Did I get screwed???

unclejackrock · Mar 6, 2004

92 GT needed refreshing. Tore it down and determined I could just re-ring, bearing, and put it back together. Called a local machine shop that is supposedly "The Ford" place and asked him how much to refresh the stock heads and open them up a bit. He says "We can get them to flow alright for about $300. I says "what all is that?" He says "Five angle valve job, guides, seals, resurfacing, and "opening them up a bit". I had to provide the valves and springs. Two weeks ago I took him my heads, as well as my block, oil pan, valve covers, pistons and rods for hot-tanking and cleaning. When I got there yester day to pick them up, the bill was $720 total!!!!! I paid by check and loaded my stuff...shell shocked.
Checked the stuff out closely today and I am disgusted. Had the heads inspected...ONE angle on the valves, two on the seat. Ring lands on the pistons still have crud in them. The only place the heads were ported was in the exhaust side, where they knocked off the EGR humps. He didn't even know what kind of springs were on it when I asked him....

Now you guys look at the receipt, and tell me what I should do. A $300 job ended up being $720, plus I don't believe he did what was agreed upon. So now, I have a basically stock set of heads that cost me over $550. Any suggestions????

Numbles · Mar 6, 2004

If I remember correctly, installing freeze plugs just takes a few whacks from a hammer to get them in, so why would he charge $13.50 for it.

Not to mention $100 for cleaning the freeze plugs, and the rest of the surfaces.

I dunno, I just thought id Bump this for ya. Id be a little skeptical too.

'95 Pilot · Mar 7, 2004

A call to the Better Business Bureau might be in order. They can let you know if there have been other complaints lodged against this company. You can also lodge one. I would. It seems that he over charged you and did not do what you agreed on...

jacob9 · Mar 7, 2004

the second that i looked at the bill and i noticed that he referred to the EGR humps as: "EXAUST KNOTS" i would have wrote a check and put a stop-payment on it. or i would have used a credit card and disputed the charges.

"EXAUST KNOT" !!!! what kind of inbred-Jed was working on your heads man?

unclejackrock · Mar 7, 2004

What I am so disgusted about is the fact that he quoted me $300 to rebuild my heads. I went that route because I am on an extremely limited budget. With all the cleaning on my other parts I expected the bill to be at the very most $450. If I had known it would be that high, I would have bought some 40's, or I could have even got some Thumpers for that price. Plus, the "cleaning" was piss poor. Like said earlier, the pistons were terrible. Crud all in the ring lands. Hell, the oil pan still had crud in the bottom of it.....and a $100 cleaning charge, when now I am still going to have to clean everything again!!! Not to mention the fact I will be riding around with a $550 set of STOCK HEADS!!!!!

unclejackrock · Mar 7, 2004

If I did take him the heads and stop the check, what could I run into legally???

mo_dingo · Mar 7, 2004

Well, a mechanic can't put a lien on a set of heads! So tell them that you want them to suck a "banana". They ROYALLY screwed you over. The parts alone almost exceeded the quote you received. Tell them that they BS'ed you and you will only pay what they quoted you.

You shouldn't have paid the bill. Put a stop payment on the check.

Since you paid, they have most of your information. They can report you to a credit agency for collection now. You need to resolve it with them. If you don't, your credit will suffer. Either way, don't pay anything less than the quoted amount.

Call the BBB, see if they are a current member. If they want to keep their BBB license, then they need to resolve this with you. If they aren't a member, then it won't matter.
Scott

Car Nut · Mar 7, 2004

You got screwed. If they didn't even know what springs to use, then this is NOT the "Ford" place.

I'd be cautious of letting them do any more work. There's a slim chance that the actual mechanic that did the job screwed you and not the guy giving the quote. However, that is usually not the case.

Good luck.

mytight95 · Mar 7, 2004

well to give you an idea i had the exhasut bumps removed five angle valve job and casting flash is removed, installed 550 lift springs, and new locks retainers, and everything for around 260$. So that doesn't seem too bad, on the heads anyway, but the block work etc. seems very overpriced to me.

I would at least call the machine shop and tell them upon inspection of the heads and everything else you don't feel you got your moneys worth of work. If they don't at least offer to fix everything up to the agreed upon work. Then i would do the BBB thing. or possibly a small claims court case. Most people don't know that a verbal agreement is binding as well.

DJHA90 · Mar 7, 2004

Next time get a written estimate... Right now you dont have much to go on unless you go back to the shop, talk to then owner/manager and tell them you were quoted $300 dollars and non authorized work was done. If they wont deal, let them know you belong to several boards and will cause them more lost business than the cost of refunding you what they overcharged. Unfortunately, you paid an itemized bill. The only legal avenue you might have is if the things they did were not of a quality one would expect from a shop aplying due diligence to their work

Did I get screwed???

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