I'm a fair honest guy. I really am. I've gotten an oil change before here, and had brakes done all…read morethe way around for a fair price before. I needed rear rotors and pads slapped on, so naturally I went to the place where I've had good experiences before, human nature. Well, was I sorry when I left.
I dropped my car off with the parts at 11:45 AM and parked it outside the garage, and dropped my keys off to a familiar face that I assume manages the place because he didn't have a greasy jumper on, just a sweater. He said it's be ready in an hour, and took down my number. So I walked down to Applebee's to waste some time - which was the best part of my day, but that's non-sequitor.
Anyhow, it gets to be 1:05 PM and I am still at Applebee's waiting so I call and they say it's ready. I'm a little perturbed that they didn't proactively call, but that's fine. It's a busy shop and they have work to do, whatever, I get it.
I show up and talk to a different guy sitting down in a greasy jumper, not the original assumed manager I spoke to and he said it would be $100. I made a joke to him and I'm quoting verbatim "You gonna lube me up first before that?' It fell on deaf ears as he started walking towards the office with my card. I was all set to pay the $100 until I saw an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper with large font black text that read "LABOR CHARGE IS $85 / HOUR" it was there in my peripheral on my right side as he was about to ring me up, and so I was like "wait a minute, your sign here says $85 / HR? why are you charging me $100?"
This is where things get tough, because I want to give this poor guy the benefit of the doubt, because lord knows what had happened in his life or last 15 minutes of living that made him go ballistic, but hot damn. He immediately got verbally abusive towards me saying that it is $100 and said it actually took 2 hours! I whipped out my phone and explained when I dropped the car off, when I called, and the fact that I could've changed my own rear pads and rotors in 45 minutes with a smoke break in between and drinking a 6 pack the whole time. and he's screaming at me it's $100, so I ripped the piece of paper off the wall and said "Then why do you have a sign in your office that says $85 / HR?"
Now the story goes into bizarr-o world because he gets in my face and said, verbatim "HOW DARE YOU RIP DOWN MY SIGN!" which again, is a standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch printer paper held up by a piece of scotch tape. "I AM CALLING THE POLICE. GIVE ME YOUR KEYS!"
Obviously I didn't give him my keys back and we are exchanging heated words. I was honestly waiting for this guy to try and punch me because his verbal abuse was bordering on the level of where I felt like he was going to try and hit me. The funny part is that when he caught on that his intimidation wasn't going to work, and I never back down to a fight, (especially when $15 is on the line, lol jk). So I tell him go ahead call the cops. I knew he wouldn't because they would laugh their asses off and probably make him only charge me what his sign in the office says in the first place.
Anyway, he storms off with my card on a cordless phone and starts talking a mile a minute in Hindi on the phone. Hangs up and said cops are coming. Like I'm fucking idiot. First off, I know a little bit of Hindi and I could tell he was talking to a superior to "come over", but when he hung up he said the cops are coming. HAHAHAHA, lol. First off, motherfucker, I live in the neighborhood. 60th precinct don't answer the phone for shit, and ain't none of them speak Hindi, and I'd be damned if he called 911 and pretended like they'd take him seriously. Point being, giant insult to my intelligence and offended everyone of my sensibilities.
He's screaming at me some more trying to intimidate me, and I was thinking in my head- this isn't worth the principle of the matter, and it was damn sure not worth the $15 even 5 minutes ago, so I said go ahead, charge the $100. But he still kept insisting I give him back my keys but I said "NO go charge me the $100 I want to leave right now, you get what you want" So he finally caves to go charge my card, and then the original manager pops up behind me, and said "let's talk". Not gonna lie, I flipped out on him and said "No we aren't going to fucking talk, there is nothing to talk about, you fucked me. I've brought my car here on 3 separate occasions before this, and was a loyal customer, and you just fucked me, and I'm never bringing my car here again."
I left the shop pretty heated. Mostly angry about the fact that I used to like this place, and thought I'd have a stable, trustable mechanic shop to bring my car into forever. Now I have to find another one. I'd say steer clear of this whore house, but that's not fair to every whore house in the world that offers a more honest, and better service.
