Need advice...is this FAIR?

[manbeer 0]

As a few of you may know, i brought my car to a auto customization shop last week to have an interior swap done. I saw the advertisement on our local G35 forums, the owner was looking for a stock interior in black for an 05-07 coupe and he would give the other party his custom two tone suede interior, with glassed door panels for 3 way comps, full trunk made w/ amp rack for 2 12's, etc. I was the first person to respond to the ad, so we made arrangements for me to go there the following day.

i arrived at his location, over a hundred miles from my home, at around noon. I offered to help but they said they wanted to have their guys do it to ensure everything was done properly. After about 2 hours of waiting the first installer came to me and said that the rear deck couldn't be installed in my car because on the (shop owners) other car, the metal needed to be trimmed out. I politely told them not to worry about it, that i would modify it to fit my car when i got home.

an hour later, another installer came to me to tell me that the door panels would not fit because where they had sealed them off with expanding foam and 1/4 inch ply, the actual metal in the door would need to be cut. again, i told them not to worry, i will tweak them to fit my car when i get home

around this time i noticed that my seats had the memory function, and his did not. i called a fried with experience swapping different seats into these cars and was told that the only proper way to do this was to swap the seatback and cushion from one frame to the other. The electrical workings were different for the different years. they swapped the parts over on the passenger seat but as it came time to wrap up the job it was getting cold and dark so i guess they didn't bother on the drivers side. they were putzing around trying to figure out why the seat didn't get power. I showed him where the fusebox was cause he didn't realize that there was another one behind the battery :/ and i went inside to warm up while they fooled around with things trying to get it to work.

a little while later they came in and started grabbing the extra parts to put in my car, said all they had to do was make a slight modification and it was fine. as i went to leave i noticed the interior lights were not working and figured that it was a blown fuse or something left unplugged

about half a mile up the road i stopped because there was a vibration on the front tire that was BAD. it ended up being a piece of dynamat stuck to the tire. i also noticed the hood wasn't shut on one side, due to the fact that he left the fuse box cover off and on top of the engine :/

as i left, i noticed that the VDC, slip, and other lights in the cluster were all illuminated, and that also the tach and speedo were not working. shut the car off quick at a light and restarted and it was still the same.

i drove for about 30 mins towards home, with all the electronics still acting funny, and stopped at a dunkin donuts to use bathroom and get coffee. went to get back in the car, it won't start. first it caught for a sec, then just cranking. infiniti roadside assistance came through, and i had to get a ride home (60 miles) in the middle of the night

now the dealer took a look at the car, and at his slight modification (jumpers to power the seat, woohoo) and of course denied warranty coverage, so that leaves me stuck with a 1350 dollar estimated repair

The guy who owns the shop that did the shoddy work of coure is denying it to the death, saying that the dealer is bullchitting me, there is no way he could have messed anything up, etc. the dealer is saying that where he tapped into the wiring, he fed back power into the body control module, and shorted it out. makes sense to me. I politely explained to the shop owner that my car was running fine when i went in, and left broken, so he is at fault.

So anyway, when i (hopefully) get my car back in the next few days i have to return to him to swap the seat frames which we already agreed to. I was planning to present him with the bill and ask him to reimburse me for the repairs that he is documented as the cause of, with pics. He will probably refuse, and i will either have to ask him for his insurance info, or take him to small claims for. I was thinking though, he has some used equipment that i would be interested in. The car originally had the DLS ultimate iridium 8.3i set in the doors, so i know he has those and figure since the street price seems to be about 700 used and he probably paid less cause he owns a shop that might be an option. He also has these PPI DCX12 subs that he offered to me for 250 for the pair. I was thinking of telling him if he gives me the 3 way set and subwoofer that we can call it even, i would imagine that he paid less than a grand for all of it and i know that probably 800-1000 is the street price, so it would be cheaper for him than paying out of pocket. Should i do this, or does it make me look like some kind of scam artist if i offer to settle for merchandise?

[SpeakerBoy 64]

Well, i would do the same thing, but i am 14. i would also feel the same as you, seeing as that it make you look bad, but you need to be reimbursed for the wrongs he did you. i don't know.... go with it and see where it takes you!

[manbeer 0]

thanks, we will see what happens when i go up there this weak. even though this was a swap performed on his personal vehicle and mine, by himself and his employees, i would expect him to maintain the same professionalism as if i were a normal, paying customer

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

whats the old saying

"you get what you pay for"

still holds true. Should be a lesson learned in my book. Keep up updated as to how this goes. Good luck

[Duran 387]

Don't settle for merchandise, you will look like a scammer. I would take him to small claims.

