Poor service from local mechanic

<p>I recently had to get one of my vehicles to a mechanic to redo the engine. My vehicle was taken to Bruce Auto Electrix at the end of March 2016.</p> <p>I received a quotation from Bruce Auto Electix and accepted it.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was very clear from the get go that I do not have that kind of money lying around, and asked for cash discount. It was not approved, and I accepted it that way.</p> <p>I told them though that I will pay them as I get the money in and they agreed to this. It was agreed that I would pay the money as I get it and they would buy the parts as they get the money from me.</p> <p>(I have all our agreements on black and white). Every time I transferred money I sent the owner, Bruce, a message and he said that they would buy more spares and continue with the work.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 20th of June I found out that my vehicle was not in his possession any more. He had moved it to his brothers house without my permission, knowledge or approval.</p> <p>I felt very uneasy with this and said that I wouldn’t pay any money until all the repairs were done. Bruce responded with this: “You know what if you don't trust me you can come collect your car bear in mind we will give you R5000,00 back in cash while the rest go for engineering, parts purchased and storage fees. I will not be treated like a backyard mechanic”</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>This was very unprofessional. I insisted on the address so that I could go out and see what has been done to my vehicle (if anything). He always had many excused as to why he can’t provide me with the address and why his brother was never available to meet with me.</p> <p> </p> <p>I was informed that his brother was carrying out the work on my vehicle. Again without my permission, knowledge or approval. Also I was informed that no work has commenced, nor has any parts been purchased, as they were waiting for the full deposit, (which was almost 90% of the quotation) before they start with any repair work. This contradicting our previous conversations which lead me to understand that some repair work has already been attended to as I‘ve already paid roughly R 11 000. Now they are telling me that nothing has been done. After a lot of phone calls and arguments I agreed to pay the remainder of the parts deposit that was still due to them so that I could get this vehicle back as I needed it quite urgently.</p> <p> </p> <p>I paid the rest of the money and they carried out all the work. But I was promised this week, and then I had to wait another week. And then I was promised this week and I had to wait another week. A two week project ended up taking a month and a half after the full parts deposit was paid.</p> <p> </p> <p>After the engine was overhauled, there was still an idling fault and additional work had to be carried out – throttle body had to be sent out for testing</p> <p>And according to the mechanic, serviced.</p> <p> </p> <p>So on the day that I collected the vehicle, obviously Bruce was out of the office so someone else took me through the invoice and handed over the keys.</p> <p> </p> <p>As I left their workshop I could feel that my brakes were hard and I literally had to stand on it to get the vehicle to a standstill. I brought this under Bruce’s attention where he just said that a note was made on the invoice “Brakes are hard, brake boost faulty”. My brakes were absolutely fine when I handed the vehicle over to Bruce. I sent him a message to which he didn’t even reply. I checked the oil on my vehicle and it had a quarter on the dipstick.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bruce was not prepared to take any responsibility for the faulty brakes, as he said it had nothing to do with the work he carried out. </p> <p> </p> <p>I had to take my vehicle to another mechanic nearby to get the brakes sorted out and upon inspection he found that the two pipes that were supposed to be connected to the throttle body were not connected thus not keeping the throttle body cool. Which could cause some serious damage to the engine and misfire. And on the brake booster, one of the pipes that was supposed to be connected to the brake booster to create vacuum was connected to the water pipe. This is why the brakes were faulty and why there was an idling problem. That goes to show that this was poor workmanship from Bruce’s side and he was actually responsible for these faults still on the vehicle. If he doesn't want to be treated like a backyard mechanic then he shouldn't operate like one.</p> <p> </p> <p>Again I brought this under Bruce’s attention and his response was to take it up with Carworld, the “brother” that was doing the work on his behalf... Did I recommend Carworld? I don’t even know this Carworld. Without my consent my vehicle was moved, and the work was given to Carworld. And now it’s like Bruce won’t take any responsibility. He had the worst “don’t care” attitude and I am very disappointed in the way he does business.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have a report from this second mechanic that had to rectify this “disaster waiting to happen” and I had to pay this second mechanic to sort out Bruce’s *******. I would recommend his services to no one ever! Not even if he was recommended by the Queen of England.</p>