So here is the situation,I took my 351 2v head in to a machine shop because I had two bad seats and needed new ones put in the guy told me 25 for each seat and 10 for each new valve, so 60 bucks.I told him to go ahead and do that and that I was on a budget the cheaper the better.So he calls me up and tells me its done and I could come and get it and the total is 310 bucks! he never asked me or call for my authorization to rebuild the hole head because thats pretty much what he did.So what should I do? I know there is guys on here with a lot of knowledge in this area any help would be great. Do i have any legal right to demand it back for my quote I was given the first time?

 

If he verbally said $60 then that's what you should demand it for. Ask for that guy or the manager and tell them the story.

I wouldn't pull legal stuff into this as there was nothing in writing(I'm assuming).

 

your right it was all verbal and he is the owner and manager. I even talked with him and he remembers our conversation but still is not backing down

 

You are out of luck if there was no written estimate. the he-said she-said game doesn't fly in court and they will side with the shop because they did in fact do the work and they set their prices, not you.

thats why i will not let my mechanic do a single thing until he hand writes me an estimate of parts prices and estimated labor time.

just last week i had headers installed. my mechanic said he thought it would take about 3 hours to install. so i came back and he had charged me for 4 hours...but i was ok with it because he explained that he had to relocate the power steering to make room for the headers which took another hour.

bottom line is mechanics aren't stupid, they know how much something will cost roughly before they do it. the guy knew what he was doing, trust me

all you can do is pay your bill, and tell the guy it will be the last time he will be seeing you, and that you will be telling all your friends to take their business somewhere else. mechanics get their reputation primarily by word of mouth. that will hit home with him

 

Well, I guess some of us have to learn the hard way! Next time for sure everything is going to be in writing.You can count on me giving hima piece of my mind after I pickup my head.The good news is I got him to come down to $167, well .....if you want to call it good news.

 

I'm no lawyer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a few times. If he takes credit cards you could charge it and try to do a dispute through the credit card company. Once your bill comes in contact the credit card company and explain the guy was holding your parts hostage and you had no choice but to pay his inflated price. This may or may not work.

 

It sucks, whatever you do you need to consider whether taking (any kind of action) action against the shop is worth burning this bridge.... I am not saying it is worth it or not, just consider it..

In my experience machine shop operators are kind of "independent", and frankly at this point you are probably pretty much going to pay the bill or donate the head to the shop.

It sucks, I feel for you as I can tell you are on a tight budget....

Who knows... maybe if you explain your dire financial issue, (in a nice way) the guy might allow you to make payments on the head... ???