It's sad how the allure of money changes someone (in this case, Guy) who you thought was a trusted and skilled mechanic. I had a simple engine splash plate underneath the car get loose and just needed that replaced. As you can imagine, it's a simple job that would take a maximum of 2 hours (and that's being kind considering that this was a slow day for his shop). He tied up the loose plate underneath for the time-being with a piece of metal in order to prevent it from sliding on the ground while i drive. This would holdover until tomorrow. He told me it'd be $120 total (about $60+ for parts and the rest for labor, which I originally thought was outrageously high but I trusted his skill and experience with me in the past so I went with it--oh boy was I wrong!). He wanted a $50 deposit that would go towards the final price at the end.
We were slated to do this the next day, but a few hours after first seeing him about this plate issue, I called him to ask him why the aftermarket part was so expensive because I researched online and saw that the Honda plate is about $80-$90, and I couldn't find an aftermarket one that costs more than $50. He said it's because I want it done quick the next day (considering it's not the same day, is it really quick? but ok, again, another thing I did not contest because he did a good job for me in the past) and that's the only place that sells it for next-day delivery (what place? i didn't bother to ask because, again, i trusted his previous record with me). I was standing there with him in his shop while he called to ask for the part. He didn't even call many places for the part; only one place. Looking back, I should've said something.
Tomorrow's here and I dropped my car off at the time we agreed upon. I left the car there. About an hour later, he calls me from two different phone numbers asking me "hey where is your wheel lock?" 21 minutes after he called me and left a voicemail, I called him back (yes I'm looking at my call history right now). I told his secretary that the wheel lock is in the glove compartment and I told her to tell him that I would like to have the car up so that I can look underneath it to inspect the work and the new part (you'll see later at the end of this review that I never got to see the work with the car up so I can look and touch the part). 2 hours and 45 minutes after I dropped the car off, he called to tell me it was ready to get picked up. An hour went by and I went to pick it up. HERE IS WHERE GUY'S AUTOMOTIVE BECAME GUY THE SCAMMER. I entered the shop and asked Guy "hey can you have the car up so that I can take a look at it?" Guy says "lay low on the floor and look at it, it's new so you can tell." I did just that and as far as I can tell, yeah it's a newer part. I checked a few more times after, I still can't tell if it's been used but it's definitely newer than the one I had before--but that's a very low bar considering that the one I had was scraping the floor for like 20 miles going about 60-70 mph on I-95 before I brought it to him. I let that slide but I was already smelling Mr. Scammer working up tricks. I went back into the shop and Guy tells me "yeah we didn't end up using many rubber screws for the job so I'll give you a discount of $3 off that $120, so you're looking at $117." Ok, that's fine. And then here is the KICKER. Guy then says "yeah but listen, we had to go look for the wheel lock because we waited for you to call back so now the total is $167. Oh and by the way, I never was able to find the wheel lock." 20 minutes of waiting costs an extra $47? I couldn't wrap my head around this so I said "uh yeah you're raising the price by a lot, I can't accept this." He knew he was up to his BS limit (or what most people would call LYING) so he then said "ok let's meet in the middle. Let's split the $47 in half which is $24 and you can pay me $144 total" It's actually $23.50 but I agreed because at this point, I knew I would never go back to his shop. Got in my car & the wheel lock was sitting right in the glove compartment just as I explained.
