[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Here's the story:

• Rear knuckle had to be removed to fix something on my car
• Axle had to be removed
• Received car, worked on it a few days later. CV grease is flung everywhere in the location where the knuckle was removed. I found a small tear in the boot and assume this is it.
• Bring it to shop, shop says "The boot is fine. The CV housing is chewed up and cracked. We don't know how that can happen, but we can replace the whole axle for you for (cost here)"
• Had another indy closer to work replace the axle instead since it was more convenient
• Indy says "It looks like someone banged on it with a hammer to get it back into the knuckle and cracked it."

I believe this shop damaged my axle when they reinstalled it. I don't know how to go about proving that they caused it. Because the cost of this repair is near $500, it is worth trying to get compensated for the problem.

How would you go about handling this situation?

[TemjinX2]

This is already assuming you spoke to the owner of the shop already.

if shop won't compensate you, cheapest way would be taking them to small claims court. You can pay a lawyer to write a legal letter saying they need to pay $500 for the repair or they will be taken to court.

ROI saids, its cheaper to pay the $500 then to pay a lawyer to defend them in small claims but some people are stubborn.

[desertman123]

Originally Posted by TemjinX2

This is already assuming you spoke to the owner of the shop already.

if shop won't compensate you, cheapest way would be taking them to small claims court. You can pay a lawyer to write a legal letter saying they need to pay $500 for the repair or they will be taken to court.

ROI saids, its cheaper to pay the $500 then to pay a lawyer to defend them in small claims but some people are stubborn.

Can't speak for all jurisdictions but I thought small claims doesn't allow/require lawyers?

[John 070]

I went through something similar with a BMW dealership. The problem is, from a shop perspective, the MO seems to be to deny, thinking you have no way to prove anything.

imho the original shop should have offered to fix it, but now that it was fixed somewhere else, it's tough. Meaning, say the job is legit $500, if the original shop had done it, it may have cost them $125. But now they are being asked to shell out $500.

Maybe ask for $500, they say no. Then say $250, or you'll be pursing the matter (you don't have to say how but BBB would be a start and also social media reviews).

As often as people are filming everything in sight and there are body cams today, it's amazing how confident some types of work, like car repair, are still confident in cheating. They cheated--unless you think there's a chance the damage had already started or was already there. But what the 2nd shop said is key.

In my case I repaired my car myself, then dropped the dealership's BBB rating from A+ to C-. The service director called and denied. So I said that's fine, you know your BBB rating dropped to C-. He said yes, this wasn't handled correctly.

Maybe you can use the line of BS he gave me, on the first shop?

"Ok, what happened is not important now, what's important, is how we recover."

You say "you recover," to the first shop. my .02

[TemjinX2]

Originally Posted by desertman123

Can't speak for all jurisdictions but I thought small claims doesn't allow/require lawyers?

it doesnt. i'm saying have the lawyer write the letter to scare the shop owner into paying. Legal letter from a lawyer is usually around $100. if not, he can go to small claims.

The legal letter was to save time versus filing the paper work and taking time off work to go to small claims.