Truck repair from hell

[biglurr54]

I have a 1990 suburban which im am trying to get through college with. ive done all my own mechanics on the car and it has never left me on the side of the road in the 6 years i have driven it. One day the rear end went on it while i was at school. I called a local garage and got a quote of about $500 to fix it. i told them to go ahead and fix it. this is was a reasonable price to fix a rear end. all they were doing was swapping it out with a used rear end from a junk yard. once it was all fixed i went to pick it up and they said the bill was $750. i put up a fight and got them to reduce it to $690. this is alot of money of a college student to be paying and it is alot of money to fix a rear end in this vehicle but i was at the mercy of the garage. i got the truck back and two weeks later (about 300miles on the new rear end) it broke again. this time i was at home. its about 150 miles away from the garage. i went back the next day after it broke down to tell them that it had failed. they said that they would fix it if i got it to them. i couldn't find anyway to bring it to them because it was so far away. this all took place during thanksgiving. after Christmas break i came back up to the area and went back to the garage and told them i had no way of getting it to them and was willing to pay them to tow it back and fix it. they said they would call me back and let me know. 2 weeks went by and i returned to the garage to find out why i didn't get a phone call. the owner wasn't in at the time so i left my name number description of what happened directions to the location of the truck and direction from the truck to the garage. i was promised a phone call. again no return phone call. this went on about 3 more times where i drove to the garage and was told i just missed the owner and that they would have him call me as soon as they saw him. finally today March 4th i called and they said the owner was not in again and i missed him.

the company is avoiding me. do i have a case for small claims court? i need to get my truck back and running and i feel like i was taken advantage of because i was a stranded college student and then they did a faulty job on the repair.

this all happened in mass. i dont know what the auto repair laws are in that state but im guessing that they have to have some sort of warranty policy. any advice can help im stuck

 

[kevinaz06]

I worked in a major collision repair facility for a long time, so I have delt with this exact situation many times.
I am not sure what your local laws are, but I can give you some advice.
The warranty on the rear end (part) would not be the responsability of the shop, but of the seller of the part. Most of the used parts that I have purchased carried a 90 day warranty. Some even put a mileage limit on the warranty as well.
Ask the shop to provide you with a copy of the receipt from who they bought it from. check into their warranty, tell them your situation and they might replace the part and/or pay for all/some of the labor.
As far as the shop goes, they might be avoiding you for a couple of reasons. 1. The shop doesnt care 2. The shop does not want to eat the labor for the second unit and hassel with the warrant process 3. They do not provide a warranty and neither does the part supplier.
I would think that before you try to take them to court that you should request the warranty info on the shops labor and the parts supplier. Both should be in writting.
They said they would take care of it if you got it back to them, why havent you paid for a tow to their shop?
Fill me in on the warranty stuff if you know/have it.