Scammed!
I am a 69 year old, retired Viet Nam Vet, living on Social Security.
I own a 1937 Buick which I bought about eight years ago, with the intention of driving this car for the rest of my life.
I brought this car to Dragone Classic Motorcars, Inc.in Bridgeport, four and a half years ago to have some minor mechanical work, and some custom bodywork done. They finished the mechanical work, slowly, to be sure, but completed it. When they started the body work, they partially disassembled the car, so it was not movable, then left it unfinished, never covered over fresh bodywork or welds with paint, so that the car is rusting, and continually promised me the car would be done "In just three or four weeks" if I just paid them a little more money.
Having recently moved to CT, I was not aware of the legal requirement for them to supply me with a written estimate, which I had to sign in agreement, before they could proceed. No written estimate was ever presented to me, and of course was not ever signed, authorizing the work.
They continuously charged more and more money, and failed to complete much of the work on the car, until I had paid them over $69,000.00 for work which is still, after four and a half years, NOT complete! AND they are demanding another $31,000.00 bef0re they will even START to complete the work they have already been paid for!
I believe that their intent, from the beginning, was to continuously increase the price until I could not afford to pay any more for the car, and then sell the car at auction for the amount they claimed I owed them, keeping my car, and my money, and charging me with the difference between what they auctioned my car off for, and what they CLAIMED was still due on the car.
I have since learned that they have a reputation for doing exactly this in the past, and have gotten away with it because they usually deal with people who are wealthy enough to pay their inflated bills, or else they take the car and auction it off, leaving the owner with a 'BILL' to pay for the remainder of their charges above and beyond what they get for the car at auction.
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