John H

Three weeks ago I called a shop whose owner and some employees I'd met at a recent PCA DE. They were there with several cars (Porsche) they prepared and hauled to the track for customers. Anyway, I knew a client of theirs from my region who was happy with their advice and work. I thought I would give them a try.
Anyway, three weeks ago I called to arrange an appointment for a corner balance, ride height and alignment as I had recently installed the coilovers from Gert. I also need spacers with studs installed on the rear of my C4 with new tires at each corner to be mounted and balanced. I explained I was over 220 miles away round trip and I wanted to bring the car in and wait for it. I was very, very clear I needed to know whether they could do that work in one day. (I could trailer it if necessary). They assured me it would be.
I called the Thursday before the Monday appointment to confirm everything and to go over the work order again.
I show up with the car on Monday no problem. They begin the process of installing the spacers, no problem. By 1:00 p.m., my tires from Tire Rack had not shown up. I am told they will not be able to get the car done on Monday. I understand it was my fault for not insuring the tires would arrive prior to Monday. (although I was told FEDEX delivered before 11:00 by the shop. No problem. I have to get home and to work the next day so I rent a car ($60.00/day with taxes etc)to drive home assured the car would be finished Tuesday morning. The tires arrived at 3:00 Monday.

Tuesday, I start on my way and after about 50 miles think to myself, I should call first. I called and was informed the shop that did their alignments did not have a tool necessary for the job. This is the first I knew they were farming out the work. After a short discussion, I am told they have a second shop they use and they would send it there but it would not be ready until Wednesday. At this point I figure, what am I going to do. If I drive the car home with the car out of alignment, I might as well kiss my new tires goodbye. (I had driven the car there on tires I knew I was ditching). I tell them ok.
Wednesday, I call the shop before I leave the office. I am told they could not get the car in so it would not be done. He suggested another shop (not by name) and I agreed if he would promise to get the car to this place and promise the car would be ready by 1:00 Thursday. I told him, "do not bother taking it anywhere if they will not guarantee to finish by then as I have an important meeting in another city about 120 miles away at 4:00 Thursday I cannot change or miss". Understood.
Thursday morning I call to find out whether to trailer the rental car so I could turn it in and trailer my car to the meeting and then on home. I was assured the car would be completed. (Although, he told me the shop called to say the numbers I gave them did not make any sense "What does 4 degrees 25 minutes mean?"). I took the alignment specs off of page 206 of the Porsche 911 Performance Handbook. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have told him to call and tell them to stop and I would be there with my trailer.

I drive the rental car, turn it in ($180.00) and have them drop me at the shop. It is 12:00. He calls the other shop to find out they are no where near finished and 1:00 was out the window. Now I am 110 miles from home 120 miles from my meeting which is 120 miles from my home (think of it as a big triangle) and no car. I call enterprise and have them pick me up, again.


Friday, I call the shop and find out they now have my car. (they had taken it to a local Porsche DEALER which I had been to before calling this shop told me they don't like to touch cars with aftermarket suspension upgrades and really didn't seem to understand what setting ride height and corner balancing meant. I left). In any event, they dealer could not get the specs I wanted so they used their own. The car was "too low" was the second hand statement I was given. I then find out the dealer supposedly set the ride height and corner balanced the car. I thought the race shop was doing that and simply farming out the alignment until this point. I am stunned. Why did I even bother calling this hop. What were they planning on doing to me on the bill, marking up others work? The final readings have not been provided to me to date.

Anyway, they have my car and it is ready for me to pick up. I ask how much and he "did have the paper work completed but hinted the alignment was $400.00.

I ask if they are open on Saturday. I am told they have regualar hours on Saturday. I told them I would be there by noon.


Saturday. I get up and drive the 110 miles or so to the Enterprise office to drop off the rental.($120). Enterprise takes me to the shop. CLOSED. Note in the window reads "We will reopen on Monday at 8:00 am. Sorry for any inconvenience".
I can't get back to this shop until next Saturday. I cant afford a rental for another week. I call and get a family member to drive 110 miles to pick me up and bring me home.
Please note the shop knew I was coming, had my cell phone number and never even bother to call. In fact, throughout this whole debacle, they have never called me even when they knew I was on my way Tuesday or when they realized all of the problems with their subcontractors.

What should I do? I did call and left a very calm detailed message on the shop's machine even though I was furious.

I think Monday was my fault and I have no problem eating the rental and paying for the tire mounting and spacer installation. But the rest I don't know. I am upset that I was not informed up front they did not do the work I requested. I certainly feel that four days of rental and 2 and 1/2 trips to the shop were not my fault and were obviously not necessary. Furthermore, they did an alignment and did not follow my directions. I have not seen the car so I don't know where the ride height is and I seriously doubt anyone corner-balanced my car.

I still have no idea what they are planning to extort from me to let my car go. I did not mention names because I think they may lurk here and I don't want to name them for fear of retribution come Monday.

Any ideas would be helpful. My plan right now is to smile, pay whatever I can get them to accept to let my car go, endorsing the check with "under protest" on the memo line and filing suit for my damages. Am I out of line?

Sorry for the length but I wanted to be as detailed as possible. <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" /> <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" />

Chris Prack

John, my sympathies. It sounds like things did not turn out as planned, for you or them. I have an idea of who you went to (I think), either way you are in a tough spot. Obviously they should be doing everything possible (reads kiss your ***) to try and make things better in any way.

There really is no excuse for allowing you to drive such a long distance without attempting to notify you of the problems with completing your car. It really shouldn't be this big of a deal to corner balance and align a C4. I can't imagine what tool they would not have had. It should take nothing more than basic hand tools to align your car.

If they were going to take your car to another shop for an alignment, you should have been made aware of this BEFORE it went to that shop. I sometimes use another shop for alignments on street cars. My customer knows that it is going there before it is sent. We do ALL race alignments in house as we will never trust someone else with such a task. Our reputation depends on promised results. Period.

I think in the least you should not have to pay them for the work preformed if they cannot show you that it was done as requested. You probably won't get the rental money back either way. I would seriously consider using a credit card such as Am Ex and dispute the charges pending verification of the work preformed. If the work turns out to be done correctly then settle on some form of payment that they can agree to. Of course only go though with this if they are not willing to be reasonable to start with. If they have any kind of reputation, I would thing that they would try to resolve this as quickly as possible.

Good luck.

John H

Monday has come and gone with no response to my voice mail. I would certainly have expected someone there to contact me with an excuse, if there was one. I am willing to wait to see how long it takes. Surely they will notice my car is sitting in their shop before too long.