OMG, GO TO ANY OTHER SHOP BUT THIS ONE, PLEASE! Sit down, this is a long, unbelievable, stressful, expensive story. I took my 2003 Mercedes SL 500 here MAY 17, 2019 for two issues: battery drain and suspension issues. After paying the full total of $6,000 up front before Keith Lynem would even start work on my car, they allegedly fixed both issues, finishing on Jun. 7, 2019, 3 WEEKS LATER. So I picked it up and lo and behold both issues cropped up again almost immediately. Only because I assumed it was still under warranty, I took it back to BFM on JULY 10, 2019. After many, many weeks of them trying to localize the problems, now began 7 MONTHS of the same reply by Keith to repair status checks: On Tues. "It'll be done Fri." On Fri. "It'll be done Tues." Twice a week. For 7 months. 7 MONTHS! Hopes raised, hopes dashed. No communication unless I reached out for a status report. Report filed with the BBB did no good. Report filed with the Indiana Attorney General's Consumer Affairs Division did no good. Threat of a lawsuit did no good. Slow forward to DEC. 10, 2019. Having had it with this shop's incompetence and Keith's continued lying communications and fake and missed deadlines, I called him and said close up my car, I'm having it towed on Thurs., Dec. 12 to another shop. On Thurs , Dec. 12, 2019, I called to confirm the pickup time and Keith said he had had it towed to the Northside Benz dealership service dept. on Wed., Dec. 11 (without my permission). His two "It'll be ready Tues., It'll be ready Fri." replies continued FOR TWO MORE MONTHS. On FEB. 9, 2020, I returned from vacation to find a mechanics lien in my mail saying if the repair bill wasn't paid by Mar. 11, the car would be sold at auction. Keith said he was negotiating with the Benz service dept. over the repair bill and that it would be resolved before the deadline. For weeks and weeks after that, his replies were the same. As the auction deadline got closer and closer for MY CAR, I talked to the Benz service dept. business mgr. He said he was NOT negotiating with Keith, that the bill would not be lowered, and my car would go to auction on Mar. 11 if the bill wasn't paid. Keith continued to insist he was negotiating with them. After more delays by Keith, on MAR. 2, 2020, I went to BFM and told Keith I was going to the Benz dealership to pay the bill myself that day and to get my car, for him to call them and authorize them to accept my payment, and release my car to me. He agreed, again, on MAR. 2, 2020 and promised to pay me back for the repair bill I was paying totaling $4,538 (remember this was on allegedly warranteed work totaling $6,000 done by BFM on Jun. 7. 2019). Come to find out at the Benz service dept., MY CAR HADN'T BEEN THERE SINCE DEC. 11, 2019, IT HAD BEEN THERE SINCE JUL. 24, 2019 - 2 WEEKS AFTER I'D TAKEN IT BACK TO BFM! Keith had lied to me about its location for 8 months. 8 MONTHS! And they hadn't just finished the repairs, they had been done on Feb. 2, 2020, a month prior. I could have had my car back a month earlier if he'd just paid the bill! And since he'd refused to pay it they'd tacked on over $1,000 in storage fees on top of the repair bill that I had to pay to get my car back and that he now owed me. On Thurs., Mar. 4, 2020, I took an IOU form to BFM and had Keith sign he would pay me back the $4,538 (including the additional storage fees) he owed me, BY JULY 4, 2020. Well lo and behold that deadline, like all others he set, he blew by with no communication or fulfillment of his promises (can we say, stringing me along, playing me like a sucker? YES!). Here we went again with the twice weekly calls to him (he called me twice in nearly two years with status updates) to find out when I was going to get my money back. Excuses ranged from we're closed due to covid (not true, auto repair shops were essential during lockdown and BFM was open, evidenced by the changing cars dropped off for repairs and the ones repaired and awaiting pick up), business hasn't picked up from the lockdown (see previous rebuttal), to, again, you'll have it this month. That last promise was missed in Jul., Aug., and Sept., 2020. Finally he magically came up with two, $2,000 cash payments before Oct. 12, 2020. That left an elusive $538 still owed to me. Again the missed deadlines set by him. In Nov., and Dec., 2020. And in Jan., Feb., Mar., April, May, and June, 2021. On and on. Excuses, false deadlines, reasons du jour. Hopes raised, hopes dashed. Not one penny sent to me. Not one dollar. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Then - Finally. FINALLY! 2 YEARS SINCE I TOOK MY CAR TO BFM FOR REPAIRS, 1 AND A HALF YEARS AFTER I PAID HIS BILL MYSELF, 1 YEAR AFTER HIS SIGNED IOU PAYMENT DEADLINE, he finally sends me the final lousy $538 reimbursement he owed me. End of story. End of nightmare. End of my ever going to that f'd up shop and Keith Lynem for ANY repair on ANY vehicle. Like I said at the start, OMG, GO TO ANY OTHER SHOP BUT THIS ONE, PLEASE! read more