We recently brought my 1998 Honda Civic to Motion Mania which is an auto repair shop to have an intermediate pipe (which is part of the exhaust system) replaced. We were quoted $275 from Midas mufflers and then quoted $212 from Joe who is the proprietor of Motion Mania so naturally we went with the cheaper price.
Joe called me the next day to tell me the car had additional problems. He said the Muffler and tailpipe also needed to be replaced and said that two speed sensors (which apparently control the transmission) were also bad and required replacement. He said the total cost of the job would now be $698.
I told him to go ahead and do the work that was needed and arrived at the shop a few hours later to pick up the car. I paid him cash and received a receipt and then drove off. Six blocks away from the shop the transmission would not shift and the car would not drive. After playing with the shifter and shutting the car off a few times I finally got it to run in only 2nd gear back to the shop. Joe's mechanic now said the transmission was blown and had to be replaced. Joe said he would deduct whatever money I already paid him for transmission work from the cost of the new transmission. He said the total price would be an additional $1100. Stupidly, I agreed.
He called me two days later and said the HX model Honda Civic required a special transmission and would now cost $1400. I told him fine but I would have to pay him by credit card. He said if paying with credit he would have to charge $1675. I expressed my displeasure of this and he explained he is charged 5% by the C.C. Company and would now have to charge tax. I felt stuck and had no choice but to agree verbally.
He did not call me the entire week so I finally called him on Saturday to ask if the car was done and come pick it up. He said the car was done but was unable to give it to me that day because he was closed and he would need 2 hours to take the car out of storage because it was under the lift and he had to fire up his compressors and move 3 cars to get at it??? I told him I wanted the car now or take the transmission out and I would tow it to another shop. His response to that was: "Well I guess the f*g car is mine now" and hung up the phone. I drove down to the shop to confront him and found my car sitting wide open in the garage with nothing blocking its path. Apparently the work was never done. He is now refusing to release my car and is refusing to accept my credit card and is now charging me $2000 for additional storage fees.
The local police said their hands are tied and I would need to go to court to get my car back. I have never been ripped off this badly in my entire life and hope justice will be served to this absolute and complete rip-off artist
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