computers. Around 2005 It got to old to be fun, now I think hobby more than career.

[b]Back to the thread…
PROOF of WORK DONE![/b]
Many of the machines used today, when working on vehicles, are capable of producing detailed repair and or diagnostic reports.

Today I took our car back to a dealer for re-alignment because the stearing wheel was not correctly centered. I had brought this to their attention on the day we first had the alignment done, before and after the alignment. Unfortunately many of the mechanics had left for the day when I picked our vehicle up so I needed to return to fix the problem.

Today I ask for a copy of the diagnostic alignment report showing primary and secondary angles, not only before but also after the front and rear wheels were aligned.

What the dealer and I both discovered was a technician had previously signed off on our prior alignment without performing any alignment work or doing a very poor job. The dealers service manager was visably upset when hearing about this and thanked me for coming back in to have our car re-aligned. She told me this should never have occured, and that when she discovers dishonesty or poor performance with customers she removes it.

What you can do to help avoid this…
When asking for repairs, ask if the service equipment used can produce a vehicle repair diagnostic and ask for a copy showing before repair and after repair data so you can compare it. This will arm you with comparitave information you can question especially if it indicates no work performed or inadiquate results.

If a shop or mechanic questions or refuses to provide copies of before and after diagnostic reports you may want to consider taking your vehicle elsewhere. When going in for service due to a vehicle diagnostic code registering a problem, a check engine light, or other warning, do not rely on the code or warning going away as proof of repair. Most simple diagnostic scanners can reset codes to no longer show and sometimes these problem indicators will not re-appear immediately (intermittent problems). Your best bet is a before and after diagnostic report that may show you the needed proof of work done and inform you of the present status of your vehicle as you leave. These diagnostic reports may also provide hints of future failures so be sure to ask your service manager to go over them with you, explaining anything you do not understand before leaving.

Lastly keep your diagnostic reports with your vehicle records. They may prove useful for future repairs and problem solving. Having a history of failures many times will aid in exposing a hidden problem causing related failures.

[James]

My dad had a creative way to see if a shop was replacing parts or just reconditioning the old ones..and I dont mean remanucatured, I mean just cleaning it up to look new again and shoving it back in.

He would use black light paint and clean the parts himself ahead of time, so if they were to say “Oh yeah we just got a new part from the manufacturer.” He could shove a black light under there and watch the light show happen. Happened quite a lot actually. This is after he ruptured a disk and couldnt fix the cars himself anymore so he knew what he was looking for. ONe shop thought they were real slick and would pull old broken parts from other cars and swap them into another car. My dad busted this by starting to check on order forms from the mechanic for the parts they claimed to have purchased to replace the faulty part, nine times out of ten here it turned out that they did no such thing the order was never made and the order form was falsified. Two shops in this town were shut down because of my dads rather..clever investigative techniques.lol He should of been a P.I. when you think about it.

I dont find many “bad” mechanics these days…bad as in shady on purpose. But I do find many who are lazy, and cut corners to save on cost then charge a overhead fee on replacement parts and for work they never really did. That is harder to catch and to avoid and that is probably why that trend is starting. When I take a car to a mechanic and say the problems, I dont want you to ask me what you want me to have you do, I want you to fix the problem and figure it out yourself. Many here will ask for a “list” of what you want them to do, and that is fine some times but many times I find it lazy and a way for the mechanic to say “Oh well the reason its not fixed is because whats really wrong with it is blah blah and that was not on the list so I didnt touch it.” Ok fine, but why didnt you call me and tell me that was the problem and forego the other repairs that clearly would not fixed the issue?

I could go on and on but in general most mechanics are honest, its a word of mouth business and bad messages going around in the end costs them money.

[Steve]

I live in a small town so luckily word of mouth is the best way to find a good honest and reliable tech around here. Once I find one, I stick with him unless it’s something he can’t or doesn’t do. I know it’s different being in a city, new to an area or while traveling and having a break down. Actually, social media like Facebook is sometimes a good way to find a good tech since your friends will likely know someone honest and reliable.

Also, speaking of the power of social media and the internet, you can Google a shop’s name and maybe find reviews to help you find a good one. Not sure of the review sites but I think Yelp.com might be one but there are many others as well.

[Author]

Replies