Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

[Mighty Thor]

This mechanic guy who worked on my bro's nissan altima failed to fix the problem. It started off as ignition, engine management and then it turned into maf and then something else.

The mechanic has had his car since March of this year. He's a busy guy and he has only 1 mechanic helping him out. I told him to just take his car back. He already spent close to 900$ (long story).

So how much money can he get back because this mechanic can't complete his job?

[unvmyrs]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

Realistically, maybe just the money he paid towards labor. I doubt he'll get money back for parts. Even.then he'd probably have to take the mecanic.to small claims court to avoid mechanic leins.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

doubt he can get anything back...if the mechanic has been working on the car at all, he's still spent labour on the car...he could pull it out anytime though, but I doubt he can get anything back...even if the problem isn't fixed.

Think of it like this...if you go in for an issue, and the mechanic spends 6 hours trying to fix it...then you say the hell with is....you still need to pay him 6 hours of his time. These guys aren't miracle workers, they don't always know how to fix the problem...especially some of the weirder problems...

[OneEightSeven]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

I'm with LETZRIDE on this. Unless the mechanic defrauded you I wouldn't expect to get anything back. By defraud I mean rip you off in some way, ie. not really do the work or knowingly claiming good parts are broken to over charge you. If he's been replacing bad or apparently bad parts and spending time on it but still hasn't fixed the car it's not really fraud. He has been putting in work, just hasn't fixed whatever the other problems with the car are. Maybe he's just not the best mechanic, not really familiar with that car, or maybe it's a very very niche issue that dealer may be better for solving.

This is pretty common and why a good mechanic is worth his weight in gold. I'm lucky enough to have a great mechanic right now, he can diagnose issues very quickly and accurately. He also charges VERY fair rates. I bring all my friends to his shop.

Before my current mechanic I had a very useless guy. He knew how to use a wrench and would do dirty work cheap. However he couldn't diagnose a problem at ALL. Like not even very basic stuff like brakes.... His diagnostic ability is a total joke. I would just go there, tell him what needs doing and pay him to do the dirty work while I watch.

[StrtRacer98]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

Small claims court

[97rs4life]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

some issues can be a real headache for mechanics. One thing can cause a chain reaction of other issues that go bad, but the small thing that started it might not be noticeable until you start fixing the other items and chase it back to the beginning. Especially in the new cars with all the electronics, we see some crazy stuff here in the shop that cause other issues that seem unrelated. lol.

How about doing a brake job on some of the new VW cars....you can't do it in your driveway anymore, you need a scanner to reset the calipers, lol. yea stupid!

[LETZRIDE]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

some issues can be a real headache for mechanics. One thing can cause a chain reaction of other issues that go bad, but the small thing that started it might not be noticeable until you start fixing the other items and chase it back to the beginning. Especially in the new cars with all the electronics, we see some crazy stuff here in the shop that cause other issues that seem unrelated. lol.

How about doing a brake job on some of the new VW cars....you can't do it in your driveway anymore, you need a scanner to reset the calipers, lol. yea stupid!

or how about changing a brake light in a beetle...have to take the whole bumper off!!

[Bandit127]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

With the complexity of vehicles today, and how much each system relies on every other system to be at 100%, its not easy diagnosing a problem anymore that isn't specifically physical.

Even with the wealth of information out there, you still come across things that just don't make sense at all. But taking a mechanic to small claims court is BS if its even remotely plausible that he has been honestly working to fix the issue. Think about it this way; a shop (atleast the one I work at) uses a standardized work book time system. Say brakes on F-150 take 1 hr, so, customer pays shop 1 hr labor and materials. If it takes mechanic 1.5 hrs, then the shop loses .5 hr of possible labor. In a $50/hr shop, that is, if there's a lineup, a possible $25 loss.

Unless this guy is keeping track of each hour, he's not really making any money. Shops like it when you can spend 1 hr diagnosing, and 4 hrs fixing and being done. None of the 'round and round and round stuff, because it's not fun spending other peoples money and its not fun tearing into stuff you didn't need to. It's just that much more liability imo.

[Mighty Thor]

Re: Can one get their money back from a mechanic?

This is good stuff. I'm having my bro read this. I'm going to be going with him on Monday to talk to this mechanic. I know a little bit more about cars than him. Hopefully this guy is not one of those jackals who take advantage of people.