scam possibly?

Question

i just took my car to a mechanic to have him look at my car, he told me he would diagnose it for $60 and to come back tommorow and he would let me know. i went back to pick it up and the guy told me that "i didnt want to know what was wrong with the vehicle" when i told him i did i didnt care what the problem was or how much to fix it, he told me i was better off not knowing and wouldnt tell me what was wrong, he just told me to buy a new car, he then made me pay him $60 to get my car back and i left without even knowing what was wrong, what should i do now?

this is J & J CAR CARE he is in columbia station, ohio 440 427 0111 the guys name is john smith and he is the OWNER of the company

beleive me, i tryed to not pay him the money but he wouldnt give me my car back until i paid him, thanks for all the good answers

Answer 1

This is a twist on an old scam, called 'brick wall'. The 'mechanic' never looked at your car, but he has your keys and unless you are a cop or a lawyer he knows you will just pay the $60.00 rather than make a huge deal out of this. I suggest you report him to every agency you can pick out of the phone book, blog this story to death in every local forum you can find and generally tell the story to every single living soul who will listen forEVER....
(I know, I have a real problem with $hit like this!)
Sixty dollars isn't worth a court date, he knows this. Look at it from this angle -- at LEAST he didn't charge you $500.00 for work he didn't do, and maybe he did shark you out of $60.00 -- how much money is he never going to make from the five thousand people you are going to tell this about? Just make sure you tell the TRUTH and always mention his name as much as possible!

Answer 2

DEFINITELY turn him into the Better Business Bureau, they will send him a letter asking him to address the problem. PLUS, they keep that stuff on record, so when someone else files a complaint, a pattern will be established. Who knows? You may find out he already has a bunch of complaints! DO NOT LET THIS GO! What he did was illegal, and he took $60 from you without providing you with the service he agreed to in an oral contract. You gave him $60 for NOTHING.

Answer 3

You should have told him that you wanted a receipt with everything listed on it. And if he refused, you should have called the police out before you paid and left.
There isn't much you can do now. It will be your word against his as to if he even checked your car. If you have a receipt you can try and file a lawsuit, but if it isn't found in your favor, you will be out alot more than $60.

You are going to have to find another mechanic to check your car. Some will give free estimates. Call around and see if you can find one.

Also, make a complaint with the Better Business Bureau about the first guy. ( http://www.bbb.com )

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Normally before you would give any money to anyone you would sign some type of contract. This contract would indicate the details and responsibility of each party involved in this transaction. The monthly rent, deposit, the length of time this contract would cover, to include the means and methods of voiding the contract and the consequences of voiding this contract. Most potential tenants would want to look inside the property prior to paying any type of money to a potential landlord. You might be better to allow this to good of a rental to pass you by as I suspect when you send the $200.00 this might be the last time you would hear from this person.This person probably collect $200.00 from about 6 or more people per month for this rental unit. You might call a local title company to find out the owner of the property. In most cases they would tell you this information as a courtesy. You might find that the person you are speaking with is not the current owner. I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck. "FIGHT ON"

Answer 5

He must have seen you coming! Who in there right mind would pay a man $60 to diagnose a car only to be told "you don't want to know"? I would have told him he either give me the print out from the diagnosis machine or he doesn't get his money. I have some property in Florida I'd like to talk to you about!

Answer 6

YOU should have called the POLICE on the SPOT. He'll tell you then! Yeah, you got scammed. You could sue the mechanic in small claims court, but not the business. You could try that. Outcome will depend on who the judge believes, as he will probably lie. The judge will believe you. It's only logical to them that he lied, because the reason you sue in the first place was because he lied. They know. And he will have to pay for the court costs too. So ask for that too. No lawyers necessary.

Answer 7

Yes, you got scamed because they have to tell you whats wrong and you should be given a service reciept with his signature or name on it with his diagnosis.
The best thing to do is to take it to a dealership of the type of car you have you will be better off if you have any problems. They are trained to handle things like that and you can speak to their supervisor right then if you have any trouble. Even if your entire engine was shot it still isn't worth replacing the whole car!

Answer 8

BBB!!! He totally took advantage of you! Go after him!
I had to go after mine. He owed us over $200 (to pay us back for a rental car after our car took 23 days to fix). He was like "lets just call it even." he wouldn't do that if it was us owing him!!
So we called the Better Business bureau and he finally paid up over a month later!!

Answer 9

Call him back. Tell him if he doesn't tell you what's wrong with it then you can't make an educated decision and since you paid for the test you have the legal right to know what the test said! If he still won't tell you then let him know your calling your lawyer! Generaly they'll give in about that point. But if he doesn't then call your lawyer or legal aid.

Answer 10

That was stupid...on the mechanics part. You defianitly need a second opinion. Don't beleive just one person that tells you nothing and tells you to get a new car. Good luck