- Jurisdiction
- California
Here's the whole story:
My brother worked at a dealership with a mechanic he considered an associate, not necessarily a friend. Due to that dealerships' relocation, they parted ways but my brother stored his phone number for future reference.
Now, I needed work on my car due to an overheating issue. After personal research, the symptoms suggested that it may need a coolant flush due to an "air pocket" in the cooling system. I decided to hand the problem over to a professional to eliminate a headache. I then reached out to the mechanic mentioned and he agreed to diagnose the issue. I dropped the car off at his house since he's about two minutes away from the dealership he works at and also because it was around 10:00PM.
He told me that it was the thermostat, I said "okay that's fine, let's do it" he then calls me the following day and tells me that the 'radiator cooling fan module' isn't working, causing the fans not to power on which in result overheats the car. He told me that he was going to find a quote for me and he'll let me know. I find the part he's talking about on eBay for $60.00 [NIB OEM Infiniti Part] straight from a dealership. I then send him a screenshot asking if this is the part you're referring to, he then states "similar but no". I then ask myself, "how can't this be the piece?" He then quotes me $450.00 for parts and labor [excluding the thermostat].
I call him and say:
Me: "Are you sure that's not the part? I can order it myself. I'm a bit tight on funds"
Him: "chuckles, no man that's not the piece, the piece I'm talking about is much more expensive, it's not that one"
I then told him to do it, since he assured me that it wasn't the part and maybe I'm just wrong I told myself.
I receive the car back in a few days and sure enough, the same exact part I asked him about was the piece he changed. That part is a plug-and-play job, a monkey can do it. I was really upset that he clearly lied and cheated me. After getting my car back, I drove it about 13 miles and it started overheating again, same EXACT symptoms. I let him know that the car is overheating to which he says that it's fixed. He claims he ran the car for an hour [on idle] and it was fine. He was clearly trying to brush it off and not deal with it. After a bit of back and forth, he agrees to take another look at it and will only fix the parts he repaired for free, nothing else.
My question is what can I legally do? He is a Mechanic at a Honda Dealership and he did the repairs in their premises without their consent. I've asked him twice for the receipts of the parts he bought and he keeps ignoring that as well.
Note: I'm located in Southern California.
Edit: The two parts he claimed to have replaced do look different but I'm not sure if he simply cleaned the parts since there's no receipts.
My brother worked at a dealership with a mechanic he considered an associate, not necessarily a friend. Due to that dealerships' relocation, they parted ways but my brother stored his phone number for future reference.
Now, I needed work on my car due to an overheating issue. After personal research, the symptoms suggested that it may need a coolant flush due to an "air pocket" in the cooling system. I decided to hand the problem over to a professional to eliminate a headache. I then reached out to the mechanic mentioned and he agreed to diagnose the issue. I dropped the car off at his house since he's about two minutes away from the dealership he works at and also because it was around 10:00PM.
He told me that it was the thermostat, I said "okay that's fine, let's do it" he then calls me the following day and tells me that the 'radiator cooling fan module' isn't working, causing the fans not to power on which in result overheats the car. He told me that he was going to find a quote for me and he'll let me know. I find the part he's talking about on eBay for $60.00 [NIB OEM Infiniti Part] straight from a dealership. I then send him a screenshot asking if this is the part you're referring to, he then states "similar but no". I then ask myself, "how can't this be the piece?" He then quotes me $450.00 for parts and labor [excluding the thermostat].
I call him and say:
Me: "Are you sure that's not the part? I can order it myself. I'm a bit tight on funds"
Him: "chuckles, no man that's not the piece, the piece I'm talking about is much more expensive, it's not that one"
I then told him to do it, since he assured me that it wasn't the part and maybe I'm just wrong I told myself.
I receive the car back in a few days and sure enough, the same exact part I asked him about was the piece he changed. That part is a plug-and-play job, a monkey can do it. I was really upset that he clearly lied and cheated me. After getting my car back, I drove it about 13 miles and it started overheating again, same EXACT symptoms. I let him know that the car is overheating to which he says that it's fixed. He claims he ran the car for an hour [on idle] and it was fine. He was clearly trying to brush it off and not deal with it. After a bit of back and forth, he agrees to take another look at it and will only fix the parts he repaired for free, nothing else.
My question is what can I legally do? He is a Mechanic at a Honda Dealership and he did the repairs in their premises without their consent. I've asked him twice for the receipts of the parts he bought and he keeps ignoring that as well.
Note: I'm located in Southern California.
Edit: The two parts he claimed to have replaced do look different but I'm not sure if he simply cleaned the parts since there's no receipts.
