Re: My very terrible experience

[Alan Lambert <gerard@xxxxxxx>]

A) tell all, he deserves it, and others deserve protection.

B) take the bum to smallclaims court--it's easy, painless, and you'll get=
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   your $$$ back.


On Mon, 21 Dec 1998, Frank wrote:

> Back in January of this year (1998) I overheated my =9287 Milano Gold and
> caused what I believe to be head gasket failure.  I contacted a very
> well-known Alfa Romeo specialist mechanic about it and he asked me to
> bring the car in for repair.  I delivered the car to him on February 2
> with the clear expression that I needed it back pretty quickly, as it
> was my daily driver.  After almost one full year of constantly calling
> his shop, pleading as patiently as is possible for anyone, getting the
> run-around from him, it was not until December 16, 1988 that I finally
> got my car back =96 still in its damaged state despite having paid
> $2,038.02 for work he had supposedly done.
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> What do you do when a mechanic arrests your car like this?  The obvious
> answer is you remove it from them.  But what do you do when they claim
> to have done work costing almost twice the original estimate you agreed
> to and the car is still as dead as it was when you delivered it?  To get
> your car back you must agree to more work estimated at $1195 or pay for
> =93work already done=94 and walk away with practically nothing.  I think
> that is what is meant by =93caught between a rock and a hard place.=94
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> I had intended to publish the details of what happened to me as a
> warning to others.  I have no doubt many on this list will suffer the
> same fate as I, this mechanic, as I have learned in the past few months,
> is legendary for this sort of thing.  Mine is not an isolated case.
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> I have struggled this past weekend trying to balance my feeling of
> obligation to warn others as I wish I had been warned, and my hesitance
> to publicly disgrace another person.  I feel nothing for this man but
> disgust and something close to hatred for the financial and emotional
> rape I suffered in his hands, but I wonder if it justifies exposing him
> to humiliation and ridicule.
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> I wish one of the many that have suffered before me had said something.
> Someone in the near future will wish the same, of that I have no doubt.
> Would I be doing a great service to fellow digesters by revealing the
> identity of this mechanic?  Or a terrible thing by subjecting a man to
> the disdain of thousands.
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> Frank (Cape Cod)
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Regards,
Alan G. Lambert___________________________________<gerard@domain.elided>
           *******Los Altos, California (office)*******

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