Jim Wooten was hired to work on 2 vehicles owned by my son. One vehicle he had us tow to his house, where he said he would work on it. He failed to provide any written estimates.
My son paid him for parts for the first vehicle, and for the one that was towed to his house, he was paid $500 cash for an engine rebuild.
During the 4 1/2 months he had the vehicle, he would tell us he was working on it, but he was busy. At one point, he told us the engine had been rebuilt, was running great, but there was a problem with the transmission. This transmission had been rebuilt about 2 years prior. He told us the shop who replaced the tranny had used one that didn't fit, and that the guy had drilled holes in the flex plate.
After a while, he stopped answering his phone. Calls were not returned. Then when we would call his son, Zack Wooten, who also works the business, he'd either not answer, not return calls, or if he accidentally answered, he'd simply hang up.
We received a notice in late July, that the vehicle that was supposed to be at his house had been towed, and that it would be auctioned off on August 15. Both my son and I called, and again, no answer, hung up on, etc. The one call back my son received (they refused to call me) was to inform him that they were going to wait for the auction to "buy it back, cuz it's cheaper". But they didn't receive any notices and had no idea when it would be auctioned off. And, even if they did buy it back at auction, it shouldn't have to have happened, AND we would still be responsible for the balance of the impound fees.
When we paid to get the car out of impound, we also had to have a new key made, which required a new ignition switch. The car was full of crap, clothing, papers, ZigZags, beer bottles, trash, etc. There was a beer can in the engine compartment.
We had it towed to a reputable shop. They took one look at it and said that they hadn't even opened the engine. All they had done was removed the radiator and left it in the bed of the truck.
They took $1,300 from my son, and have done nothing on either car. They were responsible for one, and allowed it to be towed, costing us close to $1,500, not to mention the tickets the car had gotten that were simply tossed into the front of the truck.
They lied to us, they knew they weren't working on the car when they told us they were and had. They are guilty of conversion of the car, since they allowed someone else to take it without our consent. They defrauded us out of about $1,300, as well as costing us another $1,500.
They also use the name "OC Mobile Mechanic". That is a name that has been used by over 20 years for a reputable mobile mechanic in Orange County. They get people to hire them based on Nick's reputation, then rip them off.
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