| share a little something that many of you might not know about. I can only speak for Florida law, as that is where I live, but it might hold true in others states also. Whenever you must break down and let some other individual work on your car, be it for wiper blades, tranny rebuild or buffing your muffler tips back to shinny and new. Always, always, always ask for a written estimate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You probably have all seen and read some small print on a work order that reads something like the following: I request a written estimate.
I request a written estimate if the repair is going to exceed ___ amount.
I do not request a written estimate. In Florida, if you check that you do not request a written estimate, you are basically stating the following: I customer, do swear to take it up the ass from said service facility for whatever work they feel my car might need. I will be happy to pay 20 times the original repair cost as I was too fucking stupid to check the little box. I did not check the box as I was under the impression that my extended warranty (zero deductible by the way) would be covering it. I wrote about this event last year when it happened, and basically to recap it goes like this. My truck had an extended after-market warranty. I took it to garage as the rear axle seal was leaking. Discovered this when I was rotating tires. I ask owner if he accepted the warranty and he said yes. I told him he must call them first to get authorization to use the warranty and he did. They told him $175 Ford parts and labor. I came back to pick up the truck and the total was $500. $323 of it had to come out of my pocket. He did work that the warranty company felt was unnecessary for this type of repair and he wanted the cash from me. I paid and then disputed it with my CC company and won. He is suing me now for the $323 plus his lawyers $400 fee and court cost to the sum of $800 beans!! All this cause I did not check a little box on the form. NO! All this cause he was a dishonest business man. Consumer affairs told me I am at the mercy of the court as he has not REALLY broken any laws. I did not ask for an estimate and I cannot prove that I did not authorize him to do the other work. RegalZ will be defending me and I'll let you know the outcome. Just remember that someone some place is looking to screw you and you must cover your ass!! One last statement and I'll shut up. I was at the pretrial waste-of-time a few weeks back and there was an 80 year old couple that this same guy bent over; but listen to this. They requested a tune-up and were told to come back in a few hours. Their bill was $2400!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He changed their struts, tires, brakes, hoses, belts, etc... w/o their consent. This poor old couple had to cash-advance a credit card to put up bond to have the car released until trial. When I spoke to these people I became so enraged inside that I wanted to take a ride to his shop and ring his neck. What are the chances of me showing up to a pretrial to find another person getting screwed by the same guy? I sure hope the court system doesn't let me down and that RegalZ has a few tricks up his sleeve.
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