[manbeer 0]

whats the old saying

"you get what you pay for"

still holds true. Should be a lesson learned in my book. Keep up updated as to how this goes. Good luck

That, or "nothing in life is free" would be applicable in this situation, lol

[Godsmack 361]

Claims court.

Get a good lawyer. a recept proving the car was PERFECT before they messed with it and a recept proving it was bad after wards will be a HUGE help too man.

Good luck!!!!

J

[KU40 173]

that's bs, I would be pissed. I imagine just the threat of going to court will have him settling. I hope so anyways. and I would take the money. no sense in letting him off for merchandise he probably paid less than 500 total for on a bill you got for over a grand. Not to mention all the hassle it caused you in the middle of the night and all.

[Adrian_D 520]

Get the money. You will have to pay for repairs anyway. Gear is hard to sell and could end up selling for less than the amount you paid for repairs.

[///M5 2,833]

Did you already fix it? I'd give him the option to make it all right before doing anything.

[manbeer 0]

Did you already fix it? I'd give him the option to make it all right before doing anything.

Its at the dealer right now, waiting on parts. Hopefully it should be done in the next couple of days but at least i finally got a loaner car

He know what is going on as i have called several times during this fiasco, and he knows the dealer is blaming the problem on his work, though he is trying to deny it. I will provide the bill, with written and photo documentation of his errors, and hope that he is willing to do at least something for me...especially when i was the one that told him that he NEEDED to switch the seatback and bottom cushion on to the other frame and that was the the only way that it would work properly. he did the one side and got lazy on the other

[Cheesemind 0]

I don't think it looks bad giving him an option to settle it before court (it actually looks better in a civil case if you give them a way out before going to trial). The main thing is, make sure you have the bill, and ask him to pay it or settle with the merchandise. He might think you are a scammer at this point (getting a high estimate from a dealership in order to use it to scam gear), but if he refuses, then go pay for the repair. This shows that it wasn't a scam, and you were merely offering a solution. Go in again, after you have paid for the repair, and ask him again with receipt for the repair in hand. This time, he will know it wasn't a scam, because you paid for the repair. You're giving him a way out. If he still doesn't do this he's a moron.

Make sure you document the days you make the offers to settle, because those look good in court. Make note of any witnesses, because if it goes to trial, you want to be able to list witnesses to your offers to settle before court. You should also take a witness or 2, and document (write names) of people at the shop who are there to witness the offers. Make sure to document the dates.

You can beat the civil case by default (winning automatically without having to prove your case), by using a common law default (which is how debt collectors win their court cases). You write up an affidavit of the facts (only facts, not opinions or conclusions) of the night they screwed up your vehicle, and you write the facts point by point, line by line. You get it notarized, and then you mail it certified to him. If he doesn't respond by counter-affidavit, countering your facts point by point, then those "facts" become uncontested in court. He who says nothing, appears to consent. If he doesn't respond in 30 days countering your affidavit, those facts become uncontested in a court of law (meaning established already, meaning you will win automatically because by not responding, he's admitted guilt). After those 30 days, you send another notarized letter, giving him another 20 days to respond, and in this letter, make your offer of settling out of court for the items, and tell him you're only offering this to spare his and your time, and to give him a cheaper way to resolve the issue. In this letter, make sure to note the dollar amount you're asking for, if he doesn't take your offer of gear. This will be a bonus to the 30 day affidavit, as the court will see it as making a good faith effort to resolve the issue without going to court (this is really an issue that they look at seriously). The judge, having seen the facts undisputed (I doubt he will be able to dispute the facts in the correct format without a lawyer, and since you will be sending the letter to him personally, he probably won't even know he has to respond) will look at the facts (which he can't argue later, because he should have argued it in the response-affidavit) and then look at the other letter you sent giving him an out, and 20 more days, and will award you default judgement. He has no other option at that point. More than likely he won't even show up to court because he knows he's guilty, and you'll win a default judgement anyways, but I went ahead and explained the process so you can get started if you wanted to go that route. BTW, I know this works because I used it to sue my uncle for items he stole from me.

I couldn't prove it to the cops because there wasn't any proof, so they couldn't file criminal charges. I wrote the affidavit declaring the facts as I knew them, and he didn't respond to them, thereby making them TRUE IN A COURT OF LAW. He automatically lost by default, because he didn't respond to the affidavit, or the follow up letter. GL, and msg me if you need help.

Sorry for the novel.