I went to them with a car that I had almost finished. I gave them a list of things that I wanted them to do and a check for 3500.00. They had a standard contract they said they needed me to sign. He read it aloud to me then told me where to initial and sign while downplaying its importance. It's just a technicality I was told for their records so I signed it. What I was told was that I would get a bill each week and that amount would be deducted from the 3500.00 I gave them. The first week went by, I got their bill of what appears to be 318.00 which would have been reasonable if that is what it was. But the total which is not even stated on the first page or any other page was 2,318.00. When I finally realized what they were trying to do it was the 2nd week my car was there and I got my second bill of 2,974.37. And that is when I questioned them on it.
The statements are difficult to understand and we discussed what it was going to cost and 3500.00 was what I was wanting to spend and willing to go up to 5000.00. Which is the main reason I didn't realize sooner what they were doing. The other reason was because of the amount was so unrealisitic. They could not explain to me exactly what I was being charged for without contradicting themselves. They charged me for prep for paint and when asked what that included I was told sanding, priming, masking, blocking.
Then when asked why it took so many hours to spray the car (They charge 57.45 an hour) they told me that was because they had to mask the car. But wait you just told me that fell under prep for paint! They had 2 or 3 people there and I would ask a question and they would all answer at the same time and each would say something different and they finally told me they can't answer my question right now because they didn't have the time.
They charged me for things that they obviously did not do. They forgot to paint my spoiler then said it would cost extra to paint. They got overspray on all my chrome. My moldings were supposed to be black they didn't even bother to mask them they just painted them purple along with the car then tried to tell me that is how it is done!
They only completed in full 3 things on the list and partially completed 2 things. They painted the car before it should have been painted. Just about everything on that list besides colorsanding and polishing should have been done first. They didn't do the doorjams. They charged me to align everything but nothing is aligned or even tight for that matter. Then they said I took the car before they could complete it but failed to mention that in order to complete the car I would have to to keep on paying them more money.
I gave them a generous amount for what I wanted them to do. They said it shouldn't even be that much when they first looked at the car. Now they are bringing in this contract which I was told not to worry about trying to make it look like I agreed to its contents and that is causing me and everyone else to address that issue which takes the attention away from the fraudulant charges that I had to pay them. And I had to pay them another 1500.00 on top of the 3500.00 or they wouldn't give me my car back. If I would have known that businesses are capable of doing this to people I would have finished my car myself in my driveway.
I've been to school for autobody and I've done this before but I figured I would be better off paying someone to do it so it could be done in a spray booth and I wouldn't have to deal with the stress of trying to work in an inadequate environment. 5000.00 is gone and my car isn't finished and worse I can't work on it in case I need it to proove my case. I feel like I've aged 5 years since they did this to me. I hope that my report wiil stop this from happening to someone else.
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