Jim may be a great mechanic as some say, I don't know. But he made such a poor judgement call that I can't give him more than one star. I would give him zero stars if I could.
I had an old motor that I used to run my rustic homemade houseboat for years. It was part of the rustic charm. A 1978 Mercury "200" 20hp. When we had purchased the motor years ago, it was in terrible shape, and we rebuilt it redoing all the electrical. It was beautiful and reliable and started on a dime, despite its years. We love it. We named it Freddie Mercury.
Unfortunately, the gearbox went out when we were on the Tennessee River and when I got home I took it over to Moore & Sons. He said, I'll call you in a few days. No call. I called and left a message, no call back. I waited a week, called and left a message. No call back. Finally a month later, I called and finally reached him. He said the lower gearbox was shot (as expected) and, after talking a bit, he said he would look at one more place the next day to see if they had a lower end that matched this motor and if not, I would come and get it. No call back.
I called and left a message a week later. No call back. I waited almost a month again. Left a message. Still no call.
I called this morning to an unexpected surprise. I caught him at the shop. Unbelievably he told me he'd junked our engine. Junked it. He said the gearbox was gone and it was trash. I reminded him about our previous conversation. The top end was still perfect. WTF?
He claimed that he had called me a bunch of times, but I never received a call or voicemail (I just double checked my phone records).
I think he recognized that he made a big mistake and offered to find me another motor. He said "I'll make things right." Of course, I don't want *another* motor, I want mine. Or failing that, the $700 to $900 it was worth. So we'll see what happens.
EDIT: After a month, he still did not provide another motor or offer to pay, so I was forced to take him to small claims court.
EDIT: He didn't appear in small claims and so there was a judgement against him. Still he refused to pay. Nearly two months later, I'm still trying to collect. This is Jim's version of "making things right?" read more