Chuck LaPlant seemed like a nice guy, so when we met to sell him our travel trailer and he offered his services to restore our vintage VW convertible for $100/hour, we took him up on it. BIG mistake. Weeks went by with little update. Two months in he said he'd lost the key (we had to call him to find out). Brought him the key and saw little if any work had been done. He made some excuse and promised to get cracking. Several weeks later, we checked in and were told he'd have it running by week's end. Didn't hear back and foolishly waited longer. After he'd had the car for a good six months, he calls to tell us that the week before he'd moved to Corpus Christi and had the car towed to a mechanic friend as he left town. We said uhh, beg pardon? Why would you transfer our vehicle without discussing it first? We have longtime working relationships with two reliable mechanics. So we headed to the friend's shop. The starter had been fixed (allegedly) but it couldn't be checked because the battery we'd replaced just before Chuck took the car in was missing, as was the spare tire with an original ('71) rim. Pathetic waste of six months while he lied as it mostly just sat there. He knew better than to ask for payment for the starter and got defensive and kept hanging up when we asked for the missing parts back -- claimed he had no idea where they went and thought it a fair trade for the starter (it isn't; how to replace the vintage rim?). We're trying to work things out short of filing a police report. We have no idea what's going on in his life to prompt all this but we're sharing this warning should Chuck's Car Care resurface in Corpus or open in some other name registered to Chuck LaPlante. read more