In september of our Ford Thunderbird-a 90's model-was still running okay but now and then it would stall out at stop lights/anywhere we had it in drive with the brakes on. My mother who is fifty and has lung/throat cancer emphysema fibromyalgia sever panic syndrome was very worrie about this car dying because it was my only way of getting to work. She went to a local charity-Father Freds and they agreed to pay for services at the cheapest place in town. After calling around it was determined that Hamlets auto was the cheapest around but neither Mom or Father Freds had any dealings with them. The car was taken in and left there and within a half hour the mechanic-a Dishonest Scumbag by the name of Mike told us the problem was a "Mass Airflow Sensor" and that the part plus installation labor would cost us $270. So he was told to go ahead. Later that day he still hadn't called to tell us our car was done and so my mother and I stopped in. Our car was in the garage and Mike was in it with the gas pedal to the floor and black smoke billowing out of the engine compartment. My mom started bawling right then because this idiot was messing up her only ride - a ride that was given to her for free by a caring family member and so it also had some sentimental value. Mike came out of the car and said, "Just another adjustment and it's ready" and went under the hood for a minute or two and then shut it up and we gave him the charity check. Let me digress for a moment and make it clear that my mothers state as well as the origin of his payment was made very clear to him-she is deathly ill and charity is paying for this... Apparently, as you'll soon see, that meant that he had a blank check and a sucker to take. We barely got home with the car. Apparently what happened was, as we found out via another mechanic—after he installed the Mass Airflow Sensor-He figured out that this wasn't the problem but was unwilling to return the money, admit he made a mistake, and remove the part! Instead, he adjusted the idle so high that the engine was stuck at 3000 rpm and took us 50 miles an hour all the way home almost causing several accidents and finally pulling us up our hill at home which is one mile of steep hill at 45 mph with no foot on the gas!!! My mom had to ride the brakes the whole way home! The whole time we were driving it it was smoking-thick black smoke was pouring out of the hood and by this time my mom was hysterical. We took it back to him and asked him what the hell he did and why and he made up some excuses and we told him we would leave the car there but that we expected it fixed right. He called us back the next day and said it was fixxed that it wasn't his fault-that the idle control motor had burned out (Gee, you think maybe turning it up that high may have killed it?) and that he put a new one in but it would cost us an additional $220. We picked our car up and told him we didn't have the money-he thought the charity would just pay for more but we explained they wouldn't and so he told us we owed him the next $220! Two days later the engine died completely-locked up on us in traffic in a thunderstorm and nearly got us both killed—prior to him working on it we were fine and the engine stalled once in a while which I foound out later was because of defective spark plugs. I lost my car and then because I was late to work that morning I got fired! Mike cost my sick Mother her only car, nearly $300 of a charity's money, and her son's job... That is one costly mechanic-do not use him!
